World Ovarian Cancer Day

I couldn't finish the day without mentioning World Ovarian Cancer Day.  I have written about it before and will continue bringing attention to this cancer that is often missed until it is too late.

This is just one link describing what to look for and it encourages women to become their own advocate.
Ovarian Cancer Symptoms

If you don't care to go to links, here is a brief rundown of the symptoms.
1. Abdominal or pelvic pain
2. Indigestion
3. Loss of appetite
4. Bloating
5. Urinary frequency
6. Feeling full quickly
7. Constipation, diarrhea or alternating between both
8. Lower back pain
9. Sudden unexplained weight loss
10. Vaginal bleeding
If you experience any of these symptoms over a 2-4 week period of time, make a visit to your doctor and express your concern. There are no screening tests for this cancer, but there are tests that can be run if you have symptoms. Be persistent.

An Update on My Disease
I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in July, 2013.  I underwent extensive surgery and six cycles of intense chemotherapy.  After completing the initial chemo, I was put into a clinical trial with chemo treatments every four weeks for a year. I followed up with my doctor every three months, per the trial protocol.

At the end of two years, about the time I was supposed to start six month check-ups, I started experiencing the symptoms again. My CA125 test had been rising, so my doctor kept my next scheduled exam at three months.

About a week or two before my doctor appointment, I started bleeding rectally. I was told to go to my regular doctor to be checked. I called my local surgeon and he got me into his office a half hour later. A colonoscopy was scheduled for the following Monday. A tumor was found and the biopsy found it tested for ovarian cancer. I met with my gynecologic oncologist and he scheduled surgery for the following Monday.

I had a bowel resection and exploratory on April 3rd, five weeks ago. Here I am, ready to head to surgery. Boy was I puffed up from two colon preps in a week!

On a positive note, I had a great roommate for the week I was in the hospital.

Our daughter Carolyn came over from Green Bay to visit and brought her sister Becky (no photo) from Petoskey.

My aunt and uncle and family sent a beautiful plant.

















Three and a half weeks later, I started chemo treatments again. I will be having a treatment every three weeks with two chemo drugs. My next infusion, another non-chemo drug will be added that is supposed to shrink blood vessels, and hopefully starve any new tumors that may develop. Other than days four and five after chemo, which I pretty much slept through, I have been doing well, as long as I don't overdo.

Weaving Again

I finally picked a small weaving project to start on yesterday. I finished the design this morning, and got the warp wound this afternoon and had it wound on the back beam by this evening.

This only shows half of it spread in the raddle. Hopefully I can start threading it tomorrow after I get back from the infusion center in the morning. I just need lab work drawn. Hopefully it will be in the okay range.

Annual Christmas Towels

Every year my girls and daughters-in-law get kitchen towels from me for Christmas.

This year, I got an early start when I came home from vacation in April with a big cone of 8/2 cotton yarn in a teal color.  I decided on a monk's belt pattern from Handwoven Design Collection #18.  I wound the warp for six towels and started the threading in June.  It was a good thing I got an early start, because I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer early in July and had major surgery a week later.  While recovering from surgery, I sat for many days looking at the loom that was partially threaded.  As I started feeling a bit better and became bored doing nothing, I decided to see if I could finish the threading.

Working a few minutes at a time, I got it ready for the first towel.  Now, all I needed were yarn color choices from the girls.  Three of them were here a week later to check up on me and to come for the Charlevoix Venetian Festival.  They picked their colors and I was able to start.

Carolyn's towel was first.  The colors she chose were light orange, red, green and yellow. The yarns used were 8/2 cotton.

After weaving this one with a single strand of yarn for the pattern, I decided the rest of the towels needed the pattern yarn to be doubled.  Also, the green she chose didn't show very well because it was too close in color value to the teal warp.

Rachel said she wanted her towel to be mostly white pattern, but I made her pick two other colors to add a little interest and to give me something to work with in developing the pattern.  She chose light orange and yellow.  It was my plan for each towel to be completely different from each other, even though they were woven on the same warp and all threaded the same.  I think this one came out very nice.  The colored yarns are all 8/2 cotton.  The white is 50/50 cottolin in a similar size to the cotton, something like 22/2.  It is too cold to go outside to the studio to look.

My DIL Jenn's towel is the orange and lime green towel on the left.  I tried to tone down the teal by weaving the tabby with brown and olive green 8/2 cotton.  The orange and lime green are both cottolin.

These towels were all pretty slow going, since it took me a long time to recover from my surgery.  As I started my chemotherapy treatments, they gave me something to focus on besides being sick.  They were quite good therapy.

This towel is for my DIL Rebecca.  She wasn't here to pick her colors, but she loves anything blue, so my daughters and I picked for her.  I used

navy, wine, ocean green and light blue.

