Greetings from South Texas!

Clay’s Heart Cath and Aorta Valve Replacement have been postponed until further notice.  We were called Wednesday and our choice was to go forward, Thursday the Doctor called and said it would be not be safe for Clay to have it at this time.  In the meantime – he has to take it very easy – no stressing the heart!

At first we were so disappointed, BUT THEN, we realized that we would have our lives back for a short period of time!  We have been in the house or at the Doctor’s office since NY Eve – talk about quarantine!!!!!  Even though we have the Studio, it was not in our hearts to come out and pretend that live was the same.  For me, I need this time without any stress.  Both of our minds and bodies need to recoup from the 81 days.

It has taken me 3 days to get over the stress of the hand incident, but this morning, the first morning nice New Years Eve, I woke up with a lot of energy and ready for my quilting life to start – even if only for a couple of weeks, or a month.  I know that there will be another bumpy road ahead, but it is so nice to get back to our normal routine.

Clay is working his hand all the time and doing therapy that they showed him, plus therapy he has figured out on his own.  The other day he was playing his guitar!  Here is a short video of a Miracle – Remember it was his left hand and this is only 81 days after the accident!  We both cried with happy tears!  Hope this downloads OK!

I know that others who cannot go to work are having a difficult time if they are not being paid and feel for them.  But I feel that the Government will make all necessary changes to ease the pitfall of this mess called “The Chinese Virus”.

I have always kept our pantry full (at least a month’s worth) and enough meat for about a month, so we are fine.  Things will start to get better.

We are probably the only 2 people in the Country who love to be told to stay home during this time.  I have a positive attitude today that if we run out of food we will not starve!  It is just not worth me continuing to worry about anything as we are alive and well!

Have a blessed day and pray that this situation we are in can be contained and things turn around in a short period of time.

Nanette

I have told all doctors that Clay has a fantastic immune System. The following pictures of x-rays shows before the 2 surgeries  and only after 73 days since the accident. Here is a miracle. The other picture is our beloved Major Wilson.

Doing a Happy Dance for Friday March 13, 2020

We are so blessed by the Excellent care given to Clay by our beloved military!

Now on to the next Blessing. Heart Fixes.

Have a blessed life. I am going to help Clay with therapy. We see Major Wilson on 24 April. He wants out of any cast and USE the hand.

Hugs, Nanette.

From my iPhone.

Greetings from South Texas. I apologize to Jan for not posting her Mary Brown block for February as she sent her picture of her block to me on time but I did not do a post for her.

Jan did a beautiful job on this block.  I love her colors.    Have a great day   Nanette

This is my 390 post since I started my Blog.  It should be double that, but life since 2014 has had just too many twists and turns.   The latest hit came when Clay’s Cardiologist called us at home on  Thursday evening at 9:14 and 10:00 and left a message to come to the office at noon the next day to discuss the results of the Echocardiogram that was done last Thursday and we were not scheduled to see him until 24 March.  Needless to say, it was a short night Thursday evening.

For the latest addition to our Social Calendar and hits in our Lives – Clay has Severe Aorta Stenosis.   The bottom line is this.  He will have a complete heart catheter procedure on 20 March to see if the arteries have blockages and if they can be opened with a stint, OR if they are completely blocked.  This is another 2 step process because he has to have his Aorta Valve replaced.  If the arteries are partially blocked and stints are used they can replace the valve through the arteries.  IF they are blocked, then he will have open heart surgery.

In the meantime, we have 5 more therapy sessions for his hand, 2 doctor appointments and I have 2 eye doctor appointments before the 20th.

This may sound weird, but we are still blessed – if Clay had not accidentally shot himself in the hand on New Years Eve, and BAMC being so worried about his heart murmer, along with the ER run with his heart issue a couple of weeks ago, he might have had a massive heart attack with a negative outcome.  All of this has led us to an excellent Cardiologist who is going to take care of the test on the 20th and then he will be referred to the Surgeons to do the Heart Valve replacement.

