Bunionectomies Are The Best Medicine

I'm supposed to keep my foot elevated and I've been on the computer for a few hours now so I'll make this quick: I had my surgery last week and was awake for it, which was interesting since I got to hear all about my doctor's love life. In case you just tuned in: I had an operation to remove a post-traumatic bunion that had formed after I broke my foot nearly two years ago. Even more backstory: in August 2007, I had broken my knee and it wasn't until after that healed that it was discovered my foot had been fractured in four places, most likely when I fell and fractured my knee. By then, my foot had healed on its own and this gigantic bone was curving out below my big toe which made my foot so wide that I could no longer wear regular shoes. My doctor recently decided it was time to do surgery on the humongous bunion so that's what I had done last week when I got to hear all about her current boyfriend while lying on a gurney and listening to Bon Jovi and Depeche Mode on the radio.

On Wednesday, I saw my surgeon and they removed all of the bandages and I wanted to do a happy dance after seeing how normal my right foot looked. It's still a little oddly shaped -- she couldn't do anything about the toes that curve to the left now but the giant bunion was all gone. Woo freaking hoo! I now have a plate and some screws in my foot, which match nicely with the metal plate and screws in my knee. (Does anyone know if I'll set off metal detectors now? I keep forgetting to ask.) I still can't put any weight on my foot for quite awhile -- the bones need a chance to mend -- but knowing I will eventually be able to go back to wearing regular shoes has cheered me up considerably.

I still have a chronic wound on my other foot that is just not healing and she is talking about doing surgery on that too but I'm still on the fence about having that done until I hear more details. Anything with that requires more than a week of recovery is not something I'm ready to sign up for. Between losing my drivers license and dealing with broken bones, it will be three years in October that I've been housebound and I am truly sick of it and ready to have a life again. And, to wear cute shoes while doing it.

Please cross your fingers, say some prayers, and think good thoughts that my foot will heal the way it's supposed to. I won't get my stitches out for another 11 days so infection is still a possibility, but I'm staying out of the shower until then (ugh) and fortunately my circulation is still pretty good for someone with diabetes for over thirty years.

I've only finished one cross stitch during my convalescence but I've read at least 6 paperbacks in the past week. If you like stories about amateur detectives who solve murders AND bake cookies, check out Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen series. The books are fun and a quick read, and loaded with recipes.

Back to putting my foot up and reading another Hannah mystery.

This Is Not Number 500

This is my 499th post. I'm sorry to say there will not be a giveaway for #500 and I feel really, really bad about that.

I blame my foot for the lack of a giveaway. The same foot that was somehow fractured last year but forgot to tell anyone, and healed on its own, and is now so oddly-shaped, it will no longer fit into a regular shoe. No shoes = no job = no money = no giveaway.

I should be getting a pair of "corrective shoes" this coming week. FINALLY. The guy at the shoe place told me he had never seen anything like it when he saw my deformed foot. I felt quite special. The shoes he ordered for me look a lot like some black leather Keds I have so they weren't as ugly as I thought they might be. I'm just starting off with a good walking shoe that I can wear to work for now, but he told me that he could find me some sandals, Mary Janes and slippers when I was ready for something else. He also said he would have trouble finding me anything dressy with a heel. That's ok since I won't be going to the prom or getting married any time soon.

The other night I was going through the shoes in my closet and feeling a little down about not being able to wear them anymore. I know there are much worse things in the world than giving up your Chuck's, but dang, I am going to miss them.

Or maybe I'm not. Could it kill me to wash the laces once in awhile??

Update Time

#1 -- There was nothing good to be had at last weekend's parish (what the sign said) rummage sale, although I would have totally scored if I liked to knit with glow-in-the-dark orange and green yarn. Afterwards, my mom and I had a nice lunch at yet another Mexican restaurant here in town. Here's a review of it by someone else, complete with pictures. (Note to self: the next time you bring your camera with you while out & about, be sure to take it out of your purse and use it.)

#2 -- Did I have more than one update?

