Merry Christmas

 

Life with Kitten.

 Simon looking quite handsome it his cubby, he has been with me for 6 weeks and 2 days, life has not been quite the same since he came to stay, I'm so glad he came.

Simon at rest in his cat tree cubby, his neuter surgery went well on the 13th, he was also microchipped in case he gets out.  His recheck at the vet on Tuesday was good, he has gained 2 pounds since he has come to live with me.  

He is quite a character and finds amusement in the simplest things.  And he loves his colorful tunnel too

He likes the cat videos on YouTube especially the fishes and the mice, also videos of birds, he also gets very excited to watch the birds at the feeder from my bedroom window.

And he naps just about anywhere, lately it's in the cat tree cubby, it was a long afternoon of playtime with my son and daughter in law.

Simon keeping his eye on his domain.

Happy Winter Solstice

 

Life with a Kitten

 Well Simon Moonshadow has been with me for 25 days, he has had two visits to the Vet for his initial shots, and bloodwork for his Neuter surgery on December 13th, where he will also be chipped so if he ever gets out I can be located.  The Vet is very happy with his progress and his bloodwork was all good, no signs of  infections or diabetes, he gained about 1.5 lbs. and has a lovely disposition.

In the meantime I thought it would be a good idea to get him a collar with a tag adding my phone number along with his name, but it seems my little escape artist has removed his collar 3 times in 24 hours.  Perhaps I should have named him Houdini.

I went off to PetSmart early this morning to get a new collar, one that is still breakaway but hopefully nothing he can get out of on a whim.  This was my first trip into PetSmart and Oh my goddess I was overjoyed by all the toys they had, yesterday I was at a Pet Supermarket and they didn't have much to offer for Cats. Though I did get a second litter box which I like better and some food flavors not available at my local supermarket.  Now if I can stay off Chewy.com.  

Not much stitching has been getting done, with the holiday season upon us the online shops keep me busy and all my spare time is spent kitten proofing the house, I feel like I have toddler in the house. 

My daughter in law's cat age 19 has lost her battle fighting an illness and went across the Rainbow Bridge on Nov. 30th.  She and my son are heart broken to say the least, yesterday they came to cuddle with Simon for awhile.

His favorite napping position, one part of his body always has to be touching mine.  

And when I think he won't notice those lovely eyes of his open.

I am on my second month taking Repatha to lower my Cholesterol, self injection isn't too bad though I did feel it this time.  I have noticed the daily nausea I had when taking the Statin drugs is gone, I do get headaches a few times and horrendous hot flashes, I have noticed an increase of pain in my lower back and hips, especially the right hip I hope its not a side effect.  In the new year I will have the doctor do bloodwork so that I can see if there is a significant drop in the Cholesterol as the manufacturer claims, if not I will have to rethink taking it, especially if the pain persist, I was having such pain on the Statins I was hoping not to be experiencing it on the Repatha.  

Happy Thanksgiving

 

A new month and a new member in the household.

 Meet Simon Moon Shadow, after the workmen finished picking up the tree debris he was following them out and I asked if he was their cat, I went to the back and he followed me asking the neighbor behind me if he was one of theirs, he wasn't, he didn't belong to any of my surrounding neighbors. I ran some errands and he was waiting for me by my door when I returned. I scooped him up fed him with the food I just bought, I searched the few shelter sites and neighborhood sites, he wasn't posted on any. Wednesday he had his first visit to the Vet, first to see if he was chipped, since he wasn't he had his first vaccines, he is scheduled to be neutered in a few weeks. He is the most affectionate cat, he has 6 toes on both front feet which makes him extra special. He showed up on the full moon with an eclipse and his coloring looks like he has moon phases. The night of the 8th I kept dreaming cats and the Cat Stevens song Moonshadow kept playing in my dream. It's been more than 20 years since I've had the desire for another pet, I believe the Goddess sent him and he chose me.