We are positive that all will be fine in the end and we keep on praying that it is.  In the meantime, we are focusing on his hand issue and hoping that by the 20th he will have a good progress report from the Doctors on therapy and the bone graft.

Have a wonderful weekend and next week!

Hugs

Nanette

Greetings all who take the time to follow me!

How about some good news – Clay is doing very well with his home therapy on his hand.  He is dedicated and does all that is required.

Here is some bad news – Last Wednesday we had another ER run to the Emergency at the hospital – Clay had some symptoms that we thought could be his heart!   We did not have to stay as the issue calmed down, and were referred to a Cardiologist and had an appointment this last Monday.

We also discussed the episode with our BAMC Orthopedic doctor who advised Clay that this could have been a side effect of the block on his arm on the surgery on 13 Feb.

Good news for Clay –  we have the most wonderful new Cardiologist now and tomorrow Clay will get an updated Echo Cardiogram and will wear a heart monitor for 2 weeks.  He is a wonderful doctor and we are so blessed to have him.  We will see him on 24 March for a follow up. Clay is doing fine just needs to move around more and I have to quit feeding him so good!  LOL

Good news for Nanette – I have found a surgeon who will do the repair to the loose skin on my eyelids.  Found him on the internet and he is a full time Military guy and works 2 days a week with a well known Eye Group and specializes in this type of surgery.  YEA

Bad news for Nanette –  I thought that I had cataract regeneration cells on my right eye as my vision was becoming cloudy!   Today I saw my wonderful Dr Young whom I love dearly.  She did the cataract surgery but does not do the eye lid surgery.  I do not have cataract regeneration cells in the right eye – it is a swollen Retina!  Lovely – I will be on Steroid drops for 2 weeks, go back for a checkup and will be on them until the swelling has gone down.  Cannot tell me how long it will take, but I know there will be NO quilting or hand work for a longer period of time.  My left eye is tired as it has been taking over for the right eye so I have to rest it!  BUMMER

So will be the last post for awhile!  I can not tell all how much I miss my quilting life, but I have to accept the fact now that it is so far on the back burner that it might be another month!  So in case you missed me – I am here in the Cook Hospital Ward in South Texas for people who are getting all the health issues finished with together!

BOTTOM LINE!  Not a lot of time on the computer and for those who follow me and whom I follow I will be quietly reading but not commenting – keep on quilting and having a wonderful week.  We, of course are working on our Social Calendar which is full of nothing but doctor appointments!

Stay safe and well!

Hugs

Nanette

This was not the week for quilting!  Won’t bore anyone with details of having no life.  Clay is now in a splint that is removable and he is in therapy.  All can be done at home and he has improved with moving the hand after 7 weeks in casts.  The recovery really does start now the doctor performed a miracle with his hand and Clay will do all he can to make the hand work like it used to.

I have nothing to show this month for HQAL nor Slow Sunday!  Now I have problems with my right eye.  I kept thinking that the glasses were dirty – WRONG,  I think that the cataract cells that were not totally removed are now giving me cloudy vision in that eye!  They can zap them with a Laser beam!   Hoping to get into the Doctors this week.

Wonder when life will finally get back to normal.  Hopefully I an find a surgeon I trust to do the surgery on my eye lids.  So far that has not happened 2 down many to find.

Have a great week.  Please check out the other ladies who participate in HQAL!

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Connie, Bella, Gretchen, Daisey , Kathie.

Happy Valentines (belated) to everyone.  Clay gave me Red Roses and I gave him two Vermont Teddy Bears that we both love.  We just love our President Trump and now we have the cutest Vermont Trump Teddy Bear!  The Koala Bear was just too cute to pass up!  The Roses are artificial and so pretty!  They will last a LONG time!

Now on to where I am in my quilting projects – Should I just say ZERO?  LOL.  I have progressed very little on Mary Brown but as always hoping to produce something this week.

On one of my post I believe I discussed the issues about me doing scrappy quilts!   OMIGOSH is extremely scrappy and I tried 2 different fabrics to make this quilt last month with no success.  I decided that I would just work on a couple of on-line BOMs until Clay was up and running again.  Well, that did not work out too well.

