Mission Accomplished!!!
I finished my overdyed Koigu Kersti On The Easy Side sweater that was my #1 goal for the NaKniSweMo. There were way more stitches than it would appear with all of the on-the-needle swatching & re-knitting that I did!! You can definitely see the lighter yarn on the sleeves - again, it just deepens my appreciation for the yarn dyers out there who can predictably replicate their awesome yarns. This has sated my dyeing desires for a bit but I'm sure that I'll feel the urge ... someone better warn Buffy!!!
I also finished China Clouds, knit 3 scarves for my Dr.'s secretary & nurse who have been awesome squeezing me in to see the Dr. & helping me out through some of the chemo drama and for one of my best friends who has been an super supportive, and banged out a pair of mittens for Amanda this past weekend.
Phew!! December is not likely to slow me down ... I'll share what I can but some things are still Top Secret! Yeah, you know the drill ;-).
I got a Rx for Arthrotec - it has totally taken care of the crippling bone/joint pain that I was suffering in my legs and the excruciating stomach pains. The drugs in the chemo therapy affect the faster replicating cells in our body - hair follicles and stomach linings are at the top of the list. My fingers are crossed that the subsequent treatments are controlled by the Arthrotec and don't get worse ...
I've got a bit of an eye infection that I have drops for. Irritatingly, the eyelashes on my right eye have mostly come out as a result so I have unbalanced eyelashes. SIGH, it's the little things.
I've also noticed that I don't get "sleep sand" in my eyes in the morning anymore. I guess that the chemo is totally cleansing my body ... how bizarre. My eyes also water constantly, which is annoying.
It has been a busy week!! I have been to Barrie every single day for one appointment or another, I've been picking Kyle up from work in Alliston (long story made short - he gets a ride with his girl friends mom. Yeah, I saw that writing on the wall. Mercifully he's got a ride again!!) and my obsession with finding the perfect Sweet Spot has had me ripping reknitting swatching on the fly to the point where I was seriously considering tossing it in a corner for Mischief to sort out. But you know me, there is not a yarn that I won't master with enough time - I'm nothing if not persistent!! 
We're back on point and with a Launch My Line marathon on Global Reality today I'm totally going to make massive headway. Crap ... unjinx!!!!
So, that being said China Clouds ... I'll go hard-core on her on Sunday. Elise's socks - getting there. I've been working on some simple scarves as my "waiting room" projects.
I got in to see my family Dr. and she sent me for an ECG which the tech said was good and she is going to get me hooked up with the Holter monitor. It'll probably take a couple of weeks (really?!?) but that's okay, my heart is apparently taking the arrhythmia in stride so I can wait.
I've also waiting for a referral to a dermatologist to take a look at this. 
I know, it doesn't look like much which is why so many people end up losing their thumbs, big toes or their lives because it seems like such a silly little thing to go to a Dr with. It could be caused by a lot of things - chemo being one of them - but the fact that it is only on a single digit is a red flag. I really hope that it isn't a melanoma but my research1 and research2 would indicate that it verily could be; I'm just praying that if it is it's been caught soon enough to spare the thumb. An opposable thumb is what separates me from lower forms of life!! Okay, confession ... and because I need it to knit. I seriously didn't need something else to think about but at least I have the time to deal with it expediently. I don't know if I would have really paid attention to it had I been working and getting my nails done. Okay, this might be the single benefit to naked nails. It really knocked me on my ass when I first looked it up - I really thought that it would be some sort of deficiency or deposit that I could take a supplement for - but I'm okay-ish with it now. I'm not obsessing about it, it's not occupying my every waking moment but it's hard to ignore.
Geez Louise!!! So I'm almost done the 1st sleeve on and it occurs to me that the fabric is looser than at the bottom.
I'm normally quite good at Mary Poppins (practically perfect) tension so I start thinking. Yeah, a little late for that missy!!! Back at 40 sts I worked on swatching with the two different needles (SB & the Sigs) and the two different sizes (4mm & 4.5mm). I think know now that I must have either switched needle sizes at some point or loosened up. So it's back to knit 1 - the Kersti is standing up well to all of this use I must say and it's lovely to work with so it's not such a hardship.
It's also giving me the opportunity to space out the sleeve increases. To maintain the integrity of the patterning while knitting one below increases need to be done by 2's. So on the sleeve that puts a 4 stitch increases at the seams. Elise & I had talked about this when we did the originals and for ease of writing and knitting the increases are at the same time. I decided to go with staggered increases on my sleeves - which I had forgotten about until I was well into it - just another one of my lovable little OCD quirks.
I'm seeing my family Dr. on Thursday. Since the very first treatment I've had pressure in my chest, like my heart is pounding harder. I mentioned it right away and they did another ECG and it was fine. I bring it up every time I see the oncologist the day before treatment and they've chalked it up to anxiety (especially with the problems I've been having sleeping) even though I assure them that between being a knitter & having a kitty that I'm the most mellow and well-adjusted (okay, maybe that's going too far ;-) ) cancer patient around. So, I mentioned it to Simone again on Friday and she showed me how to find my pulse (I could never reliably find it ... which is also why current CPR training says to not even bother trying to find a victims pulse, it takes too much time that could be spent on actual resuscitation) and told me to monitor how often the episodes were occurring and my pulse rate. I'm compliant and what else do I have to do?? It turns out that it's not so much anxiety & a racing pulse as my heart is actually skipping a beat. Usually about every 25-30 beats but I really feel the pressure when it's skipping every 5-10 beats. It's been going on for the last 10 weeks all day (probably all night) and the oncology nurse that I spoke to on the phone didn't seem overly bothered so hopefully when I speak with Dr. B she'll put me on a Holter monitor and someone can tell me if this is actually bad. I know it's not good but I don't know if it's really bad. It's definitely from the chemo but I don't know if it's going to get worse or if it's really damaging my heart or just giving it a nice work out.
