Challenge SAL #1

...and other things.

Well, the weekend started well. I got my charts and my threads on Thursday, and happily set things up to stitch. I worked on Hope for the rest of the day and got another 300 stitches or so done, which was good, and then changed the fabric on the q-snaps and frame before I went to bed.

Friday I got an insane amount done, about 600 stitches I think. Saturday was looking good, and I worked happily on it until about lunchtime when my stomach started to hurt in a couple places, and gradually got worse as the day progressed. I was feeling a little ill as well, so didn't get much done in the afternoon. By the time it was 10pm or so and we were watching Twister on tv, it was starting to hurt to sit and I'd curled up in the same chair as Troy because I was so miserable. My parents were worried that it was appendicitis or something similar, so over to the district hospital we went.

The nurses prodded and poked me and asked questions, and gave me a shot of something that was supposed to help stop the cramps if it was a cramp problem (it wasn't, so it didn't work) and Troy looked the other way because while needles don't bother me, he's petrified of them! Eventually the head nurse rang the doctor and asked what she thought should be done, and the advice was that I would be kept in for observation - fun!

I haven't stayed in hospital since I was about 4 and had an operation on my ears (I was almost deaf) though I've been an outpatient often enough with my Ichthyosis, and it was sort of a novelty for about the first half an hour. After that, it was bland and boring and lonely. Mum had grabbed my pyjamas, meds and creams etc for me, and she was lovely enough to grab my stitching too - threads, fabric in q-snaps, scissors and the pages of chart I was using... but no colour key. It's the thought that counts, right? I ended up blanket stitching the edges of my fabric, given that I hadn't had the chance to overlock them before I left and they were starting to fray, and it's now a glorious multicoloured edging. I could have just used one colour, but that was boring, so I ended up just using lots of colours and it was fun. Not productive towards the SAL though!

The town is built right near the sea, and the hospital is on the front street so that all the rooms have a sea view and it was nice to hear the sea, but I got cold due to the obsession that all hospitals seem to have with freezing temperatures - even though I was wearing thick winter pj's in the middle of summer! and I got woken up every 3 hours for the nurses to make sure I wasn't dead or in agony. Apparently I was neither, because in the morning they told me I had a urinary tract infection that just happened to have weird symptoms and sent me home with antibiotics to be taken 4 times a day.

Monday I pretty much spent packing, and my stitching got packed up carefully in my tote bag to be stitched on on the bus home - riiiight... we left at dusk and I'd forgotten that the lights on the bus are absolutely horrible for stitching. Oh well, best laid plans and all that. So I probably got about 1000-1200 stitches (haven't counted yet) done for the weekend, but nowhere near what I'd like to have got done. I'm thinking I might just keep stitching for an extra two days to make up for the days I missed, and then put her away to go back to hope again.

I'm home again now, after the 10 hour bus trip - we got in at 5am this morning, ugh. I cannot sleep properly on busses, and Troy has this habit of falling asleep on me which is fine normally but not on a bus because parts of my anatomy end up going to sleep - my entire left leg last night, which hurt like mad when it 'came back to life' at the end of it. Oh well. Got some serious sleeping done this morning, but an earlyish night is sounding good to me.

I don't have photos because all the cameras are with my family - argh! I'll take some at Troy's if I get the chance, and I might just have to try out this whole scanning stitching thing and see how that goes.