What happened to you?

The question of the day is brought to you by Motrin.

This was my view for a bit of today. As you can see, my knee is elevated and immobilized in the immobilizer.

"So, what happened to you?"

It was a common question, and I almost got tired of answering it, but when people see you hobbling around in this big contraption, they get really, really curious.

I am the Immobilizer. Resistance is futile. You will be immobilized!!!

Well, we had our first game of the season on Saturday, and unfortunately, my knee did something it wasn't supposed to do about a minute in. Yeah, just one minute into the fresh season, and I'm down for the count. KO. Call Mike Tyson, we have a new record...just don't let him bite my ear off.

By mid-day, I could see the questions coming about a mile ahead of time. I joked with one guy that I was going to start telling people I had wrestled with a lion (which was true in a sense), and if they thought I was in bad shape, they should check out the lion. Actually, the mascot of the team we played was a lion, so, in essence, I did tangle with a big cat.

At least I had a few people that were quite original with their comments.

"That looks like it hurts."

"Ouch."

"You look really casual today."

"You're getting too old to do that stuff."

Yeah, I know...I'm getting old. The body definitely can't do stuff it used to do, but I sure hope it can recover fairly soon. The ER doctor diagnosed me with a strained MCL yesterday morning. I'm headed to the orthopedics tomorrow for them to further evaluate me. The ER doctor said it was difficult to get a full prognosis with the pain I was still experiencing, but he didn't see too much give in one knee compared to the other. I guess I'll see how tomorrow goes, and hope it is just a strain. Either way, from what I saw online, surgery is usually not needed to repair an MCL.

Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Marriage

I'm not sure if Marriage can be synonymously used with Happiness, but for some, they represent more of a parallel journey. Can true happiness be embraced without someone to share it with?

If you haven't seen the news by now, you're probably living in a cave without internet, but the California Supreme Court overturned a previous voter decision to ban gay marriage. The court decided that civil unions were not equal to marriage itself. I agree...am I a second class citizen for being queer and not being able to enjoy married life with someone of the same sex.

For those that oppose it, all I can say is why do they have such a big issue with it? Who is it going to hurt? And don't give me that crap about gay marriage ruining marriage...go watch Jerry Springer and you'll see how straight people have done a superb job of messing up marriage.

On a positive note, the California economy will likely seen a small boon as people spend money on legal gay weddings...similar to the euphoria seen around February 2004 when San Francisco allowed gay marriage.

Unfortunately, I wonder if the Supreme Court took into account the religious freedom of churches in their decision. I know that many religions do not allow gay marriage, and I'm OK with that (no matter how archaic), because there are plenty that do allow gay marriage. If a church does not allow it, will they be forced to go against their own policy? Division of church and state is such a touchy subject on this, and it, of course, may be the biggest stumbling block for ratifying gay marriage throughout the US.

Anyway, I guess I need to start working on the first step...dating.

How many people pray for the health of Dr. O?

I met up with a few T friends this past weekend. Three of them are on the upside of their journey, that being they are approaching that twilight of going full time. One was visiting the area...supporting her friend who just had a little surgery with Dr. O. She is sorta doing what I did when I went with Amber for SRS...she's scoping out how things will be for her when she returns later this summer for FFS.

Our conversation, as it has in prior times, drifted to the actual surgery and discussions of Dr. O. A lot of people are amazed at how Dr. O can do these 10-12 hour surgeries. The guy is in great shape, I'll give him that. He's also very smart. Between procedures, the O.R. staff has to change out a variety of things. At this point, Dr. O will sneak out for lunch or a power nap. This seems to startle a number of people, but really, it's not a big deal. In the process of napping, he's actually staying quite alert to do his job.

A lot of people also don't realize that their eyelids are sown shut during surgery. It's really the best option since taping them shut could be an issue if the tape loses adhesion. And letting your eyelid stay open for even a few minutes wouldn't be fun for the liquid encased ball of visual bliss.

I think a common thing that goes through a lot of people's minds before they have FFS, though, is that they worry about Dr. O either retiring or getting hurt, such that he won't be able to perform surgery on them.

I'll be honest, I worried about it from the time I scheduled FFS until the time I laid on that gurney waiting to go into the O.R. Hell, I probably even worried about it before I even scheduled FFS.

And here we are, closing in on 5 years since I scheduled FFS...and Dr. O is still going strong. If there is a God, and if He or She listens to prayers, I bet Dr. O lives to be over 140 years old and operates on people until the day he dies. There are a lot of people out there hoping he makes it soundly to the day of their surgery.

The day he does retire, though, will be a huge deal for a lot of people. He's still booked out months in advance, and he still does a great job. I've seen girls over the past few years that look great (which almost causes a bit of jealousy). He might actually be improving over time.

I feel bad, though, for the first girl that calls Mira and gets told that Dr. O is retiring and no longer performing surgery. Let's just hope that the day he does retire is still quite a ways in the future.

Mom

Mom called today. The tests are still inconclusive, but she is in much better spirits after visiting her different doctor in the big city, instead of the local doctor near where she lives.

From what I can tell, though, she is enjoying the weight loss. She's actually down to levels she hasn't seen in a long time...but I'm still worried it's a negative sign of things yet to be diagnosed.

Staying Fresh

I thought I would never have to wear a pad again, but now it looks like I will. I've found that every week when I do the dilation duty, I'm a little...well...not so fresh down below. I'm not sure if it's internal body fluids or leftover lube inside or just a buildup of yucky stuff...but I tend to ooze a little after dilation. This oozing seems to have a bit of funk to it.

I've found over the past few months that by wearing a thin pad, the ooze is absorbed, and the smell is greatly reduced. I usually toss the pad a few hours after the deed, which usually keeps me fresh, and my underwear free of the funk.

I'm still wondering if I should shift my weekly deed from the morning hours to the evening hours, though...which might help reduce the funk by letting me get a restful night of sleep.