Medically-Induced Coma

Good morning, my friends. It was a day with no quilting. It wasn't planned that way, but my morning doctor's appointment wore me out. It wasn't terribly stressful, and the news I got wasn't unexpected. Nevertheless, I still have no answers, and that left me feeling kind of glum for the remainder of the day. I'll say more about this at the end of my post. If you're not interested in someone's health-related woes, you'll be happy to have me leave it for the end so you can make your escape. Don't worry, I'll warn you.

So let's just see if anything else was accomplished. Before I left, I had some time for some slow-stitching. 

Later in the day, I finished it off while we watched the news.

Here are the four blocks I have for this quilt so far. 

I was kind of burned out on the quilting, and a day off sounded good. Instead, I went to work on February's Inverted Star block. I had a lot of help with this.

February's block is green. Smitty helped me choose the fabrics for this. He's good with greens...like green grass and the green of his eyes. Yep...green is a solid color. The color of money. And honestly, these look delicious to him.

I got as far as cutting the pieces I'd need. Somehow I miscounted when I cut the background pieces, and so I needed more of those too.

I want to get back to my quilting today. There are three rows left to quilt. Two rows is a big bite, and so it's doubtful I'll have enough energy to add in the third. Nevertheless, I expect the quilting will be finished tomorrow, one way or another.

Last night's dinner was a new recipe. This was pretty easy to do...easy enough to add it to my RV recipe list. This is Spicy Marmalade Chicken and Sweet Potatoes. A simple marinade is mixed up for the chicken. I used bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, but you could also do this with boneless, skinless thighs. The chicken needed to go in the marinade for a minimum of a half hour. When I had that going, I cut up the sweet potatoes and put those in the oven to roast. After ten minutes, the chicken was added to the same sheet pan and returned to the oven to roast until it was done. 

And that was a tasty dinner. We liked it. When I see the word "spicy" in a recipe, I've learned to turn down the spice some. For this, I used only half the amount of crushed red pepper. We didn't actually notice any heat from that, but I'd still do it the same way. If you like more spice, then by all means, add the full amount. It's your stomach.

Since I knew I'd be finishing off the sheep yesterday, I traced out the ninth block for "A Year in the Garden."

These are the blocks I have for this quilt so far.

And that's where I'm headed next. Maybe breakfast first. 

Okay, so here's the story with my shoulder. Way back on December 28th, the day we left on our trip, I noticed my left shoulder was aching. I chalked it up to the effort required to carry laundry baskets full of my belongings out to the RV the week before. It seemed odd, though, because I'd been working out on the Bow-Flex a couple of times a week. I'm not trying to look like Mrs. Universe, but I use enough resistance to maintain strength. So...okay...maybe my shoulder was sore from that. Only...it never got any better.

About a month into our trip, I decided to try a strategy a doctor had given me for my knee a while back. He described this treatment as "2-2-2." Two naproxen (Aleve), twice per day, for two weeks. So, I did that. It made no difference whatsoever. It gave me no pain relief, and it was no worse when I stopped taking it. 

Okay...so inflammation is apparently not the problem. Since then, I've just been living with it since the end of December until I could see the doctor yesterday. He's the same doctor who treated my shoulder fracture a few years back (different shoulder), and I like him a lot. He was conservative about recommending any surgery for my shoulder fracture, and it turns out, no surgery was needed. I can trust a doctor like that.

So yesterday, I got x-rays, which didn't show much. They showed the expected arthritic changes you'd  see in a person born during the 14th Century. (I've carted a lot of wagons in that time.) The doctor believes it is a torn rotator cuff, and that makes sense to me. It would explain the sudden onset too. Okay, so that means I need an MRI. He was concerned, however, because a lot of insurance companies are requiring a trial of either physical therapy, or injections, or both, before authorizing the expense of an MRI. He's ordered the MRI, but he also gave me a referral for PT, just in case. 

As it stands, I'm waiting to see what will happen with the MRI. Will they authorize it? If so, that would be the best case scenario. Will they insist I try PT and/or injections first? It's unknown at this point. It left me feeling kind of bummed at having no answer and no solution in sight. It's painful to the point that it's doubtful I can participate in PT in a way that would be helpful. I fear it will only make the problem worse. I'd be willing to try the injection, but that probably won't help either. I'm hopeful they'll just authorize the MRI and we can get on with whatever surgery is required to repair it. And that's where it stands. Maybe today will bring some answers. I'll keep you updated when I learn anything new.

Okay, standing up straight now. A day awaits. Slow-stitching is next.