Saturday, August 30, 2025

Hello, darling people,

It's catch-up time! It's hard to believe, but I am already (almost) 7 weeks post-op from my knee replacement surgery. I have had a few bumps in the road, severe reaction to pain meds and a feeble attempt to get by on Tylenol and Celebrex as well as some overzealous home PT on my part, but I am healing well in spite of myself. 😁 This was my first major surgery, so it's been a lifestyle adjustment...What do you mean I'm supposed to rest?!? All they did was disconnect my muscles, remove a bunch of arthritic bone, hammer in a new joint, and reconnect everything! And did you know that PT actually stands for Paid Torture? 🙈 It turns out all of that is rather exhausting. Who knew? I had a long list of projects to keep me busy while in recovery, most of which I have only recently started working on. I did manage to knit a batch of baby hats, and I've started my 2nd baby blanket. I'm still dealing with (normal and expected) swelling and such, but it is a massive relief to actually be pain free most of the time now, which I have not experienced in at least 2 years. Gotta love modern medicine! 

I now refer to my left knee as "Frankie", short for Frankenknee.

On a more exciting note, I have booked by next trip back to Uganda! Booking my flights has been a lot more complicated lately, thanks to the chaos and turmoil of our government. I will be traveling via Europe as much as possible, avoiding any countries with active US military bases, which means a lot more changing planes. I will fly out of Seattle on September 29, spend an overnight in Amsterdam, a quick stop in Rwanda, then on to Entebbe. My return trip will have me switch planes in Nairobi, then Paris, and back to Seattle on November 4th.  

I have started thinking about supplies and packing, which is also a challenge because Delta wants to charge me $230 per additional bag over 2 checked bags, and I already have 2 duffle bags filled with towels and yarn. Yikes. 

I plan on bringing 5 more knitting kits, baby hats and blankets, and I have also started collecting some gifts I would like to give to the midwives and other women who work at the birth center full time. They are always so appreciative of the supplies I bring them, but it's nice to give them something that is useful AND pretty. I have been collecting bright, colorful lightweight scarves and pashminas, large enough to be used as a shawl. As usual, many of you have offered to help with supplies (I'm incredibly grateful!). If you happen to have any that you are no longer using, or are a serial thrifter like myself, you can mail them to me, or I can pick them up if you are local. Just reach out to me if you have any questions. My email address is joahsarc@hotmail.com and please remember to put an identifier (Uganda supplies, baby hats, etc...) in the subject line in case your email goes to my spam folder. My mailing address is located at the bottom of the cover page email you receive if you are a subscriber to this blog.

Some of the scarves I have been collecting for gifts.

 The ladies have been sharing progress photos of their knitting and are very excited to get more supplies! I still have a great deal of yarn, and more on the way from my knitting friends, so I am good there. I do still need a couple of US 8 fixed circular needles in 16" and 24", or a gift card to the Ben Franklin in Redmond will help me buy any additional items. 

Zilla has been cranking out hats since I've left!

The birth center is always in need of reusable adjustable cloth diapers (photo below). The adjustability allows them to be used from newborn to toddler age. There are a number of sellers on Etsy who make them, and I'm sure they can be found on Amazon or Ebay as well. Again, you can have them shipped to me or I can pick them up.

These are only suggestions if you are interested and able to help, and in no way meant to pressure you. 😊 

For those of you who are local, next Thursday I will be giving a presentation at the Trilogy Clubhouse. I hope that you will consider coming and please introduce yourself if I haven't had the opportunity to meet you in person yet. I also hope you will spread the word and drag along a friend or two!

As always, if you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, you can do so directly to Mother Health International . The second step of the donation process allows you to comment if you would like your donation to go to something specific and at the moment, we are trying to raise funds to replace an ambulance that is on its last leg, but you can also designate your donation to ultrasound supplies or something else. 

I'm going to sign off now! I will check in again before I leave, of course, and I will leave you with some recent photos I have taken in the beautiful PNW. Thank you so much to all of you who have been in touch during my surgery and recovery. 💝 

Much love, MB/Jo