Afghan #50 and More Botox

I completed another afghan today (and got another round of botox shots in my arm.) This pattern is Julee Fort's Down in the Valley pattern from Ravelry. I started on this afghan as a way to use up yellow yard. I intended to use darker and darker yellow until I got to the gold yarn I had left over from this afghan, but Mom disagreed. She suggested using the gray and navy yarns around the edges of the blanket, and I am so thankful for her input. I really like the color combination!

Honestly, I didn't enjoy the last few rounds of this afghan. It is not that crocheting hurts my hand, but that using my hand irritates me at an underlying level. The last two rounds of this afghan took an hour, too, which tried my patience. The satisfaction of the finished product is worth the pains of irritation and impatience, however.

As for my hand, it is not as bad as it was, but was regressing into the dystonic positions. I started to find my thumb folded into my hand, my pinkie wrapped under my ringer finger, and my hand making a fist. My original doctor left the neurology practice, so today's round of botox was over a month late. (Thankfully the other doctor took me on as a patient.) This doctor injected slightly different muscles, and used less serum. Hopefully this new injection method will promote healing in my brain-body connections while still affording me the strength needed to grip milk cartons, open doors, shift my car, etc. We'll see.