The Cancer Train

For those who have been following along this past month or so, you'll know that my dad was diagnosed with cancer in mid-October.  He has stage four lymphoma, and there is a fist-size tumor wrapped around his bronchial tubes in one lung, cutting off his air on that side.  After spending a month in the hospital at Mayo (a Providential occurrence if ever there was one), he was finally discharged last week.  He's completed one round of chemotherapy and is due to start the next one today.  We are so grateful for the excellent medical team around him and for all the support and care we've all received.  

The first round of chemo started the process of breaking up the tumor, and he is off continuous oxygen now, although he remains extremely thin and weak.  My mom has been staying at a nearby hotel this whole time, and they are there together now while he completes this next round and stays for a few days to make sure there are no complications as there were last time.  

They hope to return home to Missouri at the end of this week.  He will have a total of six rounds, spaced roughly three weeks apart, and while he plans to return to Mayo for the next round of chemo in December, barring the weather, his medical team will continue to direct his care from afar, another great blessing.

My dad is semi-retired from a 45 year career as a pharmacist, and was working per diem at the psychiatric hospital where was he had been head of pharmacy when all this happened.  It is unclear whether he will be able to resume part time work any time soon, and there are substantial medical bills that will come due in the coming months.  My sister set up a GoFundMe account for my parents; I know these are difficult financial times for everyone, and the holidays are approaching, but we'd be most grateful for any assistance.  

And as long as I'm talking about my dad, I should show the shirt and quilt I made for his birthday in September.  He is often hot in the summertime, and I fixed a lightweight camp-style shirt he loves when I visited in July, but the fabric was really on its last legs.  And more importantly, my mother does not like the pattern on the shirt.

I decided to make him another shirt in the same style, out of handkerchief weight linen in a lovely pale minty green (called Meadow on the fabrics-store.com website).  I used Simplicity 9157 for the pattern, and found it mostly fine.  The packet I was able to find started at size 44, which was slightly bigger than I needed, so I graded to a 42, but otherwise made no changes.  (Although my dad has lost so much weight in the past month and a half, I'll probably need to alter it for him before next summer).  

My only complaint about the pattern is that the back of the collar is finished a little bit less neatly than I would have liked.  I've made this type of collar before, and there is more than one way to finish the edges.  

This one has you tack the front facings to the shoulder seams, and turn the inside edge of the back collar under and stitch in the ditch to secure. I tried to draft a back collar facing instead, but it just didn't lay nicely, so I gave up and finished according to the packet directions.  

I did flat-felled seams throughout, to mimic ready-to-wear, and used up the last little bit of lightweight fusible interfacing I had on hand for the button bands.  I had to piece the fusing significantly to make it work, but I was on a deadline and didn't have time to wait for additional interfacing to arrive.  

The buttons are vintage from my stash, and were the ones that looked the best.  I like the contrast.

The quilt is just a simple panel quilt with a fishing theme, done in free-hand stitching on my machine.  I noticed a note from my gram in the manual about using the darning foot/setting for free hand quilting, which I never would have thought to do, so thank you Grandma!  (I have her machine, and the manual is full of her notes and stitch swatches--so handy!)  

It was the first time I used that feature on my machine, so I was trying to learn control with the stitching, but the end result looks like tangled fishing line, which I quite like, and fits the theme.  More importantly, my dad liked it, and that is what counts!

Gofundme here.