Just Right, Again

I haven't updated this blog in over 8 months because even to me, it's a bit unbelievable. But I also didn't want to just abandon it. Most of you know this, so it's partly for me. The quick story is:

August - I was hit by a semi, and our sweet dog Brownie crossed the rainbow bridge (not at the same time).

September: Tried a splint. Also chiropractor and therapist. 

October - awesome California trip (lots more pix on Facebook) 

November was busy. Colonoscopy (all good), ultrasound (good), bone density (awesome), had my ovaries out on the recommendation of my oncologist (all fine, just more healthy body parts removed), MRI on my hand (UCL tear). More hiking.

Thanksgiving Hike

December - cast on my hand. Dad had 2 surgeries, one crisis. It was a long month. On the upside: Cookie!

January - cast off, started PT. Cookie & Rocky share the spoon.

February - more PT (really, pinching exercises!)

March - another awesome California trip and more PT

Which brings us to April. The plastic surgeon took a look and thought the right breast looked so bad the implant might have been damaged in the accident. Yes, that bad (I'll spare you the photos). 

So last week I went back in for repairs. After surgery, the doctor said all the fat he had carefully inserted last April and July was gone on that side. And "the pocket was blown" meaning the muscle pocket that holds the implant was torn open. He had done work on the pocket last July. . .and I felt it rip open the day after the accident. (What happens when the pocket is blown, you ask? traveling boob!)

This time he gave me a new implant (same size as the last one), used Alloderm to give support to what's left of the muscle along the right side and top and yes, more fat grafting.

Back to resting, icing, walking slowly, knitting. I worked on a shawl called Daybreak. I started with a variegated yarn, but didn't like how the colors were turning out. 

     

Then I started over with another pair of colors. I got to the first stripe but still not right.

     

I frogged again. Third pass: keep the yellow, add a self-striping yarn. Knit about 8 stripes each color. Still not crazy about it and my tension isn't even, so there's big rows and small rows. Frogged back to about 4 stripes in.

     

Fourth try: Wound the self-striping yarn into 2 balls and worked 1 row from each with different needles on knit/purl rows to get the tension better. But. . .not enough yarn to finish. 

Finally, added a third yarn for the last section.

     

After 5 attempts, it looks pretty good. Looking at you, right breast.