Hi! Yes I am back after being gone from here for a year. So many things happened in 2018 that kept me from updating and posting on here like I had planned to. I was unable to do any of the art projects I had planned. 2018 was the year of injuries and thus made me feel very uncreative.

I started out 2018 by slipping and falling on some ice in front of our old house. Besides hurting my hip, back and knee; I also broke my left wrist; specifically the radius bone. Even though at the time it was a swollen s-shaped mess and it was believed that the bone would have to be realigned; it thankfully was only weird swelling as the bone had broken but not moved. Due to that weird swelling they did a temporary ace bandage with a plaster brace for a week in the hopes that the swelling would dissipate. It however did not so instead of a cast which with this swelling could cause nerve damage as well as it would have to constantly be cut off and replaced, the doctor decided a brace was best as I could adjust it based on the swelling so that the nerves wouldn’t get constricted. However since a brace is not as protective as a cast I had to be very careful. The pain was horrible for the first few weeks and the pain medicine they gave was useless. So I basically just grinned and bared it; pretending it wasn’t painful whenever I could. Nights of course were the worst. It took 2 1/2 months for the break to be considered healed enough that I didn’t need to wear the brace 24/7 and that I could start physical therapy. The doctor only wanted me to do 1 to 2 sessions so I could learn how to do them at home but despite that and despite the fact that the therapists said I was doing way better than I should they tried to keep adding sessions. I did 3 sessions before quitting and then just did the therapy at home. I did have some nerve issues which caused constant numbness on my thumb, two fingers, part of my hand and arm. Thankfully it eventually went away after a few weeks of not wearing the brace all the time.

While healing from the broken wrist we decided to sell our house and buy one closer to my husbands job. I immediately started packing up the house as I don’t like waiting to the last minute. I also knew with my broken arm packing was going to be slow. In about 2 weeks we found a house, put in an offer and it was accepted. This new house dropped my husbands commute to 20-25 minutes instead of the 1 hour and 15 minutes it was before. Also with this new house my cats had a room of their own so when maintenance people or things were being done to the house they had a safe place to be and it also gave me a room to be my art studio. Then during the move I managed to hurt both my achilles tendons. So with that and my arm still being painful sometimes, unpacking took a lot longer then it should have. Since I now had a larger art space and I got rid of the old mismatched storage, I purchased new furniture at Ikea and while building one of the heavier units I not only hurt my wrist but also both elbows. Thankfully a couple of months went by with no further injuries and by the end of September my injuries were either healed or almost healed. I thought I could finally start getting back to doing the things I enjoyed and then I went to Longwood Gardens and my achillis tendons acted up again. This time far worse then before. The next day I could barely walk and they were incredibly painful. I went to orthopedic urgent care where they said I again had achillis tendonitis on both feet and I had hurt my tendons really bad but thankfully nothing required surgery. I just had to rest, keep elevated and iced. I also started at home physical therapy. Thankfully my achillis tendonitis is improving but I’m still not 100%.

I did manage to do some art towards the end of the year. I do feel rusty creatively but hopefully this year will change that. I have a lot planned for 2019 and am looking forward to a more creative year.