I'm here, still alive and kicking. Just haven't been blogging because I've been under so much stress the last couple months. My body does not handle stress well. My brain starts randomly tossing stuff out, making my memory difficult to live with, and the panic attacks start. Thankfully, I have medication to help deal with it but it still interferes with my life. So lets catch up.
In my last post I mentioned my husband was going to have heart surgery. (He has a bad case of AFib) That appointment was postponed because the doctor had an emergency come up. It was rescheduled for July 31, which is the day after sweet hubby's birthday. The surgery happened. The outcome was a disaster.
Turns out, hubby's heart had Adhesions. At some point in his life (we'll never know when) it was damaged and when healing, the scar tissue attached itself to the bag that surrounds the heart. I had NO IDEA the heart can do that! I read up on it and sometimes the heart will actually attach itself to other organs, which can be a serious problem. Attaching to the bag will cause him no problems as far as his heart functioning, which is a good thing. It could have been a lot worse.
Anyway, the doctor could not do the prodedure. Unfortunately, this condition can't be seen any way except by actually going in, so that is where he was when it was discovered. Sweet hubby's body didn't take too well to the surgery so he spent 5 days in the hospital recovering. His lungs had filled somewhat with fluid and whatnot. I tell you, it sucks being old. The body just can't handle what it used to, but I'd rather be old than dead.
So what's next? Thankfully, we still have options. We're going to try another standard Ablation. It's scheduled for next week. In the meantime, sweet hubby's cardiologist has moved away to somewhere else, so we've been dealing with delayed appointments while they figure out which doctors get his patients. Our last appointment was with a nurse practitioner, and she was awesome! We walked away feeling very good about it all, and it's had an amazing effect on my husband.
He's been down and depressed for months and pretty much mostly sitting in his chair watching videos all day. This consultation pulled him out of it. He's suddenly doing things. He's been taking walks, and playing with his lathe, and most recently he's started fixing things around the house, and very cheerful. Two weeks ago I mentioned the back steps are dangerous. I've been mentioning it for a couple years. They are rotten and falling apart. I'm afraid to walk on them. I didn't expect a response. Next thing I knew, I was in the truck going to Home Depot with him.
This is what the steps looked like.
The bottom step actually was so rotten it broke off. This is what it looked like the day after we got home from Hope Depot. We all participated in ripping the stairs apart.
This is what the stairs look like now.
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| Future firewood |
Sweet hubby decided that he wanted to build them like the front steps, with a little deck. We've got deck now. It's just big enough for a chair or two, and a pot of flowers. I'm luvin' it!
I've been knitting a lot! It helps with the stress. I went gung-ho on the blanket. This week I finished the last (6th) panel and got all the ends woven in. Next is blocking. Then sewing the panels together.
I purchased some light blue flannel to back it so all the floats and stuff are out of sight.
I really miss Joann's. It was the only real fabric store we had. Now I have to get it online. It's been difficult. You can't really trust the color you're seeing on the monitor, and there are restrictions on amounts you can buy. A lot of places have a 2 or 3 yard minimum and you need half a yard, and then there's the cost of shipping.
Now I'm back to working on the socks I started last May. I'm at the heel of the second sock. I also have ordered another knit afghan kit from Mary Maxims. I find myself wanting to make another one. They've been so fun to work on. This one will be a ripple with lace pattern.
Another thing I worked on and finished is this chair. Most of it was finished for several weeks, but I hadn't got around to putting the fabric piece on that goes underneath to cover the ugly. I finally did that on last Tuesday. It's fully completed now.
One of the stabilizing bars underneath was broken. It's been that way for years. My mom bought me this chair when I was about 13 or 14 years old from a thrift store for $13. She covered it with new upholstery fabric and designated it my knitting chair. I sat in this chair for hours and hours knitting. It got broken when we moved up from California (1992).
Anyway, I asked hubby to fix it. I didn't expect a reaction because he's been so down, but he took it out to the shop and then completely tore it apart. I was so upset! It didn't need to be re-upholstered (or so I thought) and I just wanted that bar fixed. The fabric was in great condition. He'd ripped it all off. We ended up refurbishing it entirely. This is the fourth time it's been re-upholstered. It looks beautiful now.
You would not believe what we found under the old upholstery fabric. More old fabric. We also found powdered foam. I did not know this chair actually had padding. You sure couldn't tell by sitting in it, which tells you how long ago it self destructed. Consequently, I've learned how to upholster a chair. I even put new foam padding in it. Now I know why getting it done by professionals is so expensive. It was a very challenging project.
I found this awesome chenille fabric online. The photos don't do it justice. The chair is pretty comfortable too. Husband did a magnificent job of fixing and restoring the wood to it's shiny self. He restored the broken pieces, sanded it all down to bare wood and stained it. It looks like a brand new chair. It's very comfortable too. By the way, this chair is over 100 years old.
I have about a yard of that chenille left. I'm planning to sew myself a new knitting tote with it. I have been purchasing what I need for it a little bit at a time. I still need to find a couple zippers, thread that matches, and something to use for the straps.
We had an unfortunate experience in July. Cashmere, Merino's brother, was looking a little off and was panting a lot. I took him to the vet as soon as I could.
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Cashmere Park 2013-2025 |
It was an emergency appointment, which means I left him there early in the morning, they would get to him between patients as time permits, and give me a call. Well, on the way home, after dropping him off, my phone rang. I pulled over and answered it. It was the vet and she was quite upset. She'd taken Cashmere out of his crate to examine him. He panicked, had a heart attack, and died. Later she found that his lungs were filled with fluid, which is why he was panting. He had pneumonia and was a very sick kitten. She felt terrible, but it wasn't her fault. He had seemed fine just a couple days before and cats can be very good at hiding how they feel. I know it's been stressful for him living without Merino, and being ill too? The stress that morning was just too much for him. It still was a huge shock. We'd just lost his brother,
Merino, two months earlier and I had no idea he was so sick. July really was a nasty month.
The weather this summer has been exceedingly hot! Hottest summer on record. We didn't even get the yearly frost in August. We haven't had any frost at all. We haven't even had cool weather. It's been in the 90's for weeks. I wish I'd known ahead that it would be like this. I would have bought a couple tomato plants because I would have got ripe tomatoes.
Earlier this year I said my chronic cough is gone. It's still gone. Hooray! Not only that, but my asthma has been so much better. I am thrilled about it too. Now, if only I could get the arthritis to go away.
Well, that's the highlights of the last 2 months.
Live long and prosper. \\//
