Continuing Posting from My Other Blogs

An easy crochete project for beginners
For beginner crocheters, it can be hard to find something to crochet that seems worthwhile. Here is an idea I thought of. Perhaps someone else had this idea first - I don't know.You need 2 balls of yarn, two different colours if you want an accent or one colour if you want it to look line one. You take the inches of a person's foot. My friend has a 10 1/2 inch foot. I crochet a simple granny square using a 6.5mm hook. I go around until I'm one round away from the length I am looking for. On the last round, you dc in each dc and you do 6 dc in each corner. For the spaces between the sets of 3 dc in the previous round, you crochet 3 dc.You do this for 4 squares.At the end of the 4 squares, sew 2 granny squares together and then sew the other 2 granny squares together.Take your 1 granny square, now sewn together as a double layer, and fold it in half. Sew up both short ends. Leave an opening for the foot to enter the slipper and sew up the remainder of the top of the slipper.They work up quickly and easily and make creating your first project fun and fulfilling.Please feel free to use this pattern idea for craft, gifts or even to sell. We all need money and we all need some crafts to give as gifts. Please enjoy.As freely as I have received, so freely I give. (The Bible)Sheri Adams
Posted by Crafty Sheri at 5:56 PM 0 comments
Labels: beginners, crochet, granny square, slippers



Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Why Do I Struggle and Who's Responsible?
It has been 18 years since I had my right temporal lobectomy. For those that don't know what that is, it's when the entire right temoporal lobe of your brain is removed. Why I had it removed was to control the some 20 seizures a day I was having at the time. I was on 4000mg of anit-seizure medications and I was still seizuring. My neurologist I'd had since I was 15 was at his wits end. He sent me to a hospital in London, Ontario for observation for Epilepsy surgery. After the first two initial visits for testing, I was admitted to the hospital on March 13, 1990. I was thrilled. I was 21 at the time. To think of even having a chance without seizures was a dream for me. As I got older, my seizures got worse.After exactly 2 weeks of observation I had the surgery. My surgeon gave me a 98% chance to be seizure-free without medications if they did the surgery successfully. I looked at my parents and they left the choice to me. I signed the papers. The sugery was still new...about 5 years old and so I signed papers to allow my research and my results, good or bad, to be used for their study. I'm glad I did. I know it has helped others. All, or at least, most research is done and done for good reason.I was never told of what the aftermath of the surgery would be. This is the kicker. It's now 18 years since the surgery and I am still without surgery and not on any anti-seizure medication; however, I have huge emotional difficulties.Nobody told me I was going to lose the emotion control centre of my brain. Nobody told me I was going to lose the organizational skills area of my brain. Short term memory issues, not a problem. I had that with the medications.Since the surgery, I have been in and out of psyche wards about twice a year since 1996. I now have 30 medical disorders, about 8 of them emotional. I didn't have these issues prior to the surgery. The thing is, I know that the hospital knew I'd have emotional issues. How? I wrote the psychologist of the unit a letter saying how my mom, dad and I were constantly at each others' throats and I was going through emotional turmoil. He wrote me back a 4-page typed letter explaining this was normal after the type of surgery I'd had. Funny? Nobody told us that!My family and I went through hell for 3 years with fighting, emotional turmoil, etc. We were offered no help at all from the hospital. They continued to test me for 5 years but never again offered any help for us.I had huge trouble sleeping. After the surgery, I was woken up every hour on the hour for one week being asked the same stupid questions: what is your name?, where are you?; what is the date?...I felt like holding up a sign with all the answers and saying LEAVE ME ALONE AND LET ME SLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!The operation was 6-7 hours long and I was awake for it. I still have nightmares about the operation. I have tried to contact the hospital several times for updates on what they have learned in the last 18 years. Do they keep patients awake for the surgery still? Do they warn them of the possible emotional trouble AFTER the surgery? Do they send them home with assitance to get by once they leave the hospital? Do they tell people the truth that the local anesthtetic burns like the fires of hell?These are not the questions I ask the hospital. I simply want to know what they have learned and what they have changed, if anything, in the last 18 years. Is that such a bad thing to ask? It's not like I'm out to sue anybody or anything. I just want people to know the