Craziness...

Apparently things around here are not going to settle down. It was a crazy week. I went to the doctor on Monday and was cleared to go back to work. The kids were so happy to see me and it was good to be back! On Wednesday my daughter had a follow up doctor appointment for some bloodwork. That was good because it turned out that on Tuesday a girl in her high school was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. The girl is hospitalized and will recover. The doctor recommended we take my daughter back to the school where the county had set up a health clinic to dispense antibiotics to the students who may have had contact with the sick girl. So off we went to the clinic where she was given Cipro.

On Thursday I took her to the chiropractor for her appointment. My daughter's chiropractor (I see a different doctor in the practice) arranged for me to have a free massage with the in house massage therapist! It was wonderful, if you've never had a massage, I highly recommend it! Afterwards I was telling him about my back going out and he sent me home with exercises, an icy hot cream and a TENS unit to use at home. I felt totally spoiled! Thursday was also my husband's birthday, so he and I had an exciting evening. We went to a 50's style diner for dinner and then went to the radiology place so I could have an MRI. Do we know how to celebrate???

Friday dawned with rain, which turned to ice by noon. We wound up with about 4 inches of ice by this morning. The roads were a mess, but we didn't have to go anywhere last night, so I sat and read by the fire.

So, no quilting done this week, except for some machine quilting on my challenge quilt for MQX. I can only stand at the machine for about 15 minutes before my back begins to complain, so it's slow going. I hope to get more time than that in tomorrow...the deadline is on the 31st! The quilt in this post is an oldie. It was made from signature exchange blocks that I got from an AOL group I was with in 1997. This group was composed of about 30 women across the country. We actually were able to get together for retreats twice back then, but after awhile the group fell apart. However, my 4 best friends were part of that group and we still talk almost every day now, even though we are scattered from New Jersey to Arizona to Minnesota to Florida to Texas. Quilting friends are the best!

Forced Vacation

I was having a pretty nice weekend. On Friday night I saw the high school play with my daughter and her friend. On Saturday I did some quilting. I loaded my blue and white nine patch on the machine and got it mostly quilted. I was accomplishing things. On Sunday morning, the girls and I went to church. We stopped at the store on the way home. I had a full day of quilting planned...I was going to finish quilting the nine patch and get the binding on. Was going to run the vacuum so I wouldn't have to do it on Monday. The best laid plans...

After church I decided to get comfy...flannel pants, a turtleneck and a sweatshirt. I went into my closet, bent over to get my pants off the shelf, and I heard it. Two very loud pops in my lower back. And I felt it...the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my life. I dropped to my knees, made it over to the bed and stayed on the floor for a lifetime...or about 20 minutes. I couldn't move. I was lightheaded. It was awful. I managed to change my clothes while I was on the floor, then I crawled down the hallway and scooted down the stairs on my bottom. The pain was tremendous. Holding onto walls, railings and furniture I made it to the sofa and tried to get comfortable, all the while trying not to cry. My daughter wanted to take me to the emergency room, but I was afraid they'd admit me. Since my husband is in Frankfurt for the rest of the week, I didn't want to have to call him and tell him I was in the hospital!

I called the doctor and he told me to take two of the 500mg Naproxen tablets that I have for my migraines. If that didn't help, he said I should go to the ER. It did help some, along with the heating pad, although I still couldn't stand or walk. I found my Vicodin and managed to get through the night.

Yesterday morning I called the doctor. The recording said the office opened at noon. I managed to make it until noon and called again. The recording said they were out to lunch until 1. I called again and managed to get an appointment. The results? One was that the recording was wrong and they were really open at 8:30! Second was I most likely have herniated two disks in my back. I am out of work at least until next Tuesday. I am on lots of happy drugs. :o) I can walk again, albeit painfully. But I will survive. And I have to stay on the sofa with my heating pad as much as possible. So that means...

I've had time to knit the adorable little baby hat you see here. I saw these on Suze's blog, The Thread and I and she was kind enough to share the pattern with me. They work up quickly and are so cute! I plan to make a few and donate them to our church's "Caps and Laps" group which makes baby hats for the local hospital and lap robes for senior citizens. When I finished the hat, I started working on my newest pair of socks.

This morning I started cutting away the batting on my trapunto. It is a tedious job. I worked on it until the Percoset kicked in...then I stopped. I didn't want to cut the quilt top! Although I can't work at the longarm right now, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to stand up straighter by the end of the week and I can finish the nine patch. The good news is that one of the most comfortable chairs in the house is my sewing chair...it's cushy with lots of support. On Saturday night I cut out a new quilt, so I should be able to get some piecing done too. I'm doing my best to turn this into an opportunity to get something accomplished. I'll keep you posted!