A Rare Moment...

So last night I had a rare moment to knit a few stitches, having barely touched the needles at home this whole week, and I got to contemplating about what it was that I was working on and why it is that I was enjoying it so very much. It struck me as odd, sitting there all by myself in a rare moment of solitude these days, very, very late in the evening (the G-man having long gone to bed and DD1 still in hospital recovering from the nasty effects of her final round of chemo and her BMT - she is doing great, by the way - hoping to have her home for Easter!), that I was getting a ridiculous amount of pleasure from the simplest knitting of just plain 'ol mitered garter squares from leftover mediocre quality stash yarn.

I wondered why it was that working on my extremely expensive Alpaca cardi-wrap, while pleasingly repetitious enough and the end result will certainly be worth the effort, does not effectively sooth my mind and quiet my body in the same manner as does making a little garter stitich mitered square.

I am aware of the relationship that has been made between knitting and yoga, meditation or other Zen-like pastimes, but somehow it was even more than the peacefulness this little knitting brought, which was certainly present and most welcome. It was just that the simple feeling of real pleasure at the actions of my hands I was feeling that struck me as intensely out of proportion to the actual activity. After all, it was not a fancy square, not sumptuous yarn, not a particularly favorite color, not a special stitch - there was absolutely nothing special about it. And yet it pleased me immensely to work on it, row after row, square after square.

Perhaps it was exactly the absence of all of these exceptional things that allowed my mind to rest quietly a while (given the crazy state of our family, this resting thing has been seriously lacking of late), and perhaps it was in the resting of my thoughts that I found a perfect moment of pleasure that I was so obviously needing, once of course I had recognized what it was. Since this little blanket will be for charity, it is not just a little ironic that the old adage "It is more blessed to give than to receive" seems to have come to fruition here, as truly I felt very blessed indeed with this little gift of a moment of rare and simple pleasure.

Knit on.....

Hanging in...

Hello all -

Just a quick note to say DD1 is hanging in and hanging on. It is a without a doubt a tough fight and she is completely and utterly exhausted, but so far she is following the plan and all is going to plan. Still you know it's hard when just brushing ones teeth requires several hours of sleep afterwards.

The tranplant was done yesterday (she is offically one day old!) and the 6 days of chemo preceding it have kicked ass hard. Now we wait and watch to see if her stellar batch of stem cells collected last fall can do their job. Keep your fingers and toes in the crossed position. And many, many thanks for all the good wishes!

Knit on (might be hard with crossed fingers so you may be exempt while knitting!)....

T-Day is March 18th...

We're ready. And most importantly, DD1 is ready too. Bone Marrow Transplant day (or T-Day as I am calling it) is on the calendar. March 18th. We've a wild ride ahead starting on the 12th, and over the next month or so, but we are about as prepared as we can be. Bring.It.On.

In post Olympic news, I did finish my own personal and simple challenge of knitting enough squares for a charity baby blanket from my stash during the games, and 20 squares in navy and blue grey are piled up next to my chair waiting to be assembled.A good project while I'm off of work for the next few weeks or so caring for DD1 during transplant and recovery

And.I am still managing to work entirely from stash and on already assigned projects, and so far no LYS deprevation symptoms have kicked in!

And isn't the weather just grand?! I smell the promise of spring.....

Knit on....

p.s. I'll be back in a few weeks to report in on DD1 progress, so keep us all in mind, would ya'?.  In the mean time she would be pleased to know I have done a public sevice announcement by directing you all to this site, and get to Know Your Nodes so you can all stay healthy too!

Happy hearts days!

 

Happy Valentine's Day Ya'll!!

 
Another week of germ fighting in our household. My hands are raw from washing and endless Purel*-ing. We have been back and forth to the hospital for 4 days in a row as DD1 continues to fight off the raging bacteria that threaten to over take her body. I am reluctant to think we are out of the woods yet, as this is exactly the same scenerio that lulled us into false thinking earlier last week when she perked up and felt ok in the early part of the week, And then by Thursday afternoon it was evident that she was once again being assaulted by the viral and highly agressive bacteria.

Still tonight she remains the best I have seen her in the last 10 days, so that's something, I guess.

My socks are off the needles and the grafting done and I will endevor some pictures this week. I am wroring on new socks (hospital knitting) and some stash scrap yarn mitered squares which I have challenged my self to see if I can make  enough squares for a charity baby blanket while the Olympics are in progress. This is not an official Olymplic project, but none the less the challenge is a good thing, and stash usage is also a good thing, as will be the resulting charity blanket.

In other me news I took some time on Friday for me while the G-man held the fort and did the hospital run, and i did something I have never done before.

I skated on the Canal! Now I have skated, but not in at least 10 years and maybe closer to 15 when I really think about it. None the less I ventured out, with my work collegues to cheer me on, the temperature was perfect and the skating conditions very good and had an amazing time re-learning how to balance on the thin blades of my figure skates. No falls, either! which makes me proud, although there were some very wobbly moments over the 5 km that we skated! But what great fun, good exercise (I can do exercise when I don't know I'm getting it!) and many, many laughs! It was a very,very good day - and long overdue.

Knit on.....

A short lived reprieve!

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.....

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....

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....