Shoshiplatypus

What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?

Better late than never – just managing to get this posted before the end of the day! I wanted to bring my Tudor gown project up to date before posting, and I have also had other commitments today. I’m sorry I didn’t manage to visit many of you last time, and I still have some lovely comments awaiting replies, but I have been so busy this week.

Tudor Gown

I’ve been making slow progress on my Tudor gown, which I am planning to wear when we attend a Tudor banquet in December. I’ve been quite busy this week with other things and as always, any creative activities tend to get pushed to the bottom of the heap, but I am determined to finish it in time, so I am working on it when I can. For full details on the latest progress on this project, please see my previous post.

The skirt is complete – I finished this fairly early on.

Since completing the skirt, I have been working on the bodice. I have finished covering it with the curtain fabric.

Last night I began work on the stomacher, which is the embroidered panel on the front of the bodice. This will extend down to a point over the front of the skirt. It consists of a number of layers, because the embroidered piece from the quilt is made of fine material and needs to be considerably reinforced. I made a boned interlining from two pieces of old cotton sheet.

I have also added some embellishment to the embroidered panel cut from the old quilt, and the stomacher is now sewn to the bodice.

Here it is with the skirt. It definitely looks better on than off, lying spread out on the floor! – but this just gives an idea of progress being made and what the final result will look like.

The whole process involved a bit of hand sewing, and I am quite pleased with the result.

PIP

Excellent news – the best I could have expected! I got a letter from the DWP on Friday telling me that I have been awarded PIP – standard rate care and higher rate mobility, which means that I shall be receiving exactly the same amount as I have been getting with DLA, the superseded benefit, with no break in the payments. They have awarded it for ten years, which is the next best thing to the indefinite award which I was given with DLA. Apparently they no longer give indefinite awards. I am soooo relieved…

Thank you, everyone who has supported me and encouraged me through this very difficult and stressful period. Especially, I would like to thank those who have been praying for me, because this means so much. I really appreciate you all!

Pants – again…

(Not Tudor pants, in case you were wondering from the blog post title!)

It’s that time of year again, for my support garments to be renewed. The fitting lady came and measured me up a couple of weeks ago, and at the end of last week, the first pair arrived. I had told her of the problems I had experienced with the last couple of orders and she was appalled, and said she would do her best to ensure that nothing went wrong this year…

Although the problem isn’t as bad as in previous years, they are not as ordered. Again… Firstly, they are too high at the waist, especially at the back. This isn’t a major problem and can be remedied once the fitting lady has been again and seen them on me. They can be returned and altered, without having to be remade, but it all causes more delay. The other problem is that she definitely ordered them for me with lace, and like last year, they have come without the lace. My hubby said, “Does it matter if they don’t have lace?” From the functionality of the pants, no, of course it doesn’t. However, the lace makes them appear much more like pretty feminine undergarments rather than a surgical appliance, and for me, this DOES matter. When I spoke to the fitting lady on the phone, she fully agreed with me, and said that they definitely should have put the lace on, because that was what was ordered. She was very apologetic. The trouble is, she can’t come again until next month, and the whole thing just causes more and more delays, when I need the garments to be made asap. My existing ones are overdue for replacement. With a year’s wear and washing, they lose much of their elasticity and cease to do the job for which they were designed. I can’t see me getting the new ones until the New Year now. They can’t make up all three pairs until the first is made and approved.

I am really sick of this annual song and dance over the pants. The whole thing is so much…….PANTS!!! There’s nothing I can do about it except continue to complain. This company is the only one which does a bespoke service, and home visits. When I first started wearing support garments, I saw a lady at the hospital, who worked for a different company which did not do bespoke. She gave me a standard-sized pair, and I never wore them because they didn’t fit properly and were very uncomfortable. This is a huge waste of time and money. To do a proper job, they must fit properly, and this means a bespoke service, unless you are a “standard” size and shape – and who measures up to that standard, except airbrushed magazine models!!

These support garments are essential for someone like me, who has had their parastomal hernia repaired twice. Parastomal hernias are an occupational hazard for anyone with a stoma because creating the stoma in the first place creates a weakness in the abdominal wall, making herniation extremely likely. The garments can be used to help prevent this happening in the first place, and to give essential support for an existing hernia. Parastomal hernias carry the risk of intestinal obstruction – which I know to my cost through personal experience – and this is a life-threatening condition requiring emergency surgery in many cases, and great cost to the NHS. At the cost of over £80 per pair, of the type of pants which I have, this is a fraction of the cost of dealing with a major medical emergency associated with a parastomal hernia.

