Surgery 3

Start at the Beginning

This surgery was at the Plastic Surgery, Surgery Center. Much more user friendly. they put me in a room, with walls, at the beginning, and Tim stayed in there until they brought me back to that same room. Much less stress on him as well. I don't know why they don't do that everywhere.

After surgery I woke up taped from my navel to my collar bone and all the way around my back. Yes, tape. They had cut a flap from the underside of my breast, laid it over my middle finger, sewn it down and taped anything in the vicinity to my body. Padded in crucial places, but all tape.

We were out really quick. Tim wrapped me in my new Dress Barn wrap and took me for donuts on the way home. We have a great relationship with the Donut Girls. Thus started the 3 weeks of slightly cocked eyebrows and a lot of remarks like:
"What?"
"Na uhh."
"Your kidding."
followed by me lifting my shirt enough to show my belly button hiding behind a curtain of tape. Thankfully the wrap we bought kept those to a minimum, from strangers at least.

Apparently this way of grafting is the oldest one around. The story goes that the first plastic surgery was done on a man that needed a new nose, so they cut a flap from the top of his elbow and sewed his arm/elbow to his face. Well, I suppose it could be worse.

Are you holding your elbow to your nose?

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Getting away

Start at the begining

Mom and Dad had to leave way too early and we had very little time away from the fungus mess so Tim and I decided with at least two weeks of my being sewn to myself we should get away for a minute. That is just what it felt like, a minute.

We took a day just before surgery and went to Waco. Still bandaged and holding my hand above my heart (very used to that now), we started at Cracker Barrel, then went to my favorite clothing store (Dress Barn - awesome!), the Zoo, and dinner at Rudy's.

The drive felt weight lifting, at Dress Barn we bought a shawl/wrap type thing that would make me feel presentable when sewn together, and the Zoo was like totaly leaving the real world behind for a moment.

There were things we couldn't do without the use of my hand of course so we promised ourselves we would go back again and eat with the Giraffes and slide through the Otter playground. It was an oasis of a day that I don't think we will ever be able to recreate. It was as if God stuck his hand out between me and Satan and said "Stop" and all the world stopped so that I could get off for just a moment and take one long breath of peace. A breath that calmed the storm so fully had I been granted another I would not have been able to bear the weight of the world ever again.

The Lord is my shepahard
I shall not want
He makes me lie down in green pastures
He leads me beside the still waters

He restores my soul
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
for his names sake.

Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil
For You are with me
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me

You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies
You anoint my head with oil
My cup runs over

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me
all the days of my life.
and I will dwell in the house of the lord forever.

Psalm 23

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