Overcoming post surgery boredom!

After a steroid-fuelled weekend and a day of post-steroid craziness I’m ready for my second blog, very exciting! (Is it just me or does anyone else get weird post-steroid “sensorial hallucinations”? – yesterday it felt like I was being crushed by gigantic rocks!)

When I was first diagnosed, everything turned into a bit of a whirlwind as it all started with emergency surgery and I didn’t have any time to prepare for what was coming.  However, two and a half months later, when my consultant announced (to my surprise) that it was now time to prepare for my second round of major surgery  I had one BIG advantage: EXPERIENCE.

There and then I knew I was done with day-time TV and it was time to find another way to keep going through the next gruelling few months.  That’s when I remembered the LIST! 

In the past I had a tendency to write lists of things I “dreamed of doing one day” but never actually got round to.  Some were long forgotten childhood dreams, others were things I hadn’t forgotten about, but was too busy with work, family and life in general to do.  There seemed to be endless lists hidden away at the back of a box... well now was the time.

Instead of dreaming about THE LIST, I decided it was time to start doing the list. 

Two weeks before the surgery I had a peek at it and there waiting for me I found the perfect activity to pass the time in hospital and until I was mobile again......... : KNITTING

As a kid I had tried to learn, but was hopeless at it.  It must have stayed as some kind of subconscious unsatisfied urge and had somehow made its way to the list! 

So I found someone who could teach me the two basic stitches (purl and knit), I got myself a pair of size 8 needles (in plain speech, it’s a big size) and I started to knit my first scarf. 

Knitting turned out to have a number of post surgery advantages:

1. all the wool on my knees kept me warmer when I wasn’t moving much;
2. I found it surprisingly relaxing; I discovered that with a really basic pattern (such as a plain scarf) there was no thinking required – very useful when I felt brain addled from all the meds;
3. if I was angry, I would knit my angry thoughts into each stitch, if I was happy I would knit along to music, if I was bored I would knit along to the radio or an audio book, in short, there seemed to be knitting for every mood!
4. Finally, I got to proudly wear the items I knitted, which helped me feel like all the hours of being bed-ridden were not completely useless!

Now I was never a girly girl or arty in any way so when I started telling friends I wanted to learn how to knit, quite a few looked at me blankly or with pity.  A few suggested I might not wish to waste my time this way…  How wrong they were! Knitting has been endless fun and even led to a group of girlfriends asking for a regular knitting get-together.   This means I get to have my friends visit, chat and laugh with me, bring me biscuits and all the gossip I could wish from the outside world (there is even a washing up ‘fairy’ who usually visits at the same time!) whilst all I have to do is sit and knit and enjoy it....

So here is a picture of the first item I knitted back in 2009.