Thought I would share this over here. A project long in my mind, finally got to making it last week. :)

Wet felted base of blues and greens, needle felted "Buddha Mama" image. It measures apprx 10" x 10" to give an idea of the size. The base is just shy of 1/2 inch thick.

I am really happy with how it turned out and feeling inspired, so cross fingers this will get be back in my groove!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/lakshmimama/buddhamama.jpg

That is beautiful! Not to be rude, just a newbie, but what do you do with it now?

Thats not rude, lol. Its a good question! The answer: I don't really know. :p

I think that I will simply hang it. I really like it on its own.

That's really gorgeous :D Crafting pretty things always makes me feel groovy too :D

That's beautiful! I love it :)

WOW!!! I love it! Just my colors too.

Beautiful! I especially love the colors :)

Very pretty!! I like it!

Wow! That's awesome!

Lori

Katie, it's beautiful, but it makes me miss our crafting days.

Spectacular- that is superb!

:heart: it's just lovely... truly.. the colors are so... just SO! I love it :D

Ooh it's wonderful!

gorgeous!

That's just gorgeous! :hbeat:

wow thats great i would hang it in a chunky recycled wooden frame

I LOVE it!

that is sooo cool! beautiful!

how are you feeling, Katie? Any better? :rub:

that is sooo cool! beautiful!

how are you feeling, Katie? Any better? :rub:

I wish I had good news on the pain front. It seems to be getting worse every day. I know much of that is because my coping is breaking down. There is only so much one can take, kwim? The upswing is that making this piece was soooo therapeutic.... slamming and smacking the base in the wet felting process (shocking the fibers) and then the oh so satisfying poke-poke-poke of the needle felting. There are lots of tears shed in this work. lol.

I wish I had good news on the pain front. It seems to be getting worse every day. I know much of that is because my coping is breaking down. There is only so much one can take, kwim? The upswing is that making this piece was soooo therapeutic.... slamming and smacking the base in the wet felting process (shocking the fibers) and then the oh so satisfying poke-poke-poke of the needle felting. There are lots of tears shed in this work. lol.

:hug:

anything any of us can do?

btw, how much longer will you be in England?

I'm sorry :(

If England's weather really is like they make it seem (rainy all the time) that's gotta be awful.

Take it easy, if you can, ok?

Can you even take flexeril (generic is cyclobenzaprine)? It's not an anti-depressant...it's helped me greatly. It helps you get deeper, more restorative sleep...and it's a muscle relaxer so it helps with spasms and pains that happen when you lie down. For me, it quickly got rid of the brain fog and unfocussed, all over pain static.

The bigger, more specific pain wasn't helped much til I started on cybalta (an SSNRI) 6 mos later. But, just the flexeril, taken a bit before bed, got me feeling much better than where I started.

I know, natural is better. But I also know that pain. :hug:

I wish I had good news on the pain front. It seems to be getting worse every day. I know much of that is because my coping is breaking down. There is only so much one can take, kwim? The upswing is that making this piece was soooo therapeutic.... slamming and smacking the base in the wet felting process (shocking the fibers) and then the oh so satisfying poke-poke-poke of the needle felting. There are lots of tears shed in this work. lol.
:(

I know two wonderful classical homeopaths. One just happens to be from England and I'm fairly certain that she keeps offices there and here state side.

Katie, I've really wanted to share my "recovery" story with you but I just don't want to seem, I dunno...inconsiderate of your pain and circumstances. Our stories are different, yet so similar.

It's lengthy, involves years, maybe even a life time, of issues and symptoms being missed or dismissed. It all came to fruition with the worst bout of vertigo that had me sure I was breathing my last breaths on this planet.

tag me if you ever want to chat.



((hugs))

I think it's lovely. I'm so sorry to hear your pain is increasing. You are in my thoughts frequently.

You all are so sweet! :heart:

I have been really working on letting others "in" and know whats up with me. (as opposed to my usual pattern of hiding things and retreating into exile. ) Your love and care is so wonderful. :heart:

Rebecca - we will be in England for at least another 2 years. After that it is looking like we will be headed for Italy. Dh has made some great contacts at a couple of Biodynamic Vineyards there who are eager to have him come work with them. We are going to spend a few weeks on one of them this summer. (this one... http://www.la-raia.it/en/vigneti/produzione_vino.aspx ). I really need to start learning Italian it looks like!

Danielle - I got a referral to a rhuematologist (Finally!) National health care is wonderful to have but it is not the fastest process. Now I have to wait to get the actual appointment, which will probably be a couple weeks. I didn't want to get random meds from my GP because I don't want to go on that awful cycle of taking meds, coming off meds, sorting out side effects and what works or doesn't. I have a hard time taking most anything, cursed by a very chemically sensitive system. Even herbs are hard for me to do sometimes. I wanted to wait and really talk to the rhuemie about the latest research and his experience. My GP literally opened a book and read what meds he should offer me right in front of me. ummm.... No, thanks.

