Thanks to all of you, both bloggers and non, who took the time to send your encouragement to our famiy as DD1 heads down what hopefully will be the last, and probably the hardest, path to remission. You cannot know how much your good wishes sustain us all over here!
We have a short reprieve, and I did get some much needed zzzzzz's after DD1 was sprang from the hospital last Saturday afternoon, and we spent a few days this week doing normal routine things like working, dinner, and laundry. And then Friday it became apparent as the day went along, that DD1 was once again not up to par. By yesterday morning, we called the Heamotologist on call. I spare you the details (some require a strong stomach) and say that an attack plan was quickly put into place, executed and good thing too, because if we had waited much longer DD1 would have landed right back on 5West (the heamotology ward).
Today seems better although fatigue is constant, and it is clear her body is begining to take the beating we all knew was coming. Last night she wondered if it was this bad now, this time, would her body make it through the next round. She is amazingly resilent, and tough as nails, and stubborn beyond belief, and although I have absolutely no doubt she can get through this, it is still really, really hard to see her hurting so much, and feeling like there is little I can do that really makes things any easier for her.
In knitting news, continuing with my theme of knitting more for me and only what I really fell like knitting this year, a pair ot Toasties will be off the needles this evening. And yes, they are for me!
Knit on.....
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........
Ok - I admit it. I'm tired. Yup, just plumb tuckered out. My energy has eroded slowly over the last week like sand slipping off the beach with each rolling wave that comes in. My brain is increasingly slow at comprehending conversations, and my response time stutters along at half its normal pace. It's been a couple of weeks of higher than normal familial activity and it is starting to show, both at work and at home. I can't remember when I last had a normal sit down dinner at a normal time.
DD1's last round of chemo, DHAP, which is preparation for her BMT, went off without a hitch, but the side effects which usually hit about a week later, and to which she has largely been spared the most severe and dangerous ones over the last (almost) two years (hard to beleive it has been going on that long) finally took its toll on the poor lamb. Her counts tanked, and she picked up a bug and by last Friday night we headed to the hospital Emergancy room as her fever raged causing violent shakes and shivers, and a severe throat infection gave her massive amounts of pain. After spending the night in the Emerg isolation she was admitted, and I headed home after being up for 27 hours straight! Me? I am not quite as young as I used to be, I can tell you, and I was dilerious with fatigue!
And there she stays, not quite in quarantine, on IV antibiotics and pain-killers, but not allowed to leave either as her white cell counts, amoungest others, just don't want perk up. Low counts = highly susceptable to infection = no going home. After a week she is getting a bit stir crazy and I am feeling the effects of working from dawn and heading straight to hospital after and spending my early evenings keeping her company. Most nights I haven't managed to get home before 7:30 or 8:00, only to bolt down some dinner, do laundry, pack her necesseties for the next day, and fall into bed. the next day, do it all again. Last night after arrivng home, I tried to steal an hour to watch TV and knit, but all I could manage was the TV, my hands just couldn't knit - it was just too much effort!
I finished my pink hat to go with my Christmas scarf (I'll post pics later), and a pair of socks came off the needles last weekend thanks to all the hospital waiting time. Hospitals are good for that at least!
New sock yarn has been cast on for travel/hospital knitting, and a charity baby blanket is progressing very slowly, knit only when I am invited down to the G-man's man cave to watch new HD TV. I haven't the energy to contemplate picking up some lagging UFO's I should be working on. Much too much thinking involved in those. Hopefully some extra sleep this weekend will change that!
Knit on....
DD1's last round of chemo, DHAP, which is preparation for her BMT, went off without a hitch, but the side effects which usually hit about a week later, and to which she has largely been spared the most severe and dangerous ones over the last (almost) two years (hard to beleive it has been going on that long) finally took its toll on the poor lamb. Her counts tanked, and she picked up a bug and by last Friday night we headed to the hospital Emergancy room as her fever raged causing violent shakes and shivers, and a severe throat infection gave her massive amounts of pain. After spending the night in the Emerg isolation she was admitted, and I headed home after being up for 27 hours straight! Me? I am not quite as young as I used to be, I can tell you, and I was dilerious with fatigue!
