When I think about David Bowie, I think about stars. Whether it's lyrics and songs that talk about stars or are about a starman, or albums that use stars as album art, Bowie has always been the brightest star in my musical universe.
Let's start with a song.
I've been trying to figure out a design for this month's Liner Notes since I decided on Bowie as this month's focus, so roughly 7 months. I've had at least 4 different ideas for this month and then I realized I was getting too complicated. I just needed stars.
I remember when Bowie died, all anyone could say was "and the stars look very different today," so I'm using that as my inspiration for this month's liner notes. I'm embroidering 69 stars for the 69 years Bowie had on this planet. I finished the first set of 30 this week. I used DMC Etoile threads in black and two shades of grey for this set. I don't think this is technically satin stitch; I just used a repeated straight stitch to fill in each star. There are 10 of each color.
Here are the last two weeks of entries. And our buddy, Nugget David Bowie. He's our guide this month.
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| June 1 |
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| June 3 - I did this one and June 4's entry on June 1 since I knew I wouldn't be up to stitching a few days after surgery. |
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| June 4 |
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| June 5 |
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| June 6 |
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| June 7 |
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| June 8 |
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| June 9 |
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| June 10 |
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| June 11 |
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| June 12 |
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| June 13 - finishing the light grey |
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| June 1-13 - the first 30 stars |
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| You can see the space in the four corners - I have to fit 9 more stars, so I'm thinking of larger twinkle stars instead of the five point stars I've been stitching. More decisions that don't need to be made today. |
An Update on My Uterus
Was that a weird section heading? If it makes you uncomfortable, I'm not sorry. The reality is some people have uteruses and sometimes those uteruses conspire against the people who have them and have to be removed. Science.
Anyway, my surgery was on June 2 and went very well, all things considered. The nurses, staff, and anesthesiologist at Oakville Surgery Center are amazing - I don't want to have surgery ever again, but if I did have to have a procedure, I'd want to be in their care. My doctor, Dr. Noah, was also fantastic. He grew a mustache since I saw him last, so that was a thing. The pattern of his scrub cap was uteruses, so he kept his fun personality going. My aunt enjoyed him as well.
I'm proud to say the wildest thing I'm aware of saying while going under was "I like your stickers." This was said to a nurse whose station was right by the doors to the operating room. They had given me the first sedative and were wheeling me down to have the surgery, I said this to her, the doors opened, and I remember nothing else. And then I woke up back in the recovery room and Dr. Noah was talking to me about pain med ladders. Then the nurses told me I had a soothing voice and should read books to children. This was my post-surgery experience.
The surgery was supposed to be about 1.5 hours long, but ended up being 3 hours long. Apparently, there were actually five main uterine fibroids, and other smaller fibroids decided to grow on the existing ones so I ended up having 15 fibroids removed. Dr. Noah described it as "having to remove a baby's head from her body" (he said this to my aunt not to me). No wonder I was in so much pain this last year. I have photos of my insides which are something. I also found out my colon is sort of attached to my bladder now, which also complicated the surgery a bit. It's not causing problems now, which is good. We'll be discussing this at my follow-up appointment this week.
If you're a person with a uterus, I cannot stress enough how important it is to ask your doctor about things like uterine fibroids and other conditions like endometriosis. If you have pain all the time like I did but just explain it away, you're doing yourself a huge disservice. If you don't know how to ask or want to talk about my experience, let me know. I will legit talk to anyone about this when prompted (my mom's cousin who happens to be an adventurer? a random new hire I just met? who am I?), so please reach out. There are very few medical solutions for uterine fibroids beyond ignoring them and a few types of surgery, including a hysterectomy. More research is needed and more work needs to be done. But again, I'm here for your questions and to be your supportive uterine fibroid friend.
Recovery-wise, I'm doing good. I'm no longer taking the heavy pain meds (tramadol in my case) and am moving around pretty well. I wish I showed my abs more love prior to my surgery - why is every movement tied to our abs? My right side has been more tender and sore than the left side (metaphor?); three of the incisions are on that side, including the largest one. My bruises are more yellow now rather than the YELLOW they were over the last two weeks. I can bend down but only if I do it as a squat. Still can't bend at the waist without discomfort.
