That'll make the summer interesting!

D had his appointment with the surgeon yesterday and they have decided to go ahead with the operation!! He is amazed as he thought it would be put off again, then the amazement turned to fear as the surgeon explained what they are going to do! I felt really sorry for him, his face just fell. He will be in hospital for at least 10 days and will be fed via a tube in the nose until he starts eating again. The incision will be crossways and go from one side of the chest to the other, so a fairly large recovery time afterwards. The barium xrays he had done were inconclusive as even the liquid barium couldn't get through the blockage, this means they are going in blind and hoping that the intestine is healthy enough to use for the by pass.
The op is scheduled for the beginning of August, so I am going to have to hope that my boss is feeling nice and will let me take some holiday even though the quota of people off in August is already filled. With the kids off school I am going to need at least two weeks whilst he is in the hospital and the first few days at home.
On the plus side I finished knitting a hat whilst I was waiting at the hospital. I have made it with the alpaca yarn I bought on Sunday and used a pattern on knitting pattern central for a cabled hat. It is lovely, but doesn't fit! I followed the pattern and did two repeats of the cable section, obviously I should have done three as it is fine widthways but too short for me. It fits E so she can have that and I'll do another one.
I am working on a crochet shawl at the moment and it is coming up beautifully, I can't find the charger for the camera battery so will have to post photos another day.

Quick update

I didn't get time to log in last week so a quick run down on whats been going on in the madhouse. I won a competition in Knit Today! How cool is that? I won ten balls of Wendy Shimmer (not sure what to do with that as it is a nightmare to knit with!), three skiens of Collinette Enigma (lush ribbon yarn, I've already earmarked that for a wrap that is in the latest Magknits), membership to Rowan international which also includes a pattern and 4 balls of All seasons cotton, some patterns and two tickets to the Knitting and Stitching show! Aren't I a lucky girl!! I already have my tickets booked for the K&S show so I have given them away on the Angel Yarns forum. Spread the happiness!!

On Sunday the Tour De France came through Kent, so we avoided it and went to an Alpaca farm for an open day. It was slightly less than advertised but we had a lovely time. The alpacas were so cute and the farmer was so enthusiastic that it was great to listen to him talking about them. I bought two balls of pink DK alpaca yarn and have decided to make a hat. I may even get it finished by the 22nd as we are going back to see them again!!

Happy news!

On saturday we went to the local village carnival and fayre, it was incredibly wet and windy but very busy despite that. R was entered in the carnival princess competition so we spent all morning doing her hair and getting her ready. She did her parade of the arena in the rain, I felt so sorry for all the girls, they looked so pretty and the brollies sort of spoiled the effect!

Luckily it stopped raining for the presentation and R was crowned deputy princess!! She was so pleased and wasn't at all bothered about not actually winning as she got a tiara and sash anyway.

I was worried that E would feel left out but she said she would only do it if she could wear camo and trainers! All she wanted was candy floss, so that was soon sorted.

Getting it off my chest!

Ok, today I am going to have a moan and get it off my chest, so those who happen across this blog and don't want to read the deranged ramblings of a mad woman can go away now!
D has Crohns disease and over the last seven years has not only lost huge amounts of weight but become a completely different person. He is bad tempered, moody, and can be really obstinate. I know its because of the medication he is on and because he is in pain a lot of the time but he really is a bugger to live with!! Finally after a good few years it seems they have got the Crohns into remission, which means he can now have an operation to bypass the scar tissue at the exit of his stomach. This will hopefully stop him constantly throwing up and he can put some weight back on and get rid of all the pain and discomfort.
Sounds good eh? But of course it isn't as straight forward as that. The reason he is in remission is because he is on immune suppressant treatment, so he has no immune system to speak of. The surgeon that we have been referred to is not keen on doing the surgery because of the risk of infection afterwards. He can't stop the treatment because not only could the Crohns come back, but once you stop you can't ever have that treatment again as it would send you into anaphalatic (sp) shock. The risk of infection is quite high at this hospital, last November my Grandad died after having a hip replacement op and picking up MRSA. MIL's best friend died in February after having an op and catching C-Diff. So given that knowledge the op seems more and more of a risk.
The problem is, I know D can't carry on the way he is, and I know I can't!! But I am scared to death that the op that should save him may end up making him more ill or even worse killing him.
Added to all this life seems to be determined to be a pain in the backside and keeps giving me more and more to cope with. R is playing up big time, she will be in a cast for six weeks but the ADHD is making her a complete cow at the moment and she is not making any effort to control it. My Aunt has just broken the news that she has breast cancer, work is too much stress, and I am just not coping. All I want to do is hide somewhere until it all goes away.
Well, there you go, rant over! Maybe getting it off my chest will help, maybe not.

More chaos!!

Why is nothing ever easy! D had to go to the hospital for a barium xray on thursday, so he was there all day and I had to take time off work and rush around trying to sort out cookery club supplies and school runs. Then in the evening R is at gymnastics and I get a call to say that she has an accident and can I go and get her. Turns out someone has accidently landed on her hand and her thumb lokked all swollen and a bit wrong. So off to A&E we go, 5 hours later at 1.30am we get home complete with plaster cast and sling. Today I was on earlies so I felt like death all day, R wasn't much better, she went to school but came home at lunchtime as she was in a bit of pain and kept falling asleep in class. We both had a nap this afternoon but i still feel shattered.
With all this going on I haven't had much chance to knit, or practice the crochet I learnt at my workshop on wednesday, hopefully we will have a quiet weekend and I get stuck into some serious craft!

A few weeks ago we adopted a dog called Rusty, he was about to be thrown out on the streets so we took him in. He is very sweet but needs training! He cannot walk on a lead, barks continually and hates being left on his own. On Saturday D was out with his brother and the girls and I went shopping. I got back to find my knitting bag had been emptied all over the floor! Not only that, but Rusty had found a bar of Green and Blacks chocolate in there and eaten the whole thing. Chocolate as you may know is poisonous to dogs so off we went to the Vet and he had to have charcoal powder every fours hours, yes even through the night! On Sunday we were back for a blood test, luckily he is fine but it cost over £100 in vet fees!! The only good news is that I managed to save the sock that he nearly ruined by a bit of spitsplicing.

I'm really not good at this blog stuff, am I?

I think I had better try harder to keep up to date with this, I love reading other peoples blogs so it would be good to keep mine in a state where people might actually want to read it!!

Since my last post I have received my secret santa goodies from the Angel yarns forum swap, and they are lovely. I have already started a pair of socks with some of the Jojoland Melody. It is a slightly strange pattern as I have used a stitch pattern from the Knit Today sock booklet, but the pattern in the booklet is for DK and the Jojoland I've used is fingering weight so I had to adapt it. Its the first time I have worked without following a pattern strictly so I am really pleased with how they have turned out. The yarn is fabulous too which helps.

I am also on a stashalong which is going to last until the Knitting and Stitching show in October. I have written a list of all my stash and have the yarn and patterns for so many things that I just can't justify buying any more!! Having said that I fell off the wagon last week and bought some Wendy Fusion to make a felted bag! I must behave from now on! I have also joined a sock club, but that was an anniversary present from D so I'm not counting that!!

I am going on a crochet workshop next week and will update the blog with how I got on afterwards.