Just for my records, I also started this one recently. Spring In Baltimore - With Thy Needle and Thread. Using suggested fancy flosses on the 28 count Mushroom lugana, one over one.
It got tossed back into the started pile. There were several starts, and I just couldn't settle into a project.
I have been ordering stitching things. I was good and just wanted the Violets & Verses pattern from market. That was all I ordered. Then I ordered the classic pattern with the Peacock, the Unicorn and the Badger... and I ordered the plain fabric, and a couple new patterns. Then I ordered from the shop going out of business. Then I made a floss list - of the colors I didn't have and needed since there was a sale at Joanns on floss. That was $41 in just dmc floss, and two more other shops and $10 more for the colors they were out of. But I came home with my whole list. Then I made the second order, and another list of floss. So I have that coming. And I ordered the market cookbook because I had a FOMO moment. FOMO is FEAR OF MISSING OUT.... Yesterday, I ordered the fancy flosses I needed.
I think some of this has to do with timing in my life. I am just ending the second part of my chemo treatment plan this week. Next will be the third part, radiation. I had known what the plan was - just not the details. And I am happy just to follow their plan. I found out that radiation is daily on weekdays, for six weeks. Thirty times. I live close, it is as close as a grocery store. Parking is easy. Doing chemo, honestly, that parking being easy has been important. You lose your stamina. So about 8 weeks in, you can't walk from the car into Target to get a cart... you HAVE to grab carts in the lot. My iron levels were at 8, normal blood donation levels are 12.5. I missed a week due to weather, and that bumped my level up to a 10. At 10, I can function. I can park and walk without leaning on a cart. I can get groceries. I am not the fastest shopper, but at 8, it gives you a whole new idea of - I'm not sure I can - suddenly. I'm not whining. But for me, it is just me. I have NEVER felt weak like that, and I'm over 60 years old. I hear people needing blood and other things to up their levels because they are too low to get the treatments. I took my mom to her version of this after a hysterectomy. So I got to see this once before it was my turn to do it. I'm not doing this at a level that it is my last chance. As far as I understand, I am expected to survive this. I was told I was stage 2 or 3. What I had was breast duct cancer. It is aggressive. But I also had the lumps we are all told to check for. My lumps were still at stage 0. But they showed up on the mammograms. Depending on the type of cancer, determines if you do surgery before or after chemo. My surgery was first, then chemo. I sat near a woman just finishing her chemo the other day. Her surgery was next, then we all do radiation as the finish. I asked, what are we radiating if you have taken the breast already? But they do the area where the lymph nodes showed cancer. For me, I think if I had to do chemo before surgery, it would have worked against me mentally. I wanted the bad stuff out of me asap. I want the port out after this is complete. They give you drugs to not be depressed. I have not had to take that. I'm fine, my attitude is just do what I need to do. There have been adjustments, my hair fell out in clumps. The nurses told me when to expect that. My haircut person said she had cut off hair for cancer people.... that they cry together... and cut the hair. I'm not doing that - so I called a friend, and used old clippers, and had her do it, just like I had done for my mom. I said, we need to laugh about this - not cry. Ever seen the character of Uncle Fester? I look a lot like that at the moment. But it is not forever. In the world of cancer and medical crap that can go wrong... losing a breast is the easy thing. It does not shove women into menapause like a hysterectomy. Pick a part of your body you can do without... something to put cancer in.
On a scale of silliness, I knew my sink disposal was getting old, it gave me warning to plan to replace it. I got a couple more months out of it, and then there was a leak under the sink on a Monday. On Wednesday, I went to talk to the plumber. Their next appt was the following Thursday. So 10 days with no kitchen sink, no dishwasher. Okay... not a big deal. But on that day, the plumber didn't come, didn't call. So I wait till Monday, and go to the plumber to ask when they might show up. Now I was at 14 days without a kitchen sink working. The plumber had ended up in the hospital, same hospital I go, because he has that - he is allergic to glutan - problem. The hospital left a hole in him in the ER as big as a small orange, drains and all, in his butt. Oh, that is a pretty good excuse. So they said they would show up the next day. And they did. That plumber was gonna be off for three weeks, they just didn't bother to call to reschedule people he was supposed to help. I still used my dishes, rinsed things, used paper plates, and stacked them in the dishwasher till I could wash them after he fixed it. The internet had worked that morning before the plumber came. But stopped working while he was here. He didn't do that. But the internet talked about outages, so I thought it was that. Next day, still no internet, but I was at chemo. At end of day, no internet, I called. That guy said, my house was causing all sorts of noise on the line, so they decided to just cut off my internet. I said - pardon me? I am the last house on my line. That would indeed be possible. I however had not changed anything except the disposal. And had him replace the guts in a toilet. And he found broken tank bolts... so he replaced those. But as far as I knew, the toilet has nothing to do with my internet. The phone guy offered to send a tech guy to look, but said the notes on my account talked about the noise on the lines. Send me a guy in the morning. Guy shows up at 8:20, and he goes and looks at the lines on the pole and house after talking to me first. Comes back to me and says - you have squirrels that have eaten the line on the pole. We need to run you a new line from the pole to your house. We will come back later - and bury it. This will be months later, as I have already had this happen once before. So my house and my stuff was not feeding back at all. The squirrels that are at least trying to steal cable might have needed a better plan how to hook into the feed line for internet. But my stuff worked fine once they hooked a new section of cable between me and the pole. Matter of fact, the signal was too good. They had to knock it back to fit between numbers they are trying to be at. And the cable guy came into my house, and put on booties, and I followed him up my stairs, and realized he was leaving - let's hope mud, not dog shit from my neighbors.... on my steps and carpet. He said - but I am wearing booties. I said, they are not clean. And he looks and says, oh, I will have to toss these and get new ones. So I get to clean carpet spots. But I can sit on the steps while I clean carpet. But my kitchen sink works, my toilet works, I have internet... and I can clean spots on my carpet. Ever have weeks like that??? And since things comes in threes, when we had tornados and high winds last night, I was not expecting that to go well at all. I was scared and worried when they said there was 70 mph wind gusts in my area. So at this point - chemo days are the normal nothing happens days. Although last week, they had a potluck for their department - and a couple of the nurses thought they had maybe just gotten food poisoning. They were not feeling well right after lunch when I got there. You just have to laugh at the silliness sometimes - and maybe buy more stash and floss.
