News Round-Up

Highlights:

• Because we haven't had enough surgery in this household this year, my husband had knee surgery on Wednesday to fix a torn meniscus. It was one of those things that needed to happen sooner or later, so... why wait? I guess? Of course, I'm the Queen of Waiting, and based on the way things have turned out for me, I'd recommend to everyone that they do the opposite of what I'd do. At any rate, the orthopedist said it was eight weeks between knee surgery and skiing, so it had to happen sometime soon if we wanted to go skiing as a family this year. And we do. And so it did.
• Wednesday and Thursday were a little rough, because I as I have mentioned before, I am a self-centered bitch, and I hate taking care of other people, even if said people have spent the past five months taking care of me. (Have I mentioned that I'm a self-centered bitch?) But... I managed. Yay, aren't you proud of me? And my husband is doing really well, and still loves me (or at least says he does). After all the shit we've gone through the past few months, this surgery was such a piece of cake, I wonder if he will even remember to mention it in our Christmas newsletter. 
• Speaking of orthopedists, my husband's experience with his orthopedist reminds me of why I can't stand orthopedists, and why I'm dreading the point in time in the future when I feel good enough to have to deal with my hips again (yeah, remember my hip problems?). As I told Dr. L, after dealing with such amazing cancer doctors, I'm pretty sure I will never be able to find an orthopedist who is anywhere close to acceptable. And unfortunately, my hips continue to be a problem, I just don't write about them anymore because I realize there's only so much whining my dear readers can take. And, there's only so much energy in one day that I can devote to OMG-I-AM-IN-PAAAAAIIIIIIINNNN-JUST-KILL-ME-NOOOOOW.
• Speaking of pain, I started physical therapy on Thursday, because I'd like to be able to, you know, use my left arm again at some point in time. I knew I had limited range of motion in my left arm, which started with my first surgery, but I really didn't know just how bad it was until I went to physical therapy. I mean, I'm right handed, and apparently I can live a fairly normal life with limited use of my left arm. However, the therapist gave me a few exercises to do at home, twice a day, and I already feel better. (Okay, so maybe it's psychological, but that has to count for something, right?) She said we would be able to do more once the restrictions on my 'core' ( = my abdomen) were lifted, at eight weeks. After that, I'll start doing PT twice a week and really start to kick some ass. (My words, not hers. Although she was better than the therapist I saw for my hip, she had the personality of, like, a pancake. But at least she seemed fairly competent.)
• At my last visit with Dr. T, I mentioned in passing that he had invited me to a 'BRA Day' event up at University Hospital. (BRA = Breast Reconstruction Awareness, isn't that cute? Not.) I'll be honest - when he was telling me about it, I wasn't really listening; I was mostly trying to keep a straight face and not roll my eyes. But later, I reconsidered. For one, the guy spent, like, two whole minutes telling me about this gig, and asking me to come. That's about the same amount of time we spent talking about my nipple. Second, between the time that he invited me to the BRA Day event and the time I left, he volunteered, totally out of the blue and on his own, to come down to my college and meet with students and give a talk. This is huge, yo. Seriously huge. Surgeons at his level don't do things like this unless you offer them a lot of money, which it's pretty obvious I don't have. And even if I did have money to offer for that sort of thing, it's still huge, because plenty of surgeons without his status can't even be bothered to give updates to loved ones after surgery, or return phone calls to answer questions after the fact (see points 1-3). This guy volunteered to take time away from his day, during which he does life-changing surgery and makes some ungodly amount of money, to drive no less than an hour each way, to come give a talk, meet with my students, whatever I wanted.
• I was supposedly supposed to get information about the event before I left, but somehow I didn't. I looked for information about it online, but couldn't find anything. Eventually, while I was e-mailing Dr. T with a few other questions, I asked him for information on the event, and also thanked him for meeting my mom. (I omitted the part about her thinking he is HOT.) He replied: Thanks for letting me meet your mother; it was my pleasure. (...) Attached is our Bra day flyer. Please join us if you can and if you'd like to speak about your experience, let me know.
• I wasn't quite sure how to respond, but I felt like the e-mail required a response, at least to keep his goodwill toward me alive, which was the whole point of me not totally blowing him off in the first place. But... speak about my experience? To whom? Does this involve modeling? Show and tell? Is this a formal event or an after-work event? Is there food? (There was VERY little info on the flyer.) I didn't want to pepper Dr. T with questions, so I replied in what I felt was a pretty non-committal yet please remember who I am kind of way: Thanks for the info. I think I can make it - and I'm happy to talk about my experience. Honestly, I didn't give it a lot of thought before I replied. I just figured... well, I don't know what I figured. I obviously didn't do enough figuring, because to my surprise, he replied almost immediately: Wonderful. I'll ask them to add you on as a patient testimonial. Thanks so much! That he responded so quickly and was thanking me so much made me realize I should have thought a little more before responding to the original e-mail.
• So now I'm ridiculously stressed out about this, of course. First, because I stress excessively about everything. Second, because there are some complicated logistics involved in this, and basically I will have to drive myself to the event and spend the evening there alone, which is pretty much my worst nightmare. I'm not that good in social situations to begin with, and in my opinion, a BRA Day event is pretty much a worst-case scenario as far as a social gathering can go. As far as my 'testimonial,' I'm supposed to talk for 5-7 minutes about 'my story.' On the one hand, it's hard to imagine telling 'my story' in 5-7 minutes. On the other hand, 5-7 minutes is not nothing. It's a lot longer than, 'Hello. My name is Waning, and I'm an alcoholic.' LOL. It's long enough that I need to, like, plan what I'm going to say, unless I want to sound like an idiot, which I do not. 
• I suppose I could fairly easily back out of this. I can think of a gazillion legitimate excuses right off the top of my head - and trust me, I've gone so far as composing e-mails with said excuses in them. But: A. I'm not that type of person. Even though I'm a self-centered bitch, I do follow through with the things I say I'm going to do. And I'm painfully honest; I'm not convinced I'm actually capable of lying, even in a premeditated e-mail. And B. In between the time that I agreed to this, Dr. T agreed to come and give a talk at my school, which like I said before, is quite amazing. Granted, he is getting paid to come and talk, but he doesn't know this yet, and besides, he agreed to it before he knew he was getting paid. I really think he was just being nice. So I need to be nice in return, even though it's not in my nature. But STILL. Gaaaaaaahhhhhhh!  
• Lesson learned: THINK BEFORE YOU PINK!