Tomorrow Simon will be with me a week, his bloodwork came back negative for FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus), FeLV (Feline Leukemia Virus), he began treatment for fleas and heartworm and he has a hearty appetite. I can't believe how quickly this little guy stole my heart.

Happy Halloween

 

Tonight as the barrier

Between the two realms grows thin,

Spirits walk amongst us, once again.

They be family, friends, and foes,

Pets and wildlife, fishes and crows.

But be we still mindful of the Wee Folk at play,

Elves, Fey, Brownies, and Sidhe.

Some to trick, some to treat,

Some to purposely misguide our feet.

Stay we on the paths we know

As planting apples we go.

This Feast I shall leave on my doorstep all night.

In my window, one candle shall burn bright

To help my loved ones find their way

As they travel this eve, and this night, until day.

Bless my offering, both Lady and Lord,

Of breads and fruits, greens and gourds.

Sunday Slow Stitching and a Few Good Books

 October is moving so quickly I can barely keep up.  Lately it seems harder to carve out some me time to sit and stitch or read a book.  This time of the year keeps me busy with the online shops and as the weeks go by I will have less time for me until the New Year, which is what I signed on to when I decided to leave corporate America and do my own thing.  Mostly I have no regrets but as I get older I often wonder how long will I be able to keep up the pace.

A few weeks ago I attended a Broom Making workshop at the Ft. King National Historic Landmark Park, here is the broom I made.

After Hurricane Ian passed through we lost another tree so while my son was cutting up the tree I grabbed a piece of branch that will make either a great broom stick or a walking staff, right now it's in the garage curing for 6 months.  I enjoyed the workshop so much I just want to make another. 

Today is Sunday, the air was crisp and cool for my walk and after I post this and read a few blogs I'm going to enjoy some slow stitching on my greenman piece, I left off with my needle poking through a few days ago.

I haven't made very much progress since my last post of him but I did complete the Moon Crystals stitch along piece. I made a few changes to the moth, I didn't add the sequins and didn't do the Turkey stitch.  I'm not really a sequins in my embroidery person and I didn't much care for the Turkey stitch. This is no reflection on the designer, her work is beautiful but I have to go with what I like so I used the satin stitch in place of the turkey stitch, in the photo its the pink floss below the head and the sequins.

I did use the beads in the moth and the crescent moon, the large pink space should have been sequins. 

Here is the finished piece which need the stitch and wash product washed off which I will do later today. Overall I love how it turned out and I discovered I love doing the whipped backstitch and the chain stitch. Now to decide to put it in a hoop or make a pillow.

I have a few projects that need to be transferred to fabric so I can get started on them, for now I just want to stitch.  I am linking my post to Kathy's Quilts here, check out what other talented bloggers are slow stitching  https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2022/10/slow-sunday-stitching_01031266711.html

I picked up two books from the library yesterday while out running errands, I also returned 3 books. I will start reading The Girl Who Wrote in Silk this evening when my fingers are too sore to stitch any longer.

I started to read The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches last night, As Silly as it sounds while I am 

reading the book its as though someone is narrating it as I read, almost like the narration of the Queens of Mystery series, I can practically hear the voice in my head as I read. 

As I mentioned this week has been fairly busy with the online shops, especially after an Instagram influencer posted about one of out most popular products and sales went through the roof, at Amazon we sold more than 200 in an hour and from the home shop 75 one day and 70 the next and sales just keep coming. It's exhausting having so much to pack so early in the holiday season.

This is the object I am talking about, an embossed faux leather coffin shaped wallet, we sell them year round but at Halloween time we can barely keep them in stock.  

We are grateful to all our customers that have kept us in business all of these years it's nice to know the products we carry have a wide following. I'm just happy it's the wallet that's selling so fast and not the matching purse.

In closing I will leave you with a few autumn poems

I dream of colorful autumn leaves filling the branches of trees.

