I'm Back!!!

Oh my friends, my wonderful crafty friends, how I have missed you all!  I am so happy to see that most of you are still following me and I thank you deeply for that.  I apologize for going on hiatus with absolutely no notice or reason.  To be honest, I wasn't expecting it myself!

Since all of you here know about my condition, I feel no reason to hide why I've been gone... I've been struggling.  Struggling with the fibro, the lack of relief from the pain, the depression that goes along with it, the extreme exhaustion, and especially the weight gain that goes along with the use of painkillers.  I am also going through addiction.  Let me just say, when you have a chronic pain condition it is IMPOSSIBLE not to get addicted to the pain meds.  I am proud to say, I am almost off of Oxycodone, which was a major addiction for me and I didn't even realize it until I would wake up in the morning with the shakes and the sweats and couldn't even move until I had some in me.  Now, don't get me wrong...I am still on pain meds and probably will have to be unless by some miracle, my fibromyalgia goes away, but I am trying so hard to work through it with less addictive (at least in my opinion) medications.

To boot, I now have possibly another chronic condition Interstitial Cystitis, which is beyond annoying!  I don't know if you all know what that is, but for those of you that don't, it is a chronic condition in which your bladder is constantly irritated.  Basically it feels like you have a UTI, but you can't get rid of it!  I have what feels like pressure on my bladder all the time and OMG, it's extremely frustrating!  This is new... Just started about three weeks ago and I have yet to see a urologist, but my doc says there's a good chance this is what it is and for those of you with fibro, you likely know that once you have fibro, a whole onslaught of other chronic conditions may arise or go hand in hand with it.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!  Yes, I feel like screaming most of the time!

Ok, and one more complaint or rather, update... Pain meds (opiates) can ruin your teeth!!! I had no idea about all of these horrible side effects before I started taking it.  As far as the weight gain, within two years of being on opiates most people will double their weight!!!  and I did! and the fact that it's like using methamphetamine or heroin.  It will rot your teeth.  I have always had strong, albeit crooked, ;) teeth, but now they are starting to decay!  I couldn't believe it when I went to the dentist.  He's like "You must eat a lot of sweets" and I'm like "No, actually, I don't, why?"  and then I said I'm on pretty heavy duty medications and he told me that they are affecting my teeth.  Amazing that no doctors told me this before getting on it right?

So that, in a nutshell, is what's going on in my life and why I've been absent for so long.  I haven't done much crafting but I did get a custom order from a friend for a baby shower so I will share with you, that creation!

First off, I started with the cutest SVG file from Paper Piecings by Nikki (you may remember I was on Nikki's DT for quite a while).  I was so excited to see she had exactly what I was looking for!!! How cute is this cut???

The paper is DCWV Lemon Berry stack (I think that's what it's called), the sentiment is from Crafty Sprouts and I punched the ticket shape from an EK Success punch.  I used some pop dots to pop up the silhouette and the sentiment (inside) and that super cute silver/clear ribbon is from Flourishes.  I inked the edges with a Cat's Eye brown ink and used my ATG for the glue.  I also added some Stickles Pearls to the dress to make it a little fancier. ;)

There you have it!  My first project in ages and I sure hope you enjoyed it!  It's good to be back and it would mean sooooo much if you would leave your comments.  I would love to catch up with everyone!

XO ~ Amy Jo