COUTURE CLASS

I finally bit the bullet and signed up for the Couture Dressmaking class from Susan Khalje on Craftsy.

Since I didn't have a pattern to start with I watched 14 of the 15 episodes trying to get a feel for what the process would be. There were no course materials available at the time I signed up so I went to Hancock's and bought the pattern that Susan was using for the class and thought I would start.

Getting garments to fit is such a horrible process for me that I could only try to envision what I would have to do to pattern with 14 pieces to get it to fit me. Well, I tried, and tried to get the bodice to fit and finally told myself that the inch extra around each pattern piece that Susan shows you how do would save the day and so I moved on.

Loved the process of marking the pattern that she showed and cutting it out was a breeze because I didn't have to worry about my wavy cutting lines.

I checked the grain carefully for each piece and finished the marking by machine and if I must say so, am feeling pretty positive about the process. The only thing is...I haven't tried it on yet. I am hoping to get to that point some time today. Can't wait to see what the result of all of this couture work will be.

If you haven't signed up for the class yet, go do it now...you'll be glad you did.

(Pictures when I can get my laptop to download from the camera!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder:
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father,
he Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6

6 PAC

I always love when the Christmas season arrives each year. The lights, the beautiful decorations, the yummy smells, greetings from friends far and near and getting together with family just warms my heart. I have barely started my shopping but had better finish quickly because most of the gifts have to be mailed this year.

Tonight I should be working on figuring out just what I will get everyone but instead I am considering joining the 6 Piece Winter Collection that runs from November through January. Kinda crazy to start at this late date, but so fun to plan.

The requirements for this sew are as follows:

Winter coat - neutral
Overlayer top, jacket, cardigan - neutral
Overlayer top, jacket, cardigan - color
Underlayer top - neutral
Underlayer top - color
Trousers - neutral

Seems pretty doable so I looked until I found patterns I thought would work for each category.



The only pattern that I have made before is the top right jean jacket. I had to spend some time getting it to fit and although not perfect I made it out of a cotton stretch material that I just love. I will tweak it a little and make it out of a white corduroy that should go with quite a number of garments.

My closet is filled with lots of black and white so to change things up a bit I thought I would have my main neutral be navy. The only down side for me was figuring out what color of shoes I would need to wear with navy. The last time I was shoe shopping I did not see any navy shoes so having a navy wardrobe didn't seem like a really smart idea.

So I did some research on the internet to see if there was another acceptable color to wear if you didn't have navy shoes because I was taught that black was never worn with navy. To my surprise the dress code in 2011 allows for black shoes to be worn with navy as are brown and cordovan .

I think I'm going to like this.

Cabazon

There's nothing like a trip to Cabazon Outlets to get a person thinking about sewing again. My daughter and I decided to meet at the outlets and see what fun clothes were waiting for us. Oh, my, what a disappointment! Things are bad when you would rather look at the purses and shoes that anything that was folded on a table or hanging on a hanger.

Is it my imagination or are stores carrying less merchandise that they used to? Ann Taylor had a small selection, Liz Claiborne - closed, Ralph Lauren - a darling white blouse with bias ruffles and our favorite - Tahari. Of all of the stores and merchandise we looked at, the dresses and jackets at Tahari were to die for. The workmanship and details on each of the pieces were beautiful making the garment look stunning on us regular people. But other than that stop the trip was a bust.

It may be next week before I get around to it, but it looks like I will be looking through my skirt patterns and coming up with a few possibilities so I can eventually find one to be my TNT.

The shopping trip might not have been such a bad thing after all!

No Sewing

What was to be at the longest just a month stay in Tennessee to work on our store has turned out to be four months and counting. In this present economical climate that is so unsure we weren't quite sure what to do to make our store competitive so we turned everything upside down and have redone about everything...starting with painting every piece of wood furniture, then remodeling the furniture to serve other functions and adding beadboard to the backs of all of the wood shelving. We had to use oil based paint so that the paint wouldn't chip but the smell just about knocked me out. As bad as it was to complete this project while we still had the store open and were doing business I am thrilled that we did it. It looks clean and neat and it's a pleasure to go to work now. Monday we add deli items and until we can hire a good cook I will be spending my day doing the menu and cooking.

So......no sewing.....yet! Well, almost none - I brought my coverstitch maching and was able to get it to work sewing binding on an apron. It was so much fun and I can hardly wait to have more time to spend playing with it.

I found this video and video two on you tube that showed a method of making bias binding that I had never seen before. I tried it and was really pleased with how it turned out and how much I was able to get from a yard of fabric.

The good thing about being here in Tennessee is that I am getting to spend lots of time after work with the grandchildren so I can't complain at all.

