A Night Out

Yesterday did not get off to a great start. Eric's Kangaroo Joey ran out of formula at 2 am. This interrupted a dream I was having about an impossible headache. It turned out not to be a dream but the beginning of a rare migraine. So after I took care of Eric, I started off with a cuppa tea and aspirin. It was enough to allow me to sleep but not knock the headache out.

After breakfast that included more tea and aspirin it was time to finish our annual spring cleaning. I was hoping that by keeping myself busy that the headache would just go away. We managed to get the house finished before the headache went away, but the house is clean.

After a nap, I realized that this was not just an average garden variety headache, but a full blown migraine. So I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around in sunglasses doing more cleaning. Thank goodness the headache started to go away before John and I had a very rare date night.

We had dinner at a supposedly great Tucson dining spot near the venue. I won't embarrass them by naming them. To sum up the dining experience, the tea was burnt.  They ran out of crackers for one dish and used stale bread instead, stale bread and crackers are the same right? The waitress did not have much knowledge of the menu and if you had an allergy to something, they left it off your plate and did not substitute anything for it, but still charged full price. With the exception of dessert which had a metallic flavor the food that we did have was pretty good. I did have some Excedrin with dinner to try to get rid of the rest of the headache.

The best part of the date was the show we went to. John managed to get tickets to the sold out Bill Maher Show in Tucson. The show was great and very relevant. I don't think that I have laughed that much in years. I have been a fan of Bill Maher for years,  but this was the first live show that I have gone to. I can say without a doubt that it was well worth the price of the tickets. I would like to thank Mr. Maher for taking time out of his busy schedule to come to Tucson. Your show was wonderful.

Now I just need to figure out how to manage some sleep.The caffeine in the Excedrin has not worn off yet.

Hopefully Optimistic

Right now I am hopefully optimistic about Eric. He went to his day program in what seems like forever, but I know it has only been a month. He had a great day and was all smiles when I picked him up. He has not fallen asleep yet. I am hoping that this is a good sign. I don't think he will ever be a five day a week kid ever again, but just to be able to get Eric with his friends 2 or 3 days a week will be a great relief to me.

I used my time off to knit 1 row of lace. I now have just 1 more lace pattern row and 2 purl rows before the last 3 rows of garter stitch. It should be done in time for the Old Pueblo Knitters Fashion show next month. If you are in Tucson and want to come just follow this link, Old Pueblo Knitters. Even if you don't knit it is fun seeing all the hand knit creations. Then I will work on an art piece for a local knitting competition.

Now its is time to get some sewing done.

A Lucky Break

This week while doing laundry, I accidentally put one of my favorite shirts in the dryer that was suppose to be line dried. You have guessed by now that it shrunk a bit. This is one of those rare moments when it was a very good thing. I bought this shirt last time I went down a size and it was getting to the point of needing to leave my closet. It was getting to be a bit to big. The good news is that it shrunk to exactly my current size, so this means that I can wear it a bit longer. I am not sure that I will try this little "accident" on any other shirt at the moment though.

While Eric is resting this afternoon I think that I will put a little more time into house work. I have already finished the laundry for the day and put 2 bags of recycling to the big bin. Then it will be time to knit and weave. I need the loom for another project that has a deadline and the shawl has a looming deadline also.

Eric is feeling a little better each day. Have a great weekend everyone.

Everything

I did it all today. Knitting was 336 purl stitches and 4 knitting stitches which equals another row of lace work.. Only 6 more rows of lace and 3 of the boarder before I cast this project off.  Spinning was 3 ounces of merino wool, before my hand gave up. Weaving was 8 inches on a 6 foot table runner. Walking was a little over 10,000 steps which is just over 4 miles. As usual most of the walking was done by doing laps in the house.

John had Eric today.

Trying to Keep Up

I think that I might be wearing ruts in the tile. I am keeping up with my walking at least 11,000 steps a day this week. Today will top 13,000 or just over 5 miles, and the farthest I got from the house was the mail box. The walking keeps me from craving junk food.

Eric's recovery is going slower than we would like, but he is still making progress. I am starting to get into a rhythm with Eric at home. I still did not finish my to do list today, but I got more finished.

