Livestream Party!
Join us today at 9:00am PT / 12:00pm ET | Details Here.
×

Cheers

Give a Cheer
Give cheer Give a Cheer
Favorite

Hello there my artsy friends! I'm sorry I've been off-line for awhile but was quite ill. I had a really bad Rheumatoid arthritis flare so had two steroid infusions, 2 days in a row, then started having pain on both of my sides. I am very used to pain and had no fever (later my doc told me due to the infusions), so just thought it was from the infusions and figured I needed to just tough it out. It got worse and worse so finally went back to my RA doctor and she told me to go straight to the ER. As it turns out, I had a SIX DAY ruptured appendix, and the added bonus of pancreatitis because the “stuff” that ruptured got all over my pancreas and was causing crazy numbers on my pancreas. But my time was not up so they operated on me for three hours, removed my appendix piece by piece, blew up and cleaned out my entire abdominal cavity, was in the hospital for 7 days, on IV then pill antibiotics, and am expected to have a full recovery in 3 months.
I share this because I have learned so much from this experience but there is one lesson I felt might help to share here. I thought since I have had RA & had a c-section I knew what pain was all about, but I couldn't have been more wrong. The pain I experienced for about NINE DAYS was unreal. Because of the seriousness of this surgery and the risk for re-infection, I was so scared. Scared my daughters would be without their biggest fan/nag, scared my husband would become a widower, scared I would do something wrong and cause worse pain, etc. I have never felt so helpless and desperate for pain relief.
But there is sooo much good that came out of it. I saw my friends rally around me like soldiers. My husband ROCKED IT. He was with me every day during the day then arranged one of my friends to be with me, while taking my youngest to and from all of her activities, taking care of dinner, shower, homework, etc. My prayer group friends came into the hospital, looked at me with so much worry, and cried and prayed with me (honestly, one of my now most treasured memories). I had friends rally for me when I was completely unable to do anything for myself. So I was reminded from this, being on the receiving end, that love and kindness REALLY make a difference to those who are in DIRE NEED of it. I am so grateful to God for how He provided for me. So PLEASE don't stop making those things for those you love, and for those who are going through a really rough time, to perhaps lift up their load a bit. It matters. It can make all the difference.
So...my first craft project since I've been ill was for my sweet Aunt Karin. She got a blood clot in her leg/ankle well over a month ago, and has had surgery but has only received limited blood flow back so will definitely lose some toes and may lose her foot and part of her leg. She's in enormous pain so I wanted to make her something periodically, in hopes to encourage her, but obviously my own issues have kept me from making anything for awhile.

This was a 6”x6” canvas, acrylics, Holtz newsprint paper, gel pens, Dina Wakley bird stamp (“painted” with water and scribble sticks), tons of acrylic paints and stencils, hand-dyed seam binding for scrunched ribbon hanger (using Holtz inks & water). I used Gabrielle's technique to make the tree branch out of hot glue, then gesso, then brown paints. Oh and I just used pulled apart cheese cloth for the birds nest and glued it down with Ranger's multi medium. The sun and alpha stencils were from stencilgirlproducts.com (used Wakley Night paint on letters).
Btw, I stamped the Wakley bird several times on newsprint paper then tried paints watered down and it covered too much so I broke out my Scribble Sticks and just LOVED how they have a very water color, blendy look, when you “color” with them then blend with a wet brush. Very very cool how they colored yet showed the newsprint underneath. I now must have the other sets!

Blessings to you all as you use your talents to bless others! Is there anything better than that?!?
ALIVE in Florida,
Debbie 8-)


Report
SavedRemovedChanged