As I was working on this towel I managed to break my hand doing something I shouldn't have been doing.  My doctor splinted it, but I could tell a few days later that it wasn't going to heal that way because every morning when I woke up, the splint was out of position and the bone was bent at the break.

I had our hand specialist at work look at it after the weekend and he set it and put in into a cast.  It was much more comfortable after getting the cast but I still wasn't supposed to use it, so weaving was put on hold for a few weeks.

 I was then put in a removable splint since it was starting to heal.  I was happy because my doctor was worried that the chemo would slow the healing.  It didn't, and I was able to start weaving again.

I was able to finish Rebecca's towel and get started on the last one needed for Christmas.  This towel was for my daughter Becky.  She chose off white, navy, red, light orange and light green. The eleven treatments I was getting for the cancer was taking a toll on me though, so I couldn't weave for very long at any one time.  I was getting a bit worried that I wouldn't finish it in time.  I had a good week when I had a week off from chemo and was able to finish it.

It is always nice to have a little warp left over to make something for myself.  My favorite color is red, so I dug through my box of yarns that I had dyed and found quite a range of pinks to reds to purples and came up with this towel.  It is my favorite.

Group photo.  I was very happy to finish all of them before Christmas.

An incidental note about this warp.  When September rolled around, I heard from a friend who also has ovarian cancer that September was ovarian cancer awareness month and their color was teal.

I am not much of one for following all the color fads for all the different "awareness" months or weeks, but I guess it does give me an opportunity to inform women that there is no screening test for ovarian cancer, and because symptoms can be kind of vague and attributed to other things, most ovarian cancers are not caught until later stages.

Here is a list of symptoms, with the first four being the most common:
1. Abdominal or pelvic pain.
2. Increased abdominal size or persistent abdominal bloating.
3. Needing to urinate often or urgently.
4. Feeling full after eating a small amount.
5. Changes in bowel habits.
6. Bleeding after menopause or in between periods.
7. Unexplained weight gain or loss.
8. Lower back pain.
9. Indigestion or nausea.
10. Excessive fatigue.
11. Pain during sex or bleeding after sex.

Out of the eleven symptoms, I had eight of them.  If any of these symptoms are new to you and you experience them frequently over a 2-4 week period, talk to your doctor and besides checking for other causes, ask him or her about the possibility of ovarian cancer.  My stage 3c cancer was found with a CT scan.  I was referred immediately to a gynecologic oncologist and was in surgery the next week.

I wish I had known this information months before I was diagnosed.  Hopefully this list will help someone else to seek treatment in an early stage.  Having the symptoms doesn't necessarily mean you have cancer, but checking the symptoms with your doctor could possibly save your life if it is and is caught early.

Now, I am looking forward to a better new year in 2014.

Making a Repair Heddle and Adding a Warp Thread

Life can change unexpectedly.  Four weeks ago today, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  A week later I had major surgery to remove the masses.  After a week or two of healing and waiting for my chemo to start, I was thankful to have some weaving in the works that wasn't too heavy for me.  It is something I enjoy and can occupy my mind with something other than being sick.  I make dishtowels for all my girls every year for Christmas and I had started that project just before my diagnosis. I had part of it threaded, so was able to pick up where I left off.  I finished the threading, and then..... 

Oops!  I missed a warp thread right in the center of my warp and I discovered that fact after the whole warp was threaded through the heddles.

The loom I am using is my Leclerc Jano table loom.  It has wire heddles, so to do the repair, I need these handy diagonal cutters which are available in any hardware store.

 To get a better view, click on the picture. 

Clip the top and bottom loop on the heddle in the center.

Here is a better view without the cutter in the way.  This is just one of the extra heddles that were pushed off to the side.  Gently remove the cut heddle without unbending the wire too much.

Insert it into the proper spot on the heddle frame.  Tighten the wire loop a bit so it won't slip off.

Prepare a warp thread a bit longer than the other warps and thread it through the repair heddle from the back and incorporate it into the bundle of warp threads where it belongs.

Since everything was threaded, I tied my warp threads on to my front rod at this point.

When everything is tensioned correctly, I take the added warp thread in the back, and wind it around my fingers to take up most of the length.  Wrap some of the warp around the loops, fold it in half and insert an S hook into the to loops.

The warp thread dangles off the back of the loom.
The hook might be enough weight but if not, add fender washers until the right tension is achieved.  It should be the same as the adjacent threads.  If it is too tight, you will notice it when you start to weave because it will pull at the fell line.

 This is a handy little gadget used to spread the warp threads if any break while weaving or if you discover a threading error when you start weaving, or if like me, you miss a warp thread.

Insert it where the error is to hold the adjacent threads out of the way.  I made this today in about 30 minutes with a cedar shim, a utility knife and some sandpaper.  If you prefer to buy one, search for a warp spreader.  I have seen several that are made with nice hardwood.

If I happen to break a warp thread while doing these towels, I will do another post about that type of repair.