Where have I been?

 It's a long story but, in short, after being diagnosed with Crohn's Disease over 40 years ago, I finally had to have an ileostomy on April 13.  If you don't know what that is--and many people don't--Google it.  I won't go into the gory details here. 😒 Before I had the surgery I had agreed to make up some samples of Madame Gres designs for Sandra Stillwell's Peaches and Panache event in June because the lady at her factory in Korea who usually does it was off....having surgery.  I got two prototypes done before April 13. 

 

My mistake was thinking that I would bounce right back like I did after my last three surgeries, forgetting that I was a lot younger then.  I ended up being readmitted to the hospital a week after my first discharge due to dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and kidneys not working right. After I got out again, my blood pressure was still too low and my heart rate too high so my doctor and I agreed that I needed in home IV hydration.  After her nurse spent hours on the phone unsuccessfully trying to find someone to do it, I had to take matters into my own hands and hire a private company, Mid-Michigan RevIVe and Restore, paying for it out of my pocket.  They were wonderful.  After eight days I was feeling better.  Then someone brought me a stomach flu bug.  After a day and night of vomiting and diarrhea, I was back to square one.  R&R came to the rescue again and kept me out of the hospital again.  Five more days of IVs followed.  But when I subtract what it would have cost me to board my dogs, the cost seems much less painful.  So it took a couple of months for my blood pressure to get over 100 and my heart rate to get under 100.  But I still had to get those two samples made from Sandra's fabrics in time for the convention.  I was only able to manage a couple of hours a day at the sewing machine but I completed these in the nick of time.  

 Sandra liked the green prototype of the dress so she bought that one.  I still have the red velvet coat if anyone is interested.  There were some changes made to it for the final version.  I won't be reproducing any of these.  If they are available, they will be listed on Sandra's website.  These are the photos of the Madame Gres originals.  Did I get close?