Happy 2020!

Happy New Year and Decade!

What a year 2019 was, oh my. It has come to be known as the Year of the Hernia.

In February I was struck with an unexpected strangulated inguinal hernia and was taken to the ER. It was excruciatingly painful. A strangulated hernia is where your intestine pops out of a hole in your body cavity, then the hole closes, and the intestine is squeezed and begins to swell. To correct the problem my surgeon had to split me open wide, cutting through my stomach muscles, pulling my intestines back into where they belong. Leaving behind two scars. One tiny, and the other an 8" long keloid beast.

Having hernia surgery means you cannot lift anything heavy for a long time afterwards. I could barely lift a full coffee pot, let alone any of my sewing machines. Plus at the beginning I wasn't comfortable in a seated position, and had to spend the recovery time lying down.

The monster scar kept bothering me. It continued to hurt. In October I went back to the surgeon because of the pain and he discovered that the suture knot had turned over, leaving the two sharp ends pointing up and into my skin from the inside. It would hurt when a zipper, tight waistband elastic, or a heavy jean button would rub against it. So I had to go back under the knife and have my sutures redone. Upon waking from surgery the doctor told me he had cut my big scar back and resewed it smaller to minimize the keloid build up. Yeah, free cosmetic surgery with your second hernia surgery!

So the focus of sewing for the new year will be to build a new casual wardrobe. I will create some pants, shorts, and skirts that will be designed to be comfortable and not irritate my scar. In this case, very low rise. And as it turns out, there are lots of maternity patterns out there with a super low rise. So I got that goin' for me, lol.