Prayer Request

Good Morning my friends! Hello new friends! So happy to have you stop by. Come again! ;)
Here is a picture for you of my PSS SAL. I am enjoying this.

Here is a picture for you of my Barbara Ana SAL with Vicki, Annette, and Donna. =) So sweet!

Gotta say, I am enjoying this SAL thing!

Have you ever made these?

Thought I would share this as my next pumpkin yummy. I made them a few days ago. I have made these cookies for many years actually. The cookie mix is available every fall. Yummy.

This weekend I baked Lemon Bread in the bread machine. It is one of my all time favorite breads.♥ I made Rice Krispie Treats last night. Do you put green and gold sprinkles on them for the Green Bay Packers too? hahaha!

Well, I ask for your prayers friends. My pain has been creeping back. What a glorious gift from God those 2 1/2 weeks of almost pain free living were! I keep reminding myself to be thankful for that, and NOT to focus on the "why can't I still be almost pain free? Why?" sigh! It is hard, chronic pain. It is tough.

I have decided to go for test injection number one in my left SI joint(hip joint). Remember the drill? One test injection. Go home and do strenuous activities that day to provoke it. See if you still get good pain relief for those hours. Then suffer for it for almost a week straight. Then two weeks later, get test injection number two. He uses a different type of anesthetic for this second guinea pig procedure injection. Go home and do strenuous activities that day to provoke it.  If I get good pain relief both times, I am "allowed" to have the radiofrequency nerve ablation. Whoopee! NOT! =(

The last one I had done in June, was a medial branch nerve ablation. Yeah, whatever. When that was decided to be "not successful", they told me I could try again in the SI joint. I thought they were nuts! THAT is where my pain is!! Why didn't we do that FIRST?! The PA explained that the doctor was pleased with the test results from my "medial branch" and felt that was the way to go. Yeah right. WAY TO GO!

So I need prayers because this time I am not sure how I will get through the extra pain afterwards. I know that I can take one quarter of one percocet at a time since my stomach ailments. It makes me sick and makes my stomach hurt quite bad if I take a whole one. I am doubting one quarter is going to help with the intense pain much at all. I have an appointment with the doctor directly before this procedure on Tuesday morning. I will ask about what else I can take for pain.

I am sorta desperate for pain relief here folks. That is the only reason I am subjecting myself to this mess. The Neurontin that I finally got approved for and have been taking just won't take the pain down like it did for me years ago. =(  I will try this and hope and pray it works. If not, well, I shall try not to be discouraged. This is actually helping me to keep focused on the truly important and eternal things of life.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

A Surprise In The Mail

Hi Friends!  So glad you stopped by.  A surprise came in the mail for me yesterday. Hooray! Hooray for me! That is the best,isn't it?! Guess who it was from?

Our sweet friend Annette, that's who! ;) She made me this beautiful card.♥ And take a look at what else she created for me.

A fabulous floss fob! Beautiful DMC flosses too. I love it! I now own my very first floss fob. Here is a better picture of the lovely stitching.

 

ooOoo! I just love those initials she stitched for me! They are fabulous. And the crown! I asked her if this means that I must surely be the queen of this household? And do you know what dear Annette told me? No, you don't, so I am going to tell you. She told me that when she sees a crown, she thinks of Jesus. "So it is like a subtle blessing from Him representing the crown to watch over you ( your initials)." I could just cry. That is so beautiful Annette. What a special, wonderful gift. Thank you! Oh yes, and Annette did say that me being the Queen of the household works too. ;)

 See the beautifully matched fabric on the back. As you can see my pink peonies finally opened up. =)

We took a trip this morning, Brian, Jacob and I. We took the Freeway Flyer from our home to Marquette University. What a great, convenient benefit for Jacob this bus will be. He will save money on gas and parking. Yay! We walked around the large campus in downtown Milwaukee. We found the buildings that are used for nursing. We also bought some t-shirts and a sweatshirt. ;)

Friends! I MAY have some exciting news for you all! I did not experience the severe sunburn pain sensation after my radiofrequency nerve ablation on Tuesday. The pain was very increased, but has slowly subsided. The bus trip today was a test of sorts for me, because.... I woke up this morning with very low pain. As in a "one or two" on the ten scale. Friends, this has not happened in many, many months!! It appears to be working.

Now for the dumb, dumb, dummy move. Yup! Do ya know what this is? I had one of these as a girl. Oh what fun! It is a Skip It. Madeleine has one like it in the garage, without the lemon, it's a pink thing on the end instead. Anyways, it was calling me. Mocking me. I had to give it a try. Ya know, just a few times right?

Dumb! Dumb! Dummy! Now both hips hurt and my left leg. =( I honestly just wanted to have fun. Really. Then I remembered the doctor saying not to do things that I know will cause the pain though. =( Man! So I took the percocet. =( Time will tell. For crying out loud!

You can still enter my giveaway here.

I will leave you with a few happy pictures of the pups taken just yesterday.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Birthday Gifts For Me

Good Morning friends! It is finally warming up here. I turned 44 this last week. I do not ever remember wearing a long sleeved shirt for my birthday! These flowers from Brian helped warm up the day though.

My mom still has birthday parties for all of us at her house. It was warm and sunny.I received quite a few garden center gift cards, chococlate =), money, and a gift certificate to my LNS. I made a quick trip to the LNS for needles and more Wisper in new shades. I have also visited the garden center and bought a few plants, and planted them up too. I may head back there today.

This arrived right on my actual birthday from dear Shirlee.

 What a sweet card and chart. I do not own many summer charts, so this is perfect. Thank you again sweet Shirlee.

I also received this adorable surprise from dear June! Oh how I laughed. I wondered what she was up to. She told me a while back she had found something perfect for me. ;)

Isn't she fabulous?! She hasn't moved from her perch on my pink bench in the front room. She looks smashing there I think. And she came smelling lovely due to the beautiful sachet June included. We tried and tried to pose the two dogs with the toy. Mabel wasn't the problem obviously!

I chose this picture because it cracks me up. I know it is blurry due to Henry, but just look at sweet Mabel's expression. I can almost hear her sigh.

Speaking of Mabel, we went to the vet on Friday. He said he usually holds back on comments, he does not want to encourage owners too much in situations like Mabel's. But he felt he had to say that her improvement in one week was "tremendous"! We will continue her on the medications just as they are now for a while. She no longer pants in pain in the evenings. She has not shown pain in days now. She and I are alike. Our pain is there to be sure, it is just masked with the medications. But she is walking again friends!! I just cannot explain it well to you, the extreme stress these last few weeks have been with the whole Mabel situation. She is now like an old lady poodle. She is only 4 years old. It is sad, yes. But we do not kill someone just because they are old right? I feel an immense understanding and connection in this whole pain mess with Mabel as I am sure you understand. I certainly wouldn't want to be "gotten rid of" because of the pain and restrictions I have caused!! And yes, I am not crackers! I know I am a person and she is a dog! I guess the point is that her pain is now managed. She walks, although it is slow. She will not be running. She must not use stairs ever.

This is another chocolate iris I own, Huckleberry Fudge. This one does not smell of chocolate, just looks like it. I will have to take a picture of my lavender irises that smell of grape.

I have hardly been stitching. What little I have, I could not show. It is a secret stitch that I did finish. Now I am going to make it into a pinkeep. I have so many projects calling me, sometimes yelling at me! But I really, really feel the need to stitch another poodle. ;) We will see.

Thank you for visiting me my friends. I appreciate every single one of those comments you leave me. They brighten my day and encourage me. Especially as of late with my injections. The time has almost arrived now. I do not know that I will be posting before Tuesday, so I will mention it now. I get the Radiofrequency Nerve Ablation done on Tuesday morning. To say I am nervous is an understatement. The nurse on the phone the other day told me to tell the doctor to numb it very well. Okay, I can do that. Makes me a tad more nervous I must say. I asked about pain afterwards. She said I will feel like I have a very bad sunburn on my lower back for several days. There are no pills to eliminate that she says! Just keep ice on it she says. FOR SEVERAL DAYS CONSTANTLY???!!! Well, it is my hope and prayer this is all worth it. As I mentioned before, he has had patients remain pain free for 2 years! Now that is the greatest result he has had from patients, but I am aiming high friends. If you are willing, would you pray for me and the doctor? I would so GREATLY appreciate it.♥

Finishing and praying,
Vickie