Today is World Embroidery Day. Started in 2011 in Sweden, a local group belonging to Broderiakademin, Sweden’s Embroidery Guild, took the initiative to plan and create a special day to celebrate embroidery. World Embroidery Day was born. It is now celebrated annually, each year on July 30.
On July 21st I arrived at the hospital to have a surgical procedure to put in some stents, one in the heart and 2 in the carotid artery due to blockages. Well after all the prep and right before I was to be wheel into the cath lab I'm told the only stent is going into the heart, they will take a look at the carotid but by the rules a neurosurgeon has to sign off before the stents can be put in the carotid artery. This is a rule by most insurance companies and medicare.
After the procedure I mentioned if his office didn't drop the ball he would have met me for a pre-op appointment at his office and I would have known this ahead of time. So someone dropped the ball.
Well I have 2 stents in one of the arteries in the heart a long one and a shorter one, the carotid arteries will be monitored over time with the doctor being hopeful the blood thinners I will be on will make a difference, I'm like NO I will speak with my cardiologist and push for the stent in the one that is 85% blocked. I didn't add if you would have did the pre-op we could have had the necessary signing off and it could have been done or at least scheduled.
I was semi awake during the procedure so I could turn my head left and right when they were looking inside the carotid artery and then oh my no only did I feel pressure on my chest when he was doing the stent in the heart artery but felt pain, I thought I'm having a heart attack right here on the table. He says you will feel some pressure, I said F&%$ the pressure I feel pain.
It seems to be taking longer to get my strength and energy back this time which I'm sure has a lot to do with my age and the fact that my body wasn't 100% for the last 18 months. Then again I have to keep telling myself I just had heart surgery and the last time I was 10 years younger. Anyway the stent is in the heart artery, now I have 3 and this is how I'm going to feel for a while.
So yes the diet and exercise plan will once again change, odd thing about the blockages is I have eaten a low fat diet, so now I really need to take a close look at what I eat.
On
the upside of things the cardiac rehab center called and my first visit
is on August 5th that answered one of my questions I had for my doctor.
Goodness has it really been over a month since I posted on my blog, time has a way of flying by without notice at times. I turned 66 years old on the first of July, my son and daughter in law took me to lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant and heeded my No Cake rule, settling for cake for dessert after lunch which we ordered by the slice which we took home because we were way too stuffed to eat it.
A few days later my sister and great niece Tessa who is now 8 took me out to lunch too. And wouldn't you know it brought along a cake, with an edible chocolate candle. After lunch we came back to my house and had cake. It was good, so good in fact I packed it up and sent it home with her. My brother in law has a big sweet tooth and honestly I am not a big cake person and since the abdomen problems my appetite has been so off and I knew it would go to waste. I'm more a salty person than a sweet lover.
There seems to be a problem with blogger, I know I wrote an entry for the first day of summer with me still undergoing all the test my cardiologist scheduled. Well it was lost, this is the 3rd time a post was lost I lost a post on Mother's Day in May and a post after that as well in early June. I wonder if anyone else is having that problem.
Well after all those test one of the first problems we are addressing is the obstructed arteries on the left and right side of my neck so next week I am having stents put in also another stent to one of my heart arteries. This isn't an answer to the abdominal pain but if it wasn't for that I would have been clueless.
The other problem we addressed is getting my heart rate up, it's been in the mid to upper 50's for about a year but in the last 6 months or so its been in the 40's which is too low. Well to fix the doctor dropped the dosage from one of my blood pressure medications again this time to 25mg. After the first week I'm happy to say my heart rate is back in the low 60's where it should be and on a happier note so far my blood pressure has been in the normal range. Now the heart rate thing may have been avoided because last year when I was in the hospital and my heart rate was so low the doctor there dropped the same medication to 25 mg. But after a month I went back to the old dose of 100 mg. When I first saw my cardiologist he dropped it to 50 mg. and when that didn't improve the heart rate it went down to 25. How about that the doctor at the hospital knew what he was doing all along. I am not always a good patient.
The stent surgery is an out patient procedure and I should only be in the hospital 6 hours, I have to bring an over night bag in case a problem arises. I just hope the arteries aren't too obstructed like the ones in my abdomen and they can get the stents in.
All this is a blip on the graph compared to my youngest sister who just had a implantable cardioverter-defibrillator inserted to restart her heart if necessary. Right now her heart is working at 15% compacity and life gets scary when you are in the ER and the doctors stop your heart and restart it to regulate the heart beat. I'm so glad they were able to restart her heart.
Okay to other things, stitching has been coming along quite steadily with my June goddess Yemaya stitched, I need to wash off the stitch and wash product and will iron it soon, she was completed on June 30th. This photo is before she was completed, all those little stars and flowers are not going to be in the completed piece, I plan to add a few beads and shells.
I started the July goddess Isis on the evening of the 2nd of July. She is coming along rather nicely.
I used these two images for inspiration, the Katherine Skaggs prayer card and the figurine, I thought the hashing lines would make a nice texture for the clothing.
