Hello!  I know it’s been awhile since the last blog.  I’m not sure how I can claim that I got too busy…this relaxing business is very time consuming!  Plus, there have been a swirl of half-topics in my head that have refused to clarify into any write-off-the-cuff full topics.  I probably should just start writing with the halves and trust that I’ll have plenty to say from there.  I usually do.  No, please…no need to agree with me!

I do believe that it’s time to declare Stage Three – though what that means is less distinct than the “on my own” switch into Phase Two (which actually didn’t entail much on my own time…but it did feel different!)  We are just over 4 weeks into the 8 week period of time that I cleared.

I have some interesting things to report from my last visit with the surgeon (this past Monday), but recovery-wise, everything is fine and dandy.  I don’t need to see her again for at least a month and she would even be comfortable with two, though I’m not sure I would!  I’m driving and the incisions all continue to heal nicely…a couple slow spots, but nothing to worry about.  Still a variety of compression garments that I switch around depending on if I’m going out or staying in and how tightly wrapped I can handle being.  No real shopping yet, but a couple brief experiments – enough to know that the world will be my oyster!  Or, at least, the Outlet stores will be my oyster…or something!

And, some funny (both ha-ha and interesting) changes and discoveries about this new body.  As things settle in and the swelling goes down, things move around more (breasts, mostly) and that can be uncomfortable.  Remember that there is a TON of internal