Back in the Game!

I went back to work today, and it went pretty well. I took a half of a Vicodin every 4 hours or so - enough to take the edge off of the ache, but not enough to make me loopy. I wore my sling today, too. I really, really hate that thing, but it keeps me from letting my hand drop below my waist - when that happens for more than a minute, my whole hand starts aching. I'm happily medicated now, so my wrist is feeling pretty okay for the moment.

Which leads me to the other good thing - I'm able to knit! I just knit 2" on the back of the men's sweater that I'm working on, and I'm taking a break for a little while before I pick it up again this evening. It's slow (usually 2" on a sweater is what I do when I sit down to take a break from something else, and this took almost an hour), but it's more than I've been able to do since my surgery...and that makes me happy. :-) I'll hit my deadline for this sweater yet!

I njust got a 6 minute (!) recorded message from the boys' school superintendant about the swine flu. In a (much shorter) nutshell, there are no cases in the district, wash your hands, and keep your kids home if they're sick. 6 minutes was a little bit much, I think! Common sense needs to rule the day here, and panic won't accomplish anything.

Paging Dr. Frankenstein!

Warning - don't look if you're squeamish! ;-)

I got my cast off today. The doctor says that I'm doing well, and that it was a pretty big cyst (it had grown to almost twice its size since the MRI 2 weeks before). He put the cast back on, but with an ace bandage so that I can remove it to shower.

Anyway, this should leave an interesting scar:
Next week, when the swelling goes down, I can go back to my smaller, hard splint for a couple of weeks.

Tick is doing much better - the cortisone shot did wonders! His blood work came back pretty okay (he has an elevated liver enzyme, but in a dog his age, the vet isn't too worried unless he really starts acting sick). If the shot wears off in a week or two, he'll give him cortisone pills to keep him comfortable. He's going down the steps to go outside, but he's still skittish about coming back up...so we carry him. Luckily he's not Gracie's size! :-)

I gave my presentation for my Ed. Psych class this evening - 30% of my grade, and I had to do it without my pain medication (I can't drive that far on Vicodin!). I think that it went pretty well - I received pretty good feedback from the class. We'll see!

I'm going back to work tomorrow - this should be interesting without my pain meds!

The Aftermath

My surgery went well - I was home within 3-1/2 hours. I was under for about an hour, from what they tell me. The surgeon said that there wasn't any tendon damage (he was prepared to move my tendons around, but he didn't have to), but that the cyst had started growing out the side as well as up. It was wrapped around a tendon, and it was starting to push on a nerve.

My hand now looks like this:and Vicodin is my new best friend...

I get the dressing changed on Monday, and I can (hopefully) go back to work on Tuesday. The surgeon hopes to put me back into my smaller plastic splint on Monday, which I'll have to wear for 2-3 weeks. He says that I should be able to start knitting again by the end of the week!

I had to take Tick to the vet today - his back legs have started to buckle under him, and we have to carry him outside because he can't go up and down stairs. He stopped eating, too. The X-Ray showed that there is something wrong with a disc in his back. :-( The vet gave him a cortisone shot, drew blood for testing, and sent him home. Everything now depends on the test results, and whether the cortisone works. Surgery won't be an option - he's at least 12 (he's a rescue, so we're not sure of his age - we've had him for 11 years), and at his age, it's a quality of life issue as well as a financial one. We're hopeful that the cortisone works.

We bought him some canned food, and he ate. I normally won't buy soft food for my dogs, but at his age, I'm more worried about him eating than I am about his teeth.

Repo has suddenly decided to become his new best friend, and she's been staying pretty close to him since he started having problems
Keep your fingers crossed that the cortisone works! Tick is the mellowest, sweetest, friendliest dachsund that I've ever owned - especially considering how badly he was abused before he came to live with us.

Well, $%#&@

It turns out that the prednisone and the cortisone have done nothing to make the cysts in my wrist smaller. In fact, they've gotten bigger and hurt worse than before. I'm starting to get "zings" up my thumb from nerve compression.

I have surgery tomorrow at 11:00. Although it's outpatient, I'll be under general anesthesia.

Please think good thoughts - this is kind of freaking me out. I'm actually more nervous about this surgery than I was about my hysterectomy...

A quick knit

My Uncle Bill lives in Montana, and the last time that I talked to him, he asked if I could knit a dickey for him "like Grandma used to make."

I was happy to oblige:Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Beethoven's Variations on a Dickey" from Wool Gathering #40 (also in Knitting Around and on the KA DVD). Knit with 1 skein of Berroco Ultra Alpaca on size 4 needles. This was a fast knit - it took about 2-1/2 days with time off for the cortisone shot in my wrist (and a splint).

I have a bunch of different colors of this yarn - maybe I'll make some for me! After I finish this sweater (in the new City Tweed!) for KnitPicks...

Update...