Health update – other stuff

I had my GP appointment this morning, at the main surgery, which is some distance from where we live. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to the local one, because my GP was working with another GP (a registrar) and this clinic was at the main one. When we arrived, we were told it was on the second floor. Fine, there was a lift. However, outside the lift were two small flights of stairs to get to the waiting area and consulting rooms… OK, I can get out of my wheelchair, and another patient helped my hubby lift it up onto the main level, but not ideal! I’m not sure what would have happened had I been using a heavy power chair and been unable to get out of it. We were not told about this when we arrived. It’s an old building and conversions of this nature aren’t always easy to accomplish, but it would have been good to have been seen in a more accessible location…

I told them of my bladder problems, and they gave me a number to phone, to a clinic specialising in bladder and bowel problems – or so I was told. When I phoned, it turned out to be just for women, with bladder and urinary problems only. OK, I fit that profile. We’ve arranged an appointment for Wednesday 11th December, and it’s a group session! I can’t imagine why they would do this – a whole lot of women sitting together, total strangers, talking about their urinary incontinence! It’s a good thing I’m not embarrassed about this, isn’t it. The woman on the phone said that if they thought I needed a one-to-one consultation after this session, it would be arranged. The appointment is at the Physiotherapy Department at the hospital, which means that access will be fine, and we know where that is, because it’s right by the entrance we used to use when I was going for my cancer treatment.

I told the GPs that I still hadn’t heard from Exeter with a follow-up appointment after my CT scan in August. They suggested I phoned the consultant’s secretary. I told them I’d had no joy in the past with this, because they just refer you to the appointments department, who just refer you straight back again… I said I though he might have more authority and might get a better result, but he said he would just have to phone the same number as me, and it wouldn’t make much difference.

Food

Recipe of the week

One-Pot Creamy Mushroom Pasta

We both thoroughly enjoyed this one! Here are the ingredients laid out ready for me to start cooking.

The only ingredient not in the above picture was the vegetable stock, which was being prepared in the pressure cooker. Here you can see my wonderful Ninja Foodi cooker at work, with the air fryer lid raised, and the pressure cooking lid in place. I just love this machine, and have never for a moment regretted buying it. I mostly use it as an electric pressure cooker but occasionally use the air fryer and the slow cooker. The pressure cooker is absolutely excellent for pulses and legumes – no need for soaking – the unsoaked beans just take a bit longer to cook than if you soak them. I usually cook double the quantity required for the recipe I am making, and freeze the rest, so I’ve always got some in when I need to do something quickly.

Behind the machine, you can see my high speed blender. This is my other must-have, essential piece of kitchen equipment! You can see it with its wider, shorter goblet in place – with the tall one, it won’t fit under the cabinet. I use this literally every single day. It’s pretty much an essential piece of kit for anyone seriously embarking on a whole-food plant-based diet; a regular liquidiser isn’t powerful enough. This baby will grind anything.

Getting back to our recipe, a LOT of mushrooms to chop for this one, but I found a really neat tip on Youtube during the week.

Handy Dandy mushroom slicing

You start by threading the mushrooms onto a skewer or barbecue stick.

Not having enough hands to do this as well as holding the camera, I had to prop this mushroom kebab against my coffee pot to show you how it is done!

You just slice right down the skewer and the slices fall off. The only thing you have to be careful of is not cutting right down to the skewer itself, or the opposite half of the mushrooms will fall off. I do miss one or two this way but even so, it was a great time saver. It works a treat!

As usual, I forgot to photograph the finished dish, because it was hot on the plates and ready to eat, and my mind was not on the camera! You can see a photo on the online recipe, though. This was one of three “one-pot” pasta recipes which were on a Youtube video. I have also downloaded the other two, and we had the second one last night. Really delicious!

Kitties

I just had to share this one with you. There is absolutely no doubt whose chair this is… It’s RUBY’S!!

My hubby came into the room and said, “I can’t possibly disturb her…” and sat on the floor for the next hour or so!

Here they are in a favourite mode for this time of year, again really squashed up together.

Just approaching midnight! Must get this up before Thursday or it won’t be WOYWW any more but WOYWT.