Out of the Pink Sky

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

From Pimpin' Pug and Campin' Kitty

The Evolution Continues

I believe I'm getting better at wirewrapping pendants as I get more practice.  Of course, this makes sense as practice improves most things.  I just posted the above pendant.  I tried to create a vine-like effect with the sterling silver wire.  When I bought the stone, it was marked "amazonite," but it doesn't look like any amazonite I've seen.  I think it's marble.  Either way, I think it's beautiful, and somewhat creepy (it kinda reminds me of an x-ray).  In the coming days, I'll post another pendant, featuring an amber-like stone with cool painted accents.

Clouds and Honey...and pugs

I finally got the sterling silver oxidation to do what I want!  To match the antique key that you see above, I oxidized the sterling silver to a very dark gray on this pendant.  I found this key at an antique booth at Worthington Market Days and immediately became enamoured with it.  I love how the handle looks like a cloud.  This pendant also features a spectrolite heart-shaped bead as well as a lovely honeydrop-like spessotite briolette.  At the top is a beautiful carnelian coin.  Despite its antiqued, oxidized appearance, all metal on this pendant, except the key, is sterling silver.

On a totally different topic, I realized that I haven't had a photo of my boy on here in awhile:

Kitty in the Window

Me, as a cautionary tale

A few weeks ago, I noticed that there were suddenly little reddish-brown to black dots under my fingernails.  The one on my right ringfinger (pictured below) was circular, like a mole, but the one on my left ringfinger was more like a tiny line.  At the time, I didn't think too much of it.  I figured that, since I work with my hands a lot, to make jewelry, maybe I bruised my fingers or maybe one of the chemicals I work with did it.  However, as I noticed that the spots were not growing out with my fingernails, I became more concerned.  I looked up information on the internet that explained that these spots could be due to nutritional deficiencies, psoriasis, or, most disturbingly, melanoma.  Since I work in a cancer hospital, as my day job, I know how nasty melanoma is, so I made an appointment with my doctor which was about a week from when I called. 

This past Wednesday, I had my appointment with my family doctor in the afternoon.  He asked if I'd had shortness of breath, which I had, on exertion, like when going up stairs or walking uphill.  It had been annoying, but it had come on gradually and I figured I was just out of shape.  I also told him that my left calf hurt.  I recently got new tennis shoes and had some charlie horses so I thought those were the reason behind the pain, though it had been getting worse instead of better.  By that time, I was visibly limping.  He explained that spots on the fingernail can, sometimes, indicate blood clots.  On one hand, I'm only 34 and I have never smoked, so that was a longshot.  On the other hand, I've been on hormonal birth control for about 10 years and I'm obese, both due to having PCOS.  However, the pain in my leg, and the fact that, when he measured my calves, my left was a couple centimeters bigger than my right, were troubling so he was scheduling me for an ultrasound on my leg the next morning. He did say that I was much more likely, though, that the spots were due to working with my hands.

Thursday morning, it was off to have an ultrasound.  I was surprised when they found a DVT, deep vein thrombosis, or clot, in my calf.  The ultrasound technologist sent me back to my family doc who happened to be right next door.  He explained that I had a clot and would need to start on Lovenox and Coumadin immediately.  I had to go to the ER to be trained to use the Lovenox.  So, I got back in my car and drove myself to the ER at the hospital on the campus where I work.  They became concerned about my shortness of breath and sent me for a CT of my chest.  At the CT machine, I met a series of giddy technologists who were excited because I was one of the first people to be scheduled for their brand new CT machine.  In fact, I got the impression that they heard that someone needed a chest CT and they went out of their way to snap me up.  That was rather cute.  Anyway, I went back to the ER where they explained that I had two pulmonary emboli, or blood clots in my lungs.  As such, I would need to be admitted, but I needed to wait for a bed.  In the meantime, they were nice enough to let me use one of their phones and computers to get my work stuff in order since I would be out of work for, at least, a couple days.  My job is fairly complex, and I have a lot of patients who I follow, so I wanted to let my coworkers know what was going on so they could cover for me.  This resulted in a lot of good-natured teasing - "Look at her!  She had a PE and a DVT, and she's still working.  That's worse than me!"  However, to be honest, I didn't feel that bad, and just waiting in the ER room was boring.  Plus, the coworker most likely to cover for me, Vandana, is an absolute sweetheart, but pretty new to the job, so I'd want to do everything I could to prepare her.

