82. FabricTwine Basket

I saw the cardiologist last week and he was about 20 mins late. There was a lady who was an assistant who gave me one of those gowns, fabric, but I told her not to worry I didn’t mind just having my top off. She stuck a whole bunch of wires onto me in various places around my chest and abdomen. They were attached to a box on a cord which she put around my lower chest, about where my ribs ended, and clipped the buckle and then tightened it. She asked me to lie down and she did a ECHO but not quite as long as the other ones I’ve done. That took about 10 mins and then the cardiologist came in and he got me walking on the treadmill that was in the room. It started off quite slow and he said every 3 mins it would get faster. He kept up a conversation with me. I did tell him about my left knee and the osteoarthritis and I probably wouldn’t be able to run. He said it wouldn’t get that fast. After it went faster the 3rd time he asked if I needed a break from talking and I said no. I wasn’t breathless and it was a fast walk. If it had gone quicker I would’ve felt like I needed to run. He asked then what sort of exercise I did and so I told him. “I wish all my patients did what you do. You are very fit and it shows. Your heart it doing everything it should and it looks healthy”. I ask him why I get the palpitations, racing heart, and dizzy when I am lying and then move to sit and standing. He said he can’t discount that there isn’t some underlying thing going on that his test doesn’t show up. I called about POTS and he said that it could be possible and I am doing everything I should to counteract it. Just keep eating well, exercising like I do and stay hydrated all the time. Be careful when getting up and go slowly. He did say that all my treatments and medications, plus the Covid in January could be reasons for the weird things my body does. My body have been through a lot of trauma so it only takes a tiny little bit out of ordinary to give a bit response.

I’ve also been back to see Renee at Restore. My right side boob scar and surrounds have been slower healing after the radiation and are tighter than the left side. There is a light therapy that Restore does and it helps break down scar tissue. It really helps. I’ll see her again next couple of weeks too. I still do stretches and massage every day. It’s hard work maintaining mobility after major surgery. She also put me on the lymphoedema reading machine. My fluid score has gone down quite a bit. Heading further into the green section. She said that was excellent work and to keep doing what I'm doing. I’ve used a couple of my Allied Health Medicare rebate referrals from my GP. That leaves 3 more to use for the year.

I saw the psychologist yesterday and we had a good chat again. She has been such a help the last year or so. I see her about once a month. Compared to the last month I saw her I'm doing much better. We talked about how to concentrate each day on ways to Soothe, Nourish & Nurture the nervous system. Adrenal overload could be part of the reason for my heart palpitations and dizzy head feelings. Even if it isn’t it is important to focus on self care. Even if it’s just 5 mins a day it can help. Part of my soothing and nourishing yesterday and today was making a fabric twine basket out of the edges of old sheets. These were in the scraps I picked up from Susannah's sewing shop a week or so ago. The photo for this post is the finished basket. I'm uploading this post on my iPad as for some reason on my laptop my photos don't want to upload. It's probably a setting I haven't found yet.

Monday was my 10th Zoladex injection at my GP. 10 months so far on that medication, 6 months on letrazole and 5 months on abemaciclib. Times flies! My medical appointments this month look on the thin side which is very nice. I am driving Pither to his appointments these days so it’s probably good I have less. It’s giving me time to write this blog post while in the waiting room with him and Mither.

Someone asked me why I call my parents Mither and Pither. Mither is the old Scots word for Mother and seeing as mum has always loved Scotland we started calling her Mither many years ago when I was a teenager. We used to call Dad the Paternal One sometimes and so naturally he became Pither. There is a method in our madness I assure you.

I haven’t sewn on the fish buttons yet. I got stuck into some other sewing projects. One specifically is I have learned how to sew a Manx quilt block. Check out K3nclothtales on YouTube for the tutorial, it's one of her Wonky Wednesday posts. It looks like a log cabin block but it’s all hand sewn and you use your hand and fingers as measurements for the foundation fabric square, hearth square (middle piece) and the strips. You don’t cut them, you put a little cut in the fabric and then rip it. Very satisfying!! I’ve also done some more designing on my hexagon quilt. I now have 301 more hexagons all ready to sew together. If people would like to follow my sewing adventures I am on Instagram.

I hope people had a good Easter if they celebrate it, or I hope people will have a good one if they celebrate at a different date. I think Orthodox Easter is in a month. On Monday we had a family brunch at one of my sisters houses. Not quite the whole family came and one family that wasn’t there have Covid so it’s probably a blessing they didn’t turn up. Delicious made to order omelettes from my brother-in-law. When he lived in the USA he had a business called The Omelette Bar at the local markets every weekend. So we were all spoiled by his delicious creations!! I made some paleo pumpkin scones for desert. They are so delicious!

Talking about Covid, no exercise class this week as Lewis and family has Covid. Their Easter holiday present. I wasn’t going to go to boxing on Wednesday night anyway as it was the Surherland Shire Breast Cancer Support Group meeting. We meet up each month, first Wednesday of the month at Tradies Gymea at 6.30pm.we had a guest speaker who is an exercise physiologist who also has extra oncology. There was a dietitian there too. Very interesting information. Often people who have gone through cancer treatments have issues absorbing nutrients and in turn that means the body can't repair itself well after exercise. It does sound like issues I have been having. I think I'll use some more of my GO referrals to see the dietitian and the exercise physiologist too. He said he can look at my Lewis program and may tweak it a bit based on what my assessment shows. I probably will leave that to do in May. The GP referrals give a discount so I still have to have the money first before Medicare pays $58 back.

Last Wednesday I had another sewing class. I have some tops I like and so we are making patterns out of them so I can make myself some more in fabrics I like. I found some really nice fabric when Spotlight was having 50% off a few weeks ago. Seeing as I have always detested clothes shopping it’s nice to actually enjoy the process of making clothes. I put some pockets in the dress I am making. A lady came in when I was there and she also does slow stitching and follows K3nclothtales and Marion's World. That was fun chatting about our projects.

I've been feeling better more than I've been feeling shitty this week. It's been a nice change. I still get very fatigued and I'm still having issues sleeping but not quite as much. After hearing the talk on Wednesday night about how the body gets into a cycle of trauma and how hard to get out of it, I understand a bit better now and hope to manage my days better. Like now, I need to eat something. Not because I'm hungry, still don't get those signals, but because eating small amount every couple of hours has been working. Except it's been 4 hours. I really need to put alerts on my phone to remind me!