And there she stays, not quite in quarantine, on IV antibiotics and pain-killers, but not allowed to leave either as her white cell counts, amoungest others, just don't want perk up. Low counts = highly susceptable to infection = no going home. After a week she is getting a bit stir crazy and I am feeling the effects of working from dawn and heading straight to hospital after and spending my early evenings keeping her company. Most nights I haven't managed to get home before 7:30 or 8:00, only to bolt down some dinner, do laundry, pack her necesseties for the next day, and fall into bed. the next day, do it all again. Last night after arrivng home, I tried to steal an hour to watch TV and knit, but all I could manage was the TV, my hands just couldn't knit - it was just too much effort!
I finished my pink hat to go with my Christmas scarf (I'll post pics later), and a pair of socks came off the needles last weekend thanks to all the hospital waiting time. Hospitals are good for that at least!
New sock yarn has been cast on for travel/hospital knitting, and a charity baby blanket is progressing very slowly, knit only when I am invited down to the G-man's man cave to watch new HD TV. I haven't the energy to contemplate picking up some lagging UFO's I should be working on. Much too much thinking involved in those. Hopefully some extra sleep this weekend will change that!
Knit on....
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Twenty-ten - in with a bang!
Ya"ll know what this icon is right??
It's the knitters call to action, and the Yarn Harlot has put it up on her site and I urge you to visit her and if you are able and moved to do so, please do your bit the help the devastated people of Haiti.
Knit on....
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Merry Christmas to all!
I wish you all a joyfilled holiday season, however you celebrate!
Peace and all good things to you and yours in 2010.
kate
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Finshed this & that....
This, step two, is finshed:
- DD1's stem cell collection - top scores in the stem cell production department for my girl! She's a machine!
This is finished:
- remember the postscript that had me churning our more scowls than a one decent girl requires, from this entry? Done!
This is finished:
- more from the I needed that catagory, I needed this too! Com'on - I had a scarf in this color - it was lonely without a hat, and such a nice one at that!
And there is another beret and scowl done in shades of caramel-y and chocolate syrup - yummy, and yes I guess even a decent girl might make herself too many scowls! Sadly no pictures yet.
I am enjoying this simple-knitting imterlude that I am currently in. I have choosen to knit mostly for myself, only what I want. It feels good to have something go easy for a change.
Knit on.....
- DD1's stem cell collection - top scores in the stem cell production department for my girl! She's a machine!
This is finished:
- remember the postscript that had me churning our more scowls than a one decent girl requires, from this entry? Done!
This is finished:
- more from the I needed that catagory, I needed this too! Com'on - I had a scarf in this color - it was lonely without a hat, and such a nice one at that!
And there is another beret and scowl done in shades of caramel-y and chocolate syrup - yummy, and yes I guess even a decent girl might make herself too many scowls! Sadly no pictures yet.
I am enjoying this simple-knitting imterlude that I am currently in. I have choosen to knit mostly for myself, only what I want. It feels good to have something go easy for a change.
Knit on.....
Sunday, 15 November 2009
A busy week.....
Well DD1 has done magnificantly this week, and Round One of Bone Marrow Transplant chemo is over, and nary a VomiBag* was used! (we had quite the giggle over the "hipped up" trade name - I mean who thinks up this stuff, really?! Can you just imagine the commercials?!)
Her perm-cath was put in on Monday, Tuesday was spent in the ER for low blood pressure which is being attributed to an over-stimulated flight or fight response (gee, I can't imagine why that's happening! My body would wanna run like hell too), and Thursday and Friday were 10 and 12 hour days of DHAP chemo.
So far the nausea has been well controlled, thanks in part to a new drug called Emend (we are saying Amen to Emend! - which by the way is considered a luxury drug and is not covered by OHIP - imagine that! Like anything to do with cancer is a luxury! Grrrrr!! Don't get me started!) and her portable hydration pump (we call it the hydration spa!) from the Homecare nurses who are in everyday at the moment. Tomorrow most of the heavy duty nausea drugs are done so we'll see how she fairs with plain old Gravol.
Step two - today we start the Neupogen shots again - same as last year, but twice the dose and twice as long to build up those stem cells for collection (step three) next week - the localized, stabbing joint and bone pain associated with super rapidly growing stem cells is not fun, so heavy duty pain-killers will be introduced. I am becoming quite good with giving injections.
My lovely sister-in-law arrives shortly to provide some much needed support, and baring any complications I'm back to work tomorrow. It will seem very restful in comparision I think!
