Dr. Visit, $150. Surgery Scheduled, $100,000. Stretching, Priceless.

Great news from Denver, it seems that doing Yoga caused the ports of the expanders to show thru my muscles and skin, but I don’t have to worry about the ports wearing thru and causing damage. That is great news.

Even better, we sat down and scheduled my next surgery date. I will be having surgery Friday, October 15th. They will take out my awful expanders and put in implants on that day. I should be able to go home that day, or at least to a hotel if I don’t feel like making the ride across the Rockies, and will need to take a few weeks off of work. But it’s exciting to be finally moving forward again.

It is a little stressful, thinking of having surgery again. I will have to take preventative measures to avoid another blood clot, and will probably have to resume the shots in my stomach for a day or two before surgery. They were awful, but not as bad as the clot, so if it keeps me healthy I’ll go for it. Isn’t that what this journey is about, anyway? Staying healthy?

Aside from the jitters of surgery and shots, and the mounting out of network expenses, it is wonderful to think that in just a few months I will be able to do normal things again. Normal things like stretching, and sleeping on my tummy, and wearing bras. I know, it’s funny, who would have thought I would miss wearing a bra?? But I do. I miss the femine stuff, and the feeling pretty under my clothes. The expanders are too hard and strangely shaped to allow for a bra. They just aren’t possible at the moment. I still can’t stretch my arms fully over my head, or do yoga stretches on the floor. I keep trying, knowing it will get better. I think the expanders are just too hard to allow too much movement. One of the funny things that happen is doing something like picking up a box quickly, I’m used to letting things being carried just fall against me, now if the object is hollow you can hear a definate “clunk” as it hits the hard plastic inside me. It’s funny, in a weird sort of way.

But at last I’m moving forward, after being stuck in the months of waiting for the new insurance to go into effect. I’m excited, and nervous, but overall just happy to move forward and know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that I will soon feel a little more ‘normal’.

I wonder if I’ll miss being bionic?

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