ANOTHER STORY

No sewing lately so I will just post an email that I received from a friend serving in Liberia...


Once again I find myself ignoring my initial instinct and letting myself be convinced by a good story.

As usual, the security guard calls me outside.  “Emergency in de car,” he says.  I walk outside, pulling on gloves with a snap as I go.  The woman is lying in the back seat of a beat up yellow taxi with 5-6 family members crowded around all eager to tell me the “story.”  I glance in and see a very critically ill patient with labored breathing and semi-conscious, her head flopped back on the seat being held by a female relative.

As I piece together the story from the different people all trying to talk at once she had malaria 10 days ago which was treated with a  three day course of Artemether/Lumafantrine, a common first-line therapy.  Then four days ago she had a miscarriage and bled heavily that evening.  Yesterday, she went into the Benson Hospital where a doctor told them she needed an emergency D&C.  The father paid the $US 200 and the procedure was done.  She stopped bleeding afterwards.  Today, however, her breathing got heavier and she started to fade in and out of consciousness.  They were told by the doctor she needed a blood transfusion and that their lab couldn’t do it and they needed to come to Cooper SDA Hospital.

In the back of my mind a still small voice is trying to whisper “where’s the referral slip?” but that quickly gets suppressed by the good story I’ve just heard.  How could they make all that up?  I ask the typical screening questions about vomiting, fever, diarrhea, etc. and they all adamantly shake their heads “No, she doesn’t have any of that.”  So I motion them to bring her in.  She kind of stumbles up the steps, supported between two relatives.  I have her wash her hands and I see her kind of slump as they now drag her through the door, past the benches in the waiting room and into the first exam room on the left.

As they lay her on the exam table, she starts to seize and then stops breathing.  The family starts to wail immediately and I roughly push them away shouting “Let me do my job, will you?” and I start doing CPR, half-heartedly I admit.  But I then stop and check and she does have a pulse, albeit a weak one.  So I keep pushing on her chest to force air in and out of her lungs.  Not deep and rapid like compressions of the heart, but enough to get some air movement.  I start calling for nursing help and they struggle to get an IV.  I figure if we can just get some IV fluids in her and then some blood maybe we can save her.

All along her arms are deep purple bruises.  It wants to set off some alarm bells in my head, but I quickly silence them and keep up the resuscitation efforts.  We pull the bed away from the table so the nurses can look for IVs on both arms.  I then have one of them take over chest compressions while I search for a femoral vein.  I find it but have to hold it specifically in position or it stops.  I get a dose of adrenaline in and then it moves and stops working.  But her heart is better now and she’s having some sketchy spontaneous breathing efforts.

I’m calling for oxygen.  At some point, Gillian shows up after finishing an appendectomy upstairs.  The oxygen tank is missing the handle to open it.  They run to get another one.  A nurse’s aide, Habakuk, finally finds a small IV and we start running in some fluids.  The lab tech has now arrived and there are two new nurses as we have passed change of shift.  I think maybe she’s still bleeding from her miscarriage so I order some oxytocin to be given intramuscularly.  We’ve finally got oxygen going and she’s breathing on her own with a good pulse.  Two bags of blood are available and the first one is almost in.

“Bring in a family member,” I ask a nurse.  Just as the sister walks in the door the patient seizes again and stops breathing.  “Get her out of here!” I point to the sister and we restart our efforts.  Finally, we succeed in getting her breathing and oxygenating well with a strong heartbeat and pulses.  I call in the father.  He is overjoyed and thanks us profusely.  I’m happy.  This is why we still do this CPR stuff, because sometimes it actually works.  The second bag of blood is in, a recheck of her hemoglobin finds a stable 9 g/dl.  We’ve been working on her for two hours. The sister comes back in.  We start talking.  I ask some more questions.  Suddenly, she starts talking about how she’s been vomiting and having watery diarrhea and fevers at home.  I nervously look at the patients arms with the huge bruises and then notice all the IV puncture sites still oozing.  I pick her her wrap and see that there’s oozing from where we gave her the shot.

