Moving to Miami

I will probably move to Miami, FL because there's a hospital there that make the bariatric surgery with Medicare. I got tire of waiting here in PR and at last they told me that my dr is not yet affiliated to Medicare, so they won't make any surgery with Medicare yet. But they don't have an idea of when this could be possible. So I started looking on the net for drs. and found severals. Up to now I got an answer from the Miami HOPE Center and I think I'll start the process with them. Now to find apartment into my money range. That's another story. *sigh*

I signed with BeautiControl a few months ago and though I made it for personal use I think I can make some money selling the products. This will help GREATLY into the moving to Miami. So if you can lend me a few minutes and check my page I'll appreciate!

http://www.beautipage.com/wallysosa/

Tatting on Car

I haven't been around a lot because of the pains I have been suffering for almost 2 months. But thanks God and my dr the pain are less and I was able to go out with my family just to drive around the interior of the island. I think we drove like 2 hours without stopping and I started to get bore because I didn't bring with me my tatting bag. So I took some curly ribbons from a gift someone made to my sister Letty and I started finger-tatting a very simple heart.















But what would I do to help with the joining? I asked mom if she had a toothpiker and she found one and it worked like a charm! I was able to make the joins.
















Here is the finished heart. Tatting with curly ribbon is interesting but I don't like how the picots look like and it was difficult to manage the tension of the stitches. But anyway I spend a few minutes without boreness. :-)

APS Awareness Day

I know that this is not about tatting but as a SLE (Lupus) patient and now possible APS patient I think is good to raise awareness about these almost unknown diseases that don't have a cure.

What is Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome (APS)? APS is associated with recurrent clotting events (thrombosis) including premature stroke, repeated miscarriages, phlebitis, venous thrombosis (clot in the vein) and pulmonary thromboembolism (blockage of an artery found in the lung due to a clot that has traveled from a vein). It is also associated with low platelet or blood elements that prevent bleeding. Recently, however, even more disease states have been linked with APL including premature heart attack, migraine headaches, various cardiac valvular abnormalities, skin lesions, abnormal movement/chorea, diseases that mimic multiple sclerosis, vascular diseases of the eye that can lead to visual loss and blindness.

APS is an autoimmune disorder in which the body recognizes certain normal components of blood and/or cell membranes as foreign substances and produces antibodies against them. There are two known forms of APS. APS may occur in people with systemic lupus erythematosus, other autoimmune disease, or in otherwise healthy individuals. Sadly, when most people hear about APS and it being referred to as autoimmune disease, they incorrectly confuse the terms autoimmune with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS); or they think this is a form of cancer.

Women are more likely than men to be affected by APS. Some estimates say that 75% to 90% of those affected are women. For example, it has been estimated by some doctors that one third of all of young strokes (defined as under the age of 50) are due to APS.

In obstetrics it is estimated by some doctors that up to 25% of all women with 2 or more spontaneous miscarriages have APS. Some doctors believe that 1 in 5 of all Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), Pulmonary Embolism (PE), and even worse, amputations are due to APS. And it is believed that 40-50% of patients with Lupus also have APS. Still, with these statistics, APS rarely is discussed as a women’s health issue and is misdiagnosed often. Therefore the total number of people affected and true statistics are unknown really.

APS is also referred to as APLS or APLA in the United States and Hughes Syndrome or Sticky Blood in the UK.