Wellness Wednesday

Wellness Wednesday is going to be an ongoing part of my blog while I work to regain my health and wellbeing after my last adventure in the hospital at the end of August.  After a few weeks of being angry with my former cardiologist for dropping the ball and angry with myself for not being more aggressive where my health was concerned and slipping into a mild depression, I made a few positive changes.  

The first thing I did was to stop taking the Statin drugs that were making me sick and causing so much leg pain there were days when I couldn't get off a chair without my legs going out from under me.  The Statin medication was to lower my cholesterol, that nasty stuff that has clogged quite a few arteries in my body. But my quality of life was disappearing rapidly and I was to the point where I just didn't care any more.  Luckily those feelings passed after about 2 weeks.

The next thing I did was begin walking, not too far but daily or nearly everyday, the surgery on the carotid artery took a toll on my energy then about 2 weeks after the surgery I felt well enough to walk.  I went from my front door to the corner and back, some days I made it up and back twice. Little by little I increased the length of my walks at the local park, a few days a week.  

I had a flu shot in September and the Pneumonia shot last week at the urging of my Primary Doctor,  I was ambivalent about the Pneumonia shot but since I get bronchitis several times and year I decided to go for it cause I'm getting older and my body seems like it just wants to fight me whenever I gain back a bit of my health.

I have a new cardiologist, that agreed stopping the Statins was smart because the side effects I was having could have long term effects.  I know I need something so we discussed a non statin medication and said he would put in a request for approval for Repatha. It's a self injectable medication I will take twice a month using a device similar to an Epipen.  

I told the doctor my former cardiologist once mentioned it then when I asked for it because the statin was making me sick and causing pain he shut me down, explaining the cost is quite high.  I told him that didn't matter when I had my heart attack in 2011 Plavix cost me $872.12 each  month and I paid it out of pocket for the year I needed to be on it.  He kind of ignored me and that is one of the reasons I found a new cardiologist, that and the fact that because his office didn't follow though on the surgeon a year ago about the carotid artery and the 3 times I questioned him what was the plan and no results until August 29th when I found my self in the ER under STROKE ALERT. 

I saw the new cardiologist on Monday, on Tuesday the pharmacy called and told me the Repatha would cost me $545.00  did I want them to fill it.  I said yes. (I was shocked at how fast the doctor worked to get the approval) today with coupon from GoodRx I came home with my first 2 doses. I was able to use the coupon so this is what $519.00 gets you:

Anyway I am really hoping there are too many side effects to deal with, I have research and some people have none, some have a few and others have some nasty side effects.  What I have learned over the years is most medications have side effects often worse then the actual ailment they treat.

The weather here has changed, today in fact it was quite cool with the lows tonight dropping to 39 possibly.  I don't mind the cooler weather it makes my walks all the more pleasant.

After my release from the hospital I did a revamp of my diet moving from low-fat to nearly no fat.  I am scrutinizing labels and putting things back on the shelf when I think do I need that much sodium, carbs, fiber etc.  I go to the grocery store 3 or 4 times a week for fruits and vegetables, I eat fresh and I don't like to buy it all at once because with the stomach issues I have I may be in the mood for the fruit or veg when I buy it but a few days later I still haven't touched it and often I wind up giving it to my daughter in law before it turns to a rotted mess.  So now I will buy 2 apples or 2 pears, some berries or grapes and once they are gone I go out and buy more. So far this is working well and once my tolerance for food improves maybe I will be able to shop weekly once again or I will stick with shopping 3-4 times a week.

When I saw the doctor on Monday I was pleased to learn I lost 12 pounds since I left the hospital on August 30th. This Friday I'm having bloodwork done for my primary doctor, this will give me the numbers I need to see how well or not so well things are going.  Plus I can set my goals to address what needs to change.  I had to reschedule my bloodwork several times because I was ill and once because hurricane Ian blew through. 

