We have stayed home this weekend for the first time in a long time.  It felt good not to have to travel anywhere.  I did have to go back to the hospital on Friday for another blood test, and it was too high once again.  Now I have to go back on Tuesday.  It must take awhile to get Coumadin dosage levels to the right amount for each individual.

I got my presription stocking that is supposed to help with circulation.  I ordered the kind with no toes since I wear flip-flops or sandals almost all the time in the summer.  It looks like a thick knee-high stocking until you try to put the darn thing on.  Yikes!  It felt like a steel band contracting around my foot. After awhile,  I got it off, and read the instructions.  Oh, it comes with a stunning white slipper that you put on first.

Then you slip the stocking over it, and try to pull it up with no wrinkles.  Right.

Then you roll the foot part up over the heel, and yank off the slipper.  And here is what my ankle looked like after wearing the stocking with wrinkles all day.  My veins are sticking out like crazy and my leg is wrinkled.

But my sprained ankle is not nearly as swollen or colorful as it was the first week.  Here is a peek at how it was.

Anyway, I took Kasey for the first walk since I sprained my ankle on July 9.  She could not believe it when I put her on the leash!  First I drove to the library to pick up a book I requested, and then I remembered a very short paved greenway behind the library.  It ends up at the EMS station, so I figured that was a good plan in case I got in trouble.  All was well, but Kasey needs to go back on The Perfect Dog collar to remember her good walking manners, and my ankle did pretty well.  No need to holler for the EMS to come fetch me!

Yesterday I worked on the fans quilt, a very large one, and got down to the last row.  I had some problem with fullness at the bottom which did not quilt out very nicely.  Also had some ratty looking tension on the back side.  I think it's partly because I had to go through so many layers to get through those double fan blades and centers. 

So today I have been frogging (rippit, rippit!) all day long.  I don't like spending a whole friggin' day frogging!

Here is how some of the quilting looks (with the quilt draped across the back of the couch.)

At least there is a football game on tonight- an exhibition game between the Carolina Panthers and New York Giants.  It is wonderful to see Carolina winning after a dismal season last year. 

Art Journal Pages

I was able to put together a couple of journal pages in my Moleskine journal yesterday while I was propping my leg up (I have a sprained ankle and a blood clot).

You may remember that I used leftover paint on my palette last week to create some painted background pages.  I used one of them to preserve this fabulous photograph by my father's first cousin, Cort Clifford, of Maryland.

Cort is a serious amateur photographer.  He took this photo in a cemetery on Kent Island on Maryland's Eastern Shore.  He sent me the photo and a poem about a mockingbird, which I transcribed on the facing page.

     The morning the Mockingbird
     halfway up the pale dune, and only
     a pitchpine for a pulpit, offered
     with infrangible exactitude
     Phoebe, Robin, Blue Jay, flicker, towhee,
     goldfinch, ovenbird, titmouse, linnets,
     grackle, bobwhite, cardinal, Carolina wren,
     Chickadee, Nuthatch, English Sparrow, Crested
     Flycatcher...Then he flung his body into the air!
       
                                        -Author Unknown

This was a wonderful surprise to get in the mail.  I have known Cort since I was a little girl.  He was about the same age as my father and my Uncle Bob.  But unlike his cousins who married right after World War II and created their own Baby Boom with 16 children between them, he was the Playboy Bachelor type.  He always had a Porsche and a fast motorboat and a pretty girlfriend.  One of my fondest childhood memories is going with Cort in his boat to watch the fireworks in Annapolis near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on the Fourth of July.  He later finally succumbed to the charms of a beautiful lady and got married.  She just happened to be the heiress to a Fortune 500 company.  They had one child.  I saw them about ten years ago at a beautiful horse farm that Lani was building near Asheville, North Carolina.  They are now divorced, and Cort lives in a condo on the water where he has a wonderful world of nature to photograph.

I also decided to journal my thoughts about my recent bad luck, healthwise.  The collaged papers are scraps from a watercolor test page and some Gee's Bend quilt pictures from Keepsake Catalog.  Note the very fat lower leg!

Tonight I am going to the Capital Quilters Guild meeting.  My friend Janice offered to drive me so I don't have to hoof it all across the parking lot, which is hilly and sometimes involves walking across a mulched area.  Sure don't want to fall again!

The Viewer's Choice voting for the Heritage Days auction quilt will be held during the meeting.  I am hoping that the Heritage Star quilt made by my Whacky Ladies bee will make a good showing.

Not-So-Good News

I did not do so well yesterday at my appointment with the foot specialist.   I reported pain in the back of my calf, which I thought was a sore muscle from all the limping.  He sent me right away to a nearby hospital for a blood test that screens for blood clots. 

That was positive, so then I had to go to a hospital farther away in Raleigh for a Venous Doppler test.  Sure enough, I have a blood clot, or Deep Vein Thrombosis, in my leg.  After many hours at the hospital for more blood tests and learning about my new medical regime, they let me come home.

I was very happy not to be admitted to the hospital, and I am very happy that my wonderful doctor recognized that I might have a blood clot.  They caught it pretty early. 

I'm not so happy to have a blood clot, in addition to a sprained ankle., Or to be on Coumadin and injecting myself twice a day with Heparin.  But, you do what you gotta do, right?

 I was planning to attend a going-away party on Thursday for my father at the retirement home in Boone where he lived for six years.  Instead, I have to attend the Anticoagulant Clinic at Rex Hospital on Friday to check my blood levels.  But, they said I could travel to the mountains if I prop my foot up and stop for a break on the way.  So, I am looking forward to going back to the mountains next weekend.

I'm supposed to keep my leg elevated, so probably won't be doing any painting for the next few days.  Maybe I will get out some of the art quilts from my Pamela Allen online classes and work on the hand stitching. I have quite a few of those piled up!  Here is one of them that is ready to stitch.

Lame Excuse

Sorry about no blogging for the past few days.  We left Friday for our mountain cabin, where we met various family members, including the grand-kids.  After some torrential rains on Friday, Saturday was a great day.  We stayed down at the creek.  The kids took turns floating down the creek in a tube, either with an adult or with an adult catching them before they got to the spillover at the dam.

It was pretty muddy, so there was a lot of slipping on the banks.  I got stung by a bumblebee on my ring finger, which swelled up so bad I thought they might have to cut my rings off.  That turned out to be the least of my worries.

It was fun to see cousins Bryson and Jason together with their families.   They grew up almost as close as brothers.  Jason was on vacation up there all week, and got his head shaved while he was there.

We went up the mountain after supper for a gorgeous sunset Gator ride.

If I had just stayed in the Gator, I would have been okay.

Shortly after the above picture was taken, we stopped in the pine woods.  I got out to walk with granddaughter Lily, fell, and hurt my ankle.

When we got home Sunday Charlie took me to the emergency room for x-rays.  No fracture noted, but a severe sprain.  I got a brace and some good drugs.  I already had crutches from having had bunion surgery in the past.

So, I have been doing R.I.C.E.- Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.  I took Oxycontin yesterday, but by nighttime I starting getting sick to my stomach.  Now, take my word for it, it is not good to have to run to the bathroom to vomit when you have a sprained ankle.

Anyway, I feel a little better today, but still can't walk.  I guess I will be in physical therapy in the near future.

Maybe I will feel like doing a little hand work while I am in the sitting phase!