Messing With Our Heads

The second Melt the ICE Hat is done, and I like this one better. I think it's because I used fingering yarn. 

The hat is softer, and it stays on my head better than the one I made out of worsted yarn.

The Traveling Woman Shawl is going well. I'm making the small size in fingering weight. The pattern has four sizes: extra small, small, medium and large, and it can be made from lace weight, fingering, sport, DK or worsted-weight yarn.

This was a week for MRIs. If you read last week's blog, you will know that, besides the Yarn Crawl, we were in the Portland area so Charlie could get the procedure he's been waiting a year for, to reduce the essential tremors in his right hand, which is the one he tries to write with. The procedure is called high-intensity focused ultrasound therapy. They use the MRI to find the correct part of the brain to treat. He started with a baseline MRI on Sunday at OHSU. Then Monday we went back for the procedure. He already had his hair cut "like a Marine recruit," as he told the barber. Monday morning, they started by shaving off what was left of his hair.

They had a sheet of paper on a clipboard for him to draw on without resting his right hand on anything. It had two spirals, one in each direction, and a couple of horizontal lines, one above the other. He was supposed to try to draw inside the lines of the spirals and between the two horizontal lines. Here's the example OHSU gives for before and after the procedure. The before example is much better than Charlie's. His before result looked like a two-year-old trying to learn to draw––just scribbles. 

The doctors used a device to mark where they needed to insert the screws that would hold another device on his head. They numbed the area where the marks were.

Then they screwed the device right into his head. (Ow!) It reminded us of a medieval torture device. He was brave throughout, though, and didn't scream.

Then a sort of half bubble went over it. Not the kind of headwear for hiking, I'm thinking. Alexa and I waited. 

During the procedure, they stop and have the patient retry drawing the spirals and the straight line. Then they would adjust the area they were treating, then repeat the whole procedure. When they were satisfied with what he could do with his right hand, they were done. The result was near miraculous! He could draw the spirals as well as I expected I could, equivalent to the one in the example above.

One of the side effects, however, is that the patient's leg on the affected side would need to be retrained. That's why they had him bring a cane to the procedure. We went back on Tuesday for a post-treatment MRI and then I drove us home to Bend. On Wednesday, Charlie had PT for his balance and his right leg. The therapist recommended we get a walker for him until he relearned to use his right leg properly. We drove right to the place in town that had them and picked one up.

Tuesday evening was Madroña pop-up night again. We had a new person join us. It was good to see our friends again, and we enjoyed a nice Viognier. 

I have to go back to Wisconsin in April, but Charlie plans to stay home this time. Our son Peter will meet me in Minneapolis, and we will drive together to Karen's home. The two of us will look after David, while Karen goes with the kids to their dance competition. In preparation for being gone, I made some lasagna. We had it for dinner that night, and then I packaged up several servings to put in the freezer. Charlie can eat one or two servings while I'm gone, and anything that's left will be good for camping. I still need to cook up some other entrees to leave for him, but there's plenty of time.

I baked some bread so I could use my sourdough starter and feed it. We will eat all this right away within a few days.

Yesterday, we had an oboist and a couple of bell ringers accompany our anthem. If you want to listen, here is the link to the service. We start at about 57:40.

We didn't get much walking in this week, due to the travel and wind, but we did walk a couple of times (the dogs and I) and had a little off-leash time, as we often do. The pups are looking forward to having Daddy join us again, with or without his walker.

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon or B&N and search for Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses, More Classic Tales Retold or Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still working on my Traveling Woman Shawl, and finished the second Melt The Ice hat.

What's on my iPhone: Still reading The Strange Case  of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss on the AudiobooksNow app.

What's on my sewing machine: Put away until the next project.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Mariah wants to see how she would look in a hijab (head scarf). The boys and Jolena find her sitting in front of the bathroom mirror. The story is about how we each want to be seen for who we are. This Is Who I Am is a story from The Doll's Storybook.

What's my tip of the week: I use a bread machine to mix the dough for bread and then bake it in the oven. I'm on my second pan, as they tend to wear out when used a lot, and then they leak. To try to preserve the pan, I never leave water in it. I just wash it out and then let it dry. When I'm ready to make bread again, I spray the bottom of the pan before putting the paddle in. My thought is that it lubricates the area where the paddle goes around. 

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog, and they are reproduced in print with a few changes.

The stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After and Money in a Jar.

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, only 8%, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local library to order the books.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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