Rewind to 14th March.

I'm sorry not to have posted before but the surgery on the 18th March has left me feeling like I'd been run over by several very heavy vehicles, all at once.  On the other hand it wasn't too bad. I'll tell you a little more about the experience but before that John and I went away for his birthday weekend. On Thursday evening I  completed the flowers to the right of the yellow flowers. I'm really enjoying stitching this tablecloth but since my surgery I haven't yet done any work on it.

The weekend was warm and sunny  and we had great sunsets on the Friday and Saturday.

We went bird watching on Saturday. We had two very restful days and the weather was perfect, warm and sunny. On the Sunday I visited my favourite quilt shop, Midsomer Quilting. The shop has just been voted the UK's Favourite Quilting Shop. They have a fabulous range of fabrics, and they are such a friendly and helpful crew. They always have some quilts on display. The first on was made by De Pickford, the owner. I couldn't fit the whole quilt into the photo

A few years ago the shop moved from a previous located that always had cows in the surrounding field. The staff decided to make a cow quilt with each of them completing a block. There is still some quilting to be done on the quilt but the binding has been added so it could be displayed. I love these quirky cows and they all have slightly different expressions.

On Monday 17th March I went into work to finish up some bits and so I could visit older daughter and grandson for dinner. 

On Tuesday 18th March Lucy accompanied me to the surgical lounge at 7 am and then it seemed a rush to get all the pre op bits done, but in reality no one rushed me and everything was explained in amazing detail. The team answered all my, and my daughter's questions. Once one of the surgeons realised she is training to be a nurse they were even more willing to explain everything to her. Within half an hour my abdomen was covered in black marker pen having been measured in all directions. I signed my consent, which took some time as they went through all the procedure and all the possible problems and how they would deal with them. The duty of candour legislation that came into effect a while ago now, is excellent. My daughter accompanied me to the door of the anaesthetic room, which helped both of us stay calm. The anaesthetist made sure the warming blanket was delivering air at a lovely warm temperature before he made a start on the anaesthetic drugs. The last thing I remember was him telling me he was about to start injecting the medication. The most difficult part of the day was taking deep breaths of oxygen before falling asleep.

I was physically in theatre for 11 and half hours but the operation was shorter. I am amazed at the surgeon's stitching. Oh if only I could get my hand stitching that neat and all the stitches were the same size! I stayed in the post anaesthetic care unit until late evening of the following day and then moved to a general ward. All has gone well and I came home late on Friday evening. My family have been amazing and everything is progressing well. I have an appointment with the plastic team next Monday.

As anyone who has had surgery knows your brain becomes unable to concentrate for any length of time and lengthy naps are an important requirement. I took my knitting with me and also some embroidery. The embroidered table cloth stayed in my bag but I did a little work on the fish block for the frog quilt.

I also started the left front of my knitting. Several people have said it looks too small but it is knitting up exactly as it should. It doesn't fasten but has a large fold back collar that goes from the edge of the ribbing on the left to the edge of the ribbing on the right side. When I was knitting both the blue cardigan and the green jumper I worried they would be too small but they both fit perfectly.

Last evening I got out the Japanese panel and measured each of the  individual designs. I want to enlarge this quilt and split up the areas using sashiko. I will be playing with layout later but it may just stay in the current placement with the sashiko inserted.

Post op brain is a real problem. It took me about 3 hours to measure all the parts and check I'd measured them right. On the up side it made me sleep extremely well. Unfortunately doing anything is very tiring but it is a little better each day. Today I plan on going out for a very short walk. I've stayed indoors for days now and I really need to feel the sun and the breeze on my face. I won't be quilting in the near future as both quilts that need doing are heavy but I will look on my March planner and see what I can do sitting down and that won't be too tiring. 

I need to get on with the embroidered tablecloth. This is nice an lightweight so I'll spend some time today working on it. That's all for now as I need a nap before I can get on with some embroidery. I also need to catch up reading the blogs I follow.

Take care 

Lyndsey