I made one block from one of the 4 selected BOMs and after spending the time and effort in doing that, the block has a problem, but I don’t anymore – it is called TRASH CAN FIX!  The block and the other projects I had printed out to work on are also visiting the TRASH CAN FIX!  I hope I have learned that I have plenty of beautiful patterns and do not need to participate in the on-line BOMs!  OMIGOSH is a quilt that I have been wanting to make for years!

After the TRASH CAN FIX, I decided to go back to OMIGOSH – especially when Gretchen posted her finished quilt.  She made a smaller version, but I love the way the 9 patches show the diagonal lines!  We were going to start this quilt together in January, but of course, I am behind.  My biggest problem was fabric selection.  When I first started my OMIGOSH you can see what I ended up with.  I really like the little top that I made and the 9 patches really did provide the effect I wanted.  For the 2nd fabric start, I selected some Jenny Beyer fabrics BUT that did not work out either.

Gretchen used a white background for her quilt which really allows her Shoofly Block fabrics to pop in this quilt.  When I saw her finished top I realized that I could use my original Reproduction Fabric selections but change the background to a Bella Solid beige background.  Yesterday I started working with them and I am very pleased with the first 9 patch block.  All blocks are 5″ unfinished and 4 1/2″ finished –  I really do enjoy working with the small blocks and the positive out of this story is that I have practiced enough that all blocks are coming out perfect!  YEA.

This is the first row of the Shoofly block and I really think that I will be happy now with this quilt.

This is the stack of fat quarters that I will use.  They are from Barbara Brackman’s Union Blues, Lady Albums, and Richmond Reds.  I do hope that this turns out like I want it to.  It will be “scrappy” but very controlled!

OMIGOSH is a quilt that I can pick up at anytime (with current time constraints) and not have to revisit the pattern to refresh the memory (what memory I have left these days)LOL.

UPDATE on Clay:  Clay had a highly successful reconstructive surgery on Thursday morning.  He is doing very well and his Orthopedic Doctor is very pleased that the Masquelet Technique** used in repairing his hand.  The gunshot had shattered almost an inch of the 5th medial bone in the middle below his little finger.  By the grace of God there was solid bone at the top and bottom of the bone remaining and Major Wilson was able to put a screw into the top portion of the bone and the bottom portion and grafted bone from the wrist in the middle!  Major Wilson was praying that this would be possible as he did not want to have to use pins. We are so indebted to BAMC and the Excellent Orthopedic Team that has been caring for Clay!  They have performed a miracle.

The Masquelet Technique**of repairing trauma incidents like this and those on the battlefield is absolutely amazing.   We go in for a checkup on Friday!  We are about half way through the toughest part in this process.  He most likely will be put in another cast in two weeks or so.  Right now he has a splint on his hand and will find out Friday about the next phase.

UPDATE:  I forgot to post about the neat Smart Cart that Clay also bought for me on Amazon.  I used it for the first time Thursday morning and talk about saving my back from carrying a snack, purse, and water – great little cart!  Love it! This time I had two Mophie’s (extended batteries for iPhones)stuck in the outside pocket – this way I would not run out of battery time if we had to stay overnight!  This little cart will get a lot of workouts in the future!

**Masquelet technique, which is the use of a temporary cement spacer in the first surgery followed by staged bone grafting in the second surgery and is a recent treatment strategy to manage a posttraumatic bone defect.  This procedure was developed by the French and used in combat injuries.

This week will be busy and probably very little time for the Studio but it is OK as after Friday I do believe things just MIGHT slow down and I can get into my quilting rhythm again.  Less stress means more quilting!

Nanette – have a wonderful week

Linking To:  My Quilt Infatuation; Confessions of a Fabric Addict; Finished or Not Friday ; Em’s Scrap Bag; BOM’s Away;  Sew Fresh Quilts; Crazy Mom Quilts;  Oh Scrap; Scrap Happy Saturday; Slow Sunday Stitching  Quilt Fabrication Mid Week Makers; Peacock Party; Design Wall Monday