Extreme Knitting Redhead: Ouch, crochet woes and a dilemma

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Ouch, crochet woes and a dilemma

The Ouch Part:

I've had this niggle in the back of my right heel for a couple of months now. It doesn't hurt when I run, except for a slight pulling sensation on the inside of the heel, but when I get up in the morning I can hardly walk as it's so stiff. It loosens off after about 15 minutes and then is OK. The same thing happens when I've been sitting down for a while.

Mary Massage Lady had a go at it a while back but to no avail so I had to go and see Alison my trusted Physiotherapist. She poked around trying to find the bit that made me go "OUCH!" but it was hiding. After a great deal of detective work she got it sussed: Retrocalcaneal bursitis, Calcaneal apophysitis (which is supposed to only affect children!) plus a very tight Soleus

My arches are very high and my heels curve inwards and the angle of my foot to ankle is not as large as it should be (we knew this already but it hasn't caused a problem until now). She asked if I'd been running more hills than usual but I haven't. I have noticed that I go up on my toes more than usual when doing off-road hills though. This explains why the Tibialis anterior muscles up the front of my shins have become extra large as they have had to compensate for the tightness in my calves.

She zapped my heel in 4 places with a laser which was really interesting. The machine registered a higher number when it encountered a swelling (steady boys!). In 3 places it registered around 30 but in the really sore bit it shot right up to 48. After that she taped my heel to help get it back on track but I just couldn't walk on it so she had to loosen it a bit. Also I've got calf stretches to do 4 times x 2 minutes a day to stretch out the Soleus.

Good news is I can still run on it but not off-road for a day or so. Hoorah!

Crochet Woes:

I have been trying to find the solution to joining the flowers I made using the Lazy Daizy loom. Firstly I used 2 strands of mohair together which looked quite good but wasn't quite firm enough for the effect I wanted. I ripped it before thinking to take a photo, DOH!

A rummage in my stash found this yarn from the early 1980s! What I don't like about it is that they now look like granny squares and whilst I love granny squares it wasn't the effect I wanted. Plus I don't like the light background. Hmmmmm.

Then I remembered this brown chenille from a cardigan project I didn't like. The colour is nice and dark to show off the flowers but I think I need to adopt a more freeform approach to the joining. More experimenting lies ahead!

The Dilemma

I decided to make another pair of socks before embarking upon a big project and decided to have a go at the Pomatomus Socks by Cookie A. So I duly wound the yarn into 2 balls. But as I did so I fell in love with the colours so much that I didn't want to hide them away as socks. It's just that I can imagine the yarn as the background for a pair of gloves with a Fair Isle pattern.

So, I went and dug out the pretty yarn that I won in Amelia's competition. But again, I could see this as gloves or even a hat.

Decisions, decisions!

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.