Updates

My nephew had his surgery yesterday.  It was scheduled as a 2 hour surgery and ended up being 6 hours.  The mass near his kidney and intestine was removed as well as a little section of the intestine.  Then another mass was examined near his esophagus, and as it was growing into the esophagus, the mass had to be removed as well as a small part of his esophagus.  The masses are thought to be benign and the doctor was pleased with the results.  He assured my niece that Colin will be okay.  The miracle is the surgery was done laproscopically and Colin only has three butterfly bandages.  He will be in the hospital for another week as they try to get his system ready to accept food again.  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

My hubby had his post op appointment with the surgeon today and the knee is progressing well.  The staples were removed, the splint/brace must be worn at least another month, but physical therapy will begin next week.  It will take about three months for the bone to heal if all goes according to schedule.  Again thank you for your thoughtfulness and for your prayers.

I have been sitting in a chair or sleeping on the couch near the recliner where Pa has been propped up for the last two weeks.  An immobilized knee really challenges a person's life.  You can't do much of anything when this one link in your body is broken.  Between meals, meds, delivering beverages, adjusting pillows, etc., I have been catching up on my computer 'stuff' and working on Lucy's quilt.  (Another reason to do this in the living room is the Midwest heat wave made my sewing room thermometer read 102.  Ugh.)

Lucy's quilt will be a scrappy snowball design. (Some of the fabrics can be seen here.) This is the set up beside my chair...

First I marked the diagonal stitchline on all the corner squares.

Now I am pinning the corners to the blocks.

I feel like this has been progressing very slowly.  Sleeping on the couch and living through this heat wave has left me somewhat without energy.  Better times are ahead!