Tragedy

From James:


"Hurry to the ER! James! Run!" The familiar words come not in the usual African French but in the familiar English of our friends, Gary and Wendy Roberts (our mission pilot & his wife, based in Bere) as they whiz by the house on their motorcycle.

I'd just gotten up a little before 5:00am to write email when I heard the roar of the moto and the cries of the anguished parents.

I quickly pull on some scrubs and rush out the door where I run into Sarah who's just come to get me. She is just finishing up a night shift in the ER. It's about 6:00am.

The hospital is bathed with an early morning tranquility that would've been soothing on any other morning but this one.

I arrive at the ER and see Gary bent over his son, Caleb, giving him mouth to mouth as his pale, limp body wants to sink into the top of the desk he's lying on.

"He was still breathing as we were coming but he just stopped. He has no heart beat!"

I start giving chest compressions as I bark out orders to Sarah, Wendy, Koumabas, Hortance and Augustin who luckily happens to be there.

"Get some IV glucose and some IV tubing!"

"Someone look for an IV!"

"Call the lab for a hemoglobin and glucose check!"

"Get the pulse ox from the OR!"

As they rush off to find the material I look closer at Caleb. His body is flaccid, his face is pale and haggard, eyes closed, mouth half open, a mild gurgling coming out of his throat with each chest compression. He has no heart beat and his lungs sound filled with fluid. His belly is soft with an enlarged liver.

Gary takes over chest compressions as Hortance hands me the D5W attached to some IV tubing which I quickly insert under the skin of his stomach for a subcutaneous perfusion of glucose in case his blood sugar is low.

"Give him half an ampoule of IV furosemide IM.

Augustin is patiently searching for an IV on Caleb's small, white hands and arms. Sarah arrives with the pulse oximeter. We continue chest compressions. The O2 sat is 15%. I have Gary start rescue breathing again. The pulse ox stops working.

"Sarah, get some Adrenaline and Atropine from the OR!"

Still no IV.

"Koumabas, get me a blue IV catheter and a 5cc seringe!"

I keep doing compressions while Gary does two rescue breaths every 10 cardiac compressions.

Wendy has come back with an epi-pen and accidentally sticks her thumb with it instead of Caleb's leg.

Sarah gives Adrenaline and Atropine intramuscularly.

I listen and detect a faint, slow heart beat.

We continue CPR.

"Wendy, find me one of those small red, urine catheters in the OR so we can empty his bladder!"

Koumabas gives me the IV catheter with which I miraculously find his right femoral vein on the first try despite feeling no pulse and am able to thread the catheter in. I attach the IV glucose bottle and let it run in.

Meanwhile Mathieu has arrived and now has the results: hemoglobin a little low and blood sugar extremely low.

Wendy returns with the foley and Augustin drains Caleb's bladder. Calebs lungs are clearer. He still has a faint heartbeat.

"Sarah, inject the Adrenaline as rapidly as you can....now!" I quickly pump Caleb's heart has fast as I can with my external compressions to get the medicine to his heart.

"Sarah, take over chest compressions, I'm going to find some Magnesium in my office!"

The magnesium goes in the IV fluids and slowly trickles in.
Gary still does rescue breathing. Wendy offers to take over but Gary wants to keep going.

"Mathieu, can we do a Potassium?"

"Oui!"

I draw a milliliter of dark blood from Caleb's femoral vein and Mathieu hurries off to the lab.

CPR continues. We've been going for 40 minutes.

I listen to Caleb's chest. No heartbeat.

We continue CPR.

"Sarah, more atropine."

Gary speaks up after his 2 rescue breaths. "Should we stop?"

"Let's go just a little more."

Atropine is in. We continue CPR 5 more minutes.

I listen to Caleb's heart...

Nothing.

We stop.

Gary and Wendy collapse weeping into each others arms as sobs explode from within my chest. I grab Gary from the side my arm draped across his neck. Sarah is on the other side hugging Wendy.

Gary solemnly wraps up the still, little body.

"Do you want to use the van? We can drive you back home."

Gary turns to Wendy, "No, let's just put him between us on the motorcycle and go home."

"Anything we can do?"

"No, we just want some alone time. Then in the afternoon we'll have a service." The trudge out to the motorcycle, the quiet bundle in Gary's arms.

Tears streaming down my face I walk slowly back home thinking back to September 3, 2001 when I also found myself stopping CPR on someone I loved and sadly giving them up temporarily into God's hands. Just like then when I told my twin brother, "I know where you'll be...I just better make sure I'm there as well," I think the same thing about little Caleb and can't wait to see him again, maybe even by my brother David's side, when things are finally finished down here.

