November 17, 2008

Today at dialysis was miserable. The temperature of my machine was on the wrong setting so it cooled my blood before returning it to me, causing me to freeze my patooty off the entire treatment! I tried reading, but my arm and hand were too cold, so I spent the whole time huddled under every blanket I had with me wearing two pairs of fuzzy socks and I still couldn't get warm. They finally fixed the temp after the dozenth time I said I was cold, but it was too late. Nothing would get me warm, not even a hot pack at the small of my back made a difference.

Once home, I tried hot tea, turning the thermostat up to 74F, putting a Thermacare wrap on, and wearing my knitted wrap around my shoulders. I was still cold! Finally, I turned the tap on in the bathtub, turned my hairdryer on for extra heat (it's a small bathroom, so it really works), and soaked in water that would scald most people. After thirty minutes I was sweating, so I knew I'd heated myself up enough. The soak in hot water was the only thing that worked to get me warm. Now I know something else I have to check before I let them put my needles in. A wrong temperature setting will never happen to me again, I can assure you!

On the stitching front, I stayed up all night and worked on Ebb Tide. The Rhodes stitches don't look like much, but they are very time-consuming! I was able to complete all of the large rectangles and squares and the border. Unfortunately the bottom border was off by one row, so I had to frog that part and re-do it. I also completed the metallic crescents above the Rhodes stitches. They were very easy. That was about as far as I got before I went to sleep. I started on the bargello (green) waves after I got home and got warm.