So I went down to the men’s homeless shelter today to drop off several bags of hand knitted and crocheted scarves that I and several other ladies at work have been making over the summer.

Dropped them off.

Used the pen there to sign the drop off form.

Now my throat is a little sore, which is something that happens to me all the time, and goes away as quickly as it comes on.

But my brain immediately jumped to… “You went to the homeless shelter!  You touched their pen!  You must have the flu!”

Like just because it’s a shelter, it’s crawling with super flu bugs that have the capacity to make me sick within 30 minutes of my return.

Sometimes the things my brain will think of surprise even me.

So while I was researching this whole Tummy Tuck thing, I found very few blogs that gave much information on this whole process.

So, in the interest of perhaps helping out future people scouring the Internet, I am going to blog this entire process.

But, also in the interest of allowing those who are not interested in quite that much information about me, and my belly, I am going to name all the future surgery related posts with the above title, and a new date.

This way, if you wish to follow this thread, you can, and if you don’t, you can skip it.

I am also going to use the “break” feature on these posts… why?

Because, again, there is probably going to be WAY too much information here for those who may not want to see it.  Also, I will be posting pictures.

Before, during the healing, after, etc.

Nothing above or below the belly will be shown (I’m not that much of an exhibitionist!) But some people don’t like stitches and scabs and scars, so be warned!  They might show up “Below the fold” on some of these posts.

I’m also going to create a links box that will hold links to all these posts, on the off chance that anyone would want to read them chronologically.

So just to kick things off, in the interest of full tummy tuck disclosure… this is why I am having the surgery:

Too Much Skin!

And that’s step one…

Wow.  Wow.

Just got off the phone with the plastic surgeon’s office.

I made my appointment to have the extended tummy tuck on December 8.

Excited!

Nervous!

Wow!

As anyone who’s been reading here knows, I’ve been thinking about this for a while.

And it was getting down to do it or decide to live with it.

I was looking in the mirror this morning, and thinking… “OK, so either I spend the next 20 years of my life looking in the mirror every morning and thinking ‘yuck’ – or I really do this thing.”

And, if I’m gonna do it, I might as well go ahead and do it now.  Heck, I get older every day…  might as well get as much use out of a new belly as I can.

And, so, what’s money for, if not spending?!

OMG!

P.S. – The SB is still nervous and not 100% loving the idea, but supportive hubby that he is, he’s going to be there holding my hand through it.  Because he’s the Sweet Boy.

But not as badly as we could have.

There was no blood in the bath, at least

We played alright considering the newness of so many on the team.  We’ll see if we get to keep this lineup for a while or if more will be lost to the “a-team”

But it doesn’t stop.

Today was a “day off”  – but had to get much accomplished due to the fact that I was out all week.

Hairs were cut, helmet covers were picked up in preparation for the bout tomorrow, items of great import were purchased (seriously, we had about 2 feet of toilet paper left in the house), birthday cards procured and stuffed with appropriate birthday cash, new laces were put in skates, wheels cleaned, last minute roster changes discussed, etc. etc. etc.

Tomorrow it’s a whirlwind trip to Bluefield, WV to play the Green Valley Jaded Misfits.

We are missing most of our strong players.  I am, unfortunately, pretty sure we are going to lose.  With luck, it won’t be a complete ass-handing.  Oh well, we play for the game… I can’t really even recommend folks in the WV area coming down to see it – unless you enjoy a good bloodbath

Whirlwind it’ll be, though.  leaving here at noon.  3 hour drive.  couple of hours for pre-game warm up, meetings, pep talks, etc., Brief stop in at the after party to grab some nosh, drive back to CLT.  Hope to get home by 1 am.

At least I am off on Monday… I have a couple of calls I have to do, but I think i’ll do any “must dos” from home.

It is only day two of the training week.

Maude Have Mercy, it is going to be a long week.

Dry material?  No… the Sahara desert is dry. This material simply doesn’t compare.

Normally if I am out for a week long training or something similar, I don’t fall into the need for copious amounts of caffeine and sugar until Thursday at the least.

But this week – man – Tuesday and I’m already on two cocoas in the day.  Sometimes caffeine and sugar are the only things getting us through.

Also feeling bad because I feel like I’ve been eating crap since Friday (which I have been).

The SB is going home tomorrow AM, and I think once I am on my own, I’ll feel less like this is “vacation” and be able to exercise some self control.

Cake on Sunday, Cheesecake on Monday, Giant cookie tonight.  Chinese food, Deli, etc. etc. Were they all excellent and yummy?  You bet!  But let’s face it – treats are not really supposed to be an everyday event – Four days of crazy eating and I need to go back to something that at least resembles “healthy”

So now off to study some more of this stuff so I can pass the certification test on Friday!

I would like to take this moment to announce that I will absolutely not be participating in NaNoWriMo this year.

I am not a “Writer”.

I have, upon occasion, had a good idea or two for a story.  But I have neither the time, energy, stick-to-it-iveness, or talent to write anything that needs to be paid attention to for more than 30 minutes.

