A Very Special Birthday

 

Hi everyone,  Long time no blog!

All has been very quiet for me crafty wise as we have had a very unfortunate emergency in the family.

If you do not wish to read all about it please jump to the ***** for the card details.

Usually on a Wednesday I pick up my mother in law from the supermarket on my way home from work and take her home. As it was so close to Christmas and I knew she had meals out planned I called her on Monday 6th December to see if she needed to go a different day. She sounded like she had a chest infection or something as her lungs sounded full of liquid. I asked if she was feeling okay and she said she had hurt her arm. She lives on her own and she sounded so bad my first thought was she had developed Covid. I was really worried about her so when hubby finished work we went round. She was in a bad state, I tested her for covid and it went positive straight away. She was in a confused state and went in and out of lucidity. She said her arm hurt and it had a lump where it was swollen. Hubby had spoken to her Saturday afternoon and she was fine then but she had not eaten or drank since the Saturday night, nor had she phoned anyone to say she had fallen.  I was just so very grateful that I had called her that day and dread to think what would have happened if I hadn't.

My hubby stayed with her overnight and then spent most of Tuesday speaking to her Dr and trying to get an ambulance. They said they were under so much pressure, nothing available, back of the queue as she was covid positive. After 6 hours of waiting they even told us they could not do anything for her and told us to put it in a sling. We were told we couldn't take her to A & E as they would refuse her due to being covid positive. In the end her daughter took her to a smaller hospital closer to where she lives (but 45 miles away from us). They x-rayed and found she had broken her left shoulder in 2 places. She was not vaccinated and the covid was really bad on her lungs. She was in hospital for 6 weeks and a rehabilitation unit for another 2 weeks. It looks like she developed low blood pressure and collapsed thus breaking her arm. While her lungs were so full of fluid they could only strap it up to immobilise it. They were unable to lay her on her left side or front which made it harder to clear her lungs. We were told twice she had 24-48 hours to respond to treatment and they gave us the most terrible prognosis for her. Basically they said as she was 78, not vaccinated and also a woman if they put her on full ventilation in ICU then she was unlikely to survive. At the very least her quality of life would be minimal afterwards. She was on full oxygen for weeks, not allowed to get out of bed as her BP went too low and they were worried she would collapse.

She needed full time care when she came out of the rehab ward as she is left handed and could do nothing for herself. The first few weeks she went to her daughter's house where she had carers twice a day washing and dressing her. Then on 13th February she was transferred to our house where our council could not provide any care so personal duties fell to me. The first few weeks were just full on and so tiring. Mom was getting up to the loo 4 or 5 times a night and I am a light sleeper so would wake up most of the time too. I work part time but its early morning starts, then shopping, personal care, washing and cooking for 3. It was bloody exhausting I can tell you. My free time went completely out the window so crafting was on a needs must basis. I had to pause all my Design Team commitments as I just could not be relied up to to do anything that was time sensitive.

The most fantastic thing though is that we have been able to rehabilitate her and give her back the majority of her strength and mobility. We got her maisonette decorated, sorted out a long list of things she had needed to get done for a long time and made her home much more welcoming for her. On Sunday 10th we took her back to her place and most days we have popped round to sort things out for her, take her shopping and basically support her. She is surprised how easily she tires and I think it will be a while before she feels 'back to normal'. I'll not lie to you, these last few months have been exceptionally challenging for many reasons but when all is said and done family is super important and we all have to do our part when bad times come. I am just so incredibly proud of the fighter that Mom is and that she managed to pull through this, despite all the naysayers.

*****

It is therefore quite fitting that this first card I have blogged for 2022 is for Mom's Birthday. Considering there was a very real possibility she would not see this birthday I am sure you can agree it was indeed something to celebrate.

I used a digital image that I had already coloured some time ago with Promarkers. I updated it and added lots of twinkle with some glitter markers from Spectrum Noir. I used the colours of blue and yellow as they look lovely together, but also to show support for Ukraine which is just the most awful situation.

