One littleblack thing

In between everything else, I started to crochet whilesitting at the bedin hospital. I do not like very little piddly jobs but this one I picked deliberately to keep my mind busy.
Yesterday I finally completed it. A little black hedgehog/portupine bag for a friend, a very good friend.

Pictures are not great, it is so hard to take photos of black objects, especially with flash indoors, but hope you get the idea.

I used the 1.5 mm hook, so it is quite a piddly job.:D Today it already went to Bilbao for Christmas.

So see, I keep on trying to work on something. I really do.It calms me down a bit.

When a headache will be just a headache again?

The waiting game continues...

Last night child didn’t feel well. Drowsy and sleepy but unable to sleep, complaining about headache in the left lobe. We stayed up late, keeping an eye on her...

I’m wondering when all this will settle in? When a complaint about a headache will not make me jump up high worried that it might be another bout coming, when a headache will be just a headache again?  When I’ll learn to live with all this?

Killing time while in hospital I started to crochet a little handbag but since we returned I haven’t touched it – I just can’t put my mind into it. I will finish it, sure, but when? 

I keep lurking around the quilting blogs, voted on Christmas quilt on Quiltingallery, but I can't compose myself even thinking on anything myself. Maybe, maybe I will pull myself together to make a toy or two. 

Instead I would like to talk with other parents of a MS child, I would like to find an active online community where I would be able to ask questions and get some consolation but... With all my efforts I can’t find any.

Sure, there are some but the ones I found are slow and not actively populated. If you see a topic after a topic getting only few answers over quite a long period of time, there is no point even asking.

Helplines are even worse because answers they can offer you are so PC and regulated, so “trained”.

So all in all, when something like this hits you, you are left alone. Gaining knowledge and the wealth of experience to build your opinions on can’t be gained in just a few days so...

When, oh when a headache will be just a headache again?

LIFE GOES ON

The waiting game is killing me right now. I’m the person who always prefers the known (as bad as it can be) instead of unknown uncertainty. If you know exactly who your enemy is, you can face it. Lurking around in the dark is much harder. 

Doctors had rounded possibilities for us down to two options which is already a good thing. So ADEM or multiple sclerosis? While doctors are counting oligloclonal bands....  

Not to abuse my own nails I abused internet, hour after hour, reading, reading and reading some more. I learned a lot, I must admit.

First of all – nobody knows anything, it’s still not far away from finding a black cat in a dark room....  ADEM or MS, whatsoever.

Secondly, if it’s ADEM, future is still under a big question mark as according to latest studies, over a half of children with ADEM develop MS later. To make it even more certain, girls are more likely to develop MS than boys. 

Okay, okay, I'm not a neurologist, but I'm a mother. I think this diagram is very good for better understanding about initial diagnosis. 

In our case, there hadn’t been inflammatory markers – all bloodwork was fine. Even perfect. So – not typical for ADEM. She is 11yo, so slightly into MS area. Must add that she is quite tall as well - right now 1.71 m. Not obese. Weight 54 kg. There is research results that obese girls have higher risk of MS, so that might indicate more towards ADEM.

Our girl’s test shoved unilateral optic neuritis. Typical for MS. 

Lesions are periventricular, as far as I can read the MRI, typical so called Dawson's Fingers. Another indicator for MS. 

(The full article is here if you are interested.) 

So all in all while still waiting for CSF results and follow up MRI, I have made my mind up that MS is the combination of letters which we must learn to live with sooner or later. 

Anyway, life goes on. 

Christmas wreath must be made and while left hand is still significantly weaker than the right one, wreath can be made. Sadly we must avoid holy as it is protected here but box is in abundance everywhers.

Not a perfect one, but still – first little job for my little one after the hospital. Schoolwork starts tomorrow....

A bang on the head

Life is a funny thing. As soon as you think you have sorted it out, it turns around and bangs you right on the head. Again and again.

I just finished my little verbal patchwork draft and planned to start on „quilting” it when on a Saturday morning two weeks ago my youngest who is eleven, suddenly, loking very scared, annouced that she can’t remember how old is she. From then it went to very confused mind, reduced vision, paralysis of the left side and blurry speech within an hour.

The symptoms looked like a stroke. Ambulance was called and off we went to the hospital.

At the hospital the first scan right from the doorstep sorted it out – no, it’s not a stroke. Now, two weeks later we are back at home but still no much wiser what exactly it is. We do have two options.
ADEM or multiple sclerosis...

