Month: October 2019

South Texas is finally experiencing some lovely wintertime – EARLY! There is nothing like having a cold front come in for your birthday! YUP I am a Scorpio and a Witch (born 2 minutes to Midnight on Halloween)! Proud of it – LOL – just think everyone celebrates my birthday!

I am now back to life in the real retirement world! All through with the Cataract Surgeries (both Clay and I) and glad it was done, with the exception of the horrible drops that one has to use for 30 days. Of course I had problems with 2 and had to quit them and only have 5 more days to put one drop in the left eye! Then I will get some new reading glasses which will take care of the Astigmatism problem.

IN THE MEANTIME, I did finish one goal for the month of October – I now have 40 blocks completed for Alexander Bean Pot quilt.

You will notice that the lower 16 blocks I made 4 of each block colorway. Then I decided to pick up where I had left off and only made 2 each of the remaining 24. I JUST finished them this month (real whiz kid here). So I have decided to continue on and make an additional 24 blocks to fill in the blanks. Sorry for the leaning tower of blocks – cannot seem to get it straight.

I had planned on getting the 24 cut out today, but instead I escorted the Exterminator around, and then decided to do the 1st of the month check balancing. So I may only get a few done.

Now on Mary Brown update! I have 16 blocks ALMOST ready to work on, BUT then I decided I needed to find some more greens, blues, reds, and yellows to use. (Plus it was difficult to make good decisions on colors with the surgeries). It will be November before I can catch up with the other ladies.

Jan finished her second corner (4 blocks less the pineapple block due to issues that too precedent over Mary). She does such beautiful work!

Have a great day and enjoy the Halloween Candy!

Nanette

This September Karen and Cathy selected Celebrating Mary Brown as their next project and invited anyone to join in the fun!  The following quilters are participating.  We will be showing completed blocks on the 30th of each month!  Take the time to visit them to see their completed monthly blocks!  If interested let Karen know you are interested in joining the group.

It is an HQAL day and I have no hand work to show, BUT I do have some good news for me! I am back and eyes are working well! I was also able to discontinue 2 of the drops that were required for a month due to the side effects that I was having. Now I am really on the downside of this experience. Would I do it again – you betcha! It is worth all of the trips to SA (about 1500 miles since 17 Sep) the surgeries, and all the drops which control your life for 30 days. So I can now put this experience in the box of experiences never to repeat again! YEA

Before this all began I had 16 blocks ready to sew for Alexander Bean Pot. I just knew that I would be able to finish them AND have some blocks ready for the end of October for Celebrating Mary Brown. Hum, that did not happen – here is what I did do in the last month!

WOW four 5″ blocks finished – this has to be the most ‘non-productive’ month I have had in years. Time to light the fire and get with the program as 2020 is coming soon!

For those who have iPhones, it has also been a disaster for Apple with their OS13 operating system that they pushed out about 3 weeks ago. Yesterday I spent the day setting up a new Apple Watch and iPhone. Last week when reporting more issues they decided to send me a new phone and watch. I believe that it might now work. I probably had a corrupted file somewhere in the download. They now have 3 updates out where they have tried to correct their stupidity – I am waiting for update number 4 as they are still problems.

So today is definitely a Studio Day and sewing blocks on Alexander and finishing up the last of the pieces for some flowers for Celebrating Mary Brown.

We will have a 90+ degree weather today, and tomorrow and the remainder of the week will be my kind of weather. I have been back to my walking, but have decided today that it is just too hot and humid – so it will be a total play day!

I was unable to comment on so many of my favorite blogs and comments to my posts, so thank you all for sending out encouragement and thoughts while I was on eye vacation!

Hugs

Nanette

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, Gretchen and  Kathi

I want to take a minute to thank my quilting friends who kept me in their thoughts and prayers while Clay and I did double duty on Cataract surgery!  Clay has completed his and doing fine, and today I went for my post operative checkup on my left eye and am off restrictions, have 20/20 vision for Distance, and pressure at 14 – and the eyes are healing fast, all of which Dr Young says is excellent!

I am so glad that we did this, but we are so worn out from all the surgeries (4 weeks in a row) and office visits for post operative checkups.  Clay will go next Monday for his 3 week and final check up and I will go back on 4 Nov for my final and then will be able to get my glasses ordered for my close up, mid-range, and astigmatism!  We are so blessed.  As you all know I had HIGH anxiety before my surgeries.  The surgery is nothing, but because I am claustrophobic it caused me to be so stressed.  I am happy to say that the 2nd surgery went so smoothly!  All worked out great!  In the meantime, I will use the peep over glasses to sew and read!  YEA!

I have been trying to sew a little each day but because of the astigmatism in my left eye, it does start to bother me (eye strain) if I do too much, so I have been slowly trying to get back into the swing of my life.  I started walking Friday and today I had a great walk – I did my usual 20 minute mile and did a total of 30 minutes and a mile and a half.  And my lungs did not bother me today!  I am happy!

Now to be able to lose the 5 pounds that somehow came back – I guess there is something to say about stress – it raises the Cortisol levels and that did not help me with trying to maintain the weight I had lost (without my walking for 2 weeks) and I have no idea about the Glucose and furthermore not going to worry about it.  I am working on increasing my protein and limiting any carbohydrates.  Getting back to my strict routine will eliminate any of those problems.

Next post will only be on my quilting projects, I promise!  We have 6 whole days to stay home and away from San Antonio!  Staying home is Happiness!

Have a great week, and hopefully I will have made some progress on Mary Brown and Alexander Bean Pot blocks!

