2011 was a BAD year....

2011 was the worst years of our lives. Howard contracted MRSA which led to necrotising faciitis (the "flesh-eating" disease). He was in the hospital for 6 weeks, 4 surgeries (died once), 6 weeks in nursing home, 6 weeks of home health care, lost his job and our insurance, and I had to nurse him back to health. And let me say upfront, I am not a nurse and will never be a nurse. It was agonizing for me to have to take care of his open wounds while he tried to heal up! I don't know how Dr's and nurses do it, Bless them all!

This is what we originally started with. He was cut from about 4 inches above his knee to the top of his thigh and then around on his hip. Approximately 24 inches long in total and it was open a good 10 to 12 inches across. Very overwhelming to have to look at every day for a person who can't stand to see blood!

They had to go in four times and debride the infection off of it and remove a good bit of tissue and muscle. During the 4th operation his blood pressure bottomed out and he passed a clot to his lung and he died on them. Thank GOD, and I did alot of thanking GOD, they got him back and he spent 4 days in ICU. When I went in the ICU to see him, they had 5 of those IV hangers, each with 4 IV's on them all around his bed. I didn't know one person could have so many IV's at one time. They had him on blood thinner for the clot, and a wound vac on his leg, and the wound vac started pumping out his blood, so he ended up getting 16 bags of blood. He was on a respirator and had a feeding tube. It was all vey intense. I went home every night and cryed myself to sleep. The surgery was on a Monday, and then on Thursday I went in and he was sitting up, all his tubes were out and they were ready to take him out to a regular room. He was feeling all better, of course he was on a dilaudin drip for 6 weeks, so he was felling no pain and doesn't remember a thing about any of his hospital stay. Aww, the wonders of modern medicine!

Here are some more pics on the progression of healing. Well, only one pic. I have more on my camera disc, but they don't seem to want to download to my computer right now.

On Monday, March 5, Howie had some more surgey to close up his leg finally. I am so glad not to have to clean out that wound anymore. Right now it has a couple of drains in it that I have to empty every day, but it is so much easier to take care of. He has some awful scars and will have another awful scar when the top is done healing.  Good news is he lost 100 or so pounds! Originally, they removed a big chunk of this thigh and butt muscles, so he has some mobitily problems. He is not very good with steps, and is a little unstable at times. He has to use a cane to keep his balance and is not good with carrying things, or maybe that is just an excuse to keep from carrying in the groceries! lol

Anyway, that is what I have been doing the past year. High stress and not good for my Fibro, depression or diabetes. I am just worthless for doing anything but the necessities. I am just exhausted. Howie is finally on disability retirement with OPERS. We were four months with NO income between his job ending and his disability starting. It was horrible!! By the time we pay his medical insurance out of his monthly $1219 we receive $735 to live on for the month. And I have no income. Social Security denied me for the second time while Howie was in the hospital and I just didn't have the strength to find a lawyer at that time. I need to get back on it though. I just don't see how they can find me not disabled. Really, I can not work a real job! I can not stand for more than a couple minutes and can not walk for any distance without having to sit and rest. Oh well, more on that later.

Just wanted to let everyone know what I have been up to and why I have neglected my blog for so long. Later... 

Patti



AC4C Baby Afghans on their way to Naval Relief

This first group of afghans are some that I sent to Polly around March/April. See if you can find some of your squares in these pictures! The second bunch are the afghans I just mailed off to Naval Relief. I am still joining squares (I have hundreds yet!), but I am taking it easy for the summer. I said I wasn't going to join ANY for the summer, but I keep joining anyway! I can't leave it alone! LOL

The following afghan squares were Shirleys!

Here are the dozen baby afghans I just sent off to Naval Relief. Hope you see some of your squares in them.

These squares are red, white and blue, but came out looking orangy in the photo!

I hope you all feel I have done us proud connecting your squares into baby afghans! I try to make them unique and something I would be happy to receive.