But, meanwhile, I'm back home sobbing like a baby. Sarah walks in and kneels down in front of me. We embrace and cry together. Outside, the wind is blowing, whipping up a storm. It starts to rain. God is crying too.

SWEAT

From James:

I'm trying not to move. The feel of sweat trickling slowly down my face is not as bad as feeling the stickiness of my back against the cheap mattress. Crickets and other night insect sounds are the only relief from the otherwise oppressive heaviness of the still, hot Chadian night. I am lying down on Gary's porch listening to the Pineapple Story on Gary's MP3 player. Trixie, Caroline and Stefan are there along with Wendy, Jeremy and Annie. It's a boring Saturday night in the bush and we've just polished off the popcorn that Gary somehow thought would be better with left-over pesto sauce.

Gary's phone rings.

"It's for you!" Gary hands me the phone.

Jacques is on the other end. "We have an open tibia fracture that just came in."

I drag myself out of the pool of sweat that has gathered underneath my half-naked body and pull on my shirt. Stepping outside I feel a slight change in temperature from about 110 degrees Fahrenheit to about 100. I slip on my Tampa Bay Buccaneer Crocs and swing into the saddle. Sarah's in N'Djamena welcoming Dr. Bond and his team back to Chad so I'm riding Pepper, aka Mini Seabiscuit.

It's pitch black, no moon and while the stars are brilliant they only give a vague outline of trees and shacks from time to time. Pepper likes going home as quickly as possible and I can feel his muscles tense in expectation under my thigh as he stamps and snorts while I wait for Trixie who's riding Bob.

A slight release on the reins and Pepper starts out at a fast walk which quickly turns into a fast trot. Up and down, up and down I keep in rhythm with my fast little pony's cadence. Suddenly, things smooth out and the wind kicks into my face as Pepper leaps out into a gallop. Unknown dark shadows are hurtling by right and left. The road is windy and while Pepper somehow knows the path I can't anticipate in order to keep my balance. I'm hanging on by a thread when he suddenly turns left. My right foot pops out of the stirrup but I manage to stay on and with a quick pull Pepper comes to a stop. Sarah has trained him well and I'm grateful as I'd have certainly fallen off if I hadn't been able to stop quickly.

Feet back in the stirrup and we're off again on our mad dash to the hospital. The 2-3 kilometers whirr by in a matter of minutes as we pull up to the front gate. Lazare runs up to open up, I unsaddle at the stable and rush home to change into scrubs.

In the ER, a light-skinned Fulani man sits with his left lower leg twisted and contorted in a pool of blood draped with a dirty cloth. We hurry him off to surgery as Samedi calls Simeon and Abel.

Washed, scrubbed, prepped with Betadine, draped with sterile towels and anesthetized with Ketamine (aka Vitamin K or Special K for you US druggies) the leg still looks bad under the glowing overhead lights. We pray and I take a 10 blade scalpel and enlarge the wound inferiorly down the middle of his shin to expose the fracture. It's a clean, 45 degree angle brake. I wash, scrub and irrigate with liters of Dakins and normal saline. I put the bone back in place and have Abel reach under the drape and hold it in place while I suture up the wound leaving just the most superior part of the original cut open.

Breaking scrub but leaving one hand sterile, I grab a cordless drill and insert a threaded Steinmann pin. I slice open a tiny hole and start to drill the pin into the lower tibia. The drill runs out of power, it hasn't been charged.

Now what? I call for some hand drills, they finish the job on the lower pin but I can't get the two upper pins started. I completely scrub out and walk home. I find another drill with a cord, saw off a couple pieces of old PVC pipe, wash the mud out of the center of the pipes and come back to the OR. I put sterile gloves back on and drill in the last two pins. Then I make sure the bone is still aligned and drill holes through the PVC pipe so the pins can be hammered through holding the bone in position.

As I'm finishing, Simeon tells me that he thinks his jaw is broken. Sure enough, his mandible has at least two fractures leaving the front part of his lower teeth completely mobile. I search for and finally find some 4-0 steel sutures. I twist tie one of them around the tooth on the posterior side of the right sided fracture and another one on the anterior side. Then I have Jacques push the jaw into position while I twist the two ends together to bring the two teeth (along with the mandible) back together. I do the same for the left fracture. It's still unstable. I then do two more teeth on each side of the fracture and the corresponding teeth on the upper jaw and wire those together so his mouth is completely wired shut with his teeth coming together in a functional position.

It's then I notice that my shirt, pants, surgical cap and hair is all soaked despite the courageous efforts of the small AC unit. I take a few bried moments of pure heaven with my faced almost pressed against the cold air coming out of the AC before going home to my own personal pool of sweat.