truth...like I didn't.I'm not the only one who has had this surgery and then had emotional difficulties afterward. In fact, anybody I've met who has had it, does have emotional turmoil, is in and out of psyche wards and so on. Even on message boards about this type of surgery, MOST candidates who have had it still have emotional turmoil and organizational issues.I am not blaming anybody. I just want answers. I now struggle emotionally to the point that I self-harm by times. I kills my parents to know this and my brother just shakes his head. I still can't hold down a job because now I have more medical problems than before. NOT all as a result of the surgery, but of pollution, falling accidents etc. But the emotional problems I have, I've been told by doctor after doctor, is a direct result of the surgery and something I will deal with the rest of my life.Was the surgery worth it? Yes. Would I do it again? Yes, but going home and getting IMMEDIATE SUPPORT for both me and my family members. I'm not the only one who suffered in my family after the surgery.I blame part of my problems on the hospital I was in and the fact that the staff did not tell me what they KNEW. I knew memory would be an issue, and some motor skills might be an issue. But NOBODY said anything about emotional issues.I also blame the Church. I'm a Christian of 26 years and for the 15 years I have lived on my own, I've been asking for rides to Pentecostal churches. In 15 years, I've had maybe 3 rides. Even calling the churches where I live now, I get sarcastic responses from one pastor. "You never called here!" Yes, I did. "Well, you didn't talk to me!" No, I couldn't get past your secretary.When I call for rides to the churches, their responses are most often, "I'm sorry; we don't arrange rides for people" or "we don't give people rides." They don't give people rides? They don't help people get to church? They turn people looking to get into church away?Pardon me but, didn't Jesus say, "If you have not done it to the least of these, you have not done it unto me."? If they refuse me a ride, they are basically refusing Jesus a ride.Even contacting the head of the Pentecostal churches in Canada, I got no response other than, "we are sorry for the issues you are dealing with but are not in a place to have various churches arrange rides." In other words, "we don't give two hoots!"I believe if I was in a church with supportive people of like faith, I would not struggle as much. We grow stronger, or weaker, by the people we hang around. I grew up in the church and I miss it dearly. I'd love to go to a Sunday morning worship service, but because people don't care anymore, I don't get out. The buses don't run early enough or late enough for me to get to one, so that option is out. I can't afford taxi fair these days so that too is out.Thank God for Joel Osteen. I watch him and am encouraged. Thank God for Steve Wilkos who stands up for people who have been taken advantage of in some way and lets them have their say. Thank God for the Canadian Mental Health Association who, without, I don't honestly know I'd be here without. Thank God for my parents who have stood by me through thick and thin. And thank God that He doesn't not give rides. Thankfully HE will do anything, to the point of His Only Son's death, to help us. These are the people who have kept me going.Why do I struggle? Partly because of the lack of help available. Partly because the hospital was not upfront and completely honest with me. Partly because they did not help me and my family after the surgery properly. Partly, the church because they don't help the orphans, widows, poor... And likely, partly me because I get completely frustrated by times and give up...literally. I know God never gives up on me therefore I should not.I am not saying don't have the surgery. I'm not saying all churches are like the ones I'm talking about. I'm not slamming Christianity or anybody in particular, but finally venting what I've been dealing with for 18 years.The surgery was successful in that I have no more seizures. It was not successful in that I am not the "well person" I thought I'd be after it. The church is failing to meet the needs of the people in their communities and I believe they will pay for it in the end.God bless the doctors, pastors and others who care enough to get involved in the lives of those who are in turmoil from such things as these. I have a wonderful family doctor and great parents. I have a hero in Steve Wilkos, the now retired Christian bands Petra and Whiteheart and also in myself for overcoming so much more than is in this note.If you ever have surgery, find out ALL the options, good and bad. Ask about success rates, failure rates, outcomes, side effects short term and long term. Be informed and question them until they are blue in the face. I have found out doctors don't always tell all they know and patients would be well off, better off, if they did.Sheri Adams
Posted by Sheri L. Adams at 9:58 PM 0 comments
Labels: Christian, churches, emotions, epilepsy, God, heros, seizures, support, surgery