Still Here....

First off, thanks to all of you who have left comments and sent get-well e-mails my way. It's nice to be on the receiving end of such good wishes....

Yes, I'm still here, slowly recuperating. I returned to work yesterday, and if nothing else, work is certainly good for taking your numb little mind off your troubles. Today was pretty good--I ate real food today. For the past 8-10 days my husband has kept me alive with mashed potatoes and chocolate pudding. He made me some grits a couple of times, just as a treat.

I was in so much pain that I went back to the Ontist Guys last Thursday for a look-see, just in case. I was almost blind with pain at that point and had decided that my jaw was broken, or worse. After seeing an x-ray we all knew why I was hurting so badly. During the removal process I lost four pieces of bone in the jawbone and mouthbone (hey! new word!) area. So I left with a new super-duper pain medicine prescription.

Yes, kiddees, there's a new Percoset out there now that is double the strength of the old Percoset. The Ontist Guy said it was the strongest pain med he could give me, so when it didn't work either I didn't go back and tell him, since the only further relief he could offer was to just shoot me. And no, it didn't help. It just numbed my mind...I'll have more on that later.....

Since my late father-in-law was in fact himself an Ontist Guy, I remembered that he used to use oil of cloves in his practice (I have lots of experience being a dental patient), and I asked my husband what the oil of cloves actually does when they put it on teeth. He said it deadens the nerve in the tooth. So after a couple more days of me crying and carrying on he brought home a teeny little bottle of oil of cloves. I dipped a Q-tip in it, dabbed it all around the ouchie, and in 3 minutes I was PAIN FREE.

It works. It works. IT WORKS! I got on the internet and looked it up and found that it is an antiseptic and an analgesic. It is magic. And it is dirt cheap, too. Go buy some, right now. I have three highly priced and so-called highly effective pain prescriptions here that would not even TOUCH this pain, but a simple little thing like oil of cloves solved my problem. I'm going to live, after all.

Once you get some you will recognize its scent. It's the stuff that is used to make potpourri smell so nice. Your Ontist Guy has probably dabbed you with it, too, at some point. Love this stuff. Tastes like poison (just have a paper towel ready to wipe your tongue off) and two or three dabs with a Q-tip are all you need. I'm carrying it around in my purse, just in case.

Remember this?



I had started working on it right before The Jaw Bone Incident, and had only gotten this far:



The yarn is Noro, and I spread out some of the skeins for you to admire the coloration. These are all the same color.

Here's a close up of the stitch pattern. It is a sort of traveling wave, with eyelets. Sorry for the bad photo, but you kind of get the idea, I hope:



A special note to Candle, who is thinking of smocking a poncho (check her link out in the sidebar, I just love her stuff!):

Yes, I've been thinking about your idea, but I have a couple of questions for you.....is it for an adult or a child?....do you want a yoke top or just the gathered bishop neckline....do you want a hoodie?....what length do you have in mind?....what kind (and weight) of fabric are you going to use?.....I have some ideas in my head for you.