Medical Update

on July 5, 2018 I had surgery.  Six and a half hours to remove 6 tumors. All went well. 6 days in the hospital and 6 weeks with restriction of not more than 10 lbs lifting. I am now trying to get back to normal. Biopsy showed clear margins on the tumors and recommendation is no chemo unless a tumor shows up again. Ct scan scheduled for October 5.
       I am getting back to quilting, and glad that I can hold grandbabies again. I pieced and quilted a small quilt for a guild paint chip challenge the weekend after I came home from the hospital. It has been too long since I blogged. Totally cannot remember how to get photos to share.

Still waiting!

I went April 23 to get a biopsy done. Needle biopsy of the mass in the sub hepatic region. Still waiting for the results. They said 5-7 business days, so before the end of this week.

Medical stuff

      I have high blood pressure. In 200?, when cardiologist had an ultrasound of my kidneys done, he found I had an adrenal adenoma on my right kidney. It was small and doctors decided to just watch it.   In 2010 it had grown and it was decided to remove the adrenal gland and biopsy it in a laparoscopic, robotic surgery. It was supposed to be outpatient and take about an hour and a half and I might needd to stay overnight. I was in surgery for 5 hours and required 4 units of blood and stayed 9 days in the hospital. 5 small incisions plus a 6" incision.  Biopsy was inconclusive , so I followed up with an oncologist and regular Ct scans. In 2014 the adenoma was growing again, and I found a different urologist. He said Ct scan showed adrenal with adenoma and a shriveled up kidney. Apparently the first doctor nicked the artery leading to the kidney and that is what he meant when he said things just fell apart when he got in there...anyway I had another surgery. New doctor said things were kind of mixed up inside me...intestine wrapped around kidney. Since kidney was not functioning and might later cause problems it was decided to remove it and we'll as the adrenal adenoma. Due to the mixed up insides a second surgeon was in the surgery in case a bowel resection was needed. Surgery went well, only 2 hours, not the predicted 3, (no bowel resection) and only a 2 day hospital stay despite a 9" incision. Again, inconclusive biopsy, and yearly follow-up Ct scans, the last of which was in June and was fine.
      I had a routine echocardiogram March 13 in anticipation of my March 27 cardiologist visit. Cardiologist said heart looks fine, but ultrasound picked up an enlargement of my liver and I needed to follow-up with my primary care physician. I called PCP and a liver scan was scheduled for March 30, Good Friday. On Easter Monday, April 2, I called doctor and he said the scan showed solid masses in right kidney area and liver. A Ct scan was ordered for the next day. On wWednesday, April 4, PCP called with results: not cysts, solid mass 2 x 3 x 5cm either arising from liver or between liver and pancreas. Time to see an oncologist to see what to do next. As I do not want to go back to the hospital where I had the first surgery (bad experience!) I asked PCP to refer me elsewhere. On Friday morning, the nurse told me I should be getting a call that afternoon from Stephenson Cancer Center at OU Medical. Call never came and so I and still anxiously awaiting hearing from them. I will be on the phone again first thing Monday morning! Meanwhile I am trying not to be too anxious.

Might be time to blog again....

