Of Post Notifications, #Crafting Progress, And Medical Mutterings

*NOTE: Post notifications have been a bit hit and miss for me lately.

 

Sometimes I get them through Feedburner (even though that's meant to have stopped) and sometimes I get them through Bloglovin' (which, for some reason, is happening even less frequently than the Feedburner notifications these days) or however I made sure to be signed up to get post notifications for your blog when Feedburner said they'd be stopping doing the notifications.  Sometimes I get them soon after the post goes live, other times I get them a day or two later, and other times I don't get them at all.  For some of you who are on Goodreads I'm also following you on there, and get a weekly digest of posts that way, but that's only weekly, like I said, and a lot of people I follow aren't on Goodreads.

 

So, if I've been slow with comments to your posts, or haven't commented on them at all, that - along with having not felt too great during this past week, so having not done much in the way of dealing with eMails and post notifications some days - is why.

 

*~*

 

Before we move on to the other topics of this post...

 

I got a thank you card from Rita, which arrived early on Friday morning – just before I had to leave for my hospital appointment.  So, thanks, Rita, and here’s a photo of the card:

 

 

*~*

 

In Last Thursday evening’s knitting session, we made some six pointed stars, which can be used as fancy coasters, sewn on to things, or made in to holiday decorations.  Here’s a photo of mine:

 

 

I figured it didn't really matter what colour it was, so I just knitted my star in the first colour I grabbed from the selection of random balls of wool I have in my craft room, which happened to be white.

 

~

 

I did some more work on my loom knitting scarf while they were demonstrating this month's kit in the Cosy Craft Club Zoom session on Tuesday evening.  I’m now about half done with it.

 

One of these days I'll surprise them and actually be working on the kit with them.  I have loads to catch up on (both from Cosy Craft Club and Makerly Crafts).  But mostly I end up just getting tips to try and remember for when I'm working on the kits later, while working on some project of my own, whether one of the ones I'd like to get finished from mine and Nan's unfinished projects, a project I ended up starting in one of the ACB Crafters sessions, or something else I want to make.  I enjoy going to their Zoom calls though, which is what matters.

 

~

 

I joined in with the crochet projects the ACB Crafters group were doing this week though.

 

Rather appropriately, since it was St Dwynwen's Day (day for the Welsh patron saint of love) on January 25th, and that was the day the crochet Zoom call happened, one of the projects was a crochet stuffed heart.  I know they were thinking in terms of starting Valentine's Day projects, but it was still appropriate that they started it on that particular day.  Anyway, I made a red one.  I pulled it a bit tight when I was weaving in the end and closing up the bottom after it was stuffed and finished, so it almost looks like I was making a wooly heart baloon, but I still like it.  Here's a photo:

 

 

The other project was a crochet hot chocolate amigarumi.  This one we had to make some of the pieces ahead of time for.  Making the purple cup wasn't too difficult - though I was excited about being able to, since it was my first time really shaping anything using crochet - and once I'd done the cup doing the brown circle for the chocolate was comparatively easy.  The white part for the cream (which we did in the call together on Tuesday) really challenged me though, and it took me ages to get it to work.  Everyone else was already assembling their pieces by the time I'd made the cream.  But I managed it in the end.  And, though I stuffed my hot chocolate amigurumi a bit more than I should have when I was putting it together afterwards, so it looks like it's about to spill any moment (to me it does anyhow) I'm proud of it.  Here's a photo so you can see it:

 

 

~

 

My crochet blanket is still unfinished, but didn't get worked on during the past week.

 

*~*

 

Last Friday was my first time seeing my new Haematologist.  I hadn’t seen anyone to be regularly checking on my Anaemia and Thrombocytopenia before.  Well, the Anaemia was being checked regularly by my doctor when I was in Hastings, but that all stopped after I had the hysterectomy, and I wasn’t seeing an actual Haematologist, since it was my doctor and the gynaecologists checking it (or the doctors at the hospital whenever I showed up at A&E).  But I'd have needed a new Haematologist because of moving back to Wales regardless.

