Portland Yesterday

What a gorgeous day for a drive to Portland it was!  Normally, the road to Portland is not that great.  A long, straight, flat, boring drive on I-5 for the most part, but yesterday was very special.  Not a cloud in the sky, and the Mountains were out!!  That’s what we say here . . . the mountains are generally hiding behind quite a bit of cloud cover, and it’s rare to see them, especially at this time of year.  Here is Mt. Hood

From a field outside of Aurora, Oregon

 

From the sixth floor of the OHSU Center for Health and Healing on the waterfront in Portland

And here’s Mt. St. Helens

This one is from the 6th floor of the Center for Health and Healing too

 

This one is from the I-5 bridge as I was driving to EE Schenck – yep, I can’t make a trip to Portland without visiting the wholesaler or Fabric Depot or both.  This time I just went to Schenck.

Oh – and the deal is, if my insurance company will give approval, which will take some doing, the surgeon will revise my gastric bypass surgery from a RNY to a gastric sleeve.  Basically, what this means is that my bottom portion of my stomach will be restored so that I can eat without having violent reactions to sugar.  Sure, I’d love to lose another 10-20 pounds, but at this point, that’s not the goal.  I just want some normalcy back in my life.  I know I’m probably in for a fight with insurance, so I’ll sit tight and wait for appeal after appeal.

My boy can SWIM!

Who knew?  What a day to be without my good camera.  Well, I did have the camera, but took the SD card out of it last night to upload some photos of Mt Hood and Mt St Helens yesterday and forgot to put it back in the camera.  We took our morning walk around the pond and met friends of my sister’s who were playing with their own Australian Shepherd.  They were throwing the stick into the pond and Ozzie, who never lets anyone beat him to a ball at the park, decided that no one was going to beat him to the stick either!  With his very long and skinny legs, he doesn’t really dog paddle, but does the full stroke.  I thought for a while that I was going to have to dive in to help him, but he did just fine.  I got a few snaps with my Droid camera — not the best, but you get the jist.

My crazy little dog.  I sure do love him.  Oh, and here’s a picture from about a week ago that I forgot to post.  Ozzie and his cousin Kallie, or, as we like to call them, the Kickbusch Branch Managers!

That Hobbit eating schedule

Those of you who have blogs will know that you can see your stats every day and know what people read when they come to visit.  I get a lot of hits on the post I wrote years ago about adopting a Hobbit’s Eating Schedule.  I had gastric bypass surgery in July of 2007 and lost a total of 86 pounds.  I’ve gained some of that back in the last few years.  Some of that naturally happens, and some of it is because I’ve developed a rather rare complication of RNY Gastric Bypass – something called nesidioblastosis.  Basically, it starts as something called dumping syndrome, which is fairly common among gastric bypass patients, then it progresses to little insulin-producing (benign) tumors growing in the pancreas, and before you know it, you end up with a diet of basically protein and salad greens if you want to prevent your blood sugar from taking a dive.  Low blood sugar can be very dangerous.  If it goes too low, you can end up in a coma and die.  Normal blood sugar is between 70-110.  I’ve had readings as low as 23 — yep, that’s in the coma and die territory, and it’s beginning to worry me.  So is the constant hunger caused by the hypoglycemia, and the pain in the butt of struggling to find something to eat that won’t make me sick.

So, tomorrow morning I have an appointment to see a surgeon at OHSU to see about having my surgery revised so that I might eat a bit more normally.  I’ve been to two endocrinologists who specialize in nesidioblastosis, and the meds they had for me did not help.  My best hope is to have the bottom of my stomach re-attached.  Studies show that this generally fixes the problem.  I don’t know if my insurance will help me to pay for this, but the doc seems to think that the severity of my situation means that this is now medically necessary.  I do hope he’s right.  So, off I go to see if I can get help with this.

I know – I did this to myself, I should be grateful that I can eat, that I have plenty of food to eat, and that I’m not starving.  I don’t have cancer, and I’ll be fine either way.  I’d just like to be more comfortable, and I’d like to stop worrying about low blood sugar.

May 1st

A Blessed Beltane or May Day to you all.

A lovely image by one of my favorite artists, Alphonse Mucha.

Get out there and enjoy the day, watch the flowers sprouting from the ground and, if available, bask in the sunshine.  I have a bunch to do today, quilts I must finish, designs to work on . . . but we will get a walk in later on.  It’s another gorgeous day here in Oregon!

Where have I been?

Well, life has been fairly busy, but leisurely so, lately.  Our Spring has been so gorgeous here in Oregon, that Ozzie and I can’t stay in the house.  So, we go for walks in the park (Alton Baker) on Pre’s Trail (named for Steve Prefontaine).  Come take a walk with us. It’s only about 5.5 miles.  Then we’ll come home, maybe take a short nap . . .  I’m old, remember!  And then we’ll need to do some quilting.  The heck with the housework — we can still walk through the house.  Right now, nature is calling.  It’s cold this morning, but we’re off to the park again soon, because, well, it’s too beautiful not to go.

I am more than blessed to live in this place.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Sharon Schamber is a genius.  Most of you know I’ve taken lots of classes from her and I love teaching her methods for piecliqué and machine appliqué.  Today, on Facebook, a friend shared a post from Sharon showing her chair at a quilting class.  Here it is:  

 

It’s a boat seat!!  Sharon shared the file through Instagram and it’s posted on her Facebook page.  I’m off to my Silver Falls Quilting Retreat in less than three weeks, so I’ve got to get me one of these.  I’ve found them on Amazon for less than $40.  Sharon says she got hers at WalMart for $39.99.  What a great idea.  I’ve been stacking the chairs at Silver Falls and I manage to do okay with two chairs, but this looks a whole lot more comfortable.  I’ve been thinking of buying a special chair for retreats, but you can never get those things in your car!

Proper use and attribution

Folks – I’m flattered that some of you like what you see on my blog.  I don’t mind you saving a copy of some of my photos if they give you inspiration, but I do not grant permission for people to take my photos, copy them to their own blog or website, and then make it easy for someone to ‘Pin It.’  I do not participate in Pinterest simply because it is rampant with images that do not have proper attribution.  When I see something I like, I want to know who made it.  I don’t want people stealing my things for their own use, just as most of you would not.

To the person who took one of my images without permission, please take the photo down.  If I find it plastered all over Pinterest, action will be taken.

Thanks.