I certainly am not qualified to write a novel.  Especially not in one month.  I will stick to the reading of novels written by other people.  I think it’s for the best all around.

So here I am, bucking the announcement trend.

NO NaNoWriMo for me!!  Ha!

So I guess I had better rest and relax this week while I have the chance.

Friday night, we have a birthday party to attend.

Saturday night we have a family Halloween thingy going on.

Sunday leave for NYC

Spend the week in training in NYC – found out that I CAN’T HAVE MY LAPTOP IN THE CLASSROOM!!!  Gah!  So that means training during the day, catching up on the missed work and emails in the evening.

Come back from NYC and have the bout in Bluefield that Sunday.

Back to work for a week – then the next weekend is the SB’s RibTastic Birthday weekend.

Then maybe some rest will be in order

I read a fair number of “activist” blogs through a compiled feed.

Things have been getting very deep and serious in my blog-world this week, so I thought I would just say…

I like cake.

Sometimes, it’s the simple things that are most important.  Cake may not be able to save the world or stop the oppression of millions…  but it’s something we all can sit back and enjoy briefly while we let the troubles and cares of trying to fix everything that’s wrong with the planet slide on by.

Yay Cake!

So, Consultation accomplished.

Having been reading everything I could get my hot little hands on about this subject for a few months, I am not shocked to say that I only learned ONE new fact about plastic surgery at the seminar / consultation yesterday.

(That is – plastic surgery to fix “deforming skin” – which this falls under – is tax deductible! – who knew?  It’s also, it seems, an audit trigger, so that’s less useful)

But – I went to the thing.  The Dr. talked about surgery for massive weight loss folks.  He talked about outcomes, risks, etc.  He showed pictures of people who I must say, I would NEVER have thought they could get from where they were, with that amount of skin, fat, etc, to quite reasonable looking.

He also showed some scary pictures of wounds, etc that didn’t close right, and talked about how that kind of thing is dealt with.  He talked about the riss / benefits of out-patient vs. hospitalization.  He talked about how long he’s been working with massive weight loss people. He talked about the different things MWL people tend to get, and the patterns of problems they tend to have, etc.  etc.  etc.

I probably would have found it more enlightening had I not already read a bunch of stories, etc. from people who’ve had surgery for this kind of thing.

Then after that, came the consultation part.

I’ve been to doctors before, of course, and know they are always clinical (because, hey, they are doctors) but I will admit, it was a little disconcerting to have someone sizing you up in the same way a contractor would size up a kitchen prior to a remodel.  Tape measures and all.

Still, he was very nice, and explained everything.

He ended up recommending exactly what I thought he would recommend, given what I have read about this stuff and what my concerns are. (Extended abdominoplasty, which is bascially a tummy tuck that goes a little way around the sides as well, but is not nearly as complicated and invasive as one of those “around the world” circumferential things)

The cost of such a thing is $8,800… pretty much in line with other quotes I have heard about in the area.  That’s not a small chunk outta savings… but cheaper than a kitchen remodel!

So – there’s that – information gathered.

From here, though, it’s not all sunshine and roses and “let’s get some surgery!”

For one thing.  That’s a lot of money.  On the one hand, this is something that I’ll have for the next 50-some years until I die.  On the other hand, that’s a lot of money.  On the one hand, I would not hesitate to invest  double that in a car that would only last me 8 to 10 years.  On the other hand, that’s a lot of money.  (you see where I’m gong with this).

Other things to consider…

1) General anesthesia.  There’s risk there.  I’ve had it before for two surgeries as a teen, so I know I’m not allergic, but still.  I know there are risks.  This is something I think I shall research, because all I really have is anecdotal information on this, not actual statistics.

2) What if it doesn’t come out right? Yeah – this guy’s been doing these things for 10 years.  But still…  what if it doesn’t?  It’s a small chance, but there none-the-less.

3) The SB is wildly uncomfortable with the whole thing.  He hates doctors and hospitals anyway…  I am fairly sure that if a piano fell on him, he’d probably try to convince himself that his arm was perfectly fine bent like that in the middle rather than have to see a physician.  He could be bleeding out of his eyeballs, and I’d probably have to wait until he passed out to get him to the emergency room (yes, OK, I am exaggerating, but not by much!)

So it is his position that if I go through with this I will die, or at least be horribly disfigured for life.  These are very legitimate concerns (see items 1 and 2 above), but my level of concern on them is not quite as high as his is.  Still, they are his concerns and I am taking them seriously.

So the long and the sort of it is that all surgery-related plans are now on hold pending SB comfort levels. I will not move forward on this as long as he is so very uncomfortable with it.  And, if that means never, well, then, that means never.  But, in the mean time, I shall attempt to gather more facts, figures, and information in an attempt to lower the SB security alert level from red to at least yellow.  I myself don’t think I could get my concern level down to green, but proceed with caution isn’t a bad place to be.