I go ballistic. “What are you trying to do, get us all killed?” I scream.  “Lies, all lies!  Why didn’t you tell us the truth.”

The sister and father weakly try to give excuses “We didn’t know, I wasn’t there, etc.” 

“Everyone was there when you were denying vomiting, diarrhea, and fever…don’t lie!  It won’t help you or her!  Take her out now!”  I’m sure she has Ebola!  I’m starting to freak.  I’m exhausted and feel like I’ve now put how many staff at risk?  How could I ignore my instinct?  If a staff member dies of Ebola, I’m responsible.  I feel like for the first time I’ve had a serious exposure and my stomach is in knots.  I rush home, take a shower and soak my scrubs in a red, hospital smelling disinfectant I find on a shelf in the shower.

The patient dies almost immediately on being carried out the hospital doors.  The father comes back to the steel bars now keeping him out.

“You did your best.  I’ll come back tomorrow to settle accounts on our deposit.”

I want to scream, “Is that all you can say after lying and exposing us all to a deadly plague!”

My sleep is troubled by fearful dreams and I wake up with my heart beating out of my chest and it still dark outside.  I kneel with my face to the floor and sob out as I cry to God for mercy, mostly for the staff and also that he will spare my life.

STAIN

For the past 8 years we have rented our little cottage to people who are undergoing treatment for cancer - mostly men who have prostate cancer. It has been a wonderful experience and we have met so many lovely people that it makes the issue of spring cleaning the cottage every 9 weeks not quite so oppressive. I always ask the tenants to replace anything that they have broken or ruined so that we can keep the rent affordable. I didn't know if this would work, but I have been amazed at how careful and willing they have all been to make sure things are taken care of. The bedspread and towels/washcloths are all white so I can bleach the heck out of them should they become stained and actually people tend to take better care of something that is white. Well, for the first time, on our last walk through the last tenant showed me a 3-4 inch stream of blood that looked as if it had been washed and dried and wasn't budging a mm. After seeing the stain I started planning my shopping trip to look for another bed cover because I knew that stain was going nowhere. Just for fun I thought I should look on the internet to see if anyone had any wisdom regarding blood stains and how to get rid of them There were several ideas and some had to do with whether or not they had been washed and/or dried. That part was out of my control so I thought I had nothing to lose by trying one or two of the suggestions I was able to find. The one I opted for was to combine 1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide and 2 drops Dawn dish washing liquid. I could not wait to try this on that nasty stain and hoped there might be some lessening of the stain. After pouring the concoction on the stain I would watch as the hydrogen peroxide would fizz up on the blood areas and even though they seemed lighter it wasn't disappearing like I had envisioned. The bed cover just sat with the liquid soaking into the fabric for about a half an hour before I decided that trying a little bleach might give it what it needed to get the stain out. I could not believe my eyes...the stain started to disappear! I alternated between the hydrogen peroxide and bleach until the stain was completed vanished. I just couldn't believe it because my experience with that type of blood stain has never been good. I highly recommend this mixture for stain removal - you just won't believe how great it works on fabric. There was a small amount left over and I used it on the vinyl kitchen flooring and it pulled dirt right up from that crazy floor. I now have a new stain removal product and the price is right!

COUTURE CLASS

I finally bit the bullet and signed up for the Couture Dressmaking class from Susan Khalje on Craftsy.

Since I didn't have a pattern to start with I watched 14 of the 15 episodes trying to get a feel for what the process would be. There were no course materials available at the time I signed up so I went to Hancock's and bought the pattern that Susan was using for the class and thought I would start.

Getting garments to fit is such a horrible process for me that I could only try to envision what I would have to do to pattern with 14 pieces to get it to fit me. Well, I tried, and tried to get the bodice to fit and finally told myself that the inch extra around each pattern piece that Susan shows you how do would save the day and so I moved on.

Loved the process of marking the pattern that she showed and cutting it out was a breeze because I didn't have to worry about my wavy cutting lines.