I'm monitoring my blood pressure twice a day this month since I noticed it's been spiking a few days each week.  I can feel it in my ears some days it makes me so tired and I have been getting  headaches often since my last hospital adventure which makes me worry about the piece of plaque in the M1 section of my brain and hope it won't cause a stroke or worse.  It can't be removed so I live with the knowledge that it's a real possibility it may kill me one day.   So Wednesday's will be Wellness days where I post on how I am doing in body, mind and spirit and my new adventure or journey on the road to wellness with Repatha. 

Recovering is Slow and Steady, My Walk that Felt Like a Mile and Moon Crystals stitching Continues.

 Recovery is coming along at a slow and steady pace I am walking just about every morning now up to the corner and back, today is the second time I walk back and forth twice, it felt like a mile. At 7:30 in the morning the air was cool and drier and the sky was clear. The Birds sang the entire time.

This photo above is the view from the corner to my driveway a nice straight walk there and back again. This morning there was a light misty fog above the roof and tree tops.

I have lived on this Cul de Sac 3 years and today is the first time I noticed this sewer cover, funny how I have walked this path so often and just never took notice.

They Mexican Petunias are blooming nicely and the butterflies and bees visit daily, some of the plants have grown taller than the gardenia shrub.

The Moon followed me along on my walk today, it's the first time I saw it this week, most mornings the skies were so cloudy and gray so I snapped a few photos, more rain coming later today so it was a treat to see the moon.  I haven't seen her at night yet this month.

I did manage to get in some hand embroidery on the Moon Crystals pieces from the SAL last month.

I just have to complete the moth and it's done, then to decide whether to make it a hanging in a hoop or a pillow cover.

I plan to get this done sometime this week or over the weekend. Then continue work of the greenman and start another pattern I have ready.

So that's where I am today. How is your week going?

Happy Labor Day and What I have Been Up To Lately

 I don’t remember when an August sailed along quite so quickly as it has this year, except the last week when I found myself once again hospitalized after dinner on the 25th when all of a sudden I felt something off with my left eye, it felt as if I had something in it but knew I didn’t and when I looked at my dinner plate it looked as if it was outlined in a very bright glitter, when I looked up the entire room looked that way and my left eye felt it was too big for the eye socket. I waited a bit and my vision became worse and I developed a slight headache, it now looked as if I was looking out a window that someone splattered purple, yellow and blue paint on after about 10 minutes the vision went totally black and I knew I was in trouble. Off to the ER I went while in the exam room all of a sudden there were 5 other people standing around asking questions, looking for veins and before I knew it someone said STROKE ALERT. Yikes. 

 

I was admitted after several test and lucky enough in between video consults and test my vision began to clear and by the time I was in my room, with a view I might add, my vision had returned completely. And then the nightmare begins, I am not a great patient, I dislike being hooked up to monitors that have alarms going off every 5 minutes constantly which messes with my need to sleep. I get irritable when I can’t get up and down to use the bathroom on my own. AND I detest when nurses and doctors don’t listen when I day my blood pressure tends to spike especially when I am in a stressful situation and it’s quite normal for me so don’t keep freaking out when it gets so high. I know they have to because I am on stroke alert, but turn off the room monitors so I can sleep, since they are being monitored in a little room down the hall, they finally did.

Lucky enough the MRI of the brain came back negative for a stroke, but my carotid arteries are worse than a year ago, thanks to my former cardiologist dropping the ball on the neurosurgeon not getting back to him on the 3 visits I had when he kept asking if I heard back, No I didn’t and give me a name and number so I don’t have to depend on your office to set up. Well that’s water under the bridge and partially my fault for not being more aggressive, I thought I could trust the doctor to be honest with me and I was so wrong, the reason he is now my former cardiologist, I lost total confidence in him.

So anyway, the left carotid artery is now 100% occluded and the right now has a stent, it was 75% clogged. There is a clot in the M1 part of my brain that nothing can be done about so I feel like a ticking time bomb. What really gets me worked up is that in July of 2021 when I got the 2 other stents in my coronary artery they told me they couldn’t do the carotids because a neurosurgeon had to deny the surgery, well I found out that was a big lie and it could have been done right then and there or on a different day. I was fuming and they keep wondering why my blood pressure won’t go down. HUH!

