July 1, 2008

You'll be able to tell from my picture that I didn't sleep much today. I was awake all night because I found a lump on my arm, directly under and around my surgical site. I called my vascular surgeon on call at 1:30am and he told me it was most likely a hematoma (A localized swelling filled with blood resulting from a break in a blood vessel) but wasn't a major concern. I was instructed to call his office when they opened to get an appointment. He just wanted someone to have a look at it.

I slept for two and a half hours before leaving for my appointment. Dr. M's partner, Dr. H, took a look at my arm and said the hematoma was most likely because the technician at dialysis yesterday set the flow too high, so I was given new dialysis orders for a lower maximum flow, and also smaller needles for at least two weeks. The hematoma will go away on its own, but it will take a little while.

I dropped off my new orders to the clinic because I was right around the corner and headed home around 4:00pm. I was contemplating going to sleep, but decided not to so that I could sleep tonight. What's that saying about the best-laid plans? I chatted online and stitched for a while, but my eyes just started closing on me around 8pm. Off to bed I went! ...Until 9:30pm when Kasey decided that she wanted to go out and she wasn't going to let me go back to sleep until she got her way! So that's it! Four hours of sleep today!

Once Kasey had me up, I was up for a while. I made very good progress on Butterfly Garden! I'm so pleased with the way this piece is turning out. I decided to deviate from the way I described the flowers yesterday. Instead I've allowed the color variations show. On the chart, all the flowers except the four corners and the two in the center of each side are yellow. My choice was to make the two center on each side blue and the rest will vary depending on where I am on my strand of floss, so they will be gradating in the purple/pink/grey range.

I'm hoping and expecting to have this finished tomorrow, barring any problems with my needles at dialysis.