I checked the grain carefully for each piece and finished the marking by machine and if I must say so, am feeling pretty positive about the process. The only thing is...I haven't tried it on yet. I am hoping to get to that point some time today. Can't wait to see what the result of all of this couture work will be.

If you haven't signed up for the class yet, go do it now...you'll be glad you did.

(Pictures when I can get my laptop to download from the camera!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father,
he Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6

6 PAC

I always love when the Christmas season arrives each year. The lights, the beautiful decorations, the yummy smells, greetings from friends far and near and getting together with family just warms my heart. I have barely started my shopping but had better finish quickly because most of the gifts have to be mailed this year.

Tonight I should be working on figuring out just what I will get everyone but instead I am considering joining the 6 Piece Winter Collection that runs from November through January. Kinda crazy to start at this late date, but so fun to plan.

The requirements for this sew are as follows:

Winter coat - neutral
Overlayer top, jacket, cardigan - neutral
Overlayer top, jacket, cardigan - color
Underlayer top - neutral
Underlayer top - color
Trousers - neutral

Seems pretty doable so I looked until I found patterns I thought would work for each category.



The only pattern that I have made before is the top right jean jacket. I had to spend some time getting it to fit and although not perfect I made it out of a cotton stretch material that I just love. I will tweak it a little and make it out of a white corduroy that should go with quite a number of garments.

My closet is filled with lots of black and white so to change things up a bit I thought I would have my main neutral be navy. The only down side for me was figuring out what color of shoes I would need to wear with navy. The last time I was shoe shopping I did not see any navy shoes so having a navy wardrobe didn't seem like a really smart idea.

So I did some research on the internet to see if there was another acceptable color to wear if you didn't have navy shoes because I was taught that black was never worn with navy. To my surprise the dress code in 2011 allows for black shoes to be worn with navy as are brown and cordovan .

I think I'm going to like this.

Cabazon

There's nothing like a trip to Cabazon Outlets to get a person thinking about sewing again. My daughter and I decided to meet at the outlets and see what fun clothes were waiting for us. Oh, my, what a disappointment! Things are bad when you would rather look at the purses and shoes that anything that was folded on a table or hanging on a hanger.

Is it my imagination or are stores carrying less merchandise that they used to? Ann Taylor had a small selection, Liz Claiborne - closed, Ralph Lauren - a darling white blouse with bias ruffles and our favorite - Tahari. Of all of the stores and merchandise we looked at, the dresses and jackets at Tahari were to die for. The workmanship and details on each of the pieces were beautiful making the garment look stunning on us regular people. But other than that stop the trip was a bust.

It may be next week before I get around to it, but it looks like I will be looking through my skirt patterns and coming up with a few possibilities so I can eventually find one to be my TNT.

The shopping trip might not have been such a bad thing after all!

No Sewing

What was to be at the longest just a month stay in Tennessee to work on our store has turned out to be four months and counting. In this present economical climate that is so unsure we weren't quite sure what to do to make our store competitive so we turned everything upside down and have redone about everything...starting with painting every piece of wood furniture, then remodeling the furniture to serve other functions and adding beadboard to the backs of all of the wood shelving. We had to use oil based paint so that the paint wouldn't chip but the smell just about knocked me out. As bad as it was to complete this project while we still had the store open and were doing business I am thrilled that we did it. It looks clean and neat and it's a pleasure to go to work now. Monday we add deli items and until we can hire a good cook I will be spending my day doing the menu and cooking.

So......no sewing.....yet! Well, almost none - I brought my coverstitch maching and was able to get it to work sewing binding on an apron. It was so much fun and I can hardly wait to have more time to spend playing with it.

I found this video and video two on you tube that showed a method of making bias binding that I had never seen before. I tried it and was really pleased with how it turned out and how much I was able to get from a yard of fabric.

The good thing about being here in Tennessee is that I am getting to spend lots of time after work with the grandchildren so I can't complain at all.