Today I started playing around with a quiche recipe made with duck eggs and goat cheese. When I get the recipe perfect, I will post it on the blog. All I can say now is that the taste was perfect, but the texture needs a little work.

I am going to see if I have any energy to knit now.

Baby Steps

Eric and I had our first outing today. We went to Einsteins for knitting and breakfast. After 2 hours we went home and both took a 3 hour nap. I am glad that I did not have any errands planned for after knitting. I have forgotten how tired I get when Eric is home for an extended time. I only got a third of my to do list done today. I am ok with this right now. This seems to be my new pattern.

My plan of attack for cleaning has switched from deep cleaning, to just getting rid of clutter. Just getting the basics done. This can be done in smaller time frames. Deep cleaning will resume once Eric is well enough to go to his day program again. I am trying to get better at pacing myself.

Knitting

My big knitting accomplishment was knitting a 440 stitch row of lace. I still have to look at the pattern for every repeat and I count aloud while I am knitting the lace. John must have the pattern memorized by now, sadly I don't. I think I have 9 more rows of the pattern left and 5 of those are straight purling. Some how knitting 440 purl stitches is a lot easier for me than the pattern row.

I also got some what caught up on up on my shopping. Eric is doing better. So all in all a pretty good day.

Still Crazy

Everything is still topsy tervey around here. Eric is tired of being at home. That means he is doing better. I am trying to get a lot of things done at home,but seem to be in a rut. I am only getting at best 50% of my to do list done. One would think that after so many years of doing this I would have things worked out by now.

I need to get a lot of knitting done this week. So wish me luck.

Life Goes On.

Eric and I went to the doctors on Monday for a post hospital check up. The last round of AP took a lot out of him. So here is all the information that I have at this point. Eric will be home for 2 solid weeks. We will then do a 2 day a week trail run to see if he still has the stamina to hang out with his friends at his day program. I am really hoping that this trail goes well. Our Fingers are crossed.

If he flunks the 2 day a week trail we will either go to a 2 hours a day 2 days a week or have a DTA set up at home with an activity specialist coming to the house to do activities with Eric. This will hopefully give me some me time to create or even go to the store to shop for groceries during the day. To quote a song which I can not remember the title or singer, "The times, they are changing".

In the meantime, I am using this time wisely by doing some cleaning and tossing. Yesterday I managed to fill the trash barrel before Waste Management had time to pick it up. I got a few things out of the garage. Also even though I am house bound, I will still try to get my 10K steps in a day even if it means walking around in circles for a couple of hours a day. I will let you know if I walk ruts in the tile.

Better

I spent the weekend playing catch up. I am now to the point that I can finish last weeks to do list. Wish me luck

Home at Last

It has been a rough week here at Casa Karobonik. Apparently when I stopped to catch my breath from the very busy time around here, pneumonia snuck into Eric's lungs. Eric has been sick all week and Wednesday we landed up at Tucson Medical Center for 3 days. They were at overflow capacity so they took 1 unit from pediatrics and made it into an adult over flow unit. The staff was very nice and we worked well together. The end result is that Eric is now at home in his bed sleeping with his 2 favorite friends.

This trip did leave John and I with a little hospital bed envy. Tucson Medical Center now has the Stryker S3 MedSurg Beds that fit Eric to a T. He was so comfortable in it despite being so sick. It was so much easier to use than his current bed which we bought used ( 20 years old ) 15 years ago. We were talking about how nice it would be to have one of the new Stryker S3's for Eric at home. We then looked at the hefty price tag for the new ones and realized that this was out of budget and that the insurance would probably not cover it. So we will try to see if we can get Eric's current bed serviced.

This weekend we plan to lay low so everyone can get back to center after this week. Surprisingly I do not have that much laundry to do, mostly John's and mine. Eric will be home with me next week. We will have a few short excursions out, but they will be very limited.

My left hand is still not up to par and I did not even get a fraction of the knitting done that I usually do when Eric is in the hospital.  My hand is more sore than it has been in quite a while. I hope that with less tension in my life that it will start to feel better, until then I will do some weaving.

A Long Day

Today was a very long day. The good news is that Eric is on the mend for at least the current moment. I spent the day taking care of Eric and cleaning. I am so tired that I can not see the progress, but John says that he can see it. So I must have gotten something done.