Miss Shelby Lynn

I made this cute little hat and skinny scarf and when Shelby seen it she just had to have it, and had to get her picture taken it in. She is such a ham!

She wanted me to show her how to crochet the other day so she can make her own doll clothes. So I gave her a piece of yarn and a hook, but she didn't want me to tell her what to do. She wrapped the yarn around the hook and was really proud of it, even though it wasn't really anything. She makes me laugh, she is so stubborn, just like a Tilton!

And she is so smart. She loves dinosaurs and she is going to be a palaeontologist, and she can tell you all about them, their names, what they are, what they eat. I was going to buy her a dinosaur for Christmas, but they were more than what I had allowed for the kids, so I told her I would buy her one for her birthday. And she told me that would be just perfect! lol They were so cool, they move and walk and make dinosaur noises, very lifelike. She will love it!

the strange effects of cold medication

I have had a bronchial infection for over 3 weeks now. It is finally starting to get better, but I have been medicated forever, or so it seems. I know I was in a daze for a week or more, zonked out on the cold meds.

I haven't felt like doing any big crocheting projects, but while I have been sitting here in my recliner the past few weeks I have made yoyo's for one of my charity groups. We have a lovely lady, Dawn, who loves to join them into afghans, bless her soul. I have also made about 25 7" granny squares for several exchanges and other projects. I have many partial skeins and balls of yarn that I plan to use up on making squares and yoyo's the rest of the month. Gotta get my stash a little more organized.

I also went onto my AC4C (All Crafts 4 Charity) yahoo group to see what projects we are going to be working on for 2010. There are lots of baby projects, but I don't do baby things very well, at least not well enough to give to someone. :) So, I have volunteered to join squares for our group! Just call me crazy! I'm sure the mail lady will call me something different when she starts delivering bags and boxes of squares to my house! lol I have plenty of yarn to join them with and it is a no-brainer job. I can do it while watching TV with Howie. I am excited to be doing it, this is my calling.

I have a few boxes of lapghans to take to the nursing home and I have about 6 afghans I want to take over to the womans shelter. I need to get them out of here to make room for this new project. And I guess I need to get a bunch of scrapping things up on ebay to clear out some room on the back porch. Its the getting it all out and photographing it all that slows me down, figuring what I want to throw into each lot. I think I will sell all my small punches and get rid of alot of pattern paper and cardstock. If I can get rid of some of my Leaving Prints stock and the Out of The Box kits I would be happy. Storage is at a premium so I need to do something on that backporch in a hurry, what a mess. Collecting things is now my addiction, but I don't think AA or NA would be much help. Most of their 12 steps would not apply.

It is 3:30am (of course) and I need to get off here. I need to get my swiss steak started and in the crock pot and then go to bed. I can hardly wait to get to sleep, I have been having some crazy dreams the past week and can't wait to see what pops up tonight. I don't know if it is from the Zetia, it is the only new drug I have started taking at night. I guess I need to read the info sheet that came with it. I wouldn't think the mucinex would cause crazy dreams, but I guess it could be the nyquil! lol or one of the many other drugs I take daily to make it thru to the next day. LOL Well, poke me with a fork, I'm done!

Christmas Bazaar

I did my first craft bazaar this past weekend. It was held at the Elizabeth Township Community Center. It was their first time holding one and the price was great, so I went for it. They didn't have a big crowd and most people were just looking, not buying, but I did sell some things. Sold 2 Camo hats, some baby hats, an afghan, some gloves, some cards, some glass ornaments, and quite a few candy cane ornaments and Grinch Poop.

Here are some photos of my tables. The first one is pictures of my afghans. I really thought I would sell more of them. Also shows my Crocheted edge fleece throws, hats, gloves, and assorted Christmas stockings.


More afghans, baby afghans, and crocheted hangars.


This picture shows shopping lists and note pads.

This shows my candy cane ornaments. They sold very well.