Nanette

Well, I survived the first surgery!  What a hoot!  I had great nurses and love my Doctor.  I thank everyone who sent out good wishes for me.  I was so prepared anxiety wise (finally) on Monday for the procedure on Tuesday BUT then you know that there is always something that can cause things to go off the rails!

Clay had a checkup on Monday afternoon for his 2nd eye surgery and as we entered the building there was a man in a wheel chair that we recognized from when Clay had his surgeries.  (Cataract surgery business is now booming with all the baby boomers and those who are 2 years ahead of them).  When Clay was in the RR the man started telling him all about the problems his wife had during the surgery and Clay told him emphatically “do not tell my wife”  it will upset her.

About 5 minutes later as we waited to see the doctor, this man wheeled up to me and started giving me all the issues and I politely told him I did not wish to hear them.  Then when we got into the room waiting for the doctor, Clay told me that he had specifically told the idiot to not tell me!  I wanted to choke this man and would have if I had know the entire story!  He got my anxiety level over the hill and I did not calm down at all.

Later that evening the incident kept bothering me and I remembered that a very happy Lady had been there at the same time and was so bubbly and happy about the fact that she could see perfectly and would not have to wear glasses.  The moral of the story is this – God placed a very hateful, vindictive, unhappy, evil person in front of me and then placed a very good person in the same room.  A clear example of good and evil!  But when one is as hyper and Type A as I, I struggled with the anger that I had for the man.  I tried hard to erase the anger, but couldn’t.  The incident hurt me more than him as he was probably happy that he could scare someone (reminds me of my sister whom I never got along with).

Needless to say I could not rest well worrying about the surgery!  Up at 2:00 AM!  We had to leave at 5 AM for the hospital.  During the 2 hours I began to recite the 23 Psalm – the one that I always say over and over to myself right before a surgery as I knew that I would need this one desperately for peace and tranquility!

I finally began to settle down as they got me ready for the surgery (I am blessed as I am the first one in each time).  I knew what they would do as I was with Clay and he told me he did not remember anything the first time, but the second time he did not go out as fast and remembered the Operating Room and talking to the Doctor!

They knew that I was very anxious and that I did not want to see the swinging doors into the OR.  I remember that they had put the Vesad into the IV and started me through the swinging doors and I remember telling them, “It’s not working, It’s not working, It’s not working”.  Think that is when they gave me a good dose of Propofol!

I came through the surgery fine and will be so much calmer next Tuesday since I also got to see the OR room, or let me say I kept my eyes closed.

Yesterday I had my post op checkup and my doctor and I started talking about how the Versad did not work and what I had kept telling them.  She told me that due to the medication I take for Meniere’s that it would have kept the Versad from taking effect and we started laughing about how many times I kept telling “it’s not working”!  BUT then told me “you did not have a problem with the Propofol”!  She has such the infectious laugh!

She then told me that I started reciting the 23rd Psalm over and over, that I would start out with Verse 1 and go to the 3rd Verse and back to the 1st Verse and back and forth!  We had the greatest laugh about it all, and she has requested that Tuesday that I work on another Sermon for them.  I think she wants me to recite the following Bible Verse!

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Hum, maybe that one would be easier, but I am sure they will hear the 23rd Psalm again!  I will brush up on it so that I do not get things mixed up – the mind is a beautiful thing – or maybe it was the Propofol!  LOL

I am thinking that this is the one that I need to recite.  I purchased this years ago while we were in Arizona for the winter at the San Xavier Mission and it is another one of my favorite sayings when I need to forgive:

As far as the Cataract surgery, the mind and eyes are also a marvel!  I can cover my left eye and see perfectly, but doing that with the right eye it is nothing but blurred vision without my glasses (which are of no value to me now).  BUT when I look with both eyes, the right eye takes over the left eye and things are not blurry!  So if anyone has to have this surgery, do not worry and become anxious like I did unnecessarily – it is very very easy and it is fine with having the surgery one week apart.  The drops are not bad (just having to do them every 4 hours is).  It takes about a month to get through the checkups and recovery for both eyes!  Moral of this story – just go with the flow (something I cannot do but Clay has that one mastered).

Have a wonderful week!  Will give an update as to if I am a good patient next week or another namby pamby idiot in the OR!  Stand By!

Forgive if I do not respond to your comments as my eyes do get tired.

Hugs

Nanette

Good morning all! This is a short note to let all know that I had a successful cataract surgery on the right eye yesterday! I am unable to use my glasses because of the right eye being fixed and the left not done until Tuesday! Clay is taking great care of me – so blessed to have him as I put him through a wringer with my anxiety before this procedure.

The eyes are really unique. One eye has clear vision while the left still is blurred when covering up the right eye! Clay gave me a pair of his peep overs at 1.25 and now I can really see and type this. But what is unique is how the brain works with the eyes. The corrected eye takes over both eyes and it makes the vision work well.

We opted for single vision correction and that corrects the distance! I will need corrective glasses for close up due to the astigmatism on my cornea!

I go for a checkup this morning and now really looking forward to next Tuesday (8 Oct) to finish removal of Cataracts. The drops do not bother me but I will be on them 4 times a day until 5 Nov! After then I will be able to get new glasses, but they will be nothing in strength like my current ones.

Take care and hoping to be able to get back to sewing soon I really miss it as working on quilting projects keeps my mind active and my creativity and inspiration to enjoy the challenge of making a new quilt! It has kept me a young 74!

Nanette