AEDM-Day 24

My sister is having a carotid endarterectomy (a scraping of the carotid artery) in about an hour. I have great faith that she will come through it with no problems, but am nervous and concerned. In this procedure, if I remember correctly how the doctor described it, they will go in through the neck and close off the artery, scrape it, and then reconnect it. If you are the kind of person who prays or who is good at sending positive energy into the universe, please do so this morning. I will be calling her around noon and am anxious for that time to arrive.

I tried to do an assignment for a creative lettering class I am taking in my A.R.T. Yahoo! group, but my heart is not in it. The assignment was to first make a curvy line and write on it and when the ink was dry to erase the line. And the second part was to incorporate the line into the writing. I may try to do it a bit more creatively later this morning. For now, for what it is worth, here it is:

 

In the second one I should have at lease made the lines red or some other color, and I made a mistake and wrote "the" when I was supposed to write "any".

I spent a good deal of time rearranging my art space yesterday and am about 1/2 done. When it is finished, I will post pix.

Meantime, I need to go grocery shopping this morning (hopefully it won't be too busy) and I am tutoring this afternoon.

Later,

Vicki

AEDM-Day 23, Birds and a Health Update

I am home for now. My sister has had a boatload of tests and has a team of doctors, most of whom I met yesterday. What a great team and what a wonderful facility she is in. The concensus so far is that she is in great shape and her problem is some "jaggy" blockage in her right carotid artery. Apparently smooth blockage (< 70%) is not considered to be too dangerous, but the jaggy kind seems to be more likely to have renegade platelets break away and do damage. Surgery is being seriously considered. At first it sounded like they were going to do the surgery today. So I called the hubster and told him instead of returning on Sunday afternoon I would be staying until after the surgery. Then the neurosurgeon came by to visit and said there was one more test he wanted to do to be absolutely sure that the right carotid was the only culprit. She is having some kind of stress test this morning and is now looking at having the surgery early next week. So I drove home. The hubster was playing tennis, so I didn't call to tell him. Imagine his surprise when he arrived home! I talked with my sister this morning and she is back on an IV and has been NPO since midnight in preparation for this test. She is hungry and is hoping the test is sooner rather than later. I will be going over to stay again when she has her surgery.

I tried to catch up with my email and blogs that I subscribe to last evening and then sketched a couple of birds. I'll let you decide if they resemble what I have identified them to be.

Later this morning, the hubster and I are going up to the Maple Street Mall where he has a space to rearrange it for the holidays. Then we need to make a stop for softener salt, water, almonds, and flavored coffee.

I am meeting a freshman Geometry student in Stockbridge at 2:30 and have two Algebra students coming to my house at 4:00. Another busy day.

My art room is a total mess and needs a revamp. I may spend some time today  reorganizing it. That way I can get it clean and looking new.

I am quite hoarse this morning. No other symptoms. Either I picked up a bug while visiting my sister or this is how my body is choosing to handle the stress.