Out of my comfort zone

I've been playing with my new sewing machine recently and made this for one of my friends as she's returning to the US after living here for the past 4 years. She'll be missed



Cat Tote

Pattern: Simplicity 2575 Cat Tote

The actual sewing didn't take long but the preparation took far longer than I'd anticipated. I was lucky that another friend came round and talked me through the pattern step by step and also encouraged me to trace the pattern pieces which I'm glad I did as they are so flimsy.


close up

DH thinks that the cat looks Mexican because of his whiskers.

Frankie says, meh!:


Frankie

Still here

In 3 days time it'll be 6 months since my accident. I have been discharged by the physio & am allowed to drive again which is great as I hated being dependant upon other people to ferry me around. However the physio thinks it'll take another 5 months or so until I'm back to normal. I have to use a walking stick which I HATE as without it I have a very pronounced limp. I feel very self-conscious either way so not good.

I'm desperate to get moving again and have set myself the task of investigating 'Sports Rehabilitation' next week but don't know if it's available on the NHS. My long suffering husband is still walking the dogs every morning and could really do with a day off/a lie in. I'm desperate to walk them but Oscar is lively and my balance isn't great.

Knitting wise I decided to make something very simple using colours that would cheer me up:


Courtyard Steps blanket

This photo was taken a few weeks ago and I'm much further on now. I stupidly bought only 4 balls of each colour. This wouldn't have even made it big enough for a toddler to use as a buggy blanket but 2 Raverlors were kind enough to help me out and I now have another 3 of the green. I'm still after a ball or two of the pink (Anchor Style Magicline 1462, dyelot 22726) if anyone has any spare.......

Knitting again

After a too many mistakes caused by pain and a painkiller induced drug fog I had stopped but now the needles are clicking again....


ETA I take that back, the socks are being frogged as I haven't got enough yarn, yet another bad decision. Anybody want to give me a good price for my stash?

Celebrations

For the first time in a long time I've got something to celebrate.

Today in addition to it being St George's Day it's also my birthday. I haven't been in the mood to celebrate but my husband and daughter decided to ignore that and have spoilt me rotten. DH bought me an amazing Sewing Machine, DD baked me some cookies and got me some lovely presents including a cake:


Carrot Cake

I've also been spoilt by friends and my employers sent me a HUGE bouquet of flowers which was totally unexpected.

The reason I've been down is that I'm still in a lot pain from my accident and am totally fed up with being unable to walk and being housebound. I was told 3 weeks ago by the consultant that it'll be another 6 months before I'm fully mobile again which wasn't what I wanted to hear.

In addition to the original diagnosis of bruised bones and grade 2 medial ligament damage my physiotherapist has found more damage:

- Two 'Medial hamstrings' on the inside of my leg have been torn and

- my Iliotibial Band (long muscle connecting the hip to the knee) is trashed as well

I have two physiotheraphy sessions every week and am improving but it's slow and painful. Prior to my accident I used to walk the dogs every morning and run with Oscar so I'm finding my inactivity very hard to cope with.

Hence the sewing machine. I need to learn a new skill so that something good comes out of all this inactivity. I haven't been knitting recently either as every project I've started or worked on has gone wrong but that's for another post......

12 weeks plus

I'm finally starting to get better. The horrendous pain has eased and now instead I've just got pain and discomfort. I am 'walking' wearing the leg brace and using crutches and am actually bearing weight on my right leg!

Now my problem relates to the range of movement, or lack of, in my knee. The hamstring had shortened after such a long time of not being used and my knee being propped up on pillows. This is nearly resolved and now I've got to work on the knee. It's stiffened up & I need to be able to free up in order to walk normally again. I need 90 degree of movement in order to ever be able to walk and I have 45 at the moment.

So lots of very uncomfortable exercises to come and ice packs are my reward to numb the resulting pain. My muscles have gone & my leg has wasted away a bit so lots of work to do once I've got the knee working again. I aiming to be running again by the end of the year.

Btw: above is now my morning activity instead of walking with my 'dales, Frankie has the most amazing tummy........

Diagnosis

I’ve got bruised bones (tiny little fractures under the surface of the bone that don’t show up on x-rays) with grade 2 medial ligament damage.

In the long term this is good news as I don’t need an operation and shouldn’t have any long term effects.

However in the short term it isn’t good as there is nothing the Doctors can do apart from pain management. I was told that patients normally start to recover within 4-6 weeks but as mine is still so painful I must have severe bruising. I have to continue to rest my knee and eventually the pain will ease.

It's been 10 weeks so far, any bets as to how much longer before I can walk again?

10 weeks

after my accident and I'm still here:

Sat in exactly the same chair

wearing the same brace

with the red cushion under my knee.

The only improvement in this time has been the pain relief that I rely on.

Any early morning visitors will hear my alarm clock as it goes off at 4 a.m. so that I can take tablet

before the next one at 8 a.m.

Then 12 noon,

4 p.m,

8 p.m.

12 midnight, I think you get the drift.....

I have an appointment tomorrow morning with a consultant who should hopefully have the results of my MRI scan and will be able to sort out a plan to fix the damage.

I have also been seeing a physiotherapist who, working without the benefit of the scan, thinks that I need an operation and then lots of work to get walking again after that.

Hopefully I'll know more after tomorrow. I have a fear that I'll be put on a long waiting list but who knows.

Meanwhile life goes on:


Frankie

These were taken just over a month ago but I haven't felt up to posting anything. Frankie is now 7 1/2 months old and is a grown up kitty when he wants to be. He learnt to go out of the cat flap very quickly but it took him a bit longer to learn how to get into the house again.


Frankie

Now that he can burn up all his kitten energy he's often be found snoozing on the back of the sofa, snoring lightly as only a kitten can.....