Day 972

Why would anyone have three shots in their knee joint before heading to work? (It originally started like this, but then the doctor also brought in an even bigger shot to add to the bunch.)

Just look at the length of those needles. And guess what? I have to go back next week and the week after to have the same thing.

So again, the question...why would anyone go through that? The story is in the pictures.

What you are looking at is an X-ray underneath a knee cap. See the large, even, curved spacing under the kneecap?

And take a look at mine. Notice anything missing? So until I can have a knee replacement we're adding synthetic synovial fluid, cortisone, and another drug in the mix to try and provide some lubrication/ relief. So fun.

Day 971

What do Christmas stockings for 205 soldiers in Afghanistan look like?

And the sewing continues.

Day 970

I know my elf is expecting to see a picture here tonight of the 100 stockings she sewed over my way. But I had more pressing issues at hand. Issues like trying to determine what could cause a sewing machine to get a bit of a hitch in its giddy up.

After some finagling it became pretty apparent what the problem was. When you have this much stuff clogging up a machine - and that's just around the bobbin area - it's no wonder the machine wasn't operating as well on stocking number 400 as it was on stocking number one. Looks pretty tinted with that red felt I've been using.

Day 969

I enlisted the help of an elf today. Two sewing machines operating at the same time from opposite sides of the table created this. Depending on the time of the day it was either a great project or a big ole mess. Come back tomorrow and find out our total. (It's 11:00 PM and we're still working so no number yet.)

Day 968

The best reason for sitting through a day-long meeting in Boise? I get to see kiddo. And her kitty.

And the pumpkins kiddo and fiancé carved.

Day 967

1. Cut fabric.

2. Sew from top, down around toe, up to heel. 

3. Open stocking and sew felt cuff across top. 

4. Pull felt up out of the way and sew from heel to top. 

5. Turn stocking inside out. 

6. Sew felt edges together. 

6 steps take a very long time when you're talking about hundreds of stockings so I use the assembly line method. At first it was in groups of 25 at a time. Then it was 50 at a time. And now it has become a few hundred at a time. 

At least for steps one and two, that is...

Day 966

Straight from the doctor's report on the ultrasound I had the other day:
"worsening disease activity as compared to prior scan despite infusions."

That'll start your day off well. Add to that another trip to the eye doctors, a follow up from a couple weeks ago. Did you know you can have arthritis of the eye? That's enough to keep your day rolling smoothly. I so wanted to try and go shopping by myself but between a meeting this morning, those two wonderful pieces of news, three separate conversations with three other doctor's offices...and I was defeated. Defeated and tired.

So here we go again. Another night of collapsing in the chair unable to move. I'm not sure any stockings will get sewn together tonight. If I get a burst of energy I'll get there. Otherwise it's time to keep admiring things in my Joann's box. Pretty fabric and thread snips. I love thread snips!