Joshua is making slow but steady progress. On Wednesday, he got out of bed for the first time in 9 days and into a wheelchair for a 20 minute “tour” of the Pediatric floor. It took 45 minutes to get from bed to chair. On Thursday, it only took 15 minutes to make the transfer, and he sat up (too long!) three hours…about 90 minutes playing video games, then two friends came and he was up nearly another 90 minutes. That had him wiped out for the day, but he did it, and with much less pain. Hoooray! The peds ward has some totally cool murals. Here is Joshua in the SUNNY (and on this day warm…it was 90+ degrees outside and not a cloud in sight except on the walls) atrium and look at the cool clouds and the critters in the clouds:

That was Joshua’s IV pole, nurses, and Joshua in the wheelchair under the clouds mural in the photo above. Here is the other cloud mural and several of the smaller pictures scattered around the floor:

Here’s the doorway to Joshua’s room, each doorway has a different “something” painted above or next to it:

The last one, of course, is because we are in Boston Celtics territory, The Eastern Maine Medical Center is in Bangor, Maine, where Stephen King lives (well, he has a couple of houses but he’s a Mainer forever, and now owner of the Red Sox). Anyway, we root for the Sea Dogs (the Red Sox minor league team out of Portland) and the Boston teams and, as the saying goes, whoever beats the Yankees.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a quilty post with some good news!

Here’s a press release I sent out for our group show this August. Thought I’d insert a little quilty content into the medical reports. Joshua continues to improve, albeit slowly. He had another unit of blood today to combat the anemia, but he is getting stronger every day. Today he ate more than he has, tho not enough. One day at a time. And thanks again for ALL the many good wishes.

The Frayed Edges will have a show of textile and mixed media art at the Jean Picker Room of the Camden Public Library from August 2 through 29, located at Main Street and Atlantic Avenue in downtown Camden, Maine. Meet the artists at a reception on Saturday, August 11th, from 1 to 4 pm, in the Picker Room. For library hours and directions, visit the library website here .

The show will feature a selection of works on the theme of “Home,” a collaborative piece entitled “Five Artists-Five Views”, and selected other works. For the collaborative piece, each artist contributed a photo, then all five artists made a small piece based on that photograph. The resulting twenty-five small works are displayed in a unified grid. This piece illustrates for the viewer how each artist’s style reveals itself through five different interpretations, and how differently each person can “see” a single photo. Here’s the poster Deborah did up for us:

The Frayed Edges are a group of five women who live (or lived) in Maine and met through Art Quilts Maine, a part of the statewide Pine Tree Quilt Guild (www.mainequilts.org): Hannah Beattie of Brunswick, Deborah Boschert of Dallas, Texas (formerly of Topsham), Kate Cutko of Bowdoinham, Kathy Daniels of China Village, and Sarah Ann Smith of Camden. They are professional artists who sell their work from their websites, have won awards and been juried into national level shows, have been published as a group in the top art quilting magazine, Quilting Arts, and have projects in the forthcoming Quilting with Beads by Lark Books.

Some of the work in this show is available for purchase; please contact the artists directly. For questions, please contact Sarah at sarah@sarahannsmith.com .

The quilty portion of today’s blog is that I finally began the introduction (which often gets written after the rest of book, as in this case since most of it is in first or second draft) to my book on thread on the drive home from the hospital (it is 60 miles each way, and instead of pouring it was glorious summer in Maine) and it is coming clear in my mind! So when I can finally re-focus on work, I will have a bit of a head start. Believe it or not, the quotes I plan to use are from Twyla Tharp and Stephen King…how’s that for eclectic?

