It's Gone!!!

What a week or so it's been since last I updated my story. Ups and downs, the proverbial roller coaster!

My last post spoke of my pleasure at FINALLY learning the truth about my mysterious third boob - that it was just a little pile of dislodged fat, my bowl of chocolate syrup, that my doctor said he could easily remove for me when he did the next surgery. So it was time to schedule the surgery!

Well, that was an entertaining ride! I had seen my doctor on Monday, two weeks ago now. On Thursday that week, his scheduling nurse called and said she could squeeze me in the next Friday, the 28th! I said something like "WOW", really??, that soon?? You can get the insurance folks to authorize it that fast?? She said she had a way with those insurance folks, so count on it! OK!!

On Tuesday, she called to say the surgery had been authorized!! Terrific! On Wednesday, she called back to say the insurance company had not authorized the correct procedure and that she was going to have to go back and get them on the right page, but that I should probably not count on Friday anymore. SOB! Then she called on Thursday to say she had fixed everything and I was going to the hospital as planned on Friday!!! YES!!

In the meantime, I have two very good friends visiting me right now, Candy and Colin from Sydney in British Columbia. And Colin, sweet sweet man that he is, volunteered to paint my little house for me! All I needed to do was get new paint colors approved by the park management.

I made four submissions of paint colors, over a period of about 7 weeks, and day after day, I received negative responses to my choices. The Manager turned down NINE colors. I was going for earth tones, and she OK'd a couple different mocha type colors, but wanted me to use a stark bright white with the brown tones, and I wanted to use a creamy contrast instead. I finally said, basically, screw it - I'm not going to paint my house some color combination that I don't like, so I decided to stick with what I have - the house rules don't require approval to re-paint the existing color. I just didn't need the additional frustration and stress. So Colin started all the prep work and picked up paint and all was good!

Of course, when he was about half way through the job, I heard from the office that I had to have my paint color approved. That made me mad enough that I dragged out the house rules and wrote a letter quoting Section and Paragraph that stated "New" paint colors must be approved, not regular maintenance and touching up damage. The fact that we painted the entire house and not just touch-up is not worth mentioning!!

The house is now totally finished and looks terrific! And so far I haven't heard back from the idiots who manage this place.

So - Friday - I went into the hospital at 7:45 a.m. for a scheduled 9:15 operation - and surprise of surprises, they took me in almost exactly on time! I had created a little message for my doctor -
I was so excited to be getting rid of the third boob - and it wasn't until I put the photo here that I noticed, writing it upside down and backwards while watching what I was doing in the mirror, I misspelled 3rd, but he got the message and laughed with me and took it in stride!

Of course, that wasn't all he did. The major reason for the hospital visit was to do the trade out of the temporary skin expander implant with the permanent breast implant. That went like a dream!

Turns out he didn't actually reach into the empty space left by the temporary implant and grab a handful of leftover fat like he told me he would. :o) He used liposuction to get it out! Stuck a vacuum cleaner in there and just sucked it out! And it feels like I've been kicked in the gut! But the damned third boob is GONE, so I can live with a little discomfort for a couple days. I even dropped my doc an email thanking him bunches for getting rid of that 6 month long irritant - and forgot to mention how nicely the breast reconstruction itself has gone!

Now that the seemingly never-ending procedure is over, I am pleased with the results! The little card I received, to add to my collection showing that I have a new hip and a new knee, and now a new boob, shows that we put in 650 cc of fluid. Just looked up how much that translates to - about 22 ounces! Goodness!

As usual, everyone around me is amazed at how well I'm doing. Other than a little pain in my belly where I was vacuumed out, I feel like a million bucks! And I have a lovely new paint job on my sweet little house! Life is good!