 

Anyway, the Haematologist seemed terrified at finding himself forced to hold an actual conversation with a blind person.  My Dad had taken me, but I had him wait in the waiting room, which is something I usually do if someone goes with me, because doctors have a habit of ignoring me and speaking directly to him (or whoever takes me on those times when I have a family member or friend act as my transport and helper) instead.  Besides, I don’t see why I shouldn’t get the same amount of privacy when talking to a doctor that anyone else would get.  And I can tell you for a fact this would have been one of those doctors who spoke to my helper rather than me, since he panicked when the nurse made to leave me with him.  She had to promise to leave the door to the outer area where she’d be working open so he could call her if he needed to before he’d relax.  Even then I swear he’d have run from the room screaming if I jumped up and said, “Boo!”

 

He did manage to relax quite a bit by the time I was done talking to him, but his attitude makes me wonder if he really meant it when he acted concerned and told me to go home after I had my blood taken so I didn’t need to be at the hospital longer than absolutely essential, because they’d call me if there were issues with the levels, and it would be better for me with my immune issues not to be at the hospital longer than absolutely essential, or if he just wanted the scary blind person to go away.  Perhaps a bit of both?

 

I mean, he could have been genuinely concerned.  After all, Covid is bad again everywhere right now (not helped by those people who are either tired of social distancing, or convinced the jabs give them complete immunity to all strains of the virus, or both, so going back to how they were doing things pre-pandemic) so there is good reason for him to be concerned about me risking being exposed if I hang around where potentially sick people could come near me.  It's just that his decision coming after his reaction when he realized I couldn't see, and being completely different to how things are usually done when you go see someone at a hospital like that, makes me wonder.  After all, they had me wait for the results when I went to have blood tests a few months back.  But then, I suppose it is possible the way things are done now is different because of the continuing threat of the pandemic.

 

Either way, he even gave me the blood forms for next time, so I can go get the tests done a week before my next appointment, and then he’ll have them ready for me by the time I’m seeing him.  He said it would be easier for me, but that depends how you look at it.  Yes, I do agree it means less time hanging around at the hospital, which is a good thing, especially for someone like me.  However, it also means making the hour long round trip to the hospital twice instead of once, and in that respect it isn’t easier, because it would be a real headache arranging that if I didn’t have my Dad for transport.  This way also means I have to brave the big wide world more times, which is an unpleasant thought these days.

 

~

 

Anyway, I’ve heard nothing about my results from either the doctor or the hospital at this point, and the doctor surgery said the results weren't showing on their system as being available to share with me when I called looking for them (which I’ve done twice in the past week) so I assume that means my levels were at least not too bad.  Not too bad for me, I mean.  Had they been really bad, the hospital would have flagged them for immediate attention, and in theory I’d know about that by now.

 

Regardless of what my blood tests may show though, them taking the blood for the tests hit me hard this time around.  This either means my levels are at least a little lower than usual, or all the times I’ve had to do this are catching up to me, making it harder for me to bounce back these days.  Or possibly even both of those things.  Whichever is the case, I missed Friday's ACB Presents call, even though I was technically home in time to make it to that call, because I was just too tired, and it took everything I had to make it to the Free To Be Me Call Friday.  Then I slept a lot - in fact, most - of Saturday and Sunday, missing an ACB Crafters call I'd been planning to go to Saturday evening (opting to go for a nap instead) and almost cancelling my plans to go to kareoke Saturday night (had I been going out to do it, I'd have cancelled for sure, came close to doing so regardless, and hope how bad I felt didn't show when I was singing).  It took me until Monday evening to start feeling more like my normal again.

 

If I still don’t hear anything from either the doctor or the hospital by Monday afternoon, I’ll give my doctor surgery another ring to see if they can tell me yet exactly what my levels were, since I like to know and keep track of the numbers myself.  Apart from anything else, it makes it easier for me to be able to tell any new doctor or nurse I see if things are - or aren't - my normal.