FFS

Pulled from the pages of my written journal (but because my attention span never really lasted long enough, the rest I will have to pull from my notes):

I sit here in the Cocoon House recovering from FFS 4 days ago. Yes, it still hurts, but it’s more of an overall discomfort. I went full time just over a week ago, so in essence, this has been one of the greatest weeks of my life.

On Tuesday, the day before surgery, I was supposed to pick up my mom at the airport an hour before my presurgical meeting with Dr. O. I stayed up until 4am trying to get everything done before being gone for so long. I planned to sleep in until about 10, but Dad called at 8am to tell me Mom’s flight was delayed out of the Midwest. So, I moved my alarm back to 10:45, but Claire called at 10 to also wake me up. So, I got ready, then traveled up to see Mira and Dr. O. While going through all the motions, I found that my check card had a limit on purchases, so I would have to run down to the local branch and get a cashier’s check for the remainder of the amount to Dr. O. I did that after finishing my discussions with Mira and Dr. O. During part of my initial visit though, Mom calls to say she’s arrived. The bad part is that by the time I get out of my consult, I know it’s going to be rush hour and nearly impossible to get over to Oakland and back. So, I ask her to see if she can ride BART over and I’ll pick her up at the Civic Center terminal. (If you didn’t catch last month’s entries, my mom got lost many times when she was driving around locally with my car, so I knew this was going to be a pretty big challenge.) So, after taking care of the consult and the cashier’s check, I picked up my Mom. Yeah!!! Unfortunately, she was basically standing there in the rain. We get back in the car and Tyler calls from Dr. O’s to say that I need to take presurgery photos. So, we drive back over, take the pictures, then escort Tyler over to the Cocoon House where we meet Debra and Shannon, and I introduce my Mom to Tricia, one of the pair of wonderful women that run the Cocoon House. We’re already behind schedule and I need to fill two prescriptions before surgery, so we’re off to meet everyone over at the Cheesecake Factory. I get Mom and Tyler up to the restaurant...we’re there first...then head down to a local pharmacy to pick up the two prescriptions. I head back over to the restaurant and find I’m right behind “joanb” and the visiting Sarah. Anyway, I had a group of 10 join my mom and I for dinner, including Claire, Amy, Ani up from LA, /Amber/, “joanb”, Sarah from the Northwest, Susan, Brooke, Michelle, and Tyler. It took us forever to get seated, not the Cheesecake Factory’s fault, but due to a few people who couldn’t get there on time...we shan’t mention names. We finally sat down and I ordered one of my simple favorites - angel hair pasta with tomatoes. I splurged with a strawberry lemonade, followed by sharing a piece of Chocolate Tuxedo Cream Cheesecake with my mom. Basically, you can’t go wrong there. As time rolled on though, I knew it was time to get going. I began to give everyone hugs and started crying. I have a hard time saying “good-bye.” They could all tell I was getting emotional, but what do you expect when you’re saying good-bye to some of your best friends - people who have shared in the same journey. If I could have, I just would have stood there hugging them all night long, but I needed to get some rest. So, Mom and I walked to my lone car and drove home. I answered an email or two, then was off to bed about 1:30am. The alarm was set for 4:30am.

It rang pretty early, and I woke up my mom at that point. I grabbed a quick shower, then threw gobs of leave-in conditioner in my hair. Next, we were off to San Francisco. I showed my mom how to get to the Cocoon House first since we hadn’t been able to do that the day before. I was a little late to Admissions, but nothing that bad. They had my clothes off and me in a gown in no time (I need more dates like this!...thhhpppt!). I also had to put on these long white leg compression stockings and little booties for my feet. Mary-Lou stopped by in a very cheerful mood and said good luck. Because I did all of the driving that day and the night before, Dr. O suggested in my pre-meeting that I not take the Valium since I had been able to sleep the night before. But after the nurse plugged in the IV foundation plug, he said the anesthesiologist wanted me to take some Valium after seeing my vitals even though I know they weren’t too bad. Down they went. Dr. O stopped by in this sharp looking black outfit with his white doctor's coat over it. I again politely requested, "...and a straight nose please!!!". Then they wheeled me down to the operating floor waiting area. Someone came by and then.....