Bilateral L2/3/4/5 MBRFA x1 with sedation

Today was the payoff of five months of protocol. Month one, see the doctor. Month two, the first diagnostic procedure. Month three, the confirming diagnostic procedure. Month four, see the doctor to evaluate the effectiveness of diagnostic procedures one and two. Month five, the title of the post. I can explain most of it, except the x1. No idea what that means.

Bilateral means both sides of my back. L2/3/4/5 are the vertebrae from about the waist on up. MB is medial branch. That’s the nerve bundle exiting the vertebrae at L2/3/4/5. RFA is radiofrequency ablation. Ablation is vaporizing the ends of the offending nerves by the radiofrequency waves. The hardest part was getting to today.

In the diagnostic procedures the nerves were given a shot of anesthetic to see if numbing them reduced or eliminated the pain in my back, which it did until the very next morning. I thought the second diagnostic procedure actually was the RFA, and was crushed when I woke in pain the next day. A call to the nurse disabused me from the notion I should be dancing on tip toe, and I realized appointment four was not a follow-up, but a review of the state of the work to that point.

I survived the protocol. I climbed up to the table today and listened to the happy chatter of the staff during their pre-surgical check list. Three visits later, we do recognize each other, and they especially recognized my socks.  My hand knit wool socks I wear all winter. One of them idly picked some fuzz balls off and told me I really should wash them inside out to prevent that.

Other fun things about this outpatient procedure: I had to wear the gown, but kept on my bra (hooray) and my jeans and underwear. I merely unzipped and they did a practiced roll down of my jeans and pants at the waist, past the operating field. The warm blankets went on. Dozeville, before the happy juice. The doctor came in, leaned down so I could see him, and got my name and birthday again. It was the real me; the juice went into the IV.

Once again I was not asleep, and this time the doctor asked questions about sensations in my back as he placed the needles. These needles were larger than the first two times, because the radiofrequency wire still had to go through. I mentioned I certainly felt a particular needle, and I got another slug of happy juice. But, in very short order I had to roll over onto the gurney to go to recovery, where my pre-requested snack of two packs of fig newtons and  black coffee awaited.

This time I was not bright as a new day in spring. I dozed between bites of fig newton and could barely finish my coffee. When time came to zip up I swayed from side to side. The extra slug of happy juice.

Home to the ice bag. My sister hit upon ice bag extraordinaire. Back in the days we had little girls filling zip lock bags with acorns for Patty’s critters, the bags went into our freezer until delivered, to forestall the little buggers that exit acorns and metamorphose to something else. One day an ice bag was needed, and a bag of frozen acorns was handier than a bag of frozen peas. Frozen acorns stay frozen and very cold for the better part of a day, and refreeze with no guilty consequences. Jan made a cloth bag to permanently enclose a bag of acorns, and for the last three years it’s been the one. It will go to work with me tomorrow.

My last appointment is in a month, when we will determine if the procedure was a success (for up to two years!). I've already made up my mind.

A quilt well rescued

I've mentioned rescue quilts from time to time.Quilt tops pieced but never quilted. My sister Jan is extremely fond of rescuing quilts, and quilting them.  She says some one's grandma is smiling in heaven, "Look, Ethel, look  That quilt is finished and can be used on a bed!"

Jan's friend Patty found an embroidered quilt top at a flea market.  It's a very large quilt, two embroidered panels, very well done.  Jan set aside a week to quilt the top.  Patty entered it in a regional show that the three of us went to today.

Some one's grandma is extremely pleased;

A kind lady with a good eye rescued the top,

And took it to an excellent quilter.

The quilt is quite white; the flourescent lights make is appear more yellow.

Patty ate her sleigh

We told the girls Santa may arrive by boat this year.

Nevertheless, one rainy afternoon Jan and Laura set out to make some sleighs.

Candy cane runners, Hershey Crackle™ candies, and, of course, a glue gun.  Jan saw it all on the internet.

Pulling the parts from stock for assembly.

Several hands required.

Ready the bow.

Final assemblies, ready for teachers and friends.

Their friend Patty ate hers right from the mantle.

Janice loves to quilt!

You know my sister quilts; I’ve said something about her and quilts from time to time.  Click on Janice over in labels and you’ll see how often!

