A year??? It's been A YEAR???

:::Peeks out from under the covers to see if anyone still remembers me:::

A year of blogging absence - I suppose a bit of an explanation is in order.

I have been sewing - a bit, not as much as I would like - but mostly I've been resting, sleeping, talking to doctors, and healing after the shock of some health news sent me on a life-shifting journey.

The Story:  35 years ago - back in the dark ages - I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C (then called non-A non-B, since it was still such a new discovery).   There was no cure, until some years later when a horrible combination of shots and drugs was offered, which killed some people, made others miserable, and cured a small percentage.   Since I was firmly ensconced in "alternative" healing methods and healthy life practices by then, I didn't give the pharmaceutical option a second thought!

Fast forward to January of last year.  I was feeling flat out sick, and nothing I was trying helped.   I finally sought Western medical help, and after being poked and prodded and interviewed and scanned by numerous docs, I was given the news that I would be needing a liver transplant.

Time for research, research, research!!!   Find people who've been there, done that.  Scour the web.   Find support groups.   (There are, by the way, a LOT of support groups for people with HepC - it now kills more people annually than AIDS does, but there ARE cures now....so please, get tested!!!)  The good news is that, right around the same time I started feeling so sick, the new drugs with a hugely successful cure rate were starting to be approved!   More (good news!) about that to come...

Meanwhile, exhaustion forced me into early retirement and the finances dwindled, but my fabulous friends, along with years of spiritual practices and various healing modalities gave me everything I needed to maintain an Attitude of Gratitude.   That gratefulness, and the joy of being alive (admittedly with an occasional relapse into the land of "I can't TAKE it anymore!!  Stop the world and just let me OFF!!!"),  keeps me going and lets me know everything will, indeed, be fine.  Better than fine!

Above all, Gratitude.  And laughter.  And lightheartedness.   And not taking any of this toooo seriously.  And friends and supporters.   And silliness.  Did I mention laughter?  That's the one thing that can always lift me when I start to choose a dark path (and those paths are there...along with the choice to take it, or not!)

It hasn't been easy writing this post - or rather, finding the time and energy and courage to write it. I'm just pounding it out right now, so that I can re-enter this fabulous blogging world and finally get some sewing posts up!    And writing this wasn't even CLOSE to being as challenging as agreeing to set up this:

You Caring Site

I was fairly quiet about all of this for some time, except for all of my fabulous friends.   Agreeing to the You Caring fundraiser, then having the word spread through social media and blogs (thank you shams!)  showed me, once again,  that learning how to ask for help as well as being willing to receive it is a blessing of community that there are no words for!    More tears.   Of gratitude.

About those miracle drugs mentioned above - I was able to take them for a 12 week period, and after 35 long years,  my body is now cleared of the HepC virus!!!!   This is incredible - such great news, and such a shift, that I still haven't fully absorbed it!

This means I've been starting to feel better and have more energy, which means I'm playing the catch-up game with all of the neglected aspects of my life, including sewing and blogging!

Thanks to everyone for reading through this non-sewing post - I've so missed you all!   I have a number of projects to post about - taking photos has seemed like way too much effort for some time, but I'm ready for it now, so look out blogging world, I'M BACK!