My goals for this week:
- Feel comfortable enough to drive
- Bend a bit more at the waist
- Go to my follow-up appointment
- Buy the nurses cupcakes
- Set up my house to be a little more non-bending, non-reaching as I continue to recover
- Run errands with my aunt (she leaves next Saturday)
- Celebrate my aunt's birthday, Father's Day, and my dad's birthday (a little early for him) at an actual restaurant - wild
- Go see Suffs at the National Theatre
It's an ambitious list but I think it's realistic. This week I had coffee for the first time since June 1 and wore pants. Successful recovery going on over here.
Thank you to everyone who has checked in on me and sent me messages or little things to brighten my day. Even though I'm an introvert, I love hearing from people and knowing what's going on, so that's been so helpful and nice. I may not reply right away, but I will reply eventually.
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| My friend Heather sent me this whimsical capybara named Callie. How cute is she? |
Also, if I missed your birthday, anniversary, anyone's graduation, or other significant life event in the last two weeks, please know I'm wishing you well and love you.
Bea has been an adequate nurse. She jumped on the bed when I came home from the hospital and eventually came to sleep with me at night like she normally does. She also picked this week to have an allergy/asthma flare-up so we had to take her to the vet on Wednesday. I didn't anticipate having to give her liquid Prednisone while recovering from abdominal surgery, but here we are. She responds best by being wrapped in a towel and given Churu immediately after. I guess Bea is a purrito.
WIPs and Other Small Joys
I've been able to make a little progress on the frog embroidery pattern I started before my surgery.
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| June 12 |
This is as of yesterday. I thought I was done with this color leaf, but realized I missed the one by the frog's head. It'll get done today and then I'll move on to the other greenery. I'm saving the flowers for last. I should also do the frog's eye today.
I had a very nice birthday with my family. My parents and brother came over for a pizza/cake lunch party on my birthday (apparently I'm 9 years old not 47). It was nice and relaxing and I took a nap after they left. I really love this whole napping thing now. I finally get it. My brother, being the sneaky individual he can sometimes be, surprised me with a fantastic vintage/oddity from GalaxyCon. I saw this at a fun booth in the expo hall but didn't buy it. When I went back later, it was gone. Well, it was gone because my brother bought it for me.
I think that's an orange-barred sulphur butterfly. I'm not sure where it's going in the house, so it's on this book shelf for now. I love it.
I also received the greatest birthday/care package from Kelly. As my aunt said as I was opening things, "You two are going to be great old people together." I don't know how Kelly did it, but she managed to get the things I needed for recovery that I apparently didn't know I needed. This includes a pillow to help get up and that has velcro things so you can put it on a seat belt, a triceratops shaped warmie (you warm it in the microwave and use it like a heating pad), and a grabber. I told my aunt I needed to borrow a grabber from my parents and then this one showed up at my house. It's fantastic.
We're going to be exceptional old people together. Thank you, Kelly!
Bea and my aunt have formed a friendship (probably?). I hear my aunt talking to her sometimes and Bea has at least three new nicknames that I didn't give her (Bumble Bea, Bea-girl, and Clove). Bea likes to lay on the quilt my aunt's using and loooooooves the plastic bags that are sitting by my aunt's suitcase. Bea likes to nap on the bags. It's cute.
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| Always helping me with my embroidery. I packed my travel case so I could easily move it around the house with my stitch journal and the frog embroidery safely inside. |
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| Also loves my aunt's laptop sleeve. |
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| A baby cat and her plastic bags. |
I don't think I'll ever be able to truly express how grateful I am to my aunt for coming and staying with me while I recover. She's been awesome. It's hard for me to admit I need help sometimes and I definitely could not have done this without her. She's starting to let me do things on my own now, but is still there asking me what I want for breakfast and loading the dishwasher (which is hard to do if you can't bend over completely). We've had movie nights, she watched the Top Chef finale with me, and I introduced her to my two home renovation shows (Renovation Aloha and Castle Impossible if you need a new show). We watched yesterday's protest from the Kennedy Center together.
Today we're trying a tomato-based pasta recipe she likes to make (I haven't been eating a lot of acidic things over the last two weeks) for dinner and are going to watch a movie from the NYT list of the 50 best movies on Netflix. She likes to send me articles from the NYT that she thinks I'll enjoy reading. We watched 27 Nights last night and it was fantastic (if you need a Netflix rec).
More on my recovery next week. Wish me luck on the whole driving thing!
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