WOW!!  It is already into April and I’m just now loading up the FIRST Blog Reader Special collection of the year!   You know what that means?  It means I am far enough along on my recovery that I can begin working again.

These are the yarns that I just posted to the Blog Reader Specials page.  You can go there to see individual  photos.  There are 4 Phydlbitz Sock and 3 Merino Sport.  The Phydlbitz are extras of the custom job I did last weekend; the Merino Sport were extras from a custom job early last fall.

BUT… I am not 100% yet, and probably won’t be for several months to come.  The surgery took a lot more out of me than I expected, as far as strength and stamina, and I have to seriously modify a lot of what I used to do.   I dyed a small batch on a custom order last weekend, and I discovered that there is almost nothing in the process that I can just do as I used to.  Each little step of the way I have to monitor my exertion levels and see how I can accomplish it by either changing how I do it, or using assistive devices, or simply taking one task at a time and then resting.

Between the dire complications from uncontrolled diabetes (discovered in November), then being told to NOT work because of the aneurysm, and then not being able to work post-surgery, I have lost a LOT of weight and a lot of muscle tone.  I was about 175 pounds early last fall, and now I’m only about 135-140 pounds.  I have a lot of work ahead of me to both put on some healthy weight AND work on rebuilding my muscles that have gone dormant.

I even have a cool rollator walker to help me move wet yarns around the house, as well as help me around the grocery store – I can set the little hand-carry shopping cart onto the seat so I don’t have to hold it.  Mostly the walker is helping me for stability, rather than full body support.  And, when away from home, it’s a place to sit and rest when I must.

So, for as much as I can do, I am back to work, but please understand that I probably won’t be cranking out a new collection of Blog Reader Specials every week as I used to do.  At least not in the short term.   Perhaps by mid-summer I can do that.

Follow