WIPocalypse March Update

Here is a picture of the Anniversary Sampler for DH and I for the March WIPocalypse. I didn't get a whole lot done, but its better than nothing.

more of the right hand border

how it looks overall

This is Sentimental Sampler © Betty Spencer from the US Magazine Cross Stitch Crazy May 2002. Here is a pic of what it should look like when completed. I did change it around just a little to make the words I wanted fit in it.

So Scared...another tumor?

If you read my entry for Tuesday (on my pain blog), where I talked about my doctor's appointment on Monday you'll know that when I asked my doctor about the cat scan results he said there was nothing spectacular going on with my spine and that my pelvis/SI joints came back as he expected. Yet again I am glad I do not totally trust my doctors on everything. I trust him to a point, same as he trusts me to a point. But from my experiences I have learned that doctors are very very busy, and as a result miss things, forget past illnesses of their patients, or flat out ignore them.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I received a copy of the cat scan results in the mail as I requested. (which was a pleasant surprise since I was expecting the receptionist to forget her promise to put it in the mail) Reading the report I came across something I hadn't heard of before, intraosseous hemangioma on my first lumbar vertebrae (L1). So I looked it up. Intraosseous means "on or within the bone" and hemangioma means "growth containing endothelial cells and blood vessels". So basically this means I have a growth of some sort (tumor) on my vertebrae at L1. What I read went on to talk about the various tumors an intraosseous hemangioma can turn out to be, many are cancerous (and yes Phyllodes is included) and a few are not.

Now I understand my doctor has hundreds of other patients and as a result it is difficult to remember every little thing their patients have been diagnosed with in the past. But to forget your patient had a rare cancerous tumor removed 18 months ago? Then to not even mention this growth when giving the test results seems wrong to me.

In June of 2010 I had a cancerous tumor called a Phyllodes tumor removed from my right breast. These are very very rare tumors, counting for less than 1% of all breast cancer diagnoses in the USA. When they do recur as a spreading (metastasis) cancer, they most frequently show up on the lungs or the spine. They are not the usual breast cancer in that they are not ductal or lobal, they are a connective tissue tumor. Also they do not spread via the lymphatic system as most breast cancers do, they spread via blood vessels and contain endothelial cells. Endothelial cells are the cells which make up the lining of blood vessels.

I did inform my pain management doctors of this tumor and its removal because it meant I was having surgery. I did inform them of what little is known about these tumors, including that they do not respond to chemo or radiation and the recurrence rates etc. etc..I did not get additional meds for post surgical pain as my regular meds should have covered it, but I still had to inform them I was getting surgery. They were also informed that a benign/low level malignant Phyllodes tumor counts as a cancer diagnosis and if it recurs it can do so as a more malignant tumor and when they do they usually appear on the lungs or the spine.

Taking that into consideration do you think it might have crossed the doctor's mind that a tumor on my spine MIGHT be something he should mention to me and recommend I have it checked out considering the similarities between a hemangioma and a phyllodes tumor and considering I have already had a rare cancerous tumor removed 18 months ago?

I say HELL YES to that question. Instead I had to find out by demanding my own copy of the written report.

So now I am scared.

I am hoping that it is not a recurrent phyllodes tumor that chose to pop up on my spine because that is pretty scary. I know the chances of survival regarding a recurrent and spreading phyllodes, which this would be a metastisis since it is on my spine not the same breast. I know the chances of it being another low level malginant/benign Phyllodes or the more malignant ones. None of it is real encouraging or very good. But the only way to find out is to have it removed and biopsied since you can't tell a phyllodes from a non-cancerous tumor without a biopsy. (They very frequently come up with a false negative for cancer result on needle and core biopsies.) You would think that a doctor would tell their patient, specially one with my history, that an abnormal growth (aka tumor) has appeared on their spine.

I see my primary care doctor to get the ball rolling for a biopsy next Wednesday.