It's been over 5 years nice I posted...might be time to start again.
Lots has happened. I now have 10 grandchildren with 2 more due at the beginning of May and one more in August. I have a longarm quilting busines. We moved last October to Moore Ok and I am enjoying being close to all our activities.
       Krist, Victor and boys are living in Georgia and Kristi has graduated from Nursing school and gotten her BSN and is working as an ICU nurse. I can hardly believe Ski will be graduating high school this June and starting university at Georgia Tech this summer, Tony will be a Junior at Columbus High and Gianni will be a freshman.
        Josh has bought a second house and niece Claire and her son Remi are occupying his first house and relying on family to help them with their myriad of medical issues and appointments.
         Nick is still in the Navy with a home in Virginia Beach where his wife Jackie and daughter Serenity remain while he is stationed overseas.
         Jamie and Annie  and sons Dominic (4) and Eli (2) now live in Yukon, OK and are expecting a baby in August...in utero nickname is T-Rex.
          Mimi and Trey are married. Trey is no longer in the army and they will be closing on a house in Norman at the end of this week. Trey's son Ethan has been with Mimi since 2 1/2 months after their wedding, while Trey was stationed overseas. Etan was just 17 months old when his mother left him with a friend who contacted Mimi. She became his legal guardian a month later.  He is now 6 yrs old. They are expecting baby Donny in early May.
         Katy and Chris now have Patrick (5) and Amelia (3) and are expecting another baby girl  in early May.
    Gabe and Kate were maried in December of 2016, and baby Leonidas Oliver Lynch was born December of 2017' just before Christmas. He is a happy baby and growing like a weed. They are currently living with JoeE.
      JoeE is still working at Climate Craft and bought a house for himself.
      RoseE is still living at home, but has started working as a nanny/mother's helper.
      Johnny is also still at home, not quite ready for college, although he is now 18.
      Gigi is busy with violin lessons and Orchestra 4 times a week.
    Denny retired from the USPS in December 2016....and went back the the same instructor work as a contract employee in January 2017.  We found a house in Moore that we could buy before selling the old place and moved in October. We still need to get the old place listed and sold!
   

Life Is Busy!

Here it is, mid-February. Mimi and Trey have their wedding scheduled for May 4.  I just today started working on Mimi's dress. Today's work went fairly well....getting close on the bodice pattern.  Lots to do in the next 2.5 months, as I will need to find or make dresses for myself, RoseE, and Gigi too.

I found a cute baby quilt pattern to make for Patrick....thinking "easy pattern, I should be able to get it done by February 27, when he is due".  But then came a phone call just after I went to bed February 2nd...Katy's water broke. Patrick Braden Jay was born at 8:58am, February 3, 2013....24 days early...he weighed in at 5 lbs. 14 oz. and 18.5" long. He is sweet and mother and baby are both doing well.  So now my plan is to get his quilt done by his due date anyway!

Tomorrow is valentine's day...I have to get up early to go pick up a car for my brother, and then go to a funeral.  After that I plan to do a bit on Mimi's pattern and then finish cutting and start sewing Patrick's quilt. I guess I ought to head to bed soon.

Since Christmas, I have quilted a few quilts, but I guess I don't know how to access the pictures on my iPad and get them on here....maybe next time. Too late tonight with a 6:00 alarm in the morning

Boxing Day 2012

Merry Boxing Day! The kids all liked there presents and Katy outdid herself on all the gifts she made:dresses for the girls, hats for Johnny, and an ornament for us with Patricks ultrasound picture and the saying "The best parents become Grandparents". I was floored to get an iPad from Joshua.  Now I need to figure out how to make the most of it.  Time to clean up all the mess from Christmas Day, make soup, do laundry and pack for a 5 day trip to Kentucky, go to the mall and get new notepads on my glasses and get RoseE's ears pierced,  and go to Stitching Post and exchange the quilting template Denny bought for my Christmas gift ( I already have the one he bought so now I can pick out one I want).  I wonder if I will find some time to quilt...I have 2 I need to get done ASAP for the latest Habitat For Humanity house recipients. After we get home, niece Claire and  one or two kids will be coming for a weekend visit.  I have to get Remi's quilt quilted and bound. Mid-January I head to Florida for a week to babysit the grandsons while Kristi goes to Georgia to find a house to move to at the end of March. Victor started working in GA just before Thanksgiving.  Hoping they get to stay there a long time! After Florida we start to focus on Mimi's May 4, 2013 wedding to Trey Trammell, and the arrival of Patrick Liam Jay (Chris and Katy's baby) in late February.  Life does stay busy!

It's been too long since I posted!

