Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber

This is not me in there but pretty close to what the chamber I am using looks like. The one I am using has a TV on top for cable TV, which I don't have at home or you can watch movies.

Just to give people a look-see.

Kiss finally finished

I think it is finally done. I just had to embroider the title on this. Kiss Me Once Before You Go, Make It Long Enough to Last Forever.

Kind of says it all about the loss of someone to dementia. They may be there physically but their brain is functioning on a different plane, never to return to your reality. It's a concept that is hard to grasp, but until you accept the reality it is very hard to deal with the day to day part of life. You lose someone twice. First to the loss of their reality and and then when physical death occurs. A lot of times the caregiver succumbs first. It is very stressful. I lost my mom in 2010 to the disease and it is very prevalent on her side of the family along with diabetes. Things to look forward too!

But hey, life continues and as my grandfather would have said Make hay while the sun shines!

I will have 10 of the 40 sessions of Hyperbaric in on Monday. I watched a lot of HGTV. Just never have them put the Housewives of Orange Co on. Yowsa. It takes 10 -15 minutes of time to get to the depth of 33' under water. You are not technically under water but the pressure is there. Then you spend 90 minutes under pressure and another 10 to 15 minutes resurfacing. So far so good, my foot is a lot better. The side effect is that my blood pressure rises dangerously high. I am adding beet juice to my diet and dropping all fast food as a result, we shall see. I don't want to go on BP pills but I may have to.

And I am still cranking things out. Called The Lovelies this is my great aunt Kitty and I think her sister in law. I used a new mezzotint effect. I am excited and have ideas for more pieces. Upward and onward.

Alone

My grandmother sitting in her backyard. I don't think she knew I was taking this.

Face

hands

Not Really Silence

Well not really, I have been making hoops to decorate a tree in front of FAVA, the group that hosts the Artist as Quiltmaker show that happen this summer. There is a huge tree in front of the building. In the past we have quilt bombed it, last time it was decorated with long stitched quilt panels, this time we are making hula hoops that will hang from the tree. They will be joined together somehow. I now have 12 smaller hoops to do, which is actually harder than making big hoops. Well, in my mind it is harder. But thats me.

I have an appointment with a surgeon about reconstructing my foot, people have told me he is the best and it does work. I have orientation for the hyperbaric oxygen sessions on Monday. It takes some time to get all that together, it includes an EKG which takes 5 minutes to do after you spend an hour doing paperwork and waiting for the person doing the paperwork to have time to do the paperwork. Didn't we say in the 80s that we were going to go paperless? Yeah, right!

And I am doing the the hanging apparatus and labels for a few quilts for display this December. I always wait until they have some place to hang. But, hey, that's me!

Still working

Yup, still working though the foot is a problem. I am hooked up to a wound vac 24/7. It putt-putts along and has reduced the wound on the bottom of my foot but it is still at a depth that stretches to an infected bone. I am being evaluated for 40 trips to a hyperbaric oxygen system. There will be a report on the experience to follow.

In the meantime the Dementia series is continuing on, This a portrait of my maternal grandmother . All of her grandchildren called her Mom. She lived on a 100 acre farm, we lived across the street, so we were over there every day and she ate dinner with us every night.

This is called Alone.  The dots behind just organically happened. Kind of freaky when you look at something and think I've got an idea! And then it actually works. Who knows where these ideas come from, experience and being open to anything. I am making things for my enjoyment.

Keep your fingers crossed I get this foot fixed, it's been 10 months. Its time.

I've Been Working

I have been making weekly visits to the local Wound Care Center and now have a wound vac attached to my foot. It's been a rough process. It seems to be working. Hopefully it will finally heal up but I may never be able to to take daly walks or mow my lawn.

But the good news is I can still sew! And I have been. Our critique group The Tens is having an exhibit in December at St Pauls Episcopal church. And Textile Art Alliance is having a member show at Ursuline College in December also.

I have been working on several pieces about Dementia.

This is called Kiss Me Once Before You Go, Long Enough to Last Forever. The story of my grandparents celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary but my grandfather
was suffering from dementia and longer recognized his wife.

Despite all my measuring the top came out pretty wonky. I added a lot of hand stitched "kisses" to make use of the "problem." I think it makes it better.

Famous?!

A legend in my own mind? Naw! You can go to WKYC.com, in the upper left corner is a pull down menu, go down to Leon Bibb and pull down. You will find my interview. Leon was so wonderful in his questioning and interest in what I was doing. They filmed all over the house and I explained many of the pieces. It was very easy to talk to him. Of course he is a master interviewer, having been in the business for years, mostly producing local interest pieces and having a half hour weekly local program. Fun.

I have been trying to stay off my poor foot it has been getting slowly worse so I have a new doctor who seems a bit more aggressive in treatment and we are trying something new tomorrow but it means I will totally have to stay off the foot. I may need a volunteer to cook and do a load of laundry once a week. But I can sew! I have 3 projects lined up, bought 8 spools of thread, have 2 new ideas and most of the materials for 1 of them. Go me.

Plus I got 3 new books coming from Amazon. I can only stand so much daily TV shows. Court shows or gossip? You know there are only 3 soap operas left, not that I watch those.

Above is a hint at what I am working on, it seems like it's taking forever but it is large.