Some 20+ hours after leaving hot & sunny Denver, we pulled into hot and sweaty NOLA, feeling pretty hot and sweaty ourselves thanks to an A/C drain pipe that got clogged somewhere between Pueblo, CO and Amarillo, TX. It started innocently enough with a few drops under the dash on the passenger side landing on my bare feet and ended with completely soaked floor boards on both sides. The floor was so wet, even my bare feet stayed uncomfortably crossed under my legs. Notebooks, magazines, and surgery files were ruined before we realized how quickly those few drops had accelerated into full blown puddles. We had initially (and too hopefully apparently) chalked up the drops to condensation. With temps in the upper 90’s for most of our drive, we couldn’t not use A/C so we kept the thermostat as high as we felt comfortable with our little fur ball in the back seat.
But sadly the car repair would have to wait until after my surgery. I had quite the pre-surgery check list to get through:
Po-boy at Mother’s – check.
Tie up some last-minute loose ends. Check.
One last street car ride for a while. Check.
Look wistfully out on the Mississippi River from our room on the 23rd floor. Check.
I was ready.
But I wasn’t quite ready. First, we had to spend most of the following day in appointments at the clinic, exams at the hospital, going over the consent paperwork with the surgeon’s PA and finally allowing the doctor to play with his markers all over the top half of my body. Oh, and check into and set up what would be our home away from a home we no longer had.
The day before my amazing surgeon would be magically turning my tummy tissue into soft, warm breasts, proved to be a busy one, but started routinely enough with the requisite pre-appointment paperwork.
Then quickly moved into scary uncharted territory with the “thong that fits no one”.
Getting my pre-surgery mark up.
After my CT scan, which unfortunately we didn’t get any photos of, the doctor used an ultrasound to mark any additional areas of interest.
Time for the consent paperwork.
Those big blue marks suddenly make this feel very real.
Which is partly why I needed this:
And one last bowl of ice cream and glass of wine before starting “no liquids after midnight”.
Okay, let’s do this, NOLA!
Stay tuned for Rewind: The Surgery