The card is 8" square. the patterned paper is a really old Hot Off The Press one with blue card matting layers. The gold edged ribbon has sunflowers which were fussy cut from a DCWV sunflower themed paper. To this I added epoxy alphabet stickers to spell MOM. The sentiment is a Kanban diecut. Finally I added a yellow pearl and a plastic butterfly that looks like it is diamante.

Made by Mandy is not back upto full steam just yet but hoping it will only take a short while for Mom to adjust to living on her own again. As time goes by and she gains more confidence she won't need her hand holding quite so much and I can get back to crafting for pleasure again and get back onto my DT work. I have missed it so much but sometimes in life you are thrown a curve ball and the path leads you in a different direction.

Card Details -

Size - 8” Square

Digital Image - Swallowtail & Sunflower (Just Inklined Retired)

Colouring Medium - Promarkers, Spectrum Noir Glitter Markers

Paper - Citrus Cardmakers Creative Pack (HOTP), Flowers taken from DCWV sunflower themed paper

Embellishments - Ribbon, Epoxy alphabet stickers, diamante effect butterfly trim, Kanban foiled sentiment

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

• 613 Avenue Create - #202204 Anything Goes
• AAA Birthday - #36 Critters
• Aud Sentiments - #293 Happy Birthday Sentiment
• A Perfect Time To Craft - #04-2022 Anything Goes
• A Place to Start - #042022 Anything Goes
• Butterfly Challenge - #169 - Flowers, Flax, Flame & Butterfly
• CCC Digi Creations - #135 Include an Animal
• CD Sunday Plus - #83 - Anything Goes with a Digital Item
• Classic Design Challenge - #4 Anything Goes
• Colour Crazy Challenge - #14 Anything Goes with Colouring
• Colouring in Scrapland - Anything Goes
• Colourful Options - Any Shade of Yellow
• Corrosive Challenge - #4 Anything Goes
• Crafts Galore Encore - #98 Anything Goes
• Crafty Animals - #60 Anything Goes with an Animal or Insect
• Crafty Catz - #591 Anything Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut’s Patterned Paper - Anything Goes with Patterned Paper
• Creatalicious Challenges - #233 Anything Goes / Spring Colours
• Creative Fingers - #229 Anything Goes
• Creative Moments - #233 Things With Wings
• Critter Crazy Challenges - #61 Anything Goes With a Critter
• Cute As A Button - #79 Anything Goes / Use a Butterfly
• Daisy Chain Challenges - #62 Birthday
• Digi Choosday - #15 Anything Goes
• Ellibelle’s Crafty Wednesday - Anything Goes / Animals of Any Kind
• Fab ’n’ Funky - #549 Feature a Creature
• Gem of A Challenge - #8 Anything Goes
• Ike’s World Challenge - #155 Anything Goes / Animal
• Incy Wincy Designs - Easter and/or Animals
• I Love Promarkers - #508 Anything Goes
• Jan’s Digi Stamps - Anything Goes
• Let’s Craft & Create - #182 Anything Goes / Beatutiful Butterflies
• Little Red Wagon - #649 3 of Something
• Make The Cards Challenge - #52 Any Shade of Yellow
• Morgan’s Art World - #4 Anything Goes
• My Time To Craft - #479 Springtime Insects
• Path of Positivity - #100 Anything Positive Goes & Celebrate Animals in General (Butterflies are to me the ultimate symbol of hope, change and survival. Quite fitting for the recipient of this card)
• Pattie’s Creations Design Challenge - #193 Anything Goes
• Penny’s Challenge - #519 Anything Goes
• Polkadoodles - #15 Anything Goes
• QKR Stampede - #442 Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin’ - Spring Mood Board
• The Crafting Challenge - Anything Goes
• The Creative Crafters - #51 Anything Goes
• Through The Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
• Through The Purple Haze - #191 Include An Animal
• Unicorn Challenge - #75 Include an Animal
• We Love 2 Create - #3 Anything Creative or Mixed Media Goes
• Word Art Wednesday - #539-540 Anything Goes
• World Wide Open Design Team Challenge - #4 Anything Goes
• Your Scrapbook Place - Anything Goes