Friday, September 9, 2022

I was a nervous wreck this morning before my procedure so I came upstairs and started to work on more transitioning for the Hall. It keeps my mind off almost anything else because for each thing that I’m making notes on there are four other things that come to mind that I’ll need to do.

Pat was probably as nervous as I was and we headed to the hospital much earlier than I would have gone had I been driving myself. While waiting I was fighting back tears – not sure why but I guess it was the unknown.

The biopsy itself went well (as far as I know). It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would but it took much longer. They took several samples from a couple of different places. They told me the needle to freeze my breast would be like a bee sting! When he told me that I told him the dentist always puts a topical freezing on the spot before adding the actual freezing. Sadly he said he had nothing like that. After the procedure I had to have another mammogram. I made the comment that it was going to hurt but he said that the best time for a mammogram was when I was frozen. He was right. I won’t get the results back for seven to ten days so there will be more waiting. However I was told that the resident may have jumped the gun a bit by saying I’d likely have a mastectomy because that won’t be determined until the results of the biopsy are back. I’m still prepared that this might be the case though.

I’ve kept busy this afternoon while the freezing has been coming out. I have another section of the Hall transition finished and I stitched the binding on a couple of cards. Our President thinks she is coming over to get the financial papers but she is getting so much more than that!

I had a lovely gift from Ken today. When I posted about my old pots I had a conversation wondering where the tin cup from the well was. I’m very pleased to say that it is now in my possession and full of buttons. Not to worry, the other old pot has been put to good use. Please do not take this as an invitation to send me more “old stuff”!

I’ll spend the rest of the afternoon hand stitching the binding on my cards and trying to catch up on my Peppermint Purple project.

Thursday, September 8, 2022

While I waited to go to my ultrasound this morning I managed to be a bit productive. I needed to keep my mind off the test so I did three loads of laundry and the vacuuming and I got a few more details worked out for the Hall.

Not long before I headed out to the hospital I got a call from the surgeon’s office that they wanted me in for an appointment next Wednesday. I was happy that I wasn’t going to have to wait for the ultrasound results and then wait for yet another phone call. I hadn’t managed to get much done this afternoon before I got another call that they want me back at the hospital for a biopsy tomorrow morning.

All I’ve managed this afternoon are a few stitches in my Peppermint Purple. I came upstairs to work on some cards but was having trouble with my sewing machine. I took it apart and did a good cleaning on it – something I should have done a month ago and something that has been on my mind to get at – after I finish just this one thing!

I’m in charge of supper tonight because Pat has a guitar lesson. I’ll make a spinach salad – we don’t have all the exact ingredients but we have enough substitutions to make it work. Pat suggested we pick some strawberries for it but there is no way I’m putting strawberries in my salad.

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

I’ve been told many times that I have a lot of patience. They wouldn’t have said that if they had seen me yesterday or even early this morning.

Yesterday while I waited for the phone to ring I finished my Home Circle quilt top. I have it packed now and ready to be picked up for the Guild Reveal party later in the month. I could not have had better colours for the top – Stacia and Deloise picked the perfect fabrics. Since the pattern called for mitred corners on the last border that’s what I did. It’s been so long since I’ve done that I think I ended up with beginner’s luck as they worked out well.

Not so good on the knitting though. Last night I started by ripping back a row and then there were some slipped stitches so I ended up taking out about a half-dozen rows. I added a life line (why didn’t I do that at the beginning?) and caught up to where I made the mistake. Again though I didn’t have the right number of stitches on my needle that I’ve been working with.

I’ve been working off enlarged photocopies of the pattern and I eventually realized that the row 61 that I was working from had only 65 stitches but I should have had 67. I’m not sure what that original row was from but I’ve got new photocopies made and I’m good to go again.

This morning I did a bit of tidying in my sewing room – saying I cleaned it would be a stretch. I did some rearranging and fit a few things into an empty bin; I’ll get at those things some day. I also found a lot more Guild related blocks and projects so I loaded those into a box to get picked up.

It’s early in the day to be stopping work so I’ll switch to some Peppermint Purple stitching.

And yes, that phone call finally came just before lunch. My ultrasound will be tomorrow morning and then, I expect, the wait will begin again.

Monday, September 5, 2022

I’ve just put the finishing touches on my first Sashiko project. I’m very happy with the way it turned out. There was some experimentation with how to do some of the stitches and now that it is finished I know what I’ll do for my next one. Did I say one? I have two more of them stashed in my hand stitching desk in the living room.

I almost have another quilt top done – a couple of borders left to add. This is one that I needed to have as a sample for our Guild Program Reveal Party. It remains to be seen whether or not I’ll teach the class when it comes up next May. I have a couple of photos that I want to put with it; I went to Walmart yesterday but their photo department was closed until tomorrow.

I had a good chat with our Hall President this afternoon. At lunch I mentioned to Pat that I was afraid Annabelle wanted to talk about the transition from her PC to her new Mac rather than the transitions that need to happen for the Hall. We had a good long discussion about Hall stuff and then we signed on for another hour and talked about more personal stuff. I knew Annabelle had breast cancer but I didn’t know anything more than that. She walked me through her process and was able to answer my questions and told me about things I hadn’t thought to ask. Her diagnosis was almost 20 years ago but I was happy to know that all of her surgeries and treatments were done in Powell River. She was very generous and supportive and I know I have someone to talk to as I go through whatever I need to go through.

I have a couple of packages to get ready for the mail and, if there is time, I’ll go back to some Peppermint Purple work. It feels so good to have a finish on something that I want to keep at it.