And yes, the weather here BITES! I am from the Pacific Northwest so I am no stranger to this though. It is colder here than it would be in the NW, but the rain and gray are nothing new. I had a hard time with it back home too. DH wants to send me to an anthroposophic clinic/hospital in Spain for a month. I don't think we will do that yet, but I may consider it in the fall. We'll see how it goes.

Katie - yes - please share your story with me. Especially one with a 'happy ending'! The support groups I have found for all this stuff are not too great. It seems like once someone gets to feeling better they drop out of action so it is always just people in misery looking for help from people who are in too much misery to do much for anyone. Its like a 'who can feel worse' competition. blech. No thanks! I want to feel better. If I wanted to hear a bunch of doom and gloom I just have to tune into my own personal conversation. :p

And keeping this OT (afterall this is a post about my felt work, lol) this piece is really proving to be therapeutic. Making it was great and the support that is coming out of my sharing it is wonderful. She is definately a bit of the buddha. :)

That is beautiful Katie.

Warm wishes,
Tonya - Simple Living Mom of 5

I totally understand wanting to stick with as natural a remedy as possible. Totally.

And, yes, the Dr pulling out the book would freak me out! Crimony, he may as well pull out a laptop and google it lol.

I will say that at my worst I was functioning (or rather, NOT functioning) at about 20% of normal. The flexeril got me to about 50%. Cymbalta got me to about 80%. I can deal with 80%. In fact, I'm thrilled with it.

Cold, dreary, rainy weather is generally what triggers the remaining bad 20%. But now I can just be very gentle with myself and allow myself to slack off on those days. And then I come out of it relatively quickly...in just a matter of days.

When you find your successful treatments (I pray you do soon) I'd love to hear about them. (I'd love to hear your story to KatieL) A big part of me wants to not be relying on meds. But I don't want to go back to not functioning either.

FWIW, I didn't notice any real side effects from flexeril, aside from some major sleepiness in the beginning (which was fine bc I took it at bedtime). Cymbalta, on the other hand, had me feeling really, really freaky for about 2 weeks on only 1/2 the reg dosage. So freaky I wouldn't even drive. But I noticed such a big decrease in pain right away I stuck it out and the side effects did eventually pass. But it's probably not the best thing for a very sensitive person.

Rebecca - we will be in England for at least another 2 years. After that it is looking like we will be headed for Italy. Dh has made some great contacts at a couple of Biodynamic Vineyards there who are eager to have him come work with them. We are going to spend a few weeks on one of them this summer. (this one... http://www.la-raia.it/en/vigneti/produzione_vino.aspx ). I really need to start learning Italian it looks like!

well, good then because I'm certain we will be somewhere in Europe sometime in the next few years and the top three places on our list are England, France, and Italy.

Since Dannielle wanted to hear the story too, I'll put it here. :) Staying ot and all ya know.

Ok,I'm finally getting back to this. I've tried to sort out my thoughts about it all but I'll just cut to the chase.

I have a brain cyst. Now don't freak out. LOL. I've known about it since I was 18 years old. It's called an arachnoid cyst and it's just a cyst that is full of brain fluid. Some schools of thought think it adversely affects you (with strange symptoms) through the course of your life and now that I'm 37 years old and "on the mend" I couldn't agree more. Still other schools think most of the population has one and has never suffered a single side effect.

I don't like dr's. Not at all, so for me to actually go in for something means that I was really low or hurting or whatever....then I'd get dismissed with a shrug or an offer for zoloft or valium.

A long time ago, while still working, I was diagonosed with carpal tunnel, which modern medicine wanted to operate on....right away. So I did a short round of homeopathic medicine on a friend's rec and it cleared it up enough to function. I went on about my life bumbling along.

I've always had feelings of frustration. Being misunderstood and generally perturbed. Not angry. Not depressed. Just....irritated by life in general. I wrote it off that I'd been a police dispatcher for too many years and was doomed to thick skin and a black and bitter heart....just like my coffee.

I've also always been sort of tired and sore. I don't know that I'd ever had a good night's rest because I always woke up feeling SO tired and every muscle hurt. My dentist and family confirmed I grind my teeth while I sleep. Ok.

Four years ago I went in because I couldn't stop crying and figured I must be depressed. I was given a script for zoloft and seriously, the side effects coming off of that stuff was worse than what lead me to the dr in the 1st place. I ultimately ended up pregnant and during that time, I realized that my pms had been out of control. I'd been trying to fight it for so many years that it was starting to blur into every facet of my life. Physical heat on the back of my neck. Genuine pissed off feelings and easily set off. It was the relief of pregnancy that made me realize how bad it had been.

Last summer I went in afraid I'd been exposed to lyme disease. Tick bite, pain in my joints, fatigue, this strange feeling of a full ear complete with hearing loss....I got sent away with nothing. Told I hadn't fully prepared myself for my husband's partial retirement and work from home status. Ok.

