More Projects

Since my last post, I've had 2 requests from lady friends to make them hats... I've finished one, then I had to take a break from hats to crochet a teddy bear for my niece's 2nd birthday party on Saturday. I started the bear on Thursday night, worked on it for about an hour, then another 2 hours on Friday night, then I started working on it at 9 on Saturday morning and I finished at 3:15 Saturday afternoon... My niece's party started at 5pm.

After getting a new blister and spending hours worrying if I was going to be able to get it done on time, I was rewarded with a VERY happy 2 year old that wouldn't put down her bear long enough for anyone else to take a look at it (I think I had happy tears in my eyes).

I think I got some mild heat stroke though, after being outside for 7+ hours on Saturday (30 degrees Celsius) and I subsequently slept from about 11:30 Saturday night until 3:30 Sunday afternoon.

I still feel exhausted, but not nearly as bad as yesterday.

Oh, and my chiropractor is being nice... since I need chiropractic adjustments, and I should be going every week or two, he is keeping me as a patient (at his house right now until he can get into another office) and he is going to charge me $15-$20 less than all his other patients. YAY ME!

Projects

This is an afghan I made for my sister-in-law's oldest daughter.

And I made this one for her youngest daughter.

I just thought I would put up some more pictures of the things I've been crocheting, so you can all see them.

A Post For Everyone

My chiropractor is in the process of starting his own office. For the time being he doesn't work at an office, and he has agreed to see me at his house, because neither one of us feel it would be a good idea to switch chiropractors, with the possibility of getting one that doesn't listen to me, and ends up injuring me further. The problem comes in the form of him being unavailable last week, and me being busy after work every day this week, and that meaning it'll be almost 3 weeks between my last appointment and my next one (On top of all that, Alberta Health stopped covering chiropractic visits on the 1st of July). So, with my wrists being stupid and loose, and my hip being still-slightly-out-of-place and my fingers being all uncooperative, causing me to use my arms differently, and throwing out my shoulders in the process (really long sentence, but I'm getting to the point) I'm in a considerable amount of pain. The only 3 things that seem to help my shoulder are seeing the chiropractor, smoking some pain reliever, or sleeping on my back with my knees propped up, and my arms over my head. So I tried the sleeping one last night and usually by the time I wake up, I've rolled over 40 times and it looks like a tornado has gone through the room, and I'm usually laying on my left (bad) shoulder, causing it to dislocate. but last night was different! I went to sleep with my knees propped up, and my hands over my head, and I woke up with my knees propped up, and my hands over my head! It REALLY stretched the muscles on my shoulders, and my back, and my hips, and everything is feeling better than it did yesterday, except my shoulder... it feels like it rotated funny.

But... you can't win 'em all.

*CONTAINS SUBJECT MATTER THAT SOME READERS MAY FIND OFFENSIVE*

So...
A while back I posted about some health issues I've been having. Well, my period was late, and I rather thought I might be pregnant. So I took 6 pregnancy tests (3 home tests, 2 pee-in-a-cup-at-the-doctor's-office tests, and one blood test) over the course of 3-4 weeks. All came back negative. Along with the blood test for pregnancy, the doctor had the guy draw blood to check my hormone levels, my iron levels, and several other things.
My doctor originally thought I had PCOS (poly-cystic ovary syndrome), and I thought that maybe I had a tubal pregnancy, or that my hormone levels were too low to register as being pregnant. When my blood tests came back, my iron levels were dangerously low, my vitamin D was really low, and the doctor told me that my iron was too low for dietary changes to bring it up to a normal level...etc.
I've been taking iron supplements for about a month and a half now, and I'm finally having another period. It's lasted 8 days... and counting... (usual for me is 5). So I'm a little bit less anxious than I have been recently, but more grouchy, crampy, bloaty...

On another note, I injured myself recently -dislocated my hip- while having sex. Usually, I can put it back in easily, and it's usually not too painful, but this time was different. It stayed out of place too long, and I couldn't get it back in all the way, and it still hurts.
My boss sent me on an errand at work the next day, and I was required to lift 2 wheels out of the trunk of my car. In light of my recent hip injury, I thought it would be beneficial to carry both of the wheels at the same time, and only make one trip, as opposed to walking twice the distance (50 feet-ish each direction). So I picked up one wheel in each hand (they're not light) and I started walking. By the time I got them to where they were going I had dislocated 2 fingers; my middle finger on my right hand, and my index finger on my left hand. Apparently, I'm not supposed to favor any joint in my body, because it will cause unexpected casualties in other, unrelated parts of my body.

Oh, and I watched to new Harry Potter movie last night, and it was pretty good, except they keep leaving Dobby out of the movies, and changing which characters do what.