Possibly in self defense, but more probably because she has a good deal to say about her art, Jan started her own blog.  I see where she’s headed now, explaining how she does things.  Little does she know…

Even before this country joined World War I, the international and American Red Cross organizations were involved as ambulance drivers, and hospital staff. Red Cross chapters raised money by making and raffling quilts, many with a red cross theme. 

One of Jan’s current methods involves making quilts from old shirt fabrics.  She and her friend Patty shop thrift stores for men’s shirts, and spend chatty evenings cutting them into useable parts.  There also is a steady stream of beautiful shirts from my son-in-law, who wears through the right elbow of his dress shirts in short order.

This quilt pattern has been around in one form or another as a tribute to Clara Barton and the Red Cross.  Jan made it from her salvaged shirt fabrics.

Give her a look: Janice loves to quilt. 

A pint’s a pound the world around

My parents used to say things that made my head swim in their incomprehensibility.  I could not grasp the pint and the pound, especially when confused with other sayings such as a pint of feathers weighs less than a pint of lead.   Although a pound of each still weighed the same.

Another mystery saying:  we eat what we can and what we can’t, we can.  I did understand that a drip a second was eighty gallons a year.  My parents were big on waste not; I could visualize a dripping faucet.

Yesterday at supper Jan said Patti was mighty happy for all those acorns she hauled over for Patti’s fat chipmunks and deer to eat this winter.  In fact, the haul was so heavy Patti helped carry them up a flight of steps.

“How heavy were they?” right out of Laura’s mouth, and Jan said she and Emily had filled three gallon bags with all the acorns gathered so far.  “A pint’s a pound the world around” came right out of my mouth.  I felt like my mother.  But those two girls were on it like a squirrel on an acorn.

Emily helped Laura work out eight pints in a gallon and it was downhill from there.  “Twenty four pounds!” Laura announced in triumph.  “And lots more are falling!”

Patti’s friends will be deep on her porch, begging acorns this winter.  I wonder if she makes them finish before they leave.  I’m sure a few squirrels and a few chipmunks have made off with the acorns.  Jan may be responsible for an oak forest in Brecksville.  Laura and Emily will be even more responsible.  And those four legged friends of Patty should be sending thank you notes to two little girls close enough to the ground to pick up acorns and send them to the land of maple and ash trees.  

Last week's haul

Who’s nuts

Jan has a dear friend and quilting pal, Patti.  Patti is more right brained than Jan.  Patti’s fabrics blend from shade to shade.  Fabrics can’t repeat.  Little bitty patches must be oriented the same way.  I used to think Jan was that way, until I saw some of Patti’s work.  Jan is all about the right fabric; Patti is the perfect fabric.

Patti lives in a pretty house with several cats and her nice husband.  Every cat has a big personality and one will not cohabit, so he is king of the garage.  Every day Patti puts all the other cats in their room and brings Kiwi out to play.  Kiwi has green eyes and is Jan’s bud.

Kiwi on one of my scrappy quilts

 

Some of the kitties escaped to wander the world one day.  What to do?  Cats do not take to calling or herding, we all know.  Quick as a wink Patti turned on the sprinklers and appeared at the back door saying “Danger!  Danger!  Danger!" They all know now Danger! means get back to Patti as fast as you can.

Of course she feeds all the wildlife. Every bird.  Every rodent.  God forbid a chipmunk or a squirrel perish if Patti can help it.  I could not put her deer in that last sentence, as they are ruminates.  And, as they can start higher and eat my rose bushes to the ground, and then eat the roots, I suppose they need a separate sentence.  I will not mention we have too many in our neighborhood.

We live with a lot of trees, many of them oaks.  The acorns peppering onto the deck caught Patti’s attention one year.  “Acorns!  Acorns!”  There are no oaks in her yard.  She took home a big bag to feed her charges.  She came back for more.  As we had visiting grandchildren that weekend, closer to the ground, we sent them to gather a bushel of acorns for Patti. 

She keeps them in the freezer (kills bugs, she says), and doles out a measure year round to her coterie.  I have a mental picture of Bambi’s woodsy friends shyly approaching.

Grandchildren have been available the last several years for Patti’s acorn harvest.  This morning Jan and I were on the deck and a breeze brought down a bonanza.  Instinctively we started picking them up.  I went in and got a container.  Half an hour later we looked at each other.  Who’s nuts?