Friday, May 6, 2011

so...

A doctor walks into a room.  He talks to the patient about the newest surgery that's going to be needed, and asks about the patient's ileostomy and whether it's working well or not.  She assures him it is, but that healing after surgery is going to be a crap shoot.  He looks at her, deadpan, and says "literally."

ba dum ching!

get it?  ileostomy?  as a crap shoot?  oh, forget it. 

Honestly, I had an interesting meeting with Dr. Lee yesterday.  It was the first meeting I was going into where I already knew what was going to happen, what needed to be said, so nerves really weren't that high.  Truthfully, I'm kind of taking this surgery in stride.  That's not to say that it's not going to be a major major surgery, which it will, but how else can I view it but with humor?

The crap shoot?  Yeah, had Dr. Lee laughing with that one.  When we discussed what Dr. Polynice was going to do to my thighs, and that only one might be involved?  I again had Dr. Lee laughing and shaking his head when I said "I don't care if he does both.  At least then they'll be even!"  And later, when discussing which surgeon would be doing what, in my oh-so-delicate manner, I said "And you'll be reaming me out" much to Dr. Lee's amusement.  Sometimes I think he's not quite sure how to take me, but at least I can stay positive and joke about it, and I think that might be refreshing?  Beats me. 

So the surgery is going to be a bit bigger than expected, which is fine with me.  Dr. Lee is of the opinion (as am I) that as long as I'm under, it's better to open me up abdominally and make sure there is NOTHING overlooked.  It would suck to do this surgery without the abdominal component, and 3 months later develop another sinus from whatever would still be going on abdominally that we happened to overlook.  So Dr. Lee is going to cut the gut, make sure that's okay inside and if it's not, fix whatever is wrong.  Then he's going to open up and ream out my rectal sinus that's not healing, and he'll be closing me up abdominally while Dr. Polynice and his team will start with the gracilis cutting and stuffing into the butt.  The new expectation of time, with two surgical crews working on me simultaneously, is 6ish hours, give or take depending on what Dr. Lee finds abdominally. 

Surgery is scheduled for September 14th at this point, which means I get to do the dash AND have my birthday before going under the knife again.  That alone makes me happy. 

I started training last Sunday with my little walking group.  We're planning on continuing every Sunday until the dash to improve our strength and time.  I'll post separately regarding training. 

So that is all for now.  No more follow up appointments until my pre surgical workup, the week of.  I get to enjoy the summer, work hard at training, and get myself in great shape before surgery. 

Love to all and thanks for the thoughts and prayers.  Now for training and Chocolate milk, hummus and hula.  Whatever I can do to keep in shape and kick that dash's tush. 

kiss.hug.love

B