Still no knitting

Or anything else either. But I have hope that will change come January.

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Now playing: Eagles - Hotel California

Knitting on hold

As if you couldn't tell since I haven't posted anything in practically forever. The finger is not improving (in my opinion) but the doctor seems pleased with the pace of the therapy. Anyway, my hands get very tired very quickly so I haven't done much of anything and the finger has taken to swelling again. I've gone to see another doctor, but I'm not prepared to say anything about that yet since I don't know anything definitive and may not even know anything after I see her again the end of next week.

Oh, well. At least I'm catching up on my reading.

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Now playing: Enya - Less Than A Pearl
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Been a while

Finger is status quo. I can knit, but I'm not in the mood at the moment. I'm reading two books and I can't seem to maintain interest in either. However, I did stumble across a link that falls into the "now I've seen everything!" category and I just had to share it . . .

Dog Star Wars Costumes - Pictures of Halloween Pet Costumes

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Now playing: Mediaeval Baebes - Kilmeny
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There was knitting

Woohoo! I stopped at the Pasadena SnB on my way home tonight to introduce myself and I pulled out the knitting I haven't touched since March or April and I actually knit two repeats of the pattern. Although the finger still isn't worth a darn, it works well enough to knit.

I am such a happy camper, you can't even possibly begin to imagine.

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Now playing: David Arkenstone - The Quest of Culhwch
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Here there be kittens!

If you click over to my other blog, you'll find lots of kitty pictures. There are some of the older cats and a post about the new kittens being two weeks old.

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Now playing: Hedningarna - Räven (Fox Woman)
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New arrivals

They were born this morning. There are four - three orange and one dark. These belong to Meli.

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Now playing: M.C. Hammer - U Can't Touch This
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Surgery's done!

I'm home and about to take a nap. The finger hurts like the dickens and my arm is in a sling. Got stabbed three times before a vein was found for the IV.

Later...

Can you pick out the bad finger?

Slice and dice on Tuesday

I go in for surgery on my finger next Tuesday (7/31). Outpatient surgery. I had an MRI done and it showed no infection, no mass, no tendon tears, no bone lesions. It did show fluid buildup all up the finger. The doctor thinks there still might be infection since the tenosynovitis got worse instead of better and showed no response at all to any of the drugs I was on.

I have to be at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. The surgery is supposed to start at 7:30 a.m. and be done by 8:30 a.m. I get to sit around in recovery until 10:30 a.m. at which time I get to go home. The Prodigal Son gets to take me up and bring me back, and he gets to babysit me all day to make sure nothing happens.

I'm looking forward to getting some relief, but I'm not looking forward to surgery.

And your point is?

There is still no improvement on the finger front. I'm going to call the doctor next week and see what the next step is. I don't know if I want to try the steroid injections or just go straight for the surgery. I'm leaning toward surgery since I've had this problem for about three months now and I'm getting really tired of it.

Oh, well. We'll see . . .

Point

Still no significant improvement on the finger front. I'm on the fourth prescription and I'm honestly beginning to think that surgery will really be my only recourse. Either that or learning to knit left-handed.

Hmmm . . . that might actually be an interesting experiment.

Updated to add: The Celebrex I was on did zip for my finger but it did seem to clear up the problem that was developing with my knee.

Updated update: In case anyone is interested, in order, I've been on Diclofenac, Prednisone, Celebrex, and Etodolac.

I thought Trigger was a horse . . .

Well . . . (Deep subject for such a shallow mind.)

My finger ailment has a name. Actually, it has two of them. There's the sort of generic medical term - tenosynovitis - and then there's the catchy name everybody uses - trigger finger. And the lovely hand surgeon has put me on a third anti-inflammatory to see if this one will help. The catch is that I have to take it for two weeks before we'll know. And if this one doesn't work, there's a few dozen others we can try. And if none of them work, then there's a steroid injection into the tendon. And if that doesn't work, then there is a minor surgical procedure that can be done that will leave my hand unusable for at least two weeks. (The minor part is that it can be done under local anesthetic and takes about 20 minutes.)

~ sigh ~

It looks like I have to live with my finger problem for a bunch more weeks.

~ sigh ~

The Friday Night Knitting Club

Wonderful feel good tear jerker chick lit.

(I do have a quibble about the tear jerker part. I thought it was forced and unnecessary and it spoiled what was otherwise an enjoyable quick read.)

Bummer

I've been in the mood to knit, but the gimpy finger has prevented me from picking up needles. For my style of knitting, the left index finger is integral.

Bummer!

I broke myself

Just got home from the doctor. He thinks I have a very bad and extremely painful case of tendinitis in the index finger of my left hand. I have no idea what I did. I went to bed feeling fine and woke up unable to flex - or otherwise move - my left index finger. I have a prescription for something. I dropped it off at the pharmacy and I haven't gone back to pick it up yet. Needless to say, everything - including typing - is uncomfortable and often painful. It looks like this is my year to have things go wrong.

Oh, well.

Happy Easter

Sure and begorra, 'tis a fine day!

The History of St. Patrick's Day


Not your standard shamrock . . .

I'm still alive

Really, I am. Things have been very, very busy at work and I've gotten in a reading mood so there hasn't been any crafting to speak off since I finished the last pair of socks.

I haven't taken any new pictures of the kittens who still all reside with me. We've been fighting a rather nasty bout of ringworm - which I've now managed to catch - and they were diagnosed with tapeworm just this last Friday. Since I've now got one splotch of ringworm on my palm, I'm definitely not going to do anything crafty until it clears up.

So, how's things with everybody else?

Hippo birdie two ewe, Prodigal Son!

Irish Moss Spiral Socks

Pattern: Irish Moss Spiral

Round 1: *k4, p, k, p, k, p, k, p, k*; repeat to end
Round 2: *k5, p, k, p, k, p, k, p*; repeat to end
Round 3: *p, k5, p, k, p, k, p, k*; repeat to end
Round 4: *k, p, k5, p, k, p, k, p*; repeat to end
Round 5: *p, k, p, k5, p, k, p, k*; repeat to end
Round 6: *k, p, k, p, k5, p, k, p*; repeat to end
Round 7: *p, k, p, k, p, k5, p, k*; repeat to end
Round 8: *k, p, k, p, k, p, k5, p*; repeat to end
Round 9: *p, k, p, k, p, k, p, k5*; repeat to end
Round 10: *k, p, k, p, k, p, k, p, k4*; repeat to end
Round 11: *k2, p, k, p, k, p, k, p, k3*; repeat to end
Round 12: *k3, p, k, p, k, p, k, p, k2; repeat to end

I made these socks for the daughter of the co-worker I gave these socks to. I finished the socks on Friday.

The socks were made of fingering weight superwash Merino wool using 48 stitches with the pattern consisting of 12 stitches. The pattern can be modified for larger sizes by simply adding an extra stitch to the moss pattern and an extra stitch to the stockinette pattern.

(The second photo links to a larger version of the picture which shows the spiral to marginally better effect.)

!! Happy New Year !!

May the best day of 2006 be the worst day of 2007!