Quilting with disabilities

[Patti P.]

Hi Jessima, glad you're doing well. At least with the surgery pain, you know that it's going to get better, and it's easier to deal with. With chronic pain, we tend to think that it's never going away, and that's really hard to cope with, at least it is for me.

You have a new life ahead of you - live it to the fullest!

Have a great day, Sharon in TN

[Patti P.]

I've had a really rough week in this department of quilting with disabilities or should I say life with disability. I've been trying for 2 1/2 years to get insurance clearance for lapband surgery. My weight about 3 years ago aggrevated damaged disks in my back due to a car accident when I was a teen to the point that I can't walk more than a few feet. Also arthritis set in which keeps me in constant pain. I can't browse thru a quilt shop without my cumbersome wheelchair or stand to rotary cut. Anyway I decided to pay for the surgery myself and the doc asked me to lose 30 pounds at Thanksgiving to get ready for surgery. Last Friday doc scales said I'd lost 41. Woohoo time to reschedule the surgery and then by accident I found out the company I was working with is questionable. Another setback/start over :cry: and then my company stepped in to squash my taking leave for the surgery (another long story). So again surgery is shelved until a solution comes up. But am thankful that I found out about these folks that many want to sue before I got into it and thankful for being able to lose weight at this time.

[Patti P.]

Patti, not having the surgery is disappointing, but there's a reason why your surgery has been postponed. You may not know the reason for quite some time. I can't cut or sew right now, either. I'm leaning toward music right now. It helps to keep my mind off the chronic pain. Maybe you could try counted cross stitch or knitting.

Several years ago, the nucleus of all my lumbar discs leaked out, causing severe pain from my waist down. I could hardly walk. One day, I'd had enough, and prayed sincerely to die. The next day, my pain was gone! Don't rule out miracles. There was another miracle that came from that, but I won't write a book.

When you're really down, email me. I can't guarantee that you'll be cheered up, but I'll certainly try.

Have a great weekend, Sharon in TN

[Patti P.]

Patty I have been throw the gastrick by pass I did not have trouble with the INC they paid for it all And I took a month off work I lost a lot of my hours I was only part time so I moved to the Libaray now I get about 25 30 hrs A week I have lost about 125lbs and it is a year out of my new life I have lupus, RA I'am off most of my RA and Lupus Med if you would like to talk about it let me know HAppy

[Patti P.]

Jessimina--I have known to quilt on my machine standing up. Something to think about. Glad your surgery went well--will continue to pray for a quick healing.

[Eileen K.]

Ritzy,
Can you piece this way also? How do you operate the foot pedal? I'm experiencing a lot of pain in the back of my left hip right now(I think it's a fibro flare, but I'm not sure) so extending one of my feet to reach a pedal is not an option.
eileenkny

[Eileen K.]

hi all. i have been reading your post and would like to share my disablity. it is not physical but i have learning disablities that were diagnosted when i was in grade school. i did see that one person on here was an ld teacher but for those of you who are not familiar it means i have adverage to above adverage intellegnce but my brain does not process every thing the same as others. my disablities are in spelling, math, and written expression. over the years i have tried to work hard on overcoming my problems the most common Ld is dyslexia i dont have the traditional sense of dyslexia in that i see things the correct way but when i go to respond back i can get mixed up for example i have to reminded myself which is left and which is right, i have used word puzzles to help improve my spelling and one of my reasons for quilting was to force myself to have to work math problems to improve that aspect of my disablity. what else that is good about quilting is that it is fun so i don't really feel like i am working on math skills

anyway i thought i would share and encourage everyone to keep working at life not to let your disablities define who you are but you define who you are.

[Eileen K.]

Luky glad to hear from you I am have dyslixia when I was 9 I was hit by a car and loss my memery so I had to learn 4 years of school over again and it did not go so well I have a hard time in spelling and Math it makes it hard because some times I can not help my son with homework my dh has helped me alot Happy

[Eileen K.]

Ritzy,
Can you piece this way also? How do you operate the foot pedal? I'm experiencing a lot of pain in the back of my left hip right now(I think it's a fibro flare, but I'm not sure) so extending one of my feet to reach a pedal is not an option.
eileenkny

Yep! I can piece this way also. I have a table that my husband made for me that is 39" high. With my sewing machine on top of it, I can piece. The foot pedal is on the floor.

[Annette R.]

Lucy -- you are definitely not alone when it comes to how dyslexia and other learning disablilties can affect your quilting life. we had a long and interesting exchange about this a few months ago which would be worth reading but my aging memory and maybe my distractibility (part of my LD) has kicked in and I can't remember where we had the discussion ( I only know it wasn't somewhere that makes any sense now or I could find it) I remember Florence and some others were part of that discussion too so HELP HELP ANY OF YOU WHO REMEMBER THIS REMIND ME AND TELL LUCY WHERE TO LOOK (dang is it tough to grow old and not be able to remember stuff that would have been there in a heart beat before) I will keep looking and let you know when I find it but in the mean time I am going to start a special line within this topic for people to discuss learning disabilities and their effects on our lives and our quilting. Ann with the faulty memory

[Judith T.]

Is this what you are looking for: In the forum topic, suggest a new forum topic there is a thread on quilting with disabilities and comments about developmental abilities on page 2. Hope this helps. Judy

[Eileen K.]

Does anyone have the spinal stimulator implanted in their spine? I'm going to a pain mgmt doctor tomorrow for a consult. I'll be honest here-I am not crazy about anybody doing anything more to my spine. Two surgeries and I'm still disabled. What's wrong with this picture?????????
eileenkny 8)

[Eileen K.]

I don't have first-hand experience w/ the electronic implant thing but I have a friend who has it & RAVES about its success... Good luck!

[Eileen K.]

gone

[Eileen K.]

I haven't read this section before and thought I'd check it out. I am sorry so many of you are going through so much pain! It makes my corpol tunnel (I know that's not spelled right ) seem like such a mild thing. I did see a few people that were mentioning it along with other issues. I had surgery on my right hand a number of years ago at the same time they were doing surgery to fix a broken wrist. I now have it in my left hand but really don't want to go through another surgery yet. Since I do hand applique and quilting, it his becoming a problem. Did any of you who have had the problem find a way that made it possible to do the handwork without your fingers getting numb and then hurting at least for a little while? As I said I really want to put off surgery but I want to quilt also. My left hand is the one that I hold the fabric with and have underneath. If anyone has suggestions. I would really appreciate them. I am sleeping with a brace on that hand (when I remember) I put it with my quilting the other day to see if wearing it would help but it didn't so now I forget to get it tonight. I guess I better get off the computer. My fingers are starting to get numb. May you all have a healthy day with less pain.
Hugs,Charlotte