I'll just state up front that I will not be a regular participant in Tatting Tea Tuesday. Once I go back to work, I'll be working most Tuesdays, and it's 12-hour shifts, which leaves time for pretty much nothing else. On the upside, it's only three days a week.
However, I love to tat and drink tea any day of the week, so here's the Friday edition.
This is the start of Jon's Chinese Coin Bookmark. I also started this one before I got sick, and this is how far I got. I'm excited to finish it now. I was originally planning to make it for myself, but now it's going to be a gift. I've decided to make bookmarks for the people who have done awesome things for me during my illness and recovery.
The thread is Lizbeth color 122, Caribbean. My shuttles are by David Reed Smith, and I love them. You can also see my tatting bag, handmade by Jane Eborall. It holds EVERYTHING!
The tea is Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile, to which I've added milk and a bit more honey. I've been drinking a lot of herbal teas since The Incident. My heart got really stressed trying to pump against those clots, so I'm trying to (temporarily) decrease my caffeine intake. I do miss my eight or twelve cups of Earl Gray a day (OK, so I'm prone to hyperbole), but this is pretty tasty too. You like what I drink my tea out of? No wussy dainty little teacups for me!
You want to hear about The Incident? Too bad, I'm going to tell you anyway. It all started with being "sick" in the normal way. I couldn't get out of bed except to the bathroom, and I was throwing up for a week and thus got very dehydrated. Dehydration and immobility are a bad combination, especially when you also happen to be on birth control and over 30. I knew this and tried to keep my legs moving and drink as much water as I could keep down, but it wasn't enough, as you'll see.
On my second day out of bed, I decided to go back to work. I knew that I was a bit weak and my lung capacity wasn't quite what it normally is, but I figured it was just because I had been lying in bed for a week and I needed to get up and do stuff. It's a good thing I did! I work in a hospital, so thankfully I was already there when The Incident occurred. I was having a little bit of pain in my right lower chest/ upper abdomen off and on all night long. Then, around 1:00am, it suddenly started hurting so bad I couldn't move, could barely breathe, and they tell me I was turning funny colors. A couple of the nurses threw me in a wheelchair and ran me down to the ER, where I got to jump the line of 50 or so people. It helps to have connections, but given the condition I was in, it was actually legitimate for me to jump the line anyway. A CT scan showed multiple blood clots in both lungs. I was admitted to the ICU (not the one I work on) and stayed in the hospital for a week.
I'm still on oxygen at home; I see the doctor on Monday and hopefully she'll tell me I don't need it anymore. The best part is, the pain is completely gone now. The pain was actually worse than the not being able to breathe. Of course, I wasn't that worried about not breathing; being used to the ICU environment, I knew that they could take care of that for me if necessary. (Working in healthcare gives you a really twisted perspective sometimes. Breathing? Ah, it's overrated, there's a machine that can do it for me. LOL) And I get to take Coumadin for a year. Fun fact: Coumadin is the same thing as rat poison.
I would like to say that the people I work with are AMAZING. We always have a great teamwork environment at work, and now I'm finding that it extends outside of work as well. They took up a collection, which will go a long way towards paying my hospital bill. More importantly, they know that I normally walk everywhere, and that I can't do that so well right now. So they have collaborated to make sure that I have a ride to all my medical appointments, the grocery store, or anywhere else I need to go. All I have to do is call and let them know when I need to go somewhere, and somebody shows up. And they call me regularly to make sure I'm OK and ask if I need anything. I will never go work anywhere else, because I can't leave these people. They're like family, only without the irritating qualities!
Holey Sox, Batman! Glad you're doing better!
ReplyDeleteWe must be on the same wave length today. I just made a cup of tea and sat down to read your post and see that we are drinking the same tea today. Small world!! I like the Honey Vanilla Chamomile flavor.
ReplyDeleteThen I see your bag from Jane, and mine is the same design. Isn't her design of the bag the greatest!! And you have some DRS shuttles. I have 2 of them, holly wood and pecan wood. They are so lightweight and feel so smooth in my hand.
Oh my you sure had a big scare with clots in your lungs. I do hope you are feeling better and that they keep a close eye on you being on the coumadin and all. I hope you can take it easy and not over due it. Maybe you will get some extra tatting in while you are resting. HUGS!
Hello there!
ReplyDeleteGlad you are feeling better and hope you'll be in your best soon.
The tree in your blogger header is awesome!
Hi Marty, thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteCarol, isn't it funny how people synch up like that? Yes, I go to the coumadin clinic every week.
Thank you, Vinnie. The tree is a free-form design inspired by the book Tatting Collage by Lindsay Rogers, and the threads are HDT's by Lady Shuttle Maker.
Wow, that's SO frightening. SO glad you're on the mend now.
ReplyDeleteThat's some story, you were so lucky to be at work at the time.
ReplyDeleteTake it really easy, just tat and blog and drink nice teas.
Whew! I was gonna say right when you mentioned the pain in that area that it sounds like you threw a PE! Glad that they were able to catch it in the nick of time and that you are doing better! That is serious stuff! Take care of yourself!
ReplyDeleteI"m glad you work in a hospital! The whole incident sounds very scary! I'm glad you're doing better!
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