Challenge continues...

Just to make my pledge to the Challenge even more of a challenge....I've managed to handicap myself a little bit. For those of you weak in the stomach I did not photograph what is under my bandage! Last Monday I burned myself pretty badly on the oven element while enthusiastically and hurriedly taking out baked potatoes. At the time I realized I'd branded myself royally with a single, thick, straight burn just below my thumb on the top of my hand. Ok, so I ran cold water over it and left it alone. It scabbed over a few days but then on Friday the scab started to open up revealing raw tissue underneath. Saturday morning it was oozing...a lot. Bo put a bandaid over it for me. As the day went on my hand started to swell and turn bright red, we took off the bandaid...by the evening it felt like my hand was on fire and movement was becoming difficult and the redness was creeping its way onto my arm, all the while icky pussy ooze was dripping out of the burned area. I called the "health advice hot line" here in Sweden and they said I should go directly to the hospital for antibiotics. This was at 10 pm and Bo had just gone to work his night shift. Maya was in bed. We live in the country, so going to the hospital means a 40 minute drive to Helsingborg. I called my hubby, he got off work just as he started and I got Maya out of bed. Off to the hospital, on the way I got in touch with my ever faithful, helpful friend, Kelly Sue (who lives in Helsingborg) to drop off Maya in her PJ's asleep at their place. What a relief not to have to take Maya into the Emergency room with us and to leave her in caring hands! Thank you so much Carlssons! It means so much to have friends like you!

So...at the ER I tried hard not to think of all the horrible things that could be happening inside my hand...gangrene, thumb removal, nerve damage, scarring, etc. OK, this really wasn't THAT bad but my imagination does tend to head towards the worse case scenario. Luckily for us the night shift at the ER was relatively calm. The doctor came to see me at 12:30am. It's a second degree burn and infection had set in. He said it was good I came when I did before it had gotten any worse. Now I have penicillin for 10 days and must keep my hand wrapped. I'm supposed to go to the District Nurse to have her change the bandages on Monday. We'll see what it looks like then. At the moment my hand is still burning and swollen...actually more swollen than yesterday. I can still type though...and hold an embroidery hoop and book! So it's not the end of the world! And I will go to work on Monday.

Since we finished up at the hospital around 1am we decided to leave Maya sleeping at Kelly Sue's....and she can have the opportunity to play with her surrogate sisters today before coming home. Kelly Sue told me this morning that when Maya woke up during the night she asked, "Can you tell me exactly why I'm here?" KS explained about my hand, etc and then Maya got a smile on her face and said, "I was afraid I wasn't going to get to spend the night with Caithlin!" (not worried at all about ME!) Just goes to show you WHO is a priority in my daughter's life! So here I am...doing some needle work. It's not too comfortable so I may just hold a book instead. (I could possibly grade some school work but ....nah, no fun!)
Yesterday I did manage to finish one of my WISP's....a dress I bought at a LOPPIS some years ago for Maya. And the other day it dawned on me that the size is perfect for NOW. It's a jumper from one of the 'foo-foo' Swedish kid's stores. The buttons were old and mismatched. (didn't take a 'before' photo) I decided to sew the jumper together rather than have the lower buttons keeping it together. Then I changed all the buttons and ironed on the patch from "Hello Kitty" collection. A small WISP finished but finished nonetheless....and finished while watching MAMA MIA for the third time with Maya!

I also worked on my new Fabric Post Cards for January! Perhaps I can manage the sewing machine with my hand like this...I'll try it.

* Kelly Sue just called with the Maya report. She loaned Maya some clothes.
Maya: "I don't usually like wearing jeans unless they are pretty and cool like these!"