I am thankful the surgeon put in the stent and now I have to once again rework my diet going from low fat to no fat makes sense right, the hospital had me on a regular diet which blew my mind since they were aware of the carotid and coronary artery disease, not to mention the 3 obstructed abdominal arteries which the surgeon told me can be dealt with. I am a mess spent the entire weekend in the hospital until the surgery on Monday the 29th, I was hoping to go home in the afternoon, but spent another day and was released on Tuesday the 30th.

In between being admitted and the surgery I was moved to 2 other rooms, on the 1st move while I was speaking with two people on the surgeons staff I was given a shot of Hydralazine which I had a terrible reaction to, it is supposed to rapidly drop the BP in my case my heart began to race and my ears were pounding, I couldn’t breathe and my hands and feet started tingling, I thought I was having a heart attack. It took about 30 minutes or so for me to start to feel normal again in the mean time I was demanding to go home, I felt I would die in that hospital if I didn’t, after a while I regained my calm, spoke with the doctor and decided to stay. I insisted on no other medications except what I take at home.

 

Ten minutes later they wanted to try something else, NO. The nurse came back 30 minutes after that with something else and again I refused. I was being moved back to the 4th floor where I was before they moved me to the 6th floor. I don’t think I had been up there more than 2 hours when all this happened. As I was being wheeled to the elevator we were told they nurse on the 4th floor was refusing the report from the nurse on the 6th floor and back to my room I went, 20 minutes passed and I was on the move again the nurse now accepted the move. So down I went, wheeled into my room, when the staff that moved me was leaving an argument began in my doorway, fighting about moving patients down without an okay and blah blah blah, I asked one of the nurses to have them discharge me I don’t want to hear this argument in my doorway, unfortunately I was in front of the nurses station. Poor man is trying to calm me down and I am getting more and more upset. Finally they moved the argument away from my door and I asked to close the door. A few minutes later a nurse came to apologize and told me it wasn’t about me, I don’t care I can’t be in this environment I have enough going on and my blood pressure is going to keep spiking with all this negativity.

I did find my calm once again my blood pressure was staying high most of the time, dropping to normal or not high enough to set off the alarms, when the nurse came in to say they were going to give me Hydralazine I nearly lost it. NOT gonna happen that stuff nearly killed me upstairs. I am not taking anything except what I take at home, I did mention I have a prescription for Valium 5mg but I usually break them in half cause 5 makes me like a zombie. They checked my prescriptions and confirmed I do have Valium prescribed so the doctor order the 5 mg intravenous. WOW did not expect it to hit me so fast my son was there at the time and let me just say this I could never be a spy cause on just 5 mg of Valium I was ready to give away all the family secrets. I don’t recall anything he told me I said in the first few minutes of getting the dose but I mentioned a few days prior I had a dream about a mushroom growing out of my check and he said I kept talking about mushrooms on my face and a contraband tea bag I had. It was actually funny when I got my wits about me again. 

Anyway, despite everything, I have a stent in my right carotid artery, a clot in my brain, a desire to purge stuff and get on with my life.

In less than a week the full moon will rise, in a few weeks Autumn officially arrives and once again I have to make major life changes.

I am still working on the Moon Crystals embroidery piece though I did fall behind a little bit I need to complete the moth and it will be completely stitched I should be up to stitching later in the week.

 In the meantime all I can manage is to read my energy is at an all time low, I usually buy the Autumn issue of Enchanted Living since it was Fairie Magazine, there is an article on Brooms I think will be interesting. 

I am enrolled in a Broom Making class in early October and a group I am in is having a Broom decorating workshop the following week so this article came at a great time.

Anyway that is what I have been up to I wish you all a safe and Happy Labor Day.