I went for an MRI earlier this week - my tendons are sound but strained (whew!!), but I have cysts in my wrist. Because I'm a geek, I copied my MRI disc...The round thing in the bottom left is the marker that they taped to my wrist; the big white spot is the cyst(s). Here's a side shotI'm in a new and improved splint. It's made of plastic and attaches with velcro instead of Ace bandages. It's a lot smaller, and much easier to knit with! I got a cortisone shot right into that spot on Wednesday - that hurt a lot more than the shots to my shoulder ever did! Now we wait...I go back in 2 weeks to see if anything is better. The good news is: no surgery for now...but it hasn't been ruled out completely.

Today's the last official day of my Spring Break. I get to spend this beautiful, sunny, 70 degree day working on my grad school projects! Only 2 weeks left in class!

Spring Break!

Spring Break officially began at 2:35 on Thursday! The break is definitely needed - although I still have grad school on Monday and Wednesday.

Update on my wrist: I went to my orthopedic surgeon on Monday, and he said that it is definitely my tendon. He can't tell if it's strained or ruptured because it was so swollen, so he put me on a course of prednisone to try to bring the swelling down. I don't think it's ruptured, but the swelling hasn't gone anywhere. It doesn't hurt as much as it did, unless I try to pick up something that I shouldn't. I go back to see him on Monday.

I quit taking the Avelox (the antibiotic for my sinus infection, which I was on for 2 weeks of the 3 weeks that were prescribed) the day that the doctor diagnosed my wrist...and now I have another sinus infection. Urgh. I go back to the ENT on Friday.

I'm still knitting, though! I'm almost done with the socks for KnitPicks, and they've sent me yarn for a sweater project. The sweater is to be knit in City Tweed, their new yarn that's coming out later this month. This yarn is soooooooooo soft, and it's absolutely gorgeous!

My latest project for KnitPicks just hit the catalog:
This is the Evening Top from Vintage Knitwear for Modern Knitters. For a size 36", I used 6 skeins of Gloss in the color Cocoa. Gloss is another yarn that I love - it's very soft, and the drape is beautiful. I wish that they'd come out with a worsted weight version!

I hope that everybody has a safe, wonderful Easter!

Just To Prove That I Can...

This is how I spent part of yesterday:A friend at school had asked for a hat - and I needed to be sure that I can still knit with a cast. Sooo...I found this pattern (a very nice pattern, but be aware - there is an error in one of the charts), and I cast on using the leftover skein that I dyed for Pam's sweater. I absolutely cannot knit English right now with this stupid cast-thing on, but I managed quite well in continental, thankyouverymuch! I taught myself Norwegian purl (thanks to Sabrina and this site), and that made a world of difference - I am horrendously slow at purling in continental style. Now - back to the pair of socks for KP!

Two good things happened on Friday: first, I was taken off of the waitlist for Knitting Camp! I'm going to Camp 3 after all! I bought my bus ticket to Sabrina's yesterday (round trip on the MegaBus - Cleveland to Chicago - for $9.50!!!) and the check is in the mail to Schoolhouse Press!

Right after I got that email, the mailman arrived - he had my reveal package for SP13! My spoiler was Tanya - TiaPixy on Ravelry. She's been great to me, and this pacakge was no exception! She sent chocolate:And this gorgeous bag:And inside the bag? 20 skeins of Rowen Linen Print!
I've never played with this yarn before, but I'm thinking that there may be a Clapotis in my near future. :-) Thanks, Tanya! You've been a great pal!

Aaaargh!!

Ya know, this is getting old...

Saturday morning, I woke up with excruciating pain in my right wrist. I thought that I had slept on it funny. The pain subsided through the day, but a big lump showed up on the palm side of my wrist (right between the bones, on the thumb side). I didn't bang it or hurt it in any way, so I figured (hoped) that it would go away.

Unfortunately, no such luck. I wore my wrist stabilizer (from when I sprained my wrist years ago) and it didn't hurt as badly. Picking up anything without the brace on sent pains shooting down my thumb and up my arm.

Since I had class Monday and Wednesday and an eye doctor appointment on Tuesday, today was the first day that I could get it checked. The doctor thinks that it's one of two things...it's either a fast-growing cyst that needs to be dealt with, or it's a reaction to the antibiotic that my ENT put me on for my sinus infection. It turns out that Avelox has a rather nasty tendency to cause ruptured tendons - and that's the theory that the doctor is leaning towards. I need to make an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon within the next few days.

In the meantime, this is my hand...It's in a removable hard cast that I'm not supposed to remove unless absolutely necessary. The damned thing goes all the way to my elbow. I'm supposed to use a sling, too, but that's probably not going to happen.

Urgh. Ever try to knit a sock on size 2 dpns when you can't use your right thumb - when you knit English? I tried - it's nearly impossible to knit more than a few stitches per minute. I can most definitely knit Continental, but I'm really slow at purling (and this sock has lots of purling).

But - I'll do it, one way or the other!