I am knitting in between despensing meds, doing laundry, disenfecting everything in the house every day thanks to H1N1, making toast and soy smoothies, helping with baths and washing hair, and recording everything swallowed! My 2nd beret and scowl in cream and muddied brown tones are done, and I'm working on the set commissioned by a work collegue in a lovely soft heathered grey.
Knit on....
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
I needed them.... really....
I needed another scarf and hat - an actual set, for the fall. Really. I did. If you can imagine, I didn't have a matched set to my name. Shameful really, for someone who calls themselves a knitter. I needed something for those 6 a.m. forays across the parking lot at work which is the size of a couple of football fields.
And I saw a scarf, more like a scowl (scarf morphing as a long cowl, hence a scowl) at the local department store for ridiculous prices, and since one of the things I like to do is try to re-create run-way looks for next to nothing I got these whipped up in no time:
My beret is standard issue, no fancy work this time. The pattern is Taos Beret - google, you'll find it.
The scowl is really just a long (6ft x 10in) retangular scarf join at the ends, but not a mobius join (don't twist). Just a straight end to end join. Had I been on the ball I would have done a provisional cast on and grafted the two ends together, but now with the cheesy seem, it looks store bought, which was the point of it all!
Lightweight for Fall, made from 4 skeins of inexpensive Bernat Satin at 2 skiens for the price of 1, my cost, with yarn left over for mitts maybe, was about $7.50 for the set.
And to cinch the deal, the very same scarf/scawl and beret style were featured on Oprah as this seasons must haves for fashionistas everywhere!
And now I'm back to my Patons Cardigan, back and fronts done, sleeves and turtleneck to go.
Knit on............
postscript: that Susan asked about the yarn which completely an economical purchase, so only 100% acrylic and was as cheap and cheesy as they come, so not so warm for our Ottawa winters, but lovely and comfortable for a lightweight fall set. I'll do a more practical woolly set for the January freeze. And yes, I own a stupid number of scarves with no hats - I shunned hats until recently, but age has a way of reminding you that suffering for vanity sake is ridiculous - and when warmth looks this good, I say bring it on! Funnily enough I wore my set this morning in the nippy 2*C , and was all but accosted by a collegue (who literally ran across the parking lot) from another building demanding to know where I got them! Happily I confessed my accomplishment, and when she expressed her sadness in knowing she couldn't get a set, I did what any knitter would do when confronted with copious expressions of admiration - I caved and offered to make her a set too! Good thing I like this knitting stuff!!!
And I saw a scarf, more like a scowl (scarf morphing as a long cowl, hence a scowl) at the local department store for ridiculous prices, and since one of the things I like to do is try to re-create run-way looks for next to nothing I got these whipped up in no time:
My beret is standard issue, no fancy work this time. The pattern is Taos Beret - google, you'll find it.
The scowl is really just a long (6ft x 10in) retangular scarf join at the ends, but not a mobius join (don't twist). Just a straight end to end join. Had I been on the ball I would have done a provisional cast on and grafted the two ends together, but now with the cheesy seem, it looks store bought, which was the point of it all!
Lightweight for Fall, made from 4 skeins of inexpensive Bernat Satin at 2 skiens for the price of 1, my cost, with yarn left over for mitts maybe, was about $7.50 for the set.
And to cinch the deal, the very same scarf/scawl and beret style were featured on Oprah as this seasons must haves for fashionistas everywhere!
And now I'm back to my Patons Cardigan, back and fronts done, sleeves and turtleneck to go.
Knit on............
postscript: that Susan asked about the yarn which completely an economical purchase, so only 100% acrylic and was as cheap and cheesy as they come, so not so warm for our Ottawa winters, but lovely and comfortable for a lightweight fall set. I'll do a more practical woolly set for the January freeze. And yes, I own a stupid number of scarves with no hats - I shunned hats until recently, but age has a way of reminding you that suffering for vanity sake is ridiculous - and when warmth looks this good, I say bring it on! Funnily enough I wore my set this morning in the nippy 2*C , and was all but accosted by a collegue (who literally ran across the parking lot) from another building demanding to know where I got them! Happily I confessed my accomplishment, and when she expressed her sadness in knowing she couldn't get a set, I did what any knitter would do when confronted with copious expressions of admiration - I caved and offered to make her a set too! Good thing I like this knitting stuff!!!
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