#3 -- Oh yeah, I did. Jazz, the Katrina Cocker Spaniel I mentioned the other day, was finally returned to her owner. An anonymous commenter left a link to this story and video. (Thank you!) The owner, Shalanda Augillard, was arrested (and later released) during the hand-off because of an outstanding failure to appear warrant for allegedly assaulting the woman who adopted Jazz. The police have known of Shalanda's whereabouts all along and could have picked her up at any time but they had to do it on that particular day? Like that wasn't orchestrated by the adopters' attorney. [eyeroll]

#4 -- In personal news: I don't know if anyone noticed but I edited my Blogger profile so that it no longer has that I am suffering from a degenerative foot condition. Why? Because it was misdiagnosed. Oops. Actually, I'm pretty happy about the mistake since I spent two months waiting for a referral to a foot surgeon, convinced I was going to end up unable to walk and in a wheel chair. At some point, I did fracture four bones in my foot, (probably when I fell and broke my knee last year, and not due to Charcot Foot as first thought by my doctor), and the bones were dislocated and have since healed that way, which explains my now deformed extremity. Between the gigantic bunion below my big toe and all the swelling (leftover from knee surgery), (and, yes, I curse that doctor on a daily basis), I cannot get a regular shoe to fit my right foot so now I have to have a pair custom made. Hey, maybe that means they won't be as ugly as some of those other orthopedic shoes out there. I wonder if they could whip me up a pair of Mary Janes. In red.

Ok, enough updating for now.

TipNut has another list of links to free apron patterns and tutorials!

You have got to go see the cool pincushions that won Excellence in Needle Arts Awards from Piecework Magazine. There's a link to the pdf with photos of winners for 2008 on that page, and also links to previous year's winners.

Check out all of the entries in the Feeling Stitchy banner contest. I think they should use them all and change them out every week.

Your probably already know but Pimp Stitch is now open and selling patterns. I love them all but my favorite is Made in the 80's because I have a thing about mix tapes.

There are several new free cross stitch charts at Brooke's Books. Go to the freebie page and scroll down to the photos of Butterfly Wings and Land That I love. Brooke has also released the M is for Measure block for her Stitcher's Alphabet. Clicking the pictures will take you to the charts. To keep up with her new releases, check out Brooke's blog, and for access to exclusive freebies, join the Brooke's Books Interactive Yahoo group.

Over at Stitch Pink is an x-stitch chart for a breast cancer awareness biscornu called Be Aware. And, there are charts for two of Mary Engelbreit's Mini Flower Pots on her web site. And, more of her craft freebies here.

Unicorns Make Me Happy

Today, April 14th, is Raise Your Voice For Type 1 Diabetes Awareness Day, a day designated by Kerri at Six Until Me to increase awareness of Type 1 diabetes since Type 2 gets most of the publicity. Honestly, I'm more excited about May 12 being National Wear Your Apron Day. Not that I don't think raising awareness about Type 1 is a good idea. I think it's a fantastic idea. But I wasn't sure about joining in since I just don't know if there is much I could say about being diabetic for 29 years without letting some pessimism, bitterness, and anger seep in, and really, who wants to read that? I sure don't. But then I realized it could be a chance for me to show my boobs and I signed on.

So, there's my insulin pump clipped inside my bra and working hard to keep my blood sugars under control. Go, Lil Pumpy! (Oh. My. God. I think I just named my pump. Please kill me.)

That was kind of a letdown, wasn't it? Trust me, the original picture showed more but I didn't want anyone to find it offensive or NSFW so I cropped most of the bra out of it. (And, isn't the rolled up shirt at the top a nice touch?)

Some diabetic bloggers used today to write about the differences between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Or to blog about their daily experience with the disease. As I was reading some of them, I realized how tired I was of having diabetes. How sick I was of it. How I can't relate to those who say it's made them stronger or healthier. I wish I felt that way.

Then I was checking some of my favorite craft blogs and was once again reminded how I'm not working and have no idea when I'll be going back, thanks to my foot. No work equals no money to buy craft supplies (excpt DMC floss since it's so cheap). I can't even hold a giveaway because I can't get to the post office to send it to whoever wins since I don't have a car or a license anymore.

I know I'm just having a bad day and whining about it, and I apologize for that. I should be thankful that my "degenerative foot condition" can be treated (if I ever get a referral to a specialist -- tomorrow will make it a week since I saw podiatrist #2 and I still haven't heard anything) and isn't something like the dreaded kidney failure.

I've been embroidering a unicorn from Andrea Zuill's blog, and even though I'm not usually a unicorn person, I can't wait until it's done because I like it so much. I'm going to go work on that now so I can do something fun and stop dwelling on stupid crap. Maybe for a little while I can forget the reason Lil Pumpy (stop it!) is snuggled all cozy in my bra and just focus on stem stitching that unicorn.

Hope your day is going way better than mine.

This post was inspired by Cats 'n' Racks™ at Cute Overload.

