Before and current

Before- taken the morning of surgery


Recovery- taken yesterday




And yes it hurt. Yes it still hurts. But love makes everything feel better. Thanks, Quincy!


And the after pictures will be posted once all the swelling goes down.

Recovery

I have a bunch of pictures that I can post once I feel better. I expected the recovery to suck, but I was hoping that it wouldn't be too bad. Yeah, it's the exact oposite of "not too bad". It sucks so much. Anyone who was worried that I would become addicted to plastic surgery can just realx. In fact, this hurts so much that I don't think I ever want to give birth, because the recovery from that will make this look like a day at the beach.
And to add insult to injury (literally), I have an allergy to Vicodin. When I take it, I get so itchy, itchy, itchy that I am crawling out of my skin. So now it's just me and Tylenol. And it sucks.
I still have all this tape around my chin, so I don't exactly know what I look like yet. I have more of an idea now that the huge bandage is off. When they were removing the bandage Wednesday, it kind of reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode. As then unwrapped my face, everyone else saw me before I knew what I looked like. They were like, "Look at how good she looks." and "There's much less bruising than expected." I was just hoping that I looked human. It's really a bizzare feeling when you don't know what you look like. I can't wait for this tape to fall off.
I think I feel better today than yesterday, but I have bouts where I feel pretty good, then a few minutes later I can hardly keep my eyes open because I hurt so much all there is to do is sleep.
Well, my big adenda today consists of going to Dunkin Donuts with Bre and SR to enjoy some coffee, then back to my house for a tv and movie marathon (actually getting kind of sick of tv and movie marathons since I've been doing them for like 4 days), and maybe I'll order some Chinese food for dinner tonight. Yum. Steamed dumplings should be easy enough to eat...

Going Under the Knife

Tuesday is the day! I'm having my surgery. I'm getting a chin implant and liposuction. I go in Tuesday at 9am. The surgery will take approx. 2 hours, then I'll have a few days off to recover. I'm excited, but also nervous. And both the excitement and nervousness are growing as the day gets closer. I woke up at 6 this morning and for some reason, this thought popped into my head: "This is the last Saturday that I'm going to wake up with my original face." Try falling back to sleep after that idea. Wish me luck!

Cultural Ignorance

One of my best friends, SarahRose, is Jewish. Or as she would day, "Jew-ish." Anyway, she asked me Monday night if I would join her family for Passover dinner. She said that it would involve a small ceremony, and drinking lots of wine and eating food. Drinking wine and eating food are 2 things that I can really support. But I was unsure of what the ceremony involved. Wondering out loud, using the little bit of knowledge I did have related to the holiday, I asked her if the ceremony involved putting lambs blood on the door. She started to laugh and asked me if my family planned on crucifying anyone this weekend.
So I went there for dinner tonight, and I brought a bottle of wine. The ceremony did not involve lamb blood (thank goodness), but whenever the lamb blood was mentioned, SR would nudge me with her elbow. Then, at one point during the ceremony, we opened the door for Elijah and Miriam. SarahRose's mom said to me, "This is the door that we put the lamb blood on earlier." I turned bright red. Totally embarrassed. Or maybe it was from all the wine we'd been drinking?
But it was a fun night. And the food...delicious! Yum! Thanks for inviting me, SarahRose!

Go Yankees!

Yay! Yay! It's Opening Day! Go Yankees!

Bye, Pop.

Last Sunday, the world lost one of its more unique people. My grandfather passed away. Anyone who ever experienced him knows how special he was. Bye Pop! Keep an eye on me from up there! But can you do it quietly?

Why I do what I do

I have been super frustrated at work lately. It's like I walk into the house and instantly by blood pressure jumps like 40mmHg and I'm about the angriest person you'd ever meet. I'm not the angry person in front of the kids- I pretty much take whatever they throw at me- but once the kids are at school it's like Mr. Hyde comes out.
Anyway, the kids are getting ready for school this morning and I go into the living room to see what's going on and how the kids look before school (I get upset if the kids go out of the house looking messy). This one little guy, we'll call him Sam, is just sitting in his wheelchair listening to music. Just sitting. That is very unusual for Sam because he loves music- especially music with a beat. He usually listens for a second then starts clapping and dancing along. So it was funny to see him sitting there with his hands on his tray- not even tapping along with the NSYNC song blaring behind him.
I walk up to him and say, "What's going on, Sam?" as I put my hands on top of his hands. He looks at me, smiles, grabs my hands and starts making me dance along with the music- laughing and singing.
As the song ends, I say, "So what did you think of that song?" And Sam takes both of my hands, puts them to his cheeks and squeezes- like he was making my hands hug his face- and says, "I like that song."
I melted. And it hit me. That's why I love my job. That's why I LOVE working with this population. I love those kids.