I want to note that that ear fullness continued from July of last year until I started homeopathic remedy this past april. Nine months and my ear felt like I just got out of the pool. Now that there's some clarity in my life, I think it was cystic pressure. Brain fluid pressure.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So March comes and I'm feeling kind of icky for a couple days. I take a shower and when I reach for a towel, I went down like a ton of bricks. Full room tilt and it was bouncing in the corners. I couldn't be upright unassisted. No matter what I did, open eyes, closed eyes, the room tilted.

My dh took me to the hospital and by 1/2 way there, chest pain set it, I was vomitting uncontrollably and I was cutting deals with God. I was also telling my husband how to be a good single parent to our children. I get to the hospital and apparently I had good vitals so they set me in a wheelchair in the hallway to wretch. It was bad. I pleaded with anyone that would walk by to check my heart. Having never died before, I was sure this was it. Oh, did I mention this was the Mayo Clinic Hospital. yeah.

They said my potassium was low and that's why I was vomitting and had chest pain and why I had vertigo. Um, 10 hours later with 2 fresh bags of saline in my blood stream and a barf cup under my arm I was sent home with a suggestion for an antihistimine for that plugged ear.

The vertigo didn't really subside. It wasn't the full pitching, but my feet were definately not underneath me anymore. So I hung up my car keys and made an appt with my family dr. He refered me to ears nose and throat. They couldn't find anything and she offered valium.

I went searching the internet and found my Classical Homeopath. Who also happens to be a licensed medical Dr. This was good for me because I didn't fully understand homeopathic treatment and had been mainstreamed trained to go modern medicine.

Well, my Homeopath is the one that suggested an mri that revealed that brain cyst again. Not the Mayo clinic, not my general practicioner, not the ent specialist. They all missed it and didn't even change their position when I TOLD them I knew I had one from a previous mri 20 years ago. They just dismissed that it was or could be causing problems.

I've been under Dr. Mirman's care for about 7 weeks now and here's what I have to report:
*The vertigo is gone
*The ear pressure is gone
*The hearing has been restored in said ear.
*The PMS is gone. I can't believe this one, I really didn't expect it and when I went to the bathroom one day and Aunt Flo was there, well I just started laughing. Dh confirms the pms is gone too. He said it's remarkable really, the change. This one fact alone, has changed his position from "Homeopaths are all quacks" to "modern medicine is a load of sh*t and I can't believe we haven't had a homeopath in the family before" lol.
*I'm not sore anymore and I feel genuinely rested when I wake up. (I'll have to ask dh and see if I still grind my teeth)
*The iritability is also gone.

Life is good.

I think the vertigo, while a physical symptom was actually a big huge red flag waving metaphor that my life was out of balance.

SO, if you read this far...wow. I think that was actually the condensed version. LOL.

My Dr also has an English Colleague that is treating my 5 year old (dane) for some lung and skin issues, compounded with an add or adhd lean. So there's ANOTHER success story fo another day. ;)

Check both of them out when you get some quiet time:

My Homeopath (Dr. Mirman) www.demystify.com

Dane's Homeopath (Sally Tamplin) http://alternative-horizons.home.comcast.net/index.html
She just emailed me a few days ago to let me know that she'll be in England for 2 weeks.


((hugs)) from across the ocean.

Katie

:wah: :hug: Katie - Oh my dear, Katie. You don't know what hope you have given me. It is no small feat to find much hope some days. Thank you so much. :hug:

Well hope is a mighty powerful thing.

Thinking back, I remember vividly the sense of relief I had after reading Dr. Mirman's site and the anxiety I had about returning to traditional medicine. I only made that mri appt under the his suggestion. He wanted to be sure something else wasn't growing in my head. And then he said, "if there is, we'll deal with that too."

The initial visit with a homeopath is about 2 hours and you cover everything from your own birth forward. Everything is a clue to your remedy. Surrendering that somewhere your body forgot how to fix itself and that homeopathy can retrain it, was the most liberating experience ever.

Emotionally and relationship wise, my marriage couldn't be stronger. My dh is a drinker, or geez, at least he was. I won't go so far as to take responsibility for his excessive drinking, but looking back, I can't believe for one second that I was easy to live with. Or love for that matter. Truthfully, I can hardly kick him out the door anymore. He never wants to leave us and gets homesick going to the grocery store. LOL.

He's my best friend again and seems to savor every single moment we spend together.

Trust yourself, Katie. I've been around here long enough to know that you're a brilliant woman with strong convictions....your instincts will get you to your recovery path. Just trust and follow them. :hbeat:

I just made an appointment with a local homeopath. I go by the clinic nearly every day and always think "I really ought to give that a try..." and I never do. Like I said, I am afraid to hope. (really hope - not just trying to convince myself of hope). Well, today I am hopeful. Truly (albeit cautiously) hopeful. Thank you so much.

:hbeat: Good for you. :hbeat:

It's a fascinating process.