On the other side of crisis

Two days after my last post, I had a stroke. Now, "stroke" conjures certain things for most people including me, and those things didn't apply. In short, on Tuesday night, Jan. 27, Brian came out of his room and started a political discussion which immediately raised my stress level. Rick deals with those things less passionately, so I went to the barn to do chores and then to our room to put clean sheets on our bed. When I bent over and was hit with a "thunderclap headache" and nausea, I knew something bad had happened in my brain. I walked out to the great room to tell Rick I wasn't feeling well, and he rushed me to the nearest emergency room, where they took a CT scan and handed me off like a hot potato to OHSU, the best regional neurosurgical center. Diagnosis: a subarachnoid hemorrhage resulting in hydrocephalus, requiring an external ventricular drain. I was in the NSICU for over a week (I was told it would be weeks), moved for one day to the neuro ward, and was discharged on Feb. 6 with no deficits or restrictions, other than not overdoing it.

head drain, borrowed glasses, and borrowed 'clothes'

OHSU had some great salads when I could make myself eat

NOT hospital food; Rick brought IN this heavenly pistachio cannoli

Perfect sentiment from social media for me!

The o'dark thirty view from my neuro ward room

The daylight view from my room

I managed to do a tiny bit of spinning on my last day at OHSU

Home again, home again with my dear doggy

a view from my bedroom

seen on my first venture outside Thursday

a bright pot of spring flowers from our church family

another view from my bedroom

Valentine chocolates from our sweet son (Dubai; oh my!)

My guys were great support while I was in hospital and have continued to be so after discharge. Poppy has been the best little nursemaid; maybe if she had been allowed into OHSU I would have been discharged even sooner. 😊 Of course I'm still on a boatload of drugs and am thankful for them; my head and sciatica would be much worse without them. Oh yeah; after a week of laying in a hospital bed my sciatica returned with a vengeance, which has been a more debilitating problem than my 'stroke head.' It was a good thing I was released on a Friday night, because it took all weekend before the sciatic spasms abated enough that I could try moving somewhat safely on my own.

'Stroke head' is a thing, folks. Even though I no longer need the 'brain drain,' the lining of my brain is still being irritated by the presence of blood where it's not supposed to be, which I was told could take up to a month for my body to absorb. Things like sudden changes of position, bending over, concentration on things like the small screen of my iPhone hurt my head, but sensitivity to light and sound have improved greatly. I am slowly and carefully able to do more; tomorrow I am hoping to be escorted to the barn so I can visit my horses and sheep. I can't drive until I'm off all my meds, so my home place is my world for now. Life could be sooo much worse.

That's it for now from . . .

'Reality' is only getting worse

Except, perhaps, for the filthy rich. But even for them, a Divine reckoning is coming....

After a few days of togetherness for my remaining eight ewes, little Miss Bernice, she of the teenage fling with her half-brother, starting escaping from the wooded lot. She is the smallest sheep I have thanks to her growth-stunting pregnancy, and she figured out she could squeeze under the old wire fence to graze the grassy verges of the driveway. I did my best to block her escape route, however inelegantly, and that seems to have done the trick.

In the meantime, I was sent this wonderful photo of the third of my ewes who left:

I must say they got a nice variety of colors and patterns. The little girl said she was going to rename one of them "Mary" because of "Mary had a little lamb." (Hmm; shouldn't she have renamed herself?)

My Inglenook Fibers/silk hankies yarn when my silk singles ran out:

I need to do a serious stash dive to see if I have anything that would be close enough to ply with the rest of the IF singles. If I don't, I may just ply it on itself and set it aside. The 2-ply I have should be plenty for a soft, warm neck accessory.

I've also finished spinning over half my navy SW merino/alpaca top on my Dovekies; four more ounces to spin before deciding whether to make this a 2-ply or ply it with something else.

Other miscellaneous photos I've made since my last post follow, some with explanatory captions.

New & shiny (we had to replace our 23-year-old range)

the Yarn Harlot featured this recipe during Veganuary and I had to make it; YUM!

sunset by horseback, above and below

Big Dipper

Orion

"Neighborhood Watch"

That's it for now from . . .

More eggs, fewer sheep

With the gradually lengthening daylight (and mostly sunny days this month), the hens are slowly increasing production. Not fast enough for the people wanting to buy eggs, though....

Speaking of buyers, the people who came to buy three ewes last Friday left with four! Good thing I had spent time pouring over last year's micron test data, because when they hinted at being open to taking a fourth ewe, I knew who I should let go. So Bauble joined Boop, Bonnie Lass, and Blossom for the trip south to their new home. I admit to some pangs, because I thought Bauble was my most beautiful Shetland, and since her dam Blaise is gone I can't try to replicate her. Just the night before, Rick stayed in the Sheep Sheraton awhile after carrying a bucket for me and I caught him loving on Bauble.

After the four left, I put the three 'barn sheep' out in the wooded lot with the remaining girls so they could figure out the new social order and live together. Since some of the 'mean girls' had left, I was hopeful that no one would get hurt in the kerfuffle and by this morning, all seemed copacetic, thankfully.

I continue to be delighted with my new iPhone's camera capabilities. On my way home from work Thursday, snow-covered Mt. Hood was shining in the sun so I pulled over at the bottom of our hill to see what I could capture. Finally, a true representation of what I get to enjoy with my naked eye!

Evening photo of dark yarn? No problem!

Besides spinning navy singles, I'm plying two very different singles I spun last year into what for me is an experimental 2-ply:

Not sure I'd wear these colors, though, so this yarn might be knit into a gift.

That's it for now from . . .