Wednesday, April 21, 2010






Just to prove I have been doing something while sitting here, the hank above is the 4 oz of BFL I bought from Sheepish Creations in January. It was a pure delight to spin but then BFL always is. I haven't gotten my hand on any of the superwash version but I think it would make superb sock yarn. I was surprised at how what looked like small patches of colour in the roving managed to spread themselves out over the entire hank.

It's been a long slow grind here, but I'm close to being back to functioning normally. Last night the muscles in my right ankle and lower leg decided to go berzerk on me and they are still sore today. I know this is a transient thing (unless this is how the problem my sister is suffering with started) so I will push on. I was going to try driving today and going to grocery shop, but I'll stay home and iron instead. My main problem with the knee is stiffness after being in one position for an extended period. I can sit at a table or desk with my feet flat on the ground but getting up and walking afterward is awkward. I am supposed to go to work next week and it's the sitting at a desk part of it that may hold me back.
I also get tired quickly but we al know that FM can be blamed for that as well.

I have been knitting too and these are my latest socks. Opal Neon in red, red, and red, with a little orange and pink. I've started a new pair using the hand spun blue yarn I finished a while back. My first hand spun socks! I also received my copy of Knitted Jackets and it has several designs I like. I have enough pullovers but not enough vests or cardigans/jackets, so that's where my knitting will go. The Irish XO vest it done to the arm holes so I feel like the end is in sight.

My Swannies have been doing very well. J took me to the markets and retired to my house to watch them thrash the Roos on Saturday. There were patches of beautiful flowing football when the team played like a well oiled machine. And this with a team that we still had to watch with player list in hand to answer the "who's that?" questions. Some of the new line up like Bradshaw and Mumford look like really valuable trades. Hannebery was outstanding. We're in 3rd place on the ladder with 3 wins and one loss.

Book reports: I finished Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. It started off promisingly with altered geopolitics, nanotechnology revolutionising society and, for the characters of the story, high 19th century Victorian Britian being the social standard. But somewhere along the line, as the central character grew up, the novel lost its way and sputtered out in a very unsatisfactory ending. I have his Baroque cycle in the to-be-read section and I hope it doesn't leave me disgruntled as well. Eleanor and Franklin is almost too interesting to be a BBBB. I was surprised to learn that Eleanor was very shy and self conscious, due to her atypical upbringing. She was also very conservative in some ways, being in favour of Prohibition and against women's suffrage. She never forgave Franklin for his first infidelity and therefore for most of their public life they were estranged. She still loved him deeply but could never forgive that loss of trust. I'm now reading S.M. Stirling's The Sword of the Lady which is the 5th novel in his series about the US after the Change. The series is quite addictive. I have the latest Peter Corris calling to me, and the latest C.J. Cherryh Foreigner novel due out in a week or so, not to mention the other things in my bookcase. I will be sorry to give up my reading time when I go back to work.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

I have been thinking about fibromyalgia a lot since my adventure in hospital and the way my body continues to throw pain at me all beyond "reasonable" amounts for the action involved. I had my staples taken out yesterday and, while on the scale of painful experiences, this should have been low, I was a basket case. Some of it is natural squamishness about medical procedures, some anxiety about what would or could happen, and some is just unreasonable pain reaction. From MedicineNet.com: "The cause of fibromyalgia is not known. Those affected experience pain in response to stimuli that are normally not perceived as painful." It's so hard to explain why you are in agony when you look and act like a normal person, and even when your rational brain is telling you the pain isn't really as bad as the sensations you are perceiving. I am beginning to think of it as neurological and not rheumatoid-ish. The only medication currently working is Endone, which I understand can knock normal folks out, but with me, it just takes the pain away for a couple of hours. I am now only taking one or 2 a day unlike the regular stream I was getting in hospital.

Meanwhile, I read, watch TV, knit, do my exercises, and otherwise manage healing. It's hard to believe that 2 weeks ago I was being operated on and today I am walking around the house and feeling more or less OK. (Of course, I am always in pain but we don't talk about that)

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Just a quick update to let you know I am alive. I came home from hospital after 6 days and bypassed rehab completely. Apparently they were short of beds and they started me on exercises while I was still in the surgical ward. I was up and dressing myself at 3 days. I did go through a nightmare ride with pain management. The anesthetist didn't really understand fibro pain. I got a spinal injection of morphine instead of a general and that was supposed to cover all my pain needs for 24 hours. After 12 hours I was climbing the walls and begging for my own meds back. Instead I got a morphine pump and still was withheld my normal meds and sleep aids. I didn't sleep for about 3 days until they pulled the pump, put me back on my normal meds, but the on-service dr couldn't believe I still needed sleeping pills so wouldn't give me a full dose. To be fair to the anesthetist, who came to see me later, she really didn't understand how pain works in fibromyalgia, that the pain is in my brain not really in my muscles. I just wish these folks had looked at my medical history, spoken to my GP even, to understand that I had been on the regime for years and that they couldn't just start playing around with pain meds because they thought some arbitrary dose was sufficient. They also dispensed the meds at their convenience and since I am so dependent on several of those drugs, a three hour delays could make me cranky.

I also loathed the hospital. The nurses with few exceptions were super. The food was horrible. I had friends bring me fresh fruit because there was none on the menu and few veggies either. One day I ordered nothing but sandwiches and they were a bit concerned, but I had my fruit and tomatoes. Nothing to drink but coffee, tea, juice or water. The beds had very thin mattresses on a metal base and I had that to add to sleeping problems. That was also my reason for jumping at the option of going home. My nice soft adjustable bed let me sleep for 10 hours straight and also to elevate my leg to reduce the edema.

I am slowly working on the knee, trying to balance bed rest healing and exercises to gain flexibility. It already feels so much better to stand on than the old knee. I am eating out of the freezer. The Imp is delirious to have me back but she doesn't understand why she can't sit on the right side of my lap. On the other hand we have had many games of fetch and lots of petting and cuddling,