Update on What I have Been Doing

 May 11th, another hot and humid day here in North Central Florida.  Yesterday was Mother's Day and I spent a lovely afternoon with my son. We had lunch at Cheddar's, I had the lemon pepper chicken which was quite good.  After lunch we headed to Sholom park here in Ocala, it's one of my favorite parks though I haven't been in a year or so.  This year they had a find the gnomes and fairies in the Enchanted forest.

Except for last year when I was in the hospital on Mother's day with complications after my first cycle of Chemo I usually chose to take a long walk, visit a Botanical garden and one year I went canoeing on the Rainbow River.  I miss those days when I could just get out and take long walks without a struggle.

This year my walk was accompanied by a heart monitor I have to wear for a week due to some severe lightheaded and dizziness not to mention shortness of breath.  My cardiologist has been tweaking my medications, starting new ones and stopping older ones.  On the upside since lowering the meds for my A-Fib my blood pressure is rising, not too much, I say upside because it was quite low for several months.

I had an adverse reaction the CT Scan I had, terrible itching and rash over my chest and back of my head.  It the 1st time I had this happen, was quite surprise since I have been having them every 3 months since the cancer diagnosis and surgery.

I discovered I can't take Repatha it makes me so sick and the Lasix I was on for two weeks which was helping with the swelling in the legs and feet may be the culprit for the lightheaded and dizziness.  Not sure yet.  I was disappointed stopping the Lasix because it actually helped with the neuropathy (a side effect of the Chemo) in my hands and fingers and feet.  I'm still hopeful the neuropathy will go away for good some day until then I have to work around the pain (the meds don't fully take away the pain) when I want to stitch or crochet.

STITCHING UPDATE

I made another little goddess doll, this one I fussing cut so I could get those flowers just right for Spring. Making these brings me such joy and comfort.

I started to make the 1st of several hand embroidery pieces for the 250 year anniversary of the USA.

This is a pre-printed cloth, it's one of those Jack Dempsey pieces I purchased from Ben Franklin Crafts online store.

I won't say how many hours it took me to stitch the flag, I will say I spent nearly an entire day stitching it while recovering from the reaction I had to the CAT scan I mentioned above.

The reason I went with this little printed kit was back in 1976 I made one for the Bicentennial.  I thought I would make a two sided pillow or frame them side by side.  

I haven't made much more progress on my slow stitched pocket treasure/pocket altar, all of the pieces are now stitched down and I just need to finish the vertical running stitches then work the backing.  

I did some stitching on it Saturday afternoon and made quite a bit of progress I think maybe 3 more vertical lines of running stitch and onto the back piece.

One of my favorite parts of the Sholom Park is the Olive tree grove, looking down from the entrance to the olive grove.

Looking at the Olive grove from the enchanted forest area.

This is one of the most peaceful parks I have ever visited and plan to come again sometime.  I did overdo it a little with the walking and today my body feels like it was hit by a bus.  I am not complaining though I have missed these long walks and I am still determined to get a one mile walk in before the year is over.  And then maybe get back to a daily mile and working up to the sadly missed 2 mile walk.