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Saturday, March 14, 2009

This and That

Hello Everyone!

I'm going to attempt a blog update with my left hand. We'll see how it goes. :op

First, an update on my broken wrist. Apparently it's a worse break than first thought. Well, worse than they told me anyway. I'm not sure if they knew at the ER or not. On Thursday I had to go to the Hand Clinic in Madison. I thought I was going for a cast. They looked at the before & after x-rays and said I had a 'Closed Fracture of Distal End of Radius'. There is a piece of bone that is completely out so even when they put it back it can move. Because of that it would probably never heal right. So I go into surgery at 5:00 PM on Monday to have a metal piece and screws put in to hold the bone in place. They said that in the before x-ray the bone was very, VERY displaced. No wonder I was in so much pain!! (I told Jerry on the way to the hospital that I would rather be in labor! I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance since I had 3 kids with no epidurals! This was crazy pain)So instead of a cast I came home with this:
Until yesterday my hand was still really swollen. My knuckles didn't have any lines! They were smooth. Too weird looking! If I would have opted not to have surgery I would have had a cast for 8 weeks but probably would have kept having trouble. And they said probably arthritis in my wrist in a few years. With the surgery I will already have a therapy session on the following Friday! And the stitches will come out the following Thursday. In about 2 weeks I should be almost back to normal. Yeah! The surgery is out-patient at St. Mary's hospital in Madison. The only other time I was there was almost 23 years ago when Josh was born! I'm scheduled to go home that night but they said if it gets to be too late I will stay overnight. Hopefully I get to come home.

Obviously the thing I have missed most is my stitching. I look at it sitting there saying "Pick me up!". Home of a Needleworker was soooo close to being finished! All I have left is the top & bottom border and the 'ker' in needleworker.

Before this happened I had several small finishes that I nerer posted. I finished this just the day before I think.

It's Love is All You Need by Pine Mountain Designs. The chart was PIFd to me from Kathie. Now I will send it on to Jana.
Almost a month ago I finished the 3 small PIFs that I needed to send to Marion in Canada, Dawn in Texas and Sandra in Venezula. I have heard from Dawn and Marion that they received but I'm not sure if Sandra has received hers yet. Here is what I sent. I'm not sure who got which one. I put them in bubble envelopes and then addressed them.



I did do a few things beside stitching too. :o) My most recent card for my Card Connections Yahoo group was one of my favorite cards. The theme was 'lighthouse'. This is the one I made:


I also made some flannel burp cloths for a baby shower. This is the first time I tried these. They are so soft & have cute designs! They were for Amy's best friend Jessica. (they've been friends since they were 5) We always used prefolded cloth diapers for burp cloths but they are kinda scarce in the stores these days. Hopefully the flannel ones work well for them. I made 9 of them. I also gave her a pink bath towel. Obviously she's having a girl. :o) Here are the burp cloths:


Last month we went to watch Little Louie race his car in the Pinewood Derby for cub scouts. There were too many people around to get a good pic of the actual race. I did take a pic of the results screen and Louie came in 2nd in this heat. :o)

Here's a pic of Louie with his car and also a group photo. Louie is at the bottom right in the group.



I'll leave you with another strange & funny story from our crazy household. One day last month Jerry turned the tv down and looked like he was listening for something. I asked him about it and he said "didn't you hear that?" I didn't hear anything and we went back to watching our show. The next day he heard something again and went to open the basement door. He closed it. He opened it and then closed it. He came back in the living room and said "we have a bird in the basement". I was like "what? how do you know?" He said when he opened the door it was sitting on the top step looking at him! He wasn't sure he actually saw what he thought he saw so he looked again. :o) So Jerry & Josh headed to the basement with a big bucket and fishing net. He took the rubber net instead of the string one because there was less chance the bird would get tangled up. I listened to them for a few minutes and then decided how silly it was of me to send Laurel & Hardy to do a job that clearly called for the 3 Stooges. So off I went to the basement to show my men how to catch a bird. :o) A few minutes later we were setting him (her?) free outside. First I had to get a pic for my blog. :op

We still haven't figured out how the bird got in the basement. The basement windows don't open. The kitchen door to the breezeway has to be closed to open the basement door so even if it did come in that door unnoticed, it had to wait for the basement door to be opened. I'm pretty sure we would have seen it flying around the house. It's a mystery....... It was pretty funny trying to catch it though. :o)

OK, that's all I have for now. I'll try to post Tuesday or Wednesday about how the surgery went. It's supposed to be almost 60 tomorrow and in the 60s early next week. Yeah! I have the window on the front door open right now so it must be pretty nice out today too.