No craft or art projects were finished today. I am on day 5 of a hand knit hat. I have not taken so long to finish a hat in almost a decade. I hope to finish it tomorrow night. Meanwhile I have lost enough weight that at least 4 skirts need to be hemmed, but I need someone to do the pinning. I can drop another size because of the construction of the skirts, but 2 inch heels are not cutting it right now. I am tripping on the length and wearing holes in the hems from walking around the house without shoes on. I know that this is a good thing. I just wish more of my friends sewed so that I could trade a favor for them pinning the skirts.

I think that that I am ready to call it a night.

Busy

It has been crazy busy around here lately. Eric had about a week and a half where he went to program everyday. I did get to relax and get a lot of cleaning done. I also found that with adequate sleep I got my creative mojo back. So a lot of projects were finished too.

That at all went sideways this morning at about 3:30 this morning. I managed to get a total of 1 hour of work done before Eric care took over my day. The good news is that he is now feeling better.

Even though I am trying to move and do more my arthritis seems to be getting the better of me now. Not even hitting the 50 pound weight loss point seems to be helping. Although I can now claim a smaller dress size. So since December of 2009 the totals are down 50 pounds, 4 dress sizes, 2 shoe sizes and 6 inches off my rib cage. The way this was accomplished was by giving up anything with high fructose corn syrup, aspertame and any other artificial sweeteners. I am also moving more.

Weaving vs Knitting

I like both knitting and weaving a lot. The only problem with weaving is that I have to finish a project before I can start another. It's not like knitting at all. With knitting I can start as many projects that I want to as long as I have empty knitting needles.

Dread

I have this odd feeling like I am waiting for the second shoe to drop. It has been hanging around all day. I am not sure what to make of this.

Recovering

I spent part of last night and all of today with Eric. He is on pedilyte, which is a good thing. We will hopefully try formula tomorrow.  This is an awful cycle that Eric is in, we just don't know how to break.   I did get some knitting done while I was sitting with Eric. I added a couple of inches to a poncho. Tonight I finished 1 kids hat and cast on another. I am almost finished with the brim.  I just need to unwind so that I can get a little sleep. My sleep cycle will be messed up for a few days. 

He is Sick Again

All good things must come to an end. It was totally awesome that Eric made it to his day program for 7 days before getting eyrpy tonight. I had a bad feeling that things were amiss when I picked him up today. It was the little things that I picked up on. Eric was way to happy to see me and his tummy was rumbling.

I can rule out asthma at this point, his oxygen saturation numbers are too good. I am really hoping that we just pushed a little too much and that is it. Needless to say we will be home tomorrow, which in a very odd way is good. Tomorrow is going to be the coldest day of the year so far in Tucson. In the low 30's at drive time. Burr.

I have plenty of knitting to keep me busy. Oh, by the way, I am sorry for the second post today.

Best Intentions

My plan for dinner tonight was a hardy vegetable mushroom beef barley soup. It would go nice with our cold weather here. Yes, it is well below 70 degrees Fahrenheit here. By the time I finished getting all the vegetables in there was no room for the barley. Oops, I guess we are having a vegetable stew with a little meat.

More Derp Cleaning

Today I spent an hour doing some deep cleaning. I found fluff that I did not know that I had. This should probably read I stashed it for later and forgot about it. I now have my spinning projects lined up for the next few months, with just the fluff I found today. I think my problem might be that I used too many project bags to store things. I can't see through them and they are easy to pile into a corner.

I even threw away some wrapping threadthathad an awful smell. Now I just have to figure out where I am putting all my weaving supplies. Well that is a problem for another day.

I seem to be on on a roll today. I walked over 10,000 steps and 4.25 miles for the second day in a row. If I can keep eric healthy maybe I can stretch that into a little longer stretch.

Passages

I was brought to tears at the knitting guild meeting on Thursday. I was given a beautiful hand knit quilt and thanked for my 4 1/2 years as the guild president. I could not fit the entire picture of the quilt on the blog, but it is stunning. I stepped aside when I accomplished all the he goals that I had set for myself and the guild. It was time for some new leadership and direction in the guild.

I will I'll still keep the job as webmaster and try to handle all the technical issues. This will give me more time to be creative. Which is a good thing because I have got a lot of fiber to spin,weave,quilt and knit. Somehow it snuck into the house will I was busy. I will also have more time to design new patterns,although I don't know if they will go beyond being posted on Raverly.

