Greetings to all my readers! Thanks for all your positive and uplifting comments this past year and especially in October! I really do appreciate it. Now that I am working, I am busy and think of the blog often, but don’t write that much. I can tell when I don’t, I miss it!
I have been busy gathering fabric for a group that has volunteered to make Pretty Pockets for surgery patients, and busier yet finding and talking with people at the various hospitals so we can distribute these free to what started out to be breast cancer, but now has expanded to any kind of surgery that requires a ‘drain tube’ after surgery. These drain tubes were the worst thing about having breast cancer I thought. They consist of a six inch tubing that is inside your body, and a long 18 inch tube that hangs out. The tube is secured in your body by stitches!! Its very painful when these drain tubes fill and the weight drags the tube down.
I didn’t find out about this pretty little flannel pockets until two years after my experience with drain tubes. They are a wonderful little flannel pocket that pins or clips to clothes. There are problems with clips coming undone, so I recommend the old fashioned pin, which does not open and accidentally drop the tube.
The problem I experienced, which I am sure all surgery survivors do, is when you take a shower! Nobody had come up with anything for this. And its terrible to try and balance two drain tubes and take a shower in water. Everything gets slippery.
So my goal this fall has been to come up with a waterproof pocket/s that can be worn around your neck yet still holds the pocket waterproof in place, while you shower. Bathing in a tub is totally out during this time, but a shower is so wonderful and refreshing. My adventure into this environment has taken me into all types of plastics, and materials. Thanks to Tap Plastic in Bellevue, WA, my designs are coming to life but not quite there yet. I am getting the first ones ready to distribute in January to a local hospital.
So this has been a fun thing to do, and I look forward to delivering 500 free pockets at the first of the year. They will come in pairs of two, with two additional waterproof pockets for the shower. They will be free, and distributed (I hope) through Cancer LifeLine.
I am always looking for donations of cute sturdy flannel fabric. My thanks and contributions to Maryanne Arthur, who came up with an idea called Pretty Pockets. I am just expanding on that idea with waterproof shower adapters.
LOL…who ever thought. A drain tube pocket designer and distributor of surgical solutions! 
Thanks to one of my favorite doctor for contributing his input and support.
Have a great holiday season, and remember to help somebody. Its your present to yourself!!
Bonnie
