WOYWW 394

At the end of last week, I did manage to do a bit more on my woodland album but since then, a lot’s been going on and no further progress has been made.

Here’s my desk as it is today (Tues. evening).

On the pull-out unit front left you can see the pages I’ve done with their respective pairs. On the desk on the left, on top of my Zentangle album, is a pile of backgrounds including inked kitchen paper, and more backgrounds next to them. There are some embossing folders and texture plates to the right of that, and on the light panel is one of the Zentangle pages waiting for its pair to be made, which will be made from the black card to the right. I’m working equally between this drawing zone, and my main work area over the other side of the room.

Here are the three pages I have been working on.

I am particularly pleased with the first one! For further information, please scroll down to my previous two posts.

Health Update

After seeing the GP and being told to get a physio appointment about the nerve pain in my leg, I got an appointment for yesterday. When I arrived, I told her that I’d subsequently seen another GP at the practice, about the arthritis in my hand, and could she deal with both problems? She said they were only allowed to deal with one at a time! (Strange system…) – but because physio appointments can be self-referrals anyway, I could choose what I wanted to be seen about. I told her the second GP had thought the nerve pain could well be ME-related, and as long as it was better and well-regulated with the gabapentin, she was very happy to deal with the hand problem that was clearly more in need of her services.

She took my medical history (which took a while!) and asked whether I had had any blood tests or a scan of my hand, and whether they had suggested it might be rheumatoid arthritis – I said I’d been told it was osteo, and I’d had no investigations. She said it was definitely inflamed, and that I was doing the right thing with the ibuprofen gel. When she manipulated my finger, it hurt a lot less than I expected, but I’d put on some gel before coming out, which she agreed explained that – it really does help. She said the important thing with arthritic joints was to keep them moving, so she’s given me a hand-clenching exercise to keep doing on and off through the day, but stay within pain limits, i.e. stop when it hurts – and it helps to do it in a bowl of warm water. She said it was very important not to twist the joint – this has caused me excruciating pain – and to prevent that, to tape my index and middle fingers together. This makes a big difference but does hamper me in certain activities – more typos than usual, for instance! Taping is a fiddle and takes about 5 mins to do, as I have to put a piece of lint or similar between the fingers to stop them sticking together and going manky. I have ordered a couple of finger splints from Ebay that will do exactly the same job, but are put on with velcro and are thick and soft enough to keep the fingers slightly apart when in use. They will go on where the tapes currently are, between the finger joints. They will be much easier to put on, and maybe look a bit better too! Hopefully they will come before Christmas.

The support garments lady wasn’t able to come until yesterday, but I’ve seen her now, and she’s taken my pants away with her, marked with safety pins where they are to be altered. She said none of the alterations would be a problem. They will post them back to me once they are done, and if everything is OK, I can contact her again and she will order me 2 more pairs to make up my compliment of three that I’m allowed in a single year on prescription. I’m hoping Miss Piggy (hernia) will behave herself in the meantime and not get any bigger!!

Have a lovely time over Christmas everybody, and happy WOYWW.