Me Time

I have had 3 days of a temporary reprieve with Eric going to his day program. I have been able to relax and get a few things done. I was even able to get through most of my to do list today.

My my best work today was being able to get service for the washer and dryer on Friday even though I called today. I do admit to get the appointment on Friday, I did use the sick kid who makes lots of laundry card. I really hate to use it, but 2 weeks without a dryer would have broken me. I figure by Friday the laundry room will be hip deep in laundry, even with pulling out the things that can be washed and hung up to dry.

Maybe after my day off tomorrow, I can do some de cluttering on Friday while I wait for the service appointment. Where to start, so many little things which add up to big things if they are ingnored.

Spinning

Today I got out of the house and left they guys at home. I went to Grandma's Spinning Wheel and did a marathon for me spinning secession about 2 1/2 hours. I finished one bobbin and wound the yarn on my knitty noddy. Then I started some white merino that I am going to barber pole onto some red. I just have to finish filling up this bobbin which should be done soon.  I shall see how sore that I am tomorrow.

My wheel has a slight warble that needs to be fixed. If I can figure out how to get to the screw I will be just fine. The problem is that it requires a special 4 side head and my Philips that I can maneuver in to the slot are 6 sided. I will solve this, but not tonight.

Better Today

My body is so fond of reminding me if it's not 30 anymore. Take yesterday for instance, my workday started off at 3:30 AM and did not finish till 10 PM. Because Eric was sick it was a very physically intense day for me. Today my body is reminding me of that. Around lunchtime today my body said it's naptime.

At least Eric is feeling better today. So I spent some time playing catchup around the house. I also started a new wool charity hat while I was sitting with Eric. The down side of stash busting is the little odds and ends of yarn accumulate so quickly. The good news is that they make perfect colorful hats for kids. The wool bag is overflowing right now so 2 or 3 hats should solve that problem.

And Repeat

Eric's post viral asthma kick in with vengeance. I feel very tired after being up since 3:30am and spending most of the day helping him sit up to keep his airway clear.  I have not even gotten through the mountain of laundry that he made since last night. I feel so tired and discouraged because I could not make him feel better today.

If tomorrow starts off like today we will be heading to the doctors. I  am hoping for a much better night tonight and a better day tomorrow. I hope everyone else had a much better day.

Oh, Joy

One of the things that I don't enjoy about being a special needs mom is dealing with the insurance company. Yes, there are a lot of intelligent  people who work for the medical insurance company, but why do I seem to get all the dunderheads?

The annual denial letter for formula and supplies came today. Some of the more redundant things that I have had put in the notes at the top of Eric's chart include when the g-tube was placed 15 years ago and why it is necessary. So it annoys me to no end to be asked for "Documentation" that Eric has a feeding tube. Is this the sole source of his nutrition, they want to know why we have not gotten him off the feeding tube yet. What is his diagnosis that makes the feeding tube necessary He has had the same diagnosis since he was 3 1/2 they just don't change like magic. The name of the formula... duh the same one he has been on for the last 15 years. An evaluation of his nutritional needs, really!!!

To boot UnitedHealthcare will not pay for supplies until we provide this information again.  They have also decided to make us do this every 6 months, really!!! I can not think of a worse harassment of parents of sick children.

Sadly there are only a few relevant things in the letter, Eric's height and weight and a new prescription. The rest is just laziness on the part of the reviewer. After 15 years of this crap, I am beginning to think they do this to us because a certain number of families and doctors will just give up and pay for these medically necessary supplies out of pocket. Aren't the profits and bonuses high enough for the insurance companies yet?

A heads up to everyone. I will be dealing with this crap on Monday, so its not you it's United Healthcare.

A Lot of Sleep

I find it amazing what 10 hours of sleep twice in one week can do for me. I run on an entirely different level than when I get 4 hours of sleep a night. To that end I have a lot of housework and laundry to catch up on tomorrow, yes the laundry room hit hip high. Thank goodness I am not any taller. So I started the whites tonight because they take 2 1/2 hours to wash with the energy efficient washing machine.

If I say good night now I can still get 7 1/2 hours of sleep tonight.