Hubby & Birthday

So, my hubby gave me my birthday present REALLY early. It's a BeBook!!! YAY!!! It's really awesome, and it's light, and it's nice to read for hours on end, and you push buttons instead of turning pages!!! Okay... I was a bit excited there... (but buttons are so much fun!!!)

I would recommend a bebook or similar device for anyone who has troubles with heavy/awkward books. Or for anyone who downloads books, but can't look at a computer screen for hours on end. Or even more practically, if you're going to school, instead of carrying around 50 pounds of books, you could carry an ebook with all of your necessary reading material in it, and it doesn't weigh much at all or take up much space (the only difficulty would be finding copies of the books online, and most schools don't offer them except for special circumstances).

I've noticed that the pain in my wrists comes in waves. Sometimes they seem as perfectly functional as I can hope from my body, and other times it's as though if I move them, they might fall off. A bit dramatic sounding, but that's what it feels like.

I've also noticed that my hips and ankles are feeling really loose. I sat in my car too long yesterday, and when I got out, I had to spend about 5 minutes to put my ankle back in place... My neighbour saw me limping slowly toward the house, and asked what was wrong... I told him my foot was on crooked. With my hips it seems like any time I take a step, they click, and when they've had enough clicking, they start to sublux, and once the novelty of that's worn off, they'll throw in a dislocation, and try to introduce my face to the pavement...

On another note, I haven't been sleeping much or well in the last 2 weeks, and I am alternately giddy and zombified...

But thankfully, I can still crochet, and my brother is looking forward to getting his sweater for Christmas :)

Hands

So, one of the things I have been grateful for since I have started reading all of the EDSers blogs, is that I haven't had trouble with my hands.

Well, that is no longer the case. For the past two weeks, I've had a weird feeling in my right wrist, like it's fatigued after I write. A few days ago the feeling turned into pain, and it's almost unbearably painful to write more than a few sentences at any one time.

Yesterday, at work I had to staple a rather large file, which meant I had to use the rather large stapler. It's a job that would usually require the use of my right hand to use the lever, and my left hand to steady the paper... When I got to the stapler, I looked at it... It seemed to stare right back at me... So I steadied the paper with my left hand, pushed the lever down enough that I no longer had to steady the paper, then I used BOTH hands to push the lever down. I felt the most sickening feeling I think I'm capable of. My left wrist slid out of place... I don't know exactly how far, but it looked like more than 3/4 of an inch. I immediately looked away and stopped pushing down. My wrist made a wet sucking sound, and slid back into place.

Thankfully it wasn't painful. It didn't swell up, it didn't bruise, but afterward it felt really unstable. It still does, and so does my right wrist.

In the last few days I have been subluxing the joints in my fingers, as usual it takes little or no pressure, and I have to almost massage them back into place. I'm going to start looking for some wrist braces or something, because with my left shoulder as bad as it is I have to drive using my right hand, and it really hurts my wrist when I drive now.

Thankfully (as of 2 days ago) I can still crochet without injuring myself.

Edit:
As it turns out crocheting is about the only thing I CAN do without causing severe pain in my wrists. I did dishes last week and almost cried from the pain, and it took me about 2 hours to finish them with all the breaks I needed to take. I've found that I need to set my books down when I'm reading them, because the weight of the book is too much to hold for any length of time. And I was folding laundry on the weekend, and OMG OWWWW... That's all i have to say about that.

Fe

So, I haven't posted anything lately... Medical issues... Surprised?

Anyway, I had some issues, and I tried to figure out what they were on my own... (YAY Google!). I couldn't figure it out, but I thought I knew, so I went to the doctor (for confirmation), and he thought he had it figured out (different answer than I had come up with), and he sent me for blood work, and I have been anxiously awaiting THE ANSWER. He got the results from the blood work last Friday, but since he is not my family doctor (because I don't have one) I had to get my results from a walk-in appointment, so I couldn't go until yesterday.

We were both equally wrong. (I'm just glad I wasn't more wrong than he was).

Results are: my blood iron saturation is at 8%. It's supposed to be around 55% to 60%. The doctor told me that in order to get my iron to "normal" levels I will have to take an iron supplement every day for the rest of my life, and while I'm at it, continue taking the 2000mg of Vitamin C daily, along with Vitamin D, and hopefully that can help with some of my joint pain, and energy levels. Oh, and I am no longer allowed to donate blood. That makes me kind of sad.

Aside from all of that, my hubby had his hip surgery, and he is recovering, but the damage was a helluva lot worse than they thought, and it looks like some time in the future he will need to have a hip replacement. But his doctor is looking at prolotherapy for his knee, and that will hopefully be helpful.