Well....hell

Well...hell. It deserves to be said twice. I went to see my orthopaedic surgeon. Wait, first let me break down some other news. One of the clots in my leg has dissolved! When the clots were discovered and I was put on all these really gross blood thinners, (have I mentioned I'm allergic to Heparin and didn't know it until AFTER it was given to me for a few days?) I was told that the clots should dissolve within a few months to a year. It took a little longer but I got rid of one of the suckers!! The other clots are not as wide and the lengths haven't changed. I'll take the loss of a clot - who knew that one day I would be celebrating such medical news? Before surgeries (BS) I celebrated scoring a great deal on an outfit, some new makeup or fragrance. Now, clot gone? SCORE!!

The visit with the orthopaedic surgeon was more stressful. We arrived early, since a 7:30pm appt. means arriving at 6:00pm. We were told the doctor only had three patients ahead of us so we probably would get in early. HAHAHAHAHA!! He saw us at 8:15pm. Anyway, he wanted to schedule surgery in three weeks. Oh, if you could have seen my face. I'm sure I looked like I was taking a huge dump - because I was. He scared me. I actually yelled out that I wasn't having any surgeries for a year - nothing until at least July 08. He looked kinda surprised and a little taken aback (good, I owed him for the surgery thingy) but agreed with my decision, okay, hysterical outburst. Freaked the shit outta me. So, obviously, I'm not as mentally prepared as I need to be. Then he told me the options in surgery, which unsurprisingly, all circled back to "if things go wrong, amputation"; "if your blood vessels are compromised and blood flow is restricted, amputation"; "if infection sets in, amputation"...okaaaaay, I can follow. Amputation. Got it. He also said that he wanted to do a lot of tests, including tissue sampling. HUH? Apparently, he's going in a few weeks before surgery, after taking me off the antibiotics for a week, and helping himself to some leg tissue. Um, I don't have much left, where the hell does he think he's gonna get it from? More importantly, how much is that gonna hurt and do I need to be under anesthesia? Then he mentioned I would most likely need skin grafting because my skin was probably too thin and compromised by infections. Crap. Skin grafting? I haven't really talked about it because I'm still trying to forget my first experience. Have to say, skin grafting is a bitch. It hurts like, well, dammit, it frickin' hurts. My entire upper left thigh was a donor site, now, my right upper thigh is the new area for redevelopment. My plastic surgeon showed me the tool he used for getting the donor skin. Kinda looks like a cheese grater with spikes. He said the skin lifts off similar to shaved cheese. Haven't been able to eat freshly shaved Parmesan cheese since then. Makes me wanna puke.

Life is still good, though. Being much more healthy has a lot to do with my outlook. But, come on, skin grafting? Well...hell.