Hugs to Everyone. This is a long blog post so if you made it this far, thanks!
Elaine

21 comments:

  1. Hope all goes well. I'm sorry you didn't get to finish your chart, but it looks great thus far. Love Louie's smile. I'm sure he was proud as punch over his placement.
    Keep us informed about your surgery.
    Lynn in TX

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  2. I hope your surgery is successful and the recovery is quick.

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  3. Love reading your blog!
    Good luck with your surgery!

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  4. Hey!! you do just great typing left handed-you'll be back to stitching in no time-Tell little louie we think he did just great in his pinewood derby-I didn't know they still had them--great fun for the boys and their "dads". Wish i was there to see jerry and josh trying to catch the bird-That sounds as funny as dad chasing a bat around in the upstairs bedroom in the middle of the night with a tennis racket. Of course i thought he had flipped his gourd and only chris was brave enough to ask what he was doing..rofl. Well you all enjoy the nice day tomorrow and will ttyl--hugs and love to all

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  5. ooops!!!!!!! Must of suffered a "senior moment" there--it was a broom not tennis racket--don't have a clue where tennis racket came from--LOL

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  6. I hope your wrist will be better than before!!! I have some metal in my (left) wrist after a car accident. Works ok.
    I know you miss stitching... Keep up the good spirit!

    Pirjo from Finland

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  7. I hope you recover quickly and are able to stitch again soon.

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  8. Ouch, sorry to hear that it is worse than they thought. Hope everything goes well. I am right there with you. I broke my foot once and I said the same thing. I would rather be in labor. Your finishes are so cute. Great story about the bird.
    DLS

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  9. praying your surgery goes well tomorrow & you will be on the road to recovery soon. The stitching looks great!!! You will be back to it soon!

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  10. Good luck tomorrow, Elaine! Best wishes for a speedy recovery and a return to your stitching!

    Thank you for the laugh, especially with the Laurel & Hardy/3 Stooges.

    Hugs,
    Beth

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  11. Hope your surgery goes well and you get to finish Needleworker soon. Your finish and PIFs are adorable. Congrats to your GS - always fun! Glad your little birdie is free!

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  12. Have you tried to stitch with your left hand ??? Practice on a scrap piece of fabric to get the feel for it. Brace the Q-snaps, scroll frame, hoop or whatever you use against your chest and on your right arm. It is slower but it is stitching. I had five different surgeries on my right hand over a period of several years. Marathon stitching was out of the question but I did manage to stitch a little with my left hand. Good Luck !!!

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  13. I hope your recovery is a speedy one, Elaine. Those burp cloths are adorable. How did you make them?

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  14. I hope all went well with surgery today. Bless your heart, it sounds like you've been living with some horrible pain! I hope this corrects all that! Your wips and finishes...all of them...are wonderful! Take it easy so you can get back to stitching soon:)

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  15. I'm thinking about you now (Monday at 6:45pm) & hoping your surgery is over & you're doing okay. Love the pictures of Louie at his pinebox derby. Sure brought back some nice memories of my son's derby experience. Hope you get to stitch again real soon. Your needleworker piece is lovely so far & I know how badly you want to get back to it. The burp towels do look very soft. I remember having lots of flannel receiving blankets my mom made for my kids. You did great at left-handed typing.
    Barb in TX

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  16. Wow, even with an injury you have been busy! What a funny bird story, and a cute little bird! Your finishes and WIP look great- and that card is amazing!!I'll be praying for your speedy recovery!

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  17. Ugh. . .you have to stay overnight at the hospital AND will probably be quite out of it tomorrow for the 70 degree weather we are going to have!! At least there's no ice. . .Anyway, hope by the time you read this you are feeling much better and will get back to your normal daily stuff soon!!

    Lots of Love. . .
    Amy :)

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  18. Ouch that wrist just looks painful to me.

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  19. WOW you did some serious left handed typing! Better take it easy girl, you'll put us all to shame. What's next? You going to stitch & finish left handed? No! Please take care of that hand, hope the surgery went well. Hugs!

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  20. Heal quickly so that you can get back to stitching. I know how the pain feels I had a compound fracture of my lower leg and have a metal bar there. I was up on the leg with a walker the next day after surgery. Before the surgery it hurt and when they wrapped so they could transport me to the hospital the emt kept telling me to breath so I said that it was easy for them to say they were not the ones in pain. (hehe) I'm a bit of grump when in pain. Love the stitching so far!!

    deb a.

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  21. You know, I am almost afraid to comment on your blog, lest some of your bad luck rubs off on me! LOL

    Take care of yourself. I hope it heals quickly and you can get back to stitching.

    thanks for sharing your finishes, I love to look at your work, it's always so lovely!

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I love to read your comments so feel free to tell me what's on your mind. :)