A few personal things, and a finished skirt

First the good news, a finished skirt!!!

 I’m very happy with how it turned out and I hope my dear friend likes it. Its got eight different fabrics worked into a pattern that goes all the way around the back. It is completly lined with muslin. The two peices are quilted together so the skirt is warm and moves seamlessly together. The bottom hem or “spin” is nice and large at 100in!! Its got a very deep “hidden” pocket on the front and a drawstring waist band.

 Last month I started a journey to understand what was going on with my body. My mother has lupus and it is thought there might be a genetic link to the disease. I was very worried when I started to have unexplained pain and fatigue beyond belief. I went to my doctor reluctantly and nervously. She ran a barage of tests and bloodwork. She was nervous about cancer, lupus and fibromyalgia. The tests came back saying that I didn’t have cancer or lupus so that was a huge sigh of relief. However she wanted to send me to a rhumatologist (a doctor that specilizes in pain disorders of the joints mostly) As I waited and this process moved slowly forward my pain increased, spreading to my stomach, knees, ankles, toes, elbows and mostly hips and spine. I was very glad that I said something to my doctor as soon as I started to feel anything because when I spoke up all that hurt was my wrists on occation, my forearms and my under arm area.

I went in to see the rhumatologist and he was a very very nice man (*whew*) he did some testing by pushing on my body in different spots, asked lots of questions and then told me that he felt I had fibromyalgia. I was in shock. This was not something I wanted to hear! No one would. Its something that is very misunderstood, something that everyone who has it experiences differently and something that could span from a slight bother and annoyance, to complete disability. For me its made it difficult to work on soap or sewing as its mostly in my hands, fingers and forearms.

I also just finished massage therapy school and now can’t use it due to the location of my pain. Its really rather depressing just now, but I’m trying to move forward, learn to handle and deal with it and continue my buisness and do the things I love. I won’t let this hold me down. I just won’t.