Just checking in…

I wanted to thank everyone again for your comments and support – you just keep coming back! Nice to hear from some lurkers too 😉 I’m still avoiding spending too much time on the pc so I’m still not emailing individuals right now, but I’m slowly on the mend. Kind of. I’ve got another 3 weeks of physio, but keep getting ill, which aggravates the nerve which makes me feel worse again. I had an infection which needed antibiotics last week. This week I have a cold. But I am slowly on the mend, really I am!
This blog is turning into a miserable moany place right now, so apologies for that. And I’m still not knitting. But Santa kindly brought the following knitting goodies:
Knitted Icons – absolutely hilarious 😀
Knitting New Scarves – very interesting and inspirational. I’ll use it to learn new techniques but I’m not convinced that I’d use many of the patterns as they are. It definitely makes the old scarf knitting more intriguing though!
A ball of sock yarn from Germany – Rico Design Superna Print 4ply. It looks a bit like a ball of Regia self patterning yarn, but there aren’t many pics online except for the 6 ply which doesn’t have any knitted swatches. It is kind of a mix of cream, light brown and dove grey, so nice and tweedy looking. No idea whether it will come out as faux fair isle or whether it will just be mottled…
Also in the crafty goodness I got a couple of very very fab Aranzi Aronzo books. If you haven’t seen these before – go look. Their site is fab, and more and more of their books are getting translated from Japanese to English now. They are supercute 😀
BUT, seeing as I can’t really utilise any of these yet, I’ve been obsessing over my new Nintendo DS Lite, and the joy that is Pokemon Pearl… Oops 😉
Ok, need breakfast so I can take my tablet before today’s physio session. Hopefully back soon with more interesting stuff!
In the meantime, I hope you have all had a wonderful peace and love filled Christmas, and that the new year brings all that you desire.

Ooooch!

Ok, think I may have mentioned this, but I have been diagnosed as having T4 syndrome. Physio is going well even if I do have to wait till the end of the week to see them again 🙁
But I just screwed up I think :S I sat down more heavily than I planned on the sofa and *crunch* at the top of my back and an odd feeling in my throat. No pain though, so keep your fingers crossed it is just a release of tension in the spine – like when you crick your fingers or something… I had a really bad night last night, with lots of problems finding a comfy position and lots of aches and pains in the morning.
Ugh. Not sure can deal with another source of discomfort…

Rattling

Awww, you guys are fab 🙂
I won’t be replying individually right now until I’m happier with using the laptop, but trust me, I love you all 🙂 Out of curiosity, has anyone else ever been prescribed these:
Diclofenac 50mg, Omeprazole 20mg and Amitriptyline 10mg? They are what the doc gave me yesterday. Took the Ami last night and it was the first good night I’ve had in a while, although I felt a bit strange, and am a bit fuzzy this morning (albeit no worse than usual ;D), with a slight nausea and wind (but that could be the pasta and quorn I had last night – is good to eat things again :D). I’ve just taken the Omeprazole because, whether I take the Diclofenac or not, it can’t do any harm given all the stuff I’ve had to take recently. Am a bit scared of taking the Diclofenac because of how strong it is, although a lot of people have had it with the Omeprazole for trapped nerves and have sung its praises through the roof! Am mildly asthmatic, but if I can take ibuprofen, I can apparently take diclofenac too. Reading the side effects lists always freaks me out with tablets though – makes me paranoid.
But, frankly, just not having to get up and being able to stay home is making me feel better. I read somewhere that relaxation and sleep is one of the best fixes for trapped nerves, and at the moment I’m inclined to agree! As is the prospect of some good massage from a lady at work, and some good physio/chiro/anything really!

An update

Visit to the docs today. The lady I saw today is FAB. She’s the loveliest, kindliest doctor – in spite of my appointment being an urgent one (and therefore supposed to be 5 mins and no more) she spent all the time I needed with her and told me not to rush, and made me feel much better just by being so nice.
I’m signed off work for 2 weeks, and have 1) super strong anti inflammatory tablets 2) super strong antacid tablets to stop me from suffering from the first tablets and 3) some stuff to take at night so that any pain or discomfort is super reduced. I dare not take the superstrong stuff yet today, but after all the prodding and manipulating the doctor did, I feel a little better again (even if I apparently have LOTS of muscle areas that have been struck down by the nerve issue), so hopefully the night stuff will be enough with some bog standard pills for the night.
I should be more normal by the end of the week, but the nerve will still just have to heal by itself. I’m fine with that, but the question is how long will it take, and how can I help it along? Need to get physio sorted out I think (the place I originally booked into is a bit nasty looking now I’ve checked it out, so I’m trying somewhere else!)…
And maybe, given the Socktopus club package getting posted this week, I’ll have nice things to post about instead of horrid things where you get fed up of me moaning. And you see pretty things. And maybe by the end of the week, instead of watching mad dvd/tv stuff, I’ll be able to knit a little again…

poop.