       Oh my!  where does the time go?  Since my last post a lot has happened.  Katy and Chris are married (May 25) and are expecting a honeymoon baby!  Mimi is engaged and trying to get a date set at church.  Her fiance, Trey, is in the US Army and is now in Okinawa for a 2 year assignment.  His sgt. suggested they have the wedding before the halfway point of his tour rather than later if he wants Mimi to move over there.  So their originally planned July 6 date is out and Mimi needs to okay a date with Fr.Boyer.  Too much to go into here...
    I need to get back into quilting, so I brought 4 tops home from Community Project workday at the end of June.  An unexpected trip to Kentucky last weekend kept me from getting going on them.  Denny bought me Red Sappers for the quilting machine and I have done 2 quilts since the wedding and I do like them.  No time for anymore here today.  The washer is beeping at me.  It's grocery shopping day.  And CL is now meeting on Friday evenings.  Having both Gabe and JoeE gone at camp has the house awfully quiet!  Annie and Jamie are there too.  When Jamie goes back to work later this month he will be going to Cameroon and next to The Congo.  Jim has an office job starting in OKC on Monday, and will be staying in the guest house guest room weekdays until they can get relocated.

Design Wall Monday

I brought home a bread bag full of fabric samples from Ladies' Auxiliary quilting a few weeks ago. On my design wall today are rectangles to make a third quilt top.

The first top I made from the small (5x6) rectangles in the bag. Kind of busy, but enough order to make a passable quilt.

Next I used large rectangles and made this diagonal rows design.

There are lots of rectangles left, but the busyness and colors just aren't playing well, so I may call it quits at 3 tops. I have a wedding dress to be getting started on!

Wrap Them In Love

I mailed a box today to Wrap Them In Love. 7 quilts sent to me by other Sunshine Guild members for quilting, 2 from Mom, 1 of my own and a NAQG Community projects reject. Pictured below are one of Mom's, mine, and 3 by Sarah L. Not sure if I've had pictures of all of the others on the blog....

Advent friends "Scrappy Trips"

The scrappy trips blocks have become quilts and been  given to our Advent Friends.  They were well received!
If you look carefully you will notice that I had to trim blocks down.  One of the hazards of swaps and lottos is that with so many different makers , not all the blocks are always the same size.  If the sizes are close enough I can fudge them together with slightly narrower of larger seam allowances, but if there is a 1/2"  difference that would leave no seam allowances at all, which was the case with one of two of these blocks.  So I decided to trim all of the blocks down to the smallest size and to use sashing strips so I wouldn't be bothered by the seams not lining up.  I added the black cornerstones to continue the diagonal dark line formed by the blocks.

The Smaller quilt is for a 5 year old girl.  I chose the blocks with the brighter colors and novelty fabrics and used bright red paisley for the sashing and binding.  The border fabric is butterflies on a bright blue background and all of  the butterflies are edged in red.

 I quilted both quilts with the same all-over edge-to-edge design, which I am calling Tumbling hearts. On this one I used Cream colored thread.

 The larger quilt is for the mom of the family.  It has the remaining lotto blocks.  On of the blocks failed to mead fabric selection guidelines but I liked it anyway  and it helped me decide sashing color. Blocks were not supposed to be monochromatic in addition to the dark/black diagonal fabric.  But one block that came is done with all blue fabrics.  It is a beautiful block but does stand out somewhat due to its lack of other colors.  We (Denny usually collaborates with me on block placement) decided to make sure all the blocks adjoining the blue block had blue in them to  kind of bleed the color out across the quilt top.  Actually there were only a few blocks that did not contain some blue! I chose a teal blue floral print for the sashings and binding.  There was enough of the large floral I used for the border to make a back for the quilt as well.

   Again the tumbling hearts quilting ,  but on this one I used a color of thread called "Blue Moon."                                                                  




Scrappy Trips Around The World is a great way to use up 2.5"strips longer than 16 inches.   The  pattern for Scrappy Trips Blocks  a'la Bonnie K. Hunter, can be found at http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/scrappy-trips-around-world.html