Please please please God, not cancer ok? Or at least, not malignant Phyllodes ok? please? pretty please with sugar on top?

I need prayers and well wishes that this turns out to be nothing, if you wouldn't mind.

Thank you.

PS I did do a little stitching, but haven't gotten a pic for WIPOcalypse and I am sorry. I will try to get it up tomorrow.

WIPocalypse February Update

I haven't done much stitching due to having a new person in the house. My eldest niece has moved in, so I've been spending time with her. I have started to teach her to stitch as well and she seems to like it. Hopefully I can get some pics of her piece soon.

For the WIPocalypse here is my update on the Anniversary Sampler. I wanted to make sure I had enough fabric so I went ahead and started the outermost border, as usual I worried for nothing as there is plenty of fabric LOL

Here are the pics:

This is a closer pic of the stitches I added. The light green/blue (502 I believe it is..too lazy to go get pattern to check LOL) is the outermost border. There will be another line of the darker green/blue but it is only 3 more stitches wide, so I am sure I have plenty of room.

I did do a bit more of the blackwork middle border, not a whole lot but some. There will be larger blackwork bits in the empty space as well as specialty stitches in the center of the blackwork flower shape.

Measi of Measi's Musings is running the WIPocalypse. You can see the list of other participants and check out their progress HERE. Thanks Measi!

WIPocalypse

I joined Measi's WIPocalypse (Measi's Musings) to try and get some of my WIPs completed. You can find my WIP list for this challenge HERE. I started with the Sentimental Sampler, a chart from the US Magazine The Cross Stitcher. I didn't get very far, but here are my pics for the first update.

Sentimental Sampler © The Cross Stitcher

Closeup to show colors better

Closeup of area stitched

I had to pull out this area twice before I got it right, so I didn't get far. But I have started!!

Challenges/SAL/etc

At the beginning of 2011 I remember lots of people starting the crazy 15 challenge, which was to start a new project every day for the first 15 days of January 2011. I have enjoyed watching people's progress on their blogs. As well as that someone created a similar challenge but instead of new starts it was to complete 15 UFOs/WIPs. I've also enjoyed watching progress on those as well. Then there is the TUSAL (totally useless stitch-a-long) where people post pics of an ort container on the full moon of every month. And so many other sal's. For next year Measi of Measi's Musings has come up with he idea of a WIPocalypse. It is kind of a joke over the idea of 2012 being the last year before the Apocalypse occurs. The idea is to get as many of our WIPS/UFOS completed before that happens. Updates are to be posted every full moon during 2012. I haven't joined in other blogging related SAL's before but for some reason I want to join this one, so I did.

Here are the links to further information should you wish to learn more or join up yourself:

1. Rules and sign up page on Measi's Blog is here
2. FAQ on Measi's Blog is HERE.  
3. List of signups is HERE.
4. YUKU board for the group to keep up with each other and encourage each other is HERE. 

My list:

• Woodland Fairy by Teresa Wentzler
• Stroke of Midnight by Teresa Wentzler
• Christmas Dreams by Joan Elliott
• Sentimental Sampler (AKA Anniversary Sampler) from a magazine
• Quaker (I forget full name but I think Marquior was part of it) by Mon Ami Pierre (I think)

I will add more WIPS as I find them. I know I have an LHN on the go, but can't find it right now and I don't remember it's title. Since the lists can be changed over time, I can add it later. Here's hoping I can keep up with this WIPocalypse. I tend to fall so far behind on everything because the depression and pain just seem to eat up all my time. I've spent most of this year just sort of "coasting" along because my mobility has been so severely decreased, daily pain level increased, and my motivation for many things decreased. So I figured I'd give this a try. It can't hurt I suppose and it may help me motivate myself.

Posting dates for progress pics:

Jan. 9

Feb. 7

March 8

April 6

May 5

June 4

July 3

Aug. 31

Sep. 29

Oct. 29

Nov. 28

Dec. 28

Wish me luck! LOL