It is 12.40am on a Monday morning, and I’m in pain. Serious pain for the first time with this bizarre illness thing. Stupid trapped nerve. Have booked myself in for physio this week, with no referral from the doc because he didn’t give me any pain killers or anything. I’m going back today if I can get in to see whether he approves.
Ouch. I had the old burning sensation and muscle spasms that freaked me out and made me get up and check that they are actually normal for a trapped nerve. Which they are. Not had those ones before 🙁 But my mate is also up late and has been chatting and soothing me very well indeed. Cheers Cath 😀 And the aceness that is Tiger Balm too. Tiger Balm is my new best friend.
Ok, maybe will try and sleep now… Night all.

Nothing spectacular. Well, actually that depends…

There is knitting, and I made it in probably an evening’s worth of time, mainly last week, and most of it on the Friday night. A friend at work asked if I could make her a beret, and bought some massively chunky yarn for it (about 2.5 sts per inch), so I ended up working out a stitch count based on another hat’s size, then just making it up as I went along. It is just a couple of rows of ribbing, some increasing to make a lip, and some decreasing to make the rest of the hat. The decreasing is a bit wonky on one side, but it should ease out with wearing and washing. It is also rather teacosy-ish 🙂 and probably a bit baggy on the rib as the chunky yarn, the fibre and the rib don’t seem to go together. And it has a bit of a nipple at the top :D. I’m going to offer to reknit it if it isn’t suitable, particularly given that it didn’t take very long once I’d got going, but if it is ok, fine by me!
I’ve decided to re-evaluate my knitting basket too. I think I ought to frog one or two things, finish off the good stuff (like the colour work socks), but mainly concentrate again on the knits I owe people. Luckily these people are very very nice and understanding 🙂 The little sock swap I’m participating in needs some socks, so I’m not going to start any other socks until those are done. I don’t want to overload my tiny brain with projects right now.
Oh, and Laila’s socks are finished 😀
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Apologies for the poor photo quality – it has done nothing but rain and snow this weekend 🙁 I had to use the flash at 2pm :S I started them in October and finished them last weekend eeeeeeeeeee! I’m so happy with them! I messed up the pattern a bit, which you luckily wouldn’t know by looking, plus I made the first one a bit short so I added 3 more rows before the toe decreases and they were fine 😀 Still not a massive fan of Opal Uni, but it does well as a work horse yarn, and did the job very well for these. The pattern is pretty easy for a stranded sock, but I don’t know if the edition I borrowed from work is an older one or not, as the instructions and what the chart says don’t quite match (hence the mistakes cos I just followed the chart). I did one less repeat on the leg, and I’m left with 56g of the brown and 70-odd g of the pink, so plenty left over for more stranded knitting 😀 Probably the tangled garden pattern on Knitty…
In other news, life is improving now the virus is sneaking out the back door. Stick with me on this one – there is something quite cool at the end…
Last Saturday was the first time I’ve felt well outside of work, so DB and I took a walk in the woods with a camera, and headed up to the local farm shop for some tasty treats. It was the perfect winter day – crisp and cold (we soon warmed up climbing up the hill in the mud through the woods though), yet beautifully sunny with blue sky all over the place. This is in contrast to the ‘showers’ we had late last night, with thunder and lightening right above the house and frightening the cat. DB took some amazing photos I just have to share, but you can easily see why it felt like the first really wonderful day I’ve had in a long time. He took loads more than this, but these are my faves.
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I should point out too that I went back to work last week too. It was really really tough. The first few days I felt like I might collapse at some point, but I managed and by the end of the week I felt almost normal, apart from a need to do strange arm exercises that look like I’m waving at someone. Now perhaps I should have gone back to the doctors earlier and asked for another week of sick leave, but really, I felt the need to get back on my feet and get going again. And also I didn’t really want to miss the chance to do this:
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That’s me with the hair in bunches, sat next to my blurry line manager in the subject office (blurry because she couldn’t quite believe that certain gentleman had come to chat with us proles :D). And for those people who don’t recognise him with that small furry mammal on his upper lip and the university regalia, the gentleman chatting to me is Patrick Stewart 😀 He’d come to officially open the newly refurbished library/student centre, and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time 😀 I missed him going in to the part where I work to shake hands with everyone thanks to having to, you know, do work and stuff :/ but this was totally worth missing the hand shaking 😀
You see – Pat and me, like that we are now [crosses fingers to demonstrate closeness].
Heeeheee!