The Walk.

Took the dogs (Xena an 7 yr old female boxer and Fozzie 15mth old male Labradoodle) for a walk this morning - I haven't taken them for ages because I didn't think I could handle the two of them together but decided yesterday to give it a try. It was a bit frantic to start with but as they settled down (and got tired) the walk was easier.

We didn't go too far and this morning did the same again althought we managed to go a few more houses up the hill. The fun thing is when they both want to go and smell something in different directions, they have a combined weight of 60kg at least.

Xena crashed once we got home - she loves the idea of getting out but hates the fact that she has to walk! I'm afraid Xena is a couch potato, her idea of exercise is moving from the lounge chair to her bed. Fozzie on the other hand is like a whirlwind, he is always running through the house, playing with his toys and trying to coax Xena into playing.

Remember

My favorite online quilting group had a challenge which we had to make something that represented a word - Remember.

We were given the project in March and I thought it would be perfect to do something that related to ANZACs and the lovely Flander's Field Poppy. While I rummaged on the 'net I found a lovely painting by Georgia O'Keeffe that was perfect.

I appliqued my poppy onto some scrap fabric and then machine embroidered the flower and stem in all the lovely shades of red and orange so evocative of the Remberance Poppy.

I cut it out carefully and then stitched it to a neutral background that I had added a small border in burnt orange. The quilting on it represents the wind blowing across the fields of Flanders. I wrote the word "Remember' across the bottom.

The whole quilt is just A4 sized.

August BOM

This is the block for August for the BOM I am designing. It is raw edged applique so is a good beginning and very little overlaps. Next block will be harder - there will be more overlaps although it will still be a raw edge applique.
I am trying to think of what design to draw for the needle turn but that is a couple of months away so I can scribble down ideas and see what happens.

It was very foggy here this morning but now at almost 11 it is finally lifting and the sun is shining at the moment although the weather bureau has predicted rain.

Back to 'normal'

Well all the excitement of the past few weeks has settled down and now I am trying to get back to normal; or at least what acts as normal in this house.

I received my quilt top that I had sent off in a Round Robin with my online group group the other day. I was pleased with the result. Naturally my centre had purple in it and the theme was carried through to the border. I just have to decide what I will do for the final border and then quilt it.

I also have almost completed next month's pattern for a BOM I am designing for the online group. We are up to the 4th block - the first three were pieced blocks and the next few will be applique. I am trying to go from simple blocks and then increase the difficulty so we can learn something from the process. The first three blocks were Broken Dishes, Ohio Star and Card Trick.

Nathan's home

Well Nathan came home on Saturday. He had an Xray first and that was clear so he was outa there!

He has a little suitcase (Finding Nemo characters on it) that he brings to our house when he stays each weekend. It has wheels so he can pull it along, Ben (DS) and Michelle told me it had it backed and as soon as they said he could go he was out the door and off down the hall pulling his bag, there was no way he was staying any longer!

I haven't seen him yet, he has gone straight to MIchelle's as our dogs would go crazy when they saw him and jump, not worth the risk. Ben will stay at Michelle's over the weekends and back home with us through the week.

I am so glad that is all over.

Update on Nathan

Well it has been over and week and Nathan is doing remarkable well.

He was in ICU (intensive Care Unit) from Monday after the op until Wednesday morning when he was moved to the HD (High Dependency) section of the ward. He had three drains removed on Wednesday and still had two drains into the lung area to drain the fluid. He had a catheter in but this was removed on Weds or Thursday. He is also on morphine drip and, until Sunday morning, he was on oxygen.

When I saw him this morning he looked really good and the Drs are talking about removing the remaining two drains and the morphine drip.

Once that is done he will be able to wander around. It will make a big difference. He still has some fluid in the lungs to get rid of but it is draining less each day as he gets better.

At this stage we do not know when he will be home but the worst is over.

The picture above shows what was done to the outside of the heart, inside the heart is now one chamber divided so the blood comes in one area and out the other.

Nathan

My grandson Nathan was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a severe heart defect. He was given a shunt between his Aorta and pulmonary arteries when he was 2 months old as a 'stop gap' until correctly surgery could be done. This would mean that the blood and oxygen would flow to the correct side of his lungs.

Tetralogy of Fallot includes 4 defects within the heart structures:
Ventricular septal defect (hole between the right and left ventricles)
Narrowing of the pulmonic outflow tract (tube that connects the heart and the lungs)
An aorta (tube that carries oxygenated blood to the body) that arises from both centrioles, rather then exclusively from the left ventricle
A thickened muscular wall of the right ventricle ( right ventricular hypertrophy)

He finally had his surgery yesterday (after having proponed 5 times)

Nathan came out of surgery about 3.30 (just over 6 hours). Originally they were going to do the surgery in two parts because they 1, weren't sure how bad it was; 2. didn't know how his body would cope on the bypass and 3. the time factor of having other surgeries to do that day.

Anyway apparently the team were surprised at how well his body was coping and as they had no more surgeries arranged for the day they did the lot.

Ben and Michelle saw him about 3.45 and already they had taken him off the respirator. The staff were very happy with the way he had responded.

They spoke with the Professor who did the op for a quick 5 minutes and he told them that Nathan should not need any more surgeries now. The inside of the heart and the valves were pretty shot and basically he now has one chamber. Ben and Michelle said amazingly the best part was seeing his blood oxygen stats - before the op it would be around 75-80 (when the shunt was in) and 45-50 before the shunt and now it didn't dip below 94 and actually hit 100 a couple of times.
Not sure how long he will be in hospital - we have been told he will be in ICU anything from 3 - 7 days and then in the ward from 1-3 weeks; it is going to depend on him - how quickly he recovers.