2018 in review

This year started out well. I started January with high hopes for finishing at least a quilt a month. Mostly things already started... trying to improve my attention span.
February also went well. March was a little more exciting - went to Lancaster Quilt Week. The turnpike was a mess, there was an accident that caused a long delay. By the time I got to the train station in Lancaster to meet Traci there was about 9" of snow, and it was nasty and wet and I was almost 3 hours late!  We checked into our hotel room and got stuck in the driveway... then had a challenge finding somewhere to eat.  A word of caution... Lancaster businesses close if the schools close - including restaurants!  It was 8pm by the time we were fed at Cracker Barrel.  That was the worst snow storm in March since '97!
In April we went to Dayton, Ohio (Dayton has the USAF Museum) to celebrate Dwaine's birthday.
We were delighted to find that the electric wheelchairs were available for us to use and had a fantastic time riding through the museum exhibits. We had a steak dinner afterwards and drove home - all in reasonable weather!
In May I enjoyed my guild quilt retreat and finished a quilt top that I had started the previous November! Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt: On Ringo Lake. The clues have been taken off her website, but the pattern is available either in one of her books or as a download at quiltville.com
https://quiltville.com/shop.html#!/On-Ringo-Lake-A-Digital-Pictorial-Tutorial-Booklet/p/100091287/category=13038426.
June started off great - my annual check-up and blood work came back fine - with the usual 'high cholesterol' diagnosis being about 30 pts lower than last year!
In July we had a visit from Granddaughter Maddy - she spent most of the week visiting friends, so we didn't see much of her, and then she and Dwaine spent a week in Tennessee at his sister's place while I ventured off to Rochester, NY on a Mission Trip with our youth group.

 just before the trip to Rochester NY 7/22/18

later that week with the homeowner

Everything seemed to be going well, until my daughter called the 7th of August to tell me about needing a walker 'for the rest of her life'.  That went on to become a saga of epic proportions that went back through months of doctor visits and trauma.


So, looking forward to next year... and here's why:

2018
the year my daughter was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer - multiple myeloma. No cure, just a lifelong 'treatment' so an even tougher year for her! I spent a couple of weeks with her during the first two months of her treatment.  Back and forth to Philadelpia...

at the Spring flower show at Phipps - April 2018

2018
the year my husband's heart disease almost did him in - but he is surviving with a heart pump, as he is not a good candidate for a heart transplant... and the waiting list is years long so even if he was qualified, he would still need the heart pump while waiting. and again, an even tougher year for him!

Dwaine and me at Phipps - October 2018

He was looking tired in this picture - had to stop and rest a lot, but he made it through the
Fall flower show, just before going into hospital.  His Heart Smart III was installed on Nov. 2.
He was in the hospital from 10/20 until Nov 20.

All through this ordeal people keep asking me how am I holding up, do I need anything?
I think this is the worst six months I've had since 1977.  I am miserable, scared, emotional, worried and more disorganized than I have ever been before in my life.

If you have lived through something similar - and you have a suggestion or a technique for coping that you think might help - please let me know!  This situation has used up almost every single coping mechanism in my repertoire. I've been trying to schedule a massage and a pedicure for over a month.  Even making time for me to make a phone call has been a challenge.

One of my coping skills is to do repetitious sewing... so that's what I'm doing today, and tomorrow, and probably the rest of this year.