One week from today. Wow, that makes me a little nervous even typing it. But it’s really OK, I’m doing so much better as far as how comfortable I am with the whole idea, that a week even seems a little long.
This weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting with a lady who had this surgery when she was my age. It’s now 20 years later for her and she’s a mom and living her life pretty much without any restrictions.
Having the chance to speak with her really helped put me at peace with everything. I think that was the last piece of the puzzle that I was missing… actually talking to someone who knows what it’s like to go through this. I appreciated that she told it like it was and gave me some worst-case scenarios so I could be prepared, but she encouraged me that she thought I was making the right decision and was confident that I would never regret it.
She told me it’s not easy, but it’s just a bump in the road. She said after the initial recovery and giving myself some time to get acclimated to things, that I would be feeling so much better that it would make it all worth it. I went through my typical symptoms with her and I think for the first time I really tried to imagine how it will be without those things tying me down. I start tearing up even now thinking about it, because I don’t even know what that’ll be like. To not have the constant worry of knowing where the nearest bathroom is or wondering if I’ll be able to make it fast enough makes me ready to do this.
Even when I think about the potential complications she mentioned, they are definitely no worse than what I’m dealing with on a day-to-day basis right now, and even seem much more manageable. As she told me, this is an adjustment, it’s not something that will drastically change how I live my life. Once I’m past that initial recovery period, there really shouldn’t be anything I do now that I won’t be able to do then.
So now I say, bring on May 7th and let’s get the healing process started!