What a great list of ways to make our quilting life easier you are all posting in my comments...keep them coming! If you missed my last post...there is a give-away going on....MS Factoid for the Day: What is Multiple Sclerosis According the to MS Society booklet Just the Facts, MS is a chronic, unpredictable disease of the central nervous system. It is thought to be an autoimmune disorder. MS can cause blurred vision, loss of balance, poor coordination, slurred speech, tremors, numbness, extreme fatigue, problems with memory and concentration, paralysis, blindness and more. These problems may be permanent or may come and go.
My take on this: The toughest part of having MS or living with someone with MS is the unpredictability of it all. Note the "thought to be" and "may come and go" in the paragraph above. I was an A type personality when this started. I wanted real facts. Why did it happen? What do I do to prevent it? What is going to happen next week? next month? next year? Not lots of answers...I did finally wind down to a low B minus personality type...at least most of the time.
If I were to have one wish (besides not having MS at all) it would be for a better way of knowing what would be happening in the future. It has changed a lot of things. I much more careful about finances (maybe I should thank my MS for getting me out of the market early?!) and more careful about things like traveling (maybe taking that camel ride in the dessert is over-rated...how about shopping for rugs instead?)
(And if I could slip in one more little wish - would Dr House stop diagnosing MS every other show and it never being the right diagnosis...it freaks my DH out!)
I am doing things other than thinking about MS this weekend. I started working on reviving my old spice cabinet. Not exactly quilt-y but it is a craft of sorts.
The original cabinet was harvest gold...ugly but a useful size. So about 15 years ago I painted it white and stenciled a coffee pot on it. 15 years ago that looked good. Now...not so much.
So I took it apart (again...since this is a redo does that count as recycling for my carbon footprint? just a thought...) I've sanded it down and painted it it a deep green.
I am playing with a rather large collection of bottle caps trying to decide if this is the project to finally use them on....the a hardest part of this project has been flattening the caps so I can attach them to the cabinet and to get the caps away from Brownie who likes to use them to play hockey across the kitchen floor....
The photo on the top of this post is one of the rare pics of Brownie and Goldie together...can you tell they are sisters?!
14 comments:
I didn't know MS was autoimmune - I have polymyositis and Lupus -- usually under control with medication with occasional flare ups. I do wish they would come up with cures for these things.
Karen
http://karensquilting.com/blog/
Your cats are gorgeous and I don't know about you, but I find my cats and my dog to be so theraputic when I'm having pain and just tired. I love the redo on the cabinet and the bottle cap design, what a great idea. Take care.
I agree about Dr. House! If he isn't diagnosing someone with MS, he's diagnosing them with Cushing's disease. The thing is, he has never actually been right about the MS on any patient.
I agree that the most frustrating part is not being able to predict what your abilities are going to be day to day. Can I go to a quilt show on the weekend? I don't know. I don't know how I'll feel that day.
Hope you had a great weekend!
I don't know much about MS, but I hope that you will have more good days than bad. The spice cabinet is looking good, I think the bottle caps give it character.
Those bottle caps look pretty darn cute on your spice rack. I know so many women with MS - it is just such a hard sad disease.
HI Siobhan,
Your sister cats are so pretty ( I can't call them handsome since their girls) You have an orange girl cat too- I am told that is not that common.
You reminded my about the unpredictablity of MS - one of the challenges is good lighting because MS can cause serious vision problems. I would think having well lit spaces are very important to make it easier to see and for safety purposes.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Regards,
Anna
aaauuuhhh...cute kitties!! Your new project on your cabinet piece...not an easy task....I've re-done 'tons' of pieces, but well
worth the effort, right?!
Thanks so much for info about MS...I have just never known much
about it and your sharing with us is great. Thank you!!
AND I AGREE about Dr. House....it
seems to be the case EVERY episode!!
I remember your celebration/comemoration/series last year (has it been that long!) and I appreciated the education. I have far too many friends with MS. We need to find a cure for this!
I think your word "fun" definitely applies...I think it is great fun to find an easier/better way to quilt especially when it relieves my pain. My "disability" is age. Yup, I'm getting ooold and certain parts of me do not work properly anymore, so I need to find new/better ways to work --or I will have to give it up. gasp/wash my mouth out with soap!!!
One thing that helps me is to break up the various quilting tasks. Rather than cutting out ALL my pieces and then sewing them ALL together...I cut a little and then sew a little and then press a little and then do a household chore. Then, cut/sew/pres, etc again. When I stand up at the frame, I alternate with sitting down at the sewing machine. It is not the most efficient way to get the quilts done, but it hurts less.
Alternate, change positions, change muscle/joint usage, stand up, sit down...you get the idea.
Blessings!
Love the kitty pic...so cute!
Had to smile about the stenciled door...wasn't that all the rage! OMG what were we thinking! I can remember watching shows about trompe l'oeil and how "in" that was!
I still think your stenciled coffee pot is cute. glad to hear you've (maybe) found a project for your bottlecaps. what color is the kitchen painted?
I still think your stenciled coffee pot is cute. glad to hear you've (maybe) found a project for your bottlecaps. what color is the kitchen painted?
It's nice to get some more information about MS. It's incredibly prevelent in my area ~ by far more cases diagnosed than anywhere else in the world. There is a huge research center here to try and figure out the causes and why the Pacific Northwest is such a great place for such terrible disease.
I hope your sunny good days outweigh your bad days.
Dionne
Sio,
Great post.
Hi YankeeQuilter,
I am new to your blog...found my way from Bonnie's blog because I was inspired by some of your quilt pics and love, love, love the pics of your sweet cats. I have loved a couple sets of cat sisters and dog siblings and they haven't looked like they were related but they were sure bonded...well, the dogs were. Cats you know sometime start picking on each other at some point.
I liked how you described your personality change with MS. I have an autoimmune ds and though I was never really a Type A...have definitely become a B- or perhaps a C at times. Very difficult for people..even family to understand. I work full time though and do my best with the rest. I hope you get encouragement from your blog commenters..because your entries are inspiring. Thanks, Loris
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