Joshua is making progress; as usual, it is several steps forward, one back, repeat process. Yesterday he ended up having to have the blood transfusion. His hematocrit and hemoglobin levels were SO low that he was in the critical range. We were talking to the nurse about it today and she said she’d think long and hard about giving her kid a transfusion, too, but with levels as low as Joshua’s had become, there wasn’t even a question. It was a “DO IT”. So that helps. He did improve quite a bit…not so pale or groggy. Here’s the poor kid at the end of the second unit of blood:

This morning he had his FOURTH surgery in six days! The first, Monday, was to stabilize the leg. The second, Wednesday, was to set everything. Friday and today were to change the dressins and clean the incisions (hope that last link in the previous post didn’t freak anyone out! even my normally unflappable hubby who has assisted in veterinary surgery said “oh that was gross!”). Today they were able to put a few sutures at the ends of the long incisions, and hope to be able to close them if the swelling goes down enough on Tuesday. I guess once that happens, he will get to stand up and try to get mobile. Plus, today they changed the pain meds (for those who know more than I, from Fentenol to Dilaudid, and that seems to have helped a ton….apparently he ate a LOT of supper…hoooray!). Maybe home over next weekend????

Then, Paul will reschedule his rotator cuff surgery!!!!!

Well, just a quick note and alas no pictures, but I am THRILLED to say that I will be teaching in two wonderful venues next year! I have been invited to teach at Salon 2008, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 22 to 25. The show is sponsored by Courtepointe Quebec Quilts. I will be teaching in English, but my rusty French may be revived and expanded to include quilting terms!

AND I just learned that I will be teaching at the Images Quilt show / Quilt Festival in Lowell, Massachusetts next year August 7-10. WOOHOOO!

Will return in a couple of days with a Joshua update, and hope that life returns to a semblance of normalcy in a week or two (at which point hubby Paul will go in for his delayed rotator cuff surgery, which was to have been the day after Joshua’s accident). Oh joy…two male patients in the house LOL! Wonder if Doritos would help? for them…I’ll take the pina coladas…..

The outpouring of caring, friendship, concern, prayers, white light and good thoughts is amazing, sustaining and just plain wonderful…thank you, thank you all!

Joshua has, as of Friday evening, had three surgeries in one week! The first, right after the accident, was to stabilize the breaks until he was stable enough for the long “fix it” surgery. That one began at 1 pm Wednesday and lasted SEVEN hours! They placed a rod in his femur, and external fixator (tinker toy on the outside) of his shin / calf, and had to do two fasciotomies (sp?) which are long incisions on either side of his calf. These were to allow the wounded muscles to swell without killing muscle tissue (from the constriction that would have happened if squoze by the skin)…had they not made these incisions, he could very likely have had gangrene and lost his leg—shudder! (here’s a link, but I warn you the photo is not for the squeamish).

On Friday, he went in for “maintenance” surgery; basically, cleaning the wounds and changing the dressings is so painful, they do it under a general anesthetic. They were hoping to close one of the fasciotomies, but as I type I’m not sure what the results were as I am home with Eli and the animals, and Paul is with Joshua in post-op recovery (last minute note: swelling still too much to close up, so maybe Sunday). The only bad news is that Joshua had to have a transfusion because of serious anemia; I REALLY don’t like the idea of a transfusion in an AIDS world, but not to have one would have been worse. Erg. (Last minute update…hoooray! They didn’t do it after all… I will donate a unit tomorrow as we have the same blood type…hope he won’t need it, adn they can then put it into the general blood bank!)  Best of all NO signs of any infections…hallelujah!

Anyway, Joshua has been an amazing trooper, getting through the pain (the changing of sheets and bathing today was the only thing that has brought me to total tears), being polite to all the staff no matter how much he hurts. He makes me incredibly proud of him–even more than I already was, if that’s possible! Eli, too, has been a trooper through all the disruption, and our friends and neighbors and parents of his friends have been phenomenally supportive and helpful; just knowing they are there in case we need them to take Eli for an evening or a night is the most amazing help–even if we never need to take them up on the offer. Another blessing!

Now I need to go deal with the house. And oh yeah…amidst all of this today, my cell phone croaked! So an emergency replacement will arrive tomorrow…so I have to stay home and WAIT for it before returning to the hospital. AAAARGH. At least Verizon was understanding and cooperative and helpful, and tolerant of my crankiness (for which I apologized in advance, explaining I was ultra-stressed and why). Paul and I are both holding up well. As I said before…the fact that Joshua is alive makes these incredibly serious fractures and some complications seem minor in comparison. Blessed again.

I think there are many more angels out there than I ever realized.