Diagnosis is complicated, endless test had been done, still waiting for results, so now the waiting game starts. Waiting for new lesions to appear, waiting for the test results of the lumbar puncture, waiting, waiting, waiting...

Two little lesions in the brain. That’s all she has right now. Funny enough, such small things whipped all numbers out of her head in just a moment. Now she, two weeks later, still unsure, can add 2 plus two, but 9 minus 5 is already too complicated. At the same time everything else regarding brain, seems as good as it was. Language skills havent been lost, she speaks in four languages, handwriting hasn’t changed and she can still producē a decent essay. Only math – she remembers Pythagoras’, but can’t remember very basic arithmetics, numbers are gone and are coming back very, very slowly.

To say that I’m scared... Of course, I’m scared. I’m at my whits end. I will collect myself, I’ll be a strong mum as I’m supposed to be but right now I’m scared. ADEM is bad enough but multiple sclerosis....  

So yes, that nice Saturday morning two weeks ago... November the 30th. Changed my life completely. Again...

Life isn’t a fair game, trust me.  

MY SPECIAL PROJECT COMPLETED!!! (almost)

Let's call it my verbal patchwork quilt!
If you will look at the bar above, you will notice four new pages added named Eagle in the fridge.
All four actually is one, divided in four parts due to the size.
 It's still just a daft but gradually editorial changes are made and one day... who knows... maybe...

If you have courage to read a draft, please, start here and be gentle on my English. I promise, it will be tidied up one day!

ARRIVAL

Winter has a bad habit to creep on you.  You can sit at home back in the North, waiting for it in horror, heating on already in full force, wrapping yourself in blankets... You know that any minute it will arrive. And will hit you hard. 

Or... You can run to the South in hope to escape that monster of a season. You can skip around the Spain in a T-shirt, enjoying sunshine and chasing butterflies until... 

BANG!

BANG!

BANG! 

Winter hits you hard from behind! Unexpected. Even in Spain. Surprise! Surprise!

Only yesterday I was running around in shorts and flip flops (I must admit, it was slightly chilly, but that’s okay, it’s November after all). Today I woke up in horror, gazing at ... WINTER.

All you can do is dive deep in the wardrobe for your warmest anorak and snow boots with a big sight... 

It crept on me. Again. Winter - 1, me – zero. 

Don’t get me wrong, I must admit, it is beautiful. Stunning. Breathtaking.

But... 

I hate cold. I really HATE cold. And flu. Lemsip and wet woollen socks. 

But on the other hand... By some unknown reason I feel rather Christmassy already!  And the only Jingle Bells I have heard so far this year is cowbells in the pastures. 

Maybe winter misery is that ingredient I missed last year, decorating my joke of a tree, made out of palm leaves, listening warm susurration of calm Med? 

Anyway, I completed a little thing which was lurking quite a long time in my sewing box.  Here he is, my little Dudu, finally dressed in a proper jacket.

Dudu was my experiment in size – how small I can manage to go, keeping all the limbs functional. 

Dudu standing height (including ears) is 7,5 cm or exactly 3 inches.  Not the smallest of the bear family but right now Dudu is as small as I can manage. He can sit and stand and turn his head so fully functional little creature. 

His eyes are made out of 3 mm glass beads. His woollen jacket took a little bit of the finest yarn, smallest crochet hook and all day to make but at least now he is ready for the winter as well.

FOG AND STASH CLEARING

My journey continues. I’m still soaking in the beauty of Pyrenees. Last couple of months I learned completely different Spain than usual yellowish dry grass around Ibiza decorated with few bougainvilleas. 

Like moss as lush as you can find in the best rainforests! And I’m on the Med climate side of the mountain; the Atlantic climate border is still some 30 km away. 

The weather... Have you seen a foggy morning in mountains when mist drops down? 

It is fab-luss! My camera gives only a poor resemblance of the breathtaking beauty. 

 The clouds like a stream run down the slopes, making a mountain disappear and appear within just few minutes. 

I try to walk every day, enjoying autumn flowers and beauty of mushrooms.

As usually in October, my knitting bug hit me hard again. Knitting is very seasonal thing for me – I do not knit from April till September, but at the beginning of October the yarn stash is out even if I’m still in T- shirt like right now.  It’s addiction, very hard to cure. 

 

So I dag deep, collected all the leftovers and tried to capture all the colours of the autumn. The hat and the scarf with pockets. It is so crazy in colour so I named it after the famous Cathedral in Barcelona – I’m quite a fan of Gaudi myself.