Back to Basics

I know that many knitters have thought, "I must be losing my mind!" after making a really basic and stupid mistake on a work in progress, or when unable to decipher a complicated knitting instruction. I vow never to use that phrase again--after my experience last weekend. Stay with me.

I had a routine colonoscopy scheduled last Friday morning. I came home from the procedure tired, and took a nap. My husband tells me that I then complained of a splitting headache and I fell to the floor vomiting. He soon realized that I could not remember having the procedure, having two daughters, living in Barcelona, visiting Barcelona this summer, etc., etc. He called our clinic which recommended calling 911. I was in the local ER for 9 hours, undergoing many tests including a CAT scan to make sure I had not suffered a stroke. What was clear was that I could not remember anything about my life, my recent past or my distant past. I knew my husband, but that was all. I did not know why I was in the ER. I vacillated between sobbing, sleeping and total confusion.

I went from the ER to a hospital room where I spent 2 days, gradually recovering pieces of my memory. My memory was triggered by photo images. That is, while sleeping I would remember a photo I had taken this summer and when awakening, I would ask my husband about the photo. For example, I recalled a photo of my 30 year old daughter that I took this summer during our family reunion; she was on a pontoon boat. After I described this photo, my husband explained that this was during the family reunion.

While in the hospital, my husband brought my current sock project, shown in my previous post. Although I could not remember where I was in the pattern, and I could not muster sufficient brain power to figure it out, I clutched my knitting as a tenuous but tangible link to my identity and my past.

I now remember almost everything and can fill in the missing pieces with help from family and friends. I also have very poor short term memory. But, I am making progress.

Thus, the short row wash cloth. I needed a short and easy project to reconnect with knitting.

The flower is from my trip to Seattle at the end of August, which I am starting to remember.

The rainbow, also from Seattle, is hope for future.