Friday Feet - Lesson Learned 02-15-11

I was looking for a picture in Picasa last week and I came across some images of my feet that I took in 2006.  I had noticed that my right foot was swollen, but it didn't hurt at all and I just ignored it for a month or so..  When the swelling didn't go down, I went to the podiatrist who had treated me for a fractured ankle (left) and other things.  She did some x-rays and discovered a fractured bone in my ankle.  But it didn't hurt!  I wore a cast and used a cane and wheelchair and got over it, but my right foot is still larger than my left. 

 
Guess I learned to keep better watch of my body.  But I still wonder how I could have a broken bone and not know it - not even hurt!  When I broke the left one I got out of bed one morning and couldn't walk.  Osteoporosis?  I did injections for two years and take a daily Rx now.  It is all a mystery to me. 

Swimsuits for therapy 02-24-11

I've looked at the suits on Land's End.com - how depressing!   And how exposed! 

This one seems to do a lot for this gal - maybe it will do a lot for me.  Ya' think? 

Well, maybe not. 

 

I imagine this is more appropriate.  But will it adequately cover my bulges and bumps?  Or when I lift my arms (if that is necessary) will my boobs leap out? 

I think something like this would be a better choice - armholes where the spot and handle are and a coupla' extra holes for my legs to come out.   Very stylish, eh? 

Wordless Wednesday 02-23-11

Doctoring 02-22-11

I dunno - is it gross to Blog a picture of one's spine? I saw an orthopedist today to see if there were additional causes for my hip and back pain. It is a huge orthopedic clinic with doctors who specialize, I think, in every bone in a body - I have seen one there who just does hands, about my carpal tunnel problem.  After manipulating my legs and hips a bit, Dr. Danto had some X-rays taken and then showed them to me on a computer screen.   Pretty slick - no waiting for reports or having the x-rays to store somewhere.



 
This is a view taken from my right side - back to the left and belly button to the right.

This is the image that showed a different problem than the arthritic hips (which are visible, but a long way from needing replacement).  If I took the time to learn I could put an arrow "on the spot", but if you look at the bottom vertebra before the hip bone you can see that it is out of alignment.  I have no experience reading x-rays, but even I could spot it immediately.   The doctor feels that some physical therapy in a pool will be helpful and, most wonderfully, the clinic has a pool and offers just such therapy!  I'm willing to give it a go, even though it means that I'll have to find a bathing suit somewhere.  Since I haven't shopped for one for at least thirty years I hardly know where to go.  Guess I'll ask the Poodle Mommy who has suits in LBeach and in Havasu.  Of course, she is a size 3, or some such, and I am a size 2X, but there must be suits for huge ladies, eh?   Maybe I could just sew a large sack with a drawstring neck and holes for my arms and legs - sort of like a tea cozy!    Oh, yes, his other suggestion was exercises to improve my posture which has deteriorated greatly in the last twenty years.  Some of the exercises I have been doing for the psoas muscles (they are still a problem) are for posture, so I'll just keep doing them.   He didn't say a word about losing weight.  I always find it odd that doctors don't nag more about the subject.  If obesity is such an enormous problem I think it would be part of their script to remind, chastise and harp about the subject to all their patients. 

Red 02-21-11

Someone (June?) said something about the birds picking the holly berries which were very red.  Perhaps that is what set my eyes for red when Corky and I were walking in his neighborhood yesterday. 

 
This is Nandina or "Heavenly Bamboo" and the berries seem to be particularly abundant and very red this year.  Some years there are few berries.  The leaves are especially bright in the fall and winter if we have  frost at some point.

 
And I noticed how bright the twigs of the eucalyptus are right now.  This is a fallen branch from all the heavy winds we have had the last week or so.   Some varieties have very bright red twigs, but the trunks are grey and silver and white and yellow and....  almost any color.  A fascinating variety of shapes and colors.

I also took a picture of a pot of screaming red cyclamen on someone's patio, but it was too blurry to use.  I'll be there again tomorrow, so I'll try for a better shot. 

"Watermelon Chickens" Ruth McDowell 02-20-11

It is pitiful how my memory keeps receding as the years go by.  I had a memory test at my doctor's office and I am down to 57 on a scale of 1 to 100.  It is a wonder I know where I am half the time.  But the doctor says that is very acceptable at 72, so I try not to worry.  However, I went through the TCQC records and have discovered 34 quilts that I have not shown on this Blog.  Thirty-four!  I find that amazing.  So, I will be reaching back, sometimes into the last century, to feature those quilts I have neglected.  I purchased this quilt in January 2009.

"Watermelon Chickens"  Ruth B. McDowell  2008  58"W x 31.5"L

Machine pieced and quilted.  Commercial cotton fabrics from everywhere.

Ruth's statement about this quilt: "These hens took on a life of their own when I started rummaging through my fabric stash. A wild array of old and new fabric, from all over the world. Possibly a new breed of calico chicken. I love the watermelon fabric (which I've had for years) that I used for much of the background. It was surprisingly difficult to decide exactly where on the print to cut each piece."

Such a vast array of fabrics - prints and batiks, from Africa, Australia, Japan, Indonesia.

Only Ruth would look at Kaffe Fasset's Swiss Chard fabric and think "Chicken tail feathers!"

 

The feet are sturdy, but detailed, and have the texture of chicken feet.

This quilt attracted me for many reasons, especially that it is so very, very Ruth McDowellish.  Also going back to my childhood when my maternal grandmother raised chickens and always tossed scraps in the chicken yard.  They loved watermelon, as did I.  The watermelon fabric also brings back memories of the years during WWII that my sister and I spent in California with our paternal grandmother.  Fabric was rationed and difficult to find, so when it was available our grandmother and aunt purchased what they could.  They found a partial bolt of watermelon fabric, very much like what Ruth used as the background in this quilt, and we all had watermelon dresses or camp shirts - Little G'ma, Aunt Vernice, Ellamarie, Delmay, Gail and our dolls!   I remember a picture (black and white, of course) of us in our new dresses.  Maybe I will come across it one day.