18 hours later...

i feel like i have so much to share. where to start?

well.

i ran around like a lunatic on monday and tuesday. trying to get everything done before surgery and before taking a week and a half from work. there was so much to do. which, in a way, was good because i didn't have any time to start worrying. so tuesday night my mom flew in from colorado. we went to get thai food in the rain. and then completely passed out. although, it took me a while to pass out, actually. the anxiety did start to kick in right before bed.

then my mom and i drove to kaiser in south san francisco. got there at 930. everything was on schedule for 1130 surgery. and then...dear lord...i lay waiting in the pre-op room for FIVE HOURS. no one gave us any updates. no one really paid attention to us. i just lay there with an IV, alternately whining and complaining to my mom about how bored and starving i was - i wasn't allowed to eat anything aftermidnight the night before...so it was going on 15 hours without food or water. whining. whining. whining.

the nice part of it was that i fell in love with three anesthesiologists and, again, my surgeon. the anesthesiologist who lives two doors down from me came to introduce me to another anesthesiologist who lives across the street from us. they were so nice and entertaining. and suggested we should've just done this in our neighborhood. the surgeon commented that it might be better to have lunch in our neighborhood instead.

then about 4 hours later i met dr. kong, my own anesthesiologist who i promptly fell in love with. he was so nice and so sweet. and he totally tricked me. he was all talking to me about what kind of music i'd like to listen to in the surgery room. offered anything but rap or country. suggested they were most recently playing talking heads. i told him i thought that was great. and after that i don't remember a single thing. he totally tricked me. i had no idea he was putting me to sleep.

then i woke up to dr. simonds, my surgeon, asking me if i had read a textbook before the surgery because it was a completely textbook surgery. good line, dr. simonds.

it took me a while to wake up fully. a lot of bells and beeps telling the nurses that i wasn't breathing deep enough. vicodin for the pain. cranberry juice for the sore throat. and finally i felt well enough, alert enough to start the process of getting out of the hospital.

long story, huh?

anyway, we got home around 7pm. a full, full day. i was groggy. not in too much pain. i have a "pain booster" attached to my stomach that's regularly putting something like novocaine into the surgery site. and i'm taking vicodin every 4 hours. and antibiotics 4x a day.

it's hard to describe how i feel. weird. still sort of surreal. i am totally wrapped up in an ace bandage so i really don't know how much body looks right now. and the pain booster is doing a pretty good job. and my mom is doing a pretty good job of bringing me coffee and oatmeal and water and walking kitty and keeping me company. (i'm sure you can all imagine that as soon as i'm feeling up to it, the scrabble games will begin.)

so. that's it, i guess. we are at my apartment in sf. friday morning i have an appointment to take out the pain booster. then we'll drive down to los gatos to spend a week at my aunt and uncle's house. and my sweet, sweet friends have all made plans to come hang out with me to keep me from going out of my mind while i sit around.

so, that's it.
the next step is that in about 3 weeks the surgeon will start pumping me up. he'll pump me up every 2-3 weeks until i've reached size kkk. and then i'll be scheduled to get the final implants...probably in about...3-4 months.

so, there you go.
thank you for all your emails and calls and notes. so far, my favorite card has been from my aunt, susan: (front) "i've found a great new diet: the grapefruit diet..." (inside) "you put a couple of grapefruits in your sweater and everything seems a lot more proportional."

xoxo