A Trip to Remember

Well, that was a trip to remember. It started out as a normal 12 hour, all day long drive to my parents' home in the Appalachian Mountains on the east side of the U.S. We hadn't seen them over Christmas so were going for a week to visit them. We were plenty tired when we arrived after dark, ate a bit and went to bed. Around 3:00 a.m. I woke up to what I thought was gas pain so in my attempt to not wake everybody, I tried different lying positions - on my tummy, on my side and in a fetal position, sitting, standing, and I tried floor, bed, recliner, potty, but nothing worked. By 4:30 my husband was awake and we were wondering about appendix and kidney stone, which it turned out to be.

I have heard that they are painful but I now have much more sympathy (empathy) for kidney stone sufferers. By 5:00 both my parents and the dog were wide awake and I was no longer trying to writhe quietly. We headed to the local emergency room, where I was treated with care and compassion. After dulling the pain with IV meds, I went home with prescriptions in hand. I had to take a pain killer and NSAIDS for 4 days. I'm not sure that the stone ever passed but, let me tell you, I drank gallons of water, which is supposed to help it pass and/or dissolve it. So, I'm trusting that everything is okay in there.

After a couple of days my sister came to have our Christmas celebration and meal. They succeeded at it quite nicely but I really don't have clear recollections of all it. I do have a nice pile of gifts to prove it happened.

Before we ever left on our trip I had started a Fair Isle hat to give to an elderly aunt. My mother told me that she likes to wear stocking hats in the winter so I started one to take along for working on in the evenings and then deliver it before we headed back home. For the first 2 days after the ER visit, I was pretty useless but by the evening of the 2nd day, as the pain meds were wearing off and before the pain resumed, I began thinking that if I worked slowly on the hat and really tried to concentrate, I could make some progress. I pulled it out and started while everyone was in the kitchen and pretty soon I heard my husband declaring to everyone, "Hey, she must be feeling better - she's knitting!"

As the days passed and the pain lessened, I plodded along on the hat until it was finished.

Here is the hat while blocking.

And here it is all finished and ready to be delivered.

We decided to extend our stay by a couple of days so my mother & I could get "out and about' to a few antique shops and second hand stores. Plus, that gave my sister a chance to come back for a nicer visit (nicer for me.)

So we were able to get over to deliver the hat. She seemed quite pleased with it and said that if felt so nice on her head and ears. I know exactly what she meant. I love mine, too. They make my ears so toasty warm, pushed up next to my head. Sometimes I think I'm tired of making these hats and that I'll take a break from them. But every time I get another one finished, I am in love all over again with the surprise of how it turns out.

Sis, Mom, & me

Dad and our big baby