Monday, July 10, 2006

realizations

Today I realized something new about this lump. Something that is not making me happy. Something it is taking away from me, however temporarily.

I won’t be able to quilt for about 2 -3 weeks.

To quote Charlie Brown: “Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!”

Quilting is my stress buster. It’s a creative way for me to escape the stresses and strife and sadness and troubles and difficulties in life.

And it is not something I can turn to while my body is in recovery mode.

You see, I’m extremely right handed. Extremely right handed. To the point that when I try to do things left handed, they come out backwards. It’s hilarious to see me write my name. Comes out so that you need a mirror to read the writing.

I cut fabric with my right hand.
I pin fabric with my right hand.
I use my right hand to guide fabric through the sewing machine.
I iron with my right hand.
I cut thread and use scissors with my right hand.

The lump is in my right breast... which means, all of those things can't be done until the doc gives the okay to use that right arm and hand more freely.

After surgery, I’m not going to be able to use that right arm with any kind of pressure or lifting any kind of weight.

No cutting… involves pressure for the rotary cutter.
No ironing… involves lifting too much weight of the iron and too much pressure on the fabric.

Both tasks are a part of quilting that can’t be skipped. And both parts come as steps in the quilting process… multiple times… between each of the sewing steps.

So I’ve got to find other things to do while I’m in recovery mode after surgery. I’ve got a trip to the library planned. I’m picking out movies.

But what I really want to do is quilt.

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