August 24, 2007 – I had a little surgery. A couple of weeks earlier I had discovered a lump the size of a golf ball on my upper back. It was a Sunday, so I couldn’t call the doctor. I spent most of the day picturing my impending chemotherapy, hair loss, and eventual death. I went to the doctor the next day and was very relieved when he told me that it was a lipoma – a benign tumor of fat – and that I could just leave it alone (and become known as the lump lady of Massapequa), or have surgery to have it removed. We opted for surgery.
I had never been in the hospital except to have a baby, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I found out that surgery is just no fun. I pretty much hated the whole experience . . . fasting for 12 hours before, getting weighed on a truck scale, getting an IV, sitting around for 2 hours in a hospital gown waiting for my turn, waking up with a dry mouth and extremely sore throat from the breathing tube, and the PAIN! When you have a baby, you get to the hospital feeling miserable and leave feeling relatively fabulous. This was the exact opposite. No fun at all!
On the bright side:
We had already met our out of pocket maximum, so our insurance covered the whole bill. It was the first time since I quit teaching that someone in our family had been to the hospital without forking out at least $2000.
Abby did great without me for the whole day. She had never had a bottle before that day, but she took one for my mom and didn’t even miss me.
I was so sick for two days after the surgery that I couldn’t eat anything. Somehow that two day fast triggered something in my body to start losing weight. In the four months since I had had Abby, I hadn’t lost a pound of pregnancy weight (and I had a lot to lose). Surgery was a magic weight loss bullet for me.
4 comments:
I am a little slow. It took me a while to figure out that this was a retro post (even though that's the first thing you wrote). It wasn't until the end that you were talking about needing to loose pregnancy weight that I realized it wasn't anytime recently..cause you're sooo skinny! (and the fact that you don't have a nursing baby) yes, I am dork!
Hmmm, maybe I need surgery.:) Thank heavens it wasn't anything serious, what would I do without my partner in crime?
wow i had no idea you even had surgery a couple of years ago. i really wasn't in the loop in the ward yet at that time. i would've helped you tons though. i would have brought you dinner for a week (freezer meals, of course), taken your kids when your family was done with them, and cleaned your house from top to bottom (even though there wouldn't be much to clean). glad you are doing much better!!
Amity you are too cute. Now I'm half tempted to have another surgery just so you could come clean my house for me. :)
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