Monday's Post

I am already planning how to stay busy during my three month long recovery period, even though it won't actually begin until I get a cast put on my foot, which won't happen until I see a specialist, who I won't get a referral to until the 28th. I've come up with a few projects that I want to get done by the time the cast comes off. (At the rate I'm going, I should be up and walking again by next January!) My sister and I went to a couple of craft stores today so I could stock up on floss and also get some Aida for the Hungarian Sampler Stitch-A-Long. The first two parts of the chart have already been posted so I have some catching up to do.

I also wanted to get a tote bag to embroider for my sister. I had stitched a Pillsbury Doughboy on one last year for her birthday, and when I started doing another Doughboy on the reverse side, I stupidly did not keep track of the colors of floss I was using, so there's a finished Doughboy on one side and a half-embroidered Doughboy on the other. Michael's did not have a blue tote bag in a medium size so we went to Tall Mouse, and not only did we find exactly what we were looking for, but I also found tea towels on sale, five for $10. I am not a huge fan of flour sack towels because I'd rather have a smaller kitchen towel and these are a perfect size. They had them in solid colors (and patterns too) so I got two in white, and one in red, green and blue. Let the embroidering begin!

It seems the majority of my recent cross stitch finishes have been done with floss and fabric scrounged from my stash, so it was really fun to go and get new supplies. Then I came home and excitedly wound all my new floss on those little plastic bobbins. And, then my head exploded because I was so dang happy.

Doe-c-doe is having giveaways all this week. To enter, leave some comments on each post (more information is here.) It looks like she will be sharing an embroidery pattern every day as well. Monday's is a cute squirrel.

And, don't forget the quilting book giveaway at Studio-259.

Of course, I forgot to add this earlier: Over at a blog called Meet Me at Mikes, Floresita is posting a week's worth of embroidery patterns. I don't know if these are ones that she has posted elsewhere or not. There's also a blogroll of other people participating so check those links too, like the freaking adorable pattern at The Lark with an owl, squirrel and hedgehog.

Maybe I Can BeDazzle My Orthopedic Shoes

Well, I missed mentioning another holiday on this blog. I was going to post a picture of my St. Patrick's Day troll too. I hope you all had a nice St. Paddy's Day!

Every so often, usually when I'm eating bacon, I will think about Laura and Mary Ingalls playing with a pig bladder. And, I'm not even on medication. So, I really enjoyed this article.

I forget how I found it but check out the blog for the Hungarian Sampler SAL. If I can find a large enough piece of material before they post any more of the chart, I'd like to join this one.

Some of my freebie links have disappeared from my list on AOL so I was happy to come across a link to Cherished Time (or Kiyo's Cross Stitch Page) again. There's a huge list of free charts there [link via Taking one stitch at a time]. I don't think it's been updated since April 2006 but I'm sure many of the links still work.

I also wanted to mention the x-stitch freebies at LUMIERE403. One night I was trying to find a pattern with sheep for the Christmas Ornament SAL and I ended up there (I think it was linked on LaGattaC).

There's a new free chart called Acorns and Owls at Blue Ribbon Designs. And, click the link to read the March newsletter to see how you can win a chart.

Barbara over at Oodles and oodles has posted the pattern that's on her ready to be embroidered aprons. The same ones she was giving away that I did not win. Not that I'm bitter. Ok, I am but I'll get over it as soon as the next apron giveaway comes along. (Please let me know if you hear about any so I can get happy sooner. Thanks!) (And, thank you for sharing the pattern, Barbara.)

Speaking of getting happy, I had a little bit of bad news last week. I got an official diagnosis on my swollen-since-November-and-now-deformed-foot (I am not exaggerating): I have something called Charcot Foot, yet another fun side effect of diabetes. Apparently, the nerve damage in my feet is so severe, I can no longer feel any pain and didn't know I had fractured several bones. And yes, I was shocked to hear that. Fortunately, this can be treated but that involves wearing a cast and staying off my foot for three months, and then having surgery. (Then I'll probably have to wear special shoes, which you know will be ugly. Can I Bedazzle leather?) I can deal with that -- I went through the same thing last Fall with my broken knee and became a whiz at using a walker -- but it's going to be awhile since I can go back to work and that depresses the hell out of me. So, I'm trying to be positive and look at my recovery as lots and lots and lots of time to cross stitch or embroider or finally try some other projects that I've always wanted to do but didn't because I was too busy reading craft blogs into the wee hours of the night, she typed at 2:53 AM.

As seen on Google: "The BeDazzler is back again and it’s the fashion craze of the season." Har!