Fun and Games: Medicine and Applique

Close up of one block.

Today I have to update my beef about the medical system. Parts of it do work! Over the past week I have seen 3 ER docs, 2 Ortho docs, 1 rheumatologist, 8 med students,1 family doc, and 2 neurologists. If you add in the two radiologists who have looked at my X-ray’s and MRI, I have seen a grand total of 19 doctors in one week. Some of them, I have seen more than once. They are all confused about what is happening with my knee/calf/foot, none of them have seen anything like this before. So, they bumped my MRI up to emergency and I have already had it. How fabulous is that? The system can work!

As it turns out, I have a severe sprain/strain of my MCL (a ligament in my knee.) That explains why the knee is sore, but not why the calf/foot are buggered up. They are hoping that the issues lower down are related to the swelling in the knee. One would think that if your knee has a severe sprain that you would remember damaging it. Not me! I have no idea what I did. I’m not sure if that is a comment on my coordination (or lack thereof) or on my mental acuity.

Yesterday I was back at the rheumatologist’s office. She froze the knee (which hurts like a bugger), aspirated off a small amount of icky looking fluid and injected some steroids to speed the healing. She is optimistic that it will help the knee, but isn’t sure about the rest of the leg. We shall see. The rheumatologist was fabulous and her staff wonderful. Except for one little thing …

Had to decorate my Band-Aid myself.

I sat up after the brutally painful procedure and looked at my knee. All there was to see was this wee tiny flesh colored Band-Aid. So I said, “What all that pain, and I get this crappy little Band-Aid? Where’s the Hello Kitty Band-Aid? Old people like fun Band-Aids too. I would have settled for Batman or even smiley faces.” They did get a laugh out of that.

An old work in progress that I am revisiting.

One to more pertinent things relating to sewing, quilting and fabric … I have discovered that while sitting to sew, or standing to run the longarm is still quite painful, I can do short spurts of hand sewing. (Thank God for good drugs that are controlling the Rheumatoid Arthritis.) I could be doing the bindings on some of my WIP’s but have decided to focus on something more fun. I am doing some hand applique on a project that has been underway for a number of years. The blocks are supposed to be Six inches square. Much too small for a beginner at hand applique like me. So I enlarged them to nine inches. I think it is coming along quite nicely.

My lovely friend Mrs. Brown has brought me this beautiful purse from Hawaii. It is so nice to have such generous friends. I’ve carried the purse for one day and have already lost track of the number of compliments I have received for it. My other friends and family have been fabulous too driving me back and forth to appointments with no complaints. Thanks everyone. Your help means a lot and there is no way to express my gratitude.

Hugs and keep quilting
Cath