These baskets contain some wreath ornaments, some round chipboard ornaments, reindeer food to sprinkle on your lawn, and a basket of assorted poops... reindeer poop (raisins), snowman poop (mini marshmellows), and Grinch poop (green peanut M&M's). Poop never tasted so good!

These are glass ornaments. They contain rolled glittered Christmas scrapbook paper, and ribbon hangers. Also a basket of glittered Snowflakes and glittered Icicles. All very pretty!

The Center is very nice, and they have a very nice exercise facility. I am thinking about joining. They have a Nu-Step machine, which I used in rehab for my back, and I loved it. The Y doesn't have one and I haven't found anyone else with one either.

I may also be able to teach a crochet class for begineers. I think I would like that. I need to check it out, but not until after Christmas anyway, too busy until then.

Crocheting for charity

It's been quite awhile since I've posted on here. I am still not working. I keep looking, but no one seems to want to hire an old woman who needs to sit to work and can only stand for 2 or 3 minutes at a time! I keep hoping at least something part time will turn up soon. I only have 14 weeks of unemployment left and I will have exhausted everything... nothing left, nada. If I can't find anything , I'm not sure just what to do next. I think I am sick enough to file for SSD, but who knows. I'll cross that bridge when I have to.

Anyway, Since I need to spend time with my recliner and heating pad, I have been doing alot of crocheting. You can only make so many afghans and lapghans. I signed up for several charity Yahoo groups and have been crocheting things for different charities. I just sent off a bunch of hats, scarves, and gloves last week. Here are some pictures....

Makes me feel good knowing a few homeless people and kids will be a little warmer this winter because of me!

Just another Sunday...

It's my usual non-pay-week Sunday. Doing laundry, sitting here playing on the computer and watching Football (or next month Nascar), while Howie is in the bedroom sleeping. It is his Sunday night to work. Right now San Diego is ahead of the Colts, so I am also doing a little cussing mixed in with that! I just think it would be cool to have a battle of the Manning brothers for the SuperBowl.

Haven't done much scrapbooking lately. My usual scrapbook store closed right before Christmas, so I don't have anyhere to go to scrap. I like to scrap with my neice Tinika. I could just go out to my scrap room and scrap by myself, but what fun is that. I need to make some more albums to sell, but I have no motivation or fresh ideas.

Thank the Lord! Indy just got a touchdown!!!! Colts 24, Chargers 21!!!

Anyway, instead of scrapbooking, I have been crocheting afghans lately. My hips and back have been killing me, and I keep getting spasms in my back, so as soon as I get home from work I am in the recliner with the heating pad until time to go to bed. And since I can never just be doing one thing at a time, I have been crocheting as I watch TV. I enjoy it and I have seen a couple of articles about different groups who gather home-made afghans to give to kids or nursing homes and that just sounded like something I could do. So far I think I have about 8 -10 afghans or lap blankets done. I need to find more yarn to use though. I had bought a big box of yarn at a yard sale two summers ago for $10, and I have finally used it all. I need another deal like that. I did buy about $40 worth of yarn on sale at JoAnn's last month, but I only have enough for another afghan out of that.

Dog gone it, San Diego just scored another touchdown! 28 -24

If you know of anyone who has some yarn they would like to donate just e-mail me at fisher.patti@att.net I would be glad to take it off their hands, for shipping costs. And it would be used for a good purpose. I haven't decided just who to donate the afghans to yet. I would like to do something with them locally. I know the family abuse center would be glad to have them as well as some of the local nursing homes. Maybe even the foster care kids. Most of my afghans are Granny Squares as it is mindless, you don't have to worry about what you are doing, and it doesn't take long to make. I can do one in 3 to 4 nights of TV.

Well shoot, the Chargers just beat the Colts 28 to 24. The Colts had a couple of chances to score and couldn't do it. They beat themselves. Oh well, story of my life! LOL

Now that I'm depressed I think I need some fresh right-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies and a good cup of coffee. I need to quit writing and get back to the laundry anyway. Later...