LoopyKnits

Well, the cardiologist said I have atrial fibrillation, but I haven’t spoken directly to him yet. The internet is full of dire stories about what this means, but he doesn’t seem to be very concerned. I guess I will find out next week when I have more energy to hunt him down.

I had my scheduled sinus surgery yesterday. They called it a bilateral ESS, septoplasty, and turbinate outfracture. It’s supposed to make it easier to breathe and correct my deviated septum, as well as remove some infection. For about an hour while I was in the waiting mode, I did some knitting and snagged the general interest of most of the nurses in the area. I shoulda known — many nurses love crafts of any kind. (My mom, a retired RN, is the poster child for buying everything from applique to fabric paint kits, not to mention yarn and mercerized cotton, etc.) And since I was in the second surgical time slot that morning, I got to hear all the little babies and toddlers who were in the first slots. Some were crying but all were SO cute as their mamas tried to explain why they couldn’t get down, couldn’t eat or drink, etc. (Poor mamas.)

It was a little scary to go under general anesthesia, but it went fine. No real pain afterward, although my knees were wobbly from the anesthesia and I’m now wearing what I can only call (there is no other name for it) a nose diaper. (The official medical term is, apparently, a moustache dressing.] It’s a little folded triangle of gauze taped in place just below my nose. The only gross part, really, is having to do a nose rinse with an Aklalol/water mixture and another salt/water mixture seven times a day; yuck. But it helps healing, and I’m a good patient. My kids are being sweet and waiting on me at home, and everyone’s in a good mood because today was the last day of school. Hubby even brought home some ice cream, which I love. If only I could breathe through my nose — everything would taste better!

Technorati Tags: sinus surgery, heart disease, atrial fibrillation, nose diaper, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm

Today at the doctor’s office was quite the full checkup. I went for a cardiac stress test as a followup to an abnormal EKG (Update: Late found out it was an equipment error — my heart was fine). So, the first thing they do, after numbing you with paperwork, is to slip you into their easy-access clothes and hook you up to a drip. Then they pull something out of a lead-lined container and inject radioactive thallium into the drip. No sweat. So far.

Then it was just a matter of me lying on a narrow ironing-board of a bed, placing my arms “comfortably” above my head while the easy-access clothes demonstrate that they are a little TOO accessible, and soon I was aware that a component of the machine that was formerly humming by my side was now humming over me and slowly approaching even closer. They assured me I was not about to be steam-pressed. After 22 minutes of me trying not to twitch, scratch, cough, talk or fall asleep while the equipment whirred around me, they were finished taking pictures of my radioactive-thallium-illuminated heart.

Then after they had looked through their paperwork some more, they shuffled me off to a blessedly private room to get hooked up to EKG monitors (still keeping the drip in) and a blood pressure cuff. And in all my easy-access-clothing glory, I began to walk on the treadmill. Hey, this was easy!

Then they said, “Okay, are you warmed up enough?” And they cranked up the incline and the speed. Whoops. While I was struggling to keep up, the gal at my left said, “Okay, now give me your left arm so I can take your blood pressure.”

You have GOT to be kidding.

But she did, and — to my eternal surprise — I didn’t go flying off the back of the treadmill, even when they sped it up and ratcheted the incline up some more.

So far so good. I’ll know the results in a couple of days.

In knitting news, I pulled out the Tinky Brown Hairball afghan and worked on it in the waiting room, to the great interest of three women and, apparently, two men. It’s funny how KIPping will make friends of strangers. ;o)

Back at home, my youngest daughter was VERY excited to show me the Ladybug Hat she made in art class. Here’s her interpretation of bugdom (see the wee little face drawn on the top yellow loop?):

Her big sister’s only comment was:
“Mom, she WORE it home from school today. ”
(Big sister walks her home.)

(Update, 5-19-05: I just realized what this hat made me think of. The kids’ book, “Go, Dog. Go!” where the pink poodle gets the fancy party hat. - cb)

Gotta run — will be working on the Memphis Knitting Guild’s newsletter for the next few nights. But I couldn’t let an opportunity pass to share a hat like this.

Technorati Tags: checkup, cardiac stress test, heart disease, treadmill test, Ladybug Hat, Go Dog Go, Memphis Knitting Guild, MKG, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm

Way too much going on lately! Lots of 50- to 65-hour work weeks due to this being a busy season in my office. So very little time lately for knitting.

I am, however, going to:

• Have a cardiac stress test tomorrow morning (oh joy — if there’s anything I love more than trotting on a treadmill, it’s trotting with electrodes attached while I mentally stress to the max
• Volunteer for an afternoon with Habitat for Humanity on Thursday
• Be the Girl Scout mom going on our troop’s all-night Zoo Snooze on Friday
• Have (yuck) sinus surgery next week

Other news:Had a *great* time on April 25 with other knitters, listening to Yarn Harlot Stephanie Pearl-McPhee read from her book (”At Knit’s End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much”), and then we listened and knit while she fielded questions from a crowd of about 30. Here’s a photo of Stephanie (center, front row, white shirt, luscious green shawl) with me (gigantic red dress, happy smile) and other members of the Memphis Knitting Guild.

If only I had not been such a shiftless ass — in the intervening weeks since the picture was made, I have gradually lost my grip on all the little anecdotes of the evening and just remember a fun time. But our local newspaper did a feature story on this event and (I can’t believe this) took a closeup photo of my hands working with the Nautilus Cap’s green yarn and four DPNs. At least they waited until after I had tinked and reknitted it correctly (AGAIN).

And, of course, I also attended our older daughter’s spring choral event, a dinner theater performance of Broadway hits. My camera failed to work on the close-up shot, darn it, so I’m showing you my blurry distant shot of her onstage. Notice how your eye is mysteriously and unerringly drawn to her beauty and style. I’ll bet you can pick her out of the crowd even if I don’t say what row she is on.

Now that I’m caught up again with my blog (sort of), I’ll start posting again regularly.

Technorati Tags: busy at work, cardiac stress test, Habitat for Humanity, Memphis Zoo, Zoo Snooze, Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, At Knit’s End, Memphis Knitting Guild, MKG, Nautilus Hat, Nautilus Cap, Ginny, choral concert, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm