Splendid Mayhem: It's ON!

Welcome To Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

It's ON!

Yeah, 27 days and counting and Jessica will be a NEW woman! Hahaha. My appt went very well today. I go back in on Monday (4/7) to sign consent forms and take before pictures. My pre-op appt is at the hospital on 4/25. My surgery is scheduled for April 28th at noon. Bad thing about an afternoon appt is that I can't have anything to eat or drink after midnight Sunday. I am going to be a grouch from that! The nurse said I would come back in on Tuesday for a follow up and that Adam (or somebody) needed to come with me b/c most likely I wouldn't even remember being there. Day 1 after surgery I will need to start doing massages so that I don't get a capsular contracture (build-up of scar tissue around the implant that can cause breast firmness. When severe, this may require corrective surgery).

So, there's the latest. I'm so counting down! I got several comments wanting before and after (CLOTHED) pictures. So, I'll grant your wish. I will do a few before and several after. One a week or something like that. He said they would change over the course of 3-4 weeks. The first 5-7 days would be total beep! And, it would take 3-4 weeks before I could resume everything I was normally doing before surgery.

1 comment:

BarbaraApril 1, 2008 at 2:17 PM
Good for you! I'm all for self-improvement and if it makes you feel better about yourself then it's a good thing. Good luck! I look forward to the clothed before and after pics!
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