October 6, 2008

My phone rang at 9:00 this morning. Thank Goodness I didn't go to the Embroider's Guild of America (EGA) meeting because it was my vascular surgeon's office. Dr M is only in the office this morning so I had to get over there right away or wait until Wednesday. I told his N.P. that I'd be right there because I was in too much pain to hold off.

I arrived just after 9:30 and was quickly seen. Dr M said taht, while the doppler scan sounded good in both my wrist and the palm of my hand, he could see that I have Steel Syndrome, which means the bloodflow to my lower arm needs to be restored ASAP. He explained that, as is common with CryoVeins, it is working too well and most of my arm's bloodflow is going through it instead of also supplying my hand. A fistulagram will be performed on Thursday morning. He also told me a band to constrict the graft and thereby push the blood down towards my hand may be needed.

On the home front, I chose to work on a UFO from 2006. Native Wolf Totem is a kit by Creative Accents. I started it in the fall of '06 and intended it as a Christmas gift. I'd already completed over a dozen other gifts of the same size and burned out once the backstitching on this began . These are the "before" and "after" pictures.