Finally, they got me up to my room.  The rest of the hospital was booked, so I ended up on the infectious disease service.  To be honest, I was concerned because I didn't come in with an infectious disease, and I certainly did not want to leave with one, but they assured me that anyone with an airborne disease or MRSA is kept in reverse-airflow isolation.  However, I still refused to sit on the toilet - I did that hovering thing that women do :).  Overall, the staff was great.  I really liked my nurses, Tammy and Joel, my PCAs (except the middle of the night one who kept coming in and leaving our door open when she left, despite the fact that we were right across from the nurses station with loud talking and alarms and such, prompting me to get up multiple times in the night and close the door again), and my doctors.  Some of the younger doctors seemed pretty excited when seeing me - I don't think they often see PEs and DVTs on someone so young, especially in the infectious disease unit.  One really bizarre coincidence is that my nurse manager was Jill Burkhart, which was my maiden name (though my last name was spelled in a less common way) for 32 years!  We actually already knew of each other because, for a while, before my name changed after getting married, we had the same name.  Because her name is spelled in the more popular way, she started getting my emails and phone calls.  We still sometimes get each other's communications.  She came in to meet me because she said that she was worried since she feels like she knows me!  Anyway, my mom felt like it was a good sign since my nurse manager had the same name as me.

I got out of the hospital last night, mainly because there was not much more they could do for me and I was "out of the woods."  Plus, I nearly begged to go home so I could actually sleep!  The hospital is about the least restful place one can be! 

So, now I'm home.  My husband and I are giving me my Lovenox shots.  Fortunately, that will only be twice a day for about a week.  The Lovenox had a $80 copay!  Not too good for people who aren't well off!  The Coumadin, however, only had a $4 copay.  I'll be on that for at least 6 months.  In the meantime, no more hormonal contraceptives for me.  I'm also supposed to lose weight.  However, that's definitely easier said than done for me.  With PCOS, insulin-resistance, and hypothyroidism, I'm screwed when it comes to losing weight.  I've been to all the specialists and they say that, while there is research being done, there isn't much out there to help me.  I doubt I'm a candidate for surgery to help me, since I'm on blood thinners.  We'll see what I can do!

Wordless, just under the wire

That's a Wirewrap!

I know, I know, the title of this post of awful, but it's catchy, no?  Catchy and painfully pun-arific!  Anyway, I apologize.  I've been continuing to work on my cabochon pendant wirewrapping.  Above, you can see one of my latest creations.  I live in Columbus Ohio, and even work at OSU for my horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day job.  Because of OSU jewelry's popularity, I decided to jump on the OSU jewelry bandwagon and make this pendant to see how it does at a craft show.  Now, I just need to be accepted into a craft show (Tiny Canary was a bust.  I didn't get in.  Beh!)  It has been difficult, in these days and times, to continue crafting.  Food and gasoline have gotten so expensive that it has been a challenge to find money for any supplies.  At this point, I think it'll be a while before I can afford to buy any more.  However, until then, I'll keep plugging along with what I have.  I can't imagine what life would be like without creating!

Below, you can see another pendant I made using sardonyx.  In addition, I've posted a photo of several pendants I photographed at once.

 

And the winner is...

The winner of my Sendai Garden pendant is Jessica.  If I do not receive a reply with her within a week, I'll draw a new name. 

CONGRATULATIONS, JESSICA!

Stay tuned!  I'll try to have another giveaway before the holidays!

Kan I'z Go Tu?

 

Sushi in my suitcase as it was being packed for a trip to Louisville.

A $500 calculator?!?

I just got notification today that I passed the certification exam for my day job.  I was sweating that one.  The test was extremely difficult.  It was multiple choice, but it was the type of multiple choice in which they give you four choices - one is wrong and three are correct, but you have to choose which answer is most correct.  Also, had I not passed, I would have had to pay the exam fees, $500, out of pocket.  They did let us keep our calculators after the test.  For those who don't pass, that's one expensive calculator!