Post-Op Appointment

I woke up today at 9:00 and got ready to go to Raleigh for my 6-week post-op appointment, although it's really been almost 7 weeks since the surgery. Since Dr. Hey takes pictures with all his post-op patients and posts them on his blog, I got pretty dressed up and made up. Wouldn't you know that Dr. Hey is on vacation in Venice, so I met with his PA and didn't get my picture taken at all. The ride to Hey Clinic was interesting. We stopped at McDonald's to get some breakfast, but they were all out of biscuits. I ended up with a Happy Meal at 10:30 in the morning, and a huge blob of ketchup dripped out of my cheeseburger and onto my boob. It stained my dress, so we stopped at a gas station to sponge it out. They had no paper towels in the bathroom, of course, so toilet paper had to do. By the time we got to Raleigh, the stain was really not noticeable, so I guess we caught it in time.

I had some x-rays taken, as well as my vitals. According to their measurements, I'm just now 5'8", but before the surgery, they had measured me at 5'6", so their system is obviously flawed. Even the woman who measured me said that a lot of Dr. Hey's patients have complained that they're taller than what that system measures. Nevertheless, I've gained about 2 inches, and since I had been measured as 5'8" elsewhere many times before the surgery, I'm now 5'10". Everything else looked good, and the PA checked out my incision. She said it's healing really well, and by next year, it'll be a faint white line. We got to see the x-rays, and the PA also said that the hardware in my back looks perfect. The best news, though, was that I'm now allowed to lift things weighing up to 20 pounds! That means I officially have permission to pick up Moses. I can do anything else I feel up to doing as well. There are no more restrictions, and I'll meet with Dr. Hey himself in September for my 3-month post-op. I have my x-rays on paper, so I'll scan those and post them pretty soon.

Gene, Marold, and I have witnessed some odd things over the past 2 days, and we saw another one as we were leaving the Hey Clinic. Gene was on the phone, but his face turned to total shock when we saw a midget walk in. I suppose I should call him a little person, but I'm far too intolerant. I know I'm totally insensitive, but I just can't cope with freak shows like that. We headed over to Bahama Breeze and had an excellent lunch. Two other weird things happened there. There was a group of 5 priests in their black attire and white collars dining near us, and our waiter had a Band-Aid over part of his eye. I couldn't tell if he was a pirate or not. Anyway, I had coconut shrimp and a lot of sweet tea, and then we drove to Dillard's in Asheboro to find a dress for me for Justin's wedding. We found several things for me to try on, but the first dress I tried was the one we ended up buying. It's a brown halter dress with a ruched empire waist. The wedding isn't formal, so the dress is too long, but we're gonna have Mr. De make it tea-length. It's perfect and covers my back entirely.

After we bought the dress, we headed home. I had a piece of Mrs. Green's cake for supper, and I've been idle ever since. I'm exhausted, and so are my legs and back. The best thing is that I have no plans for tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to just waking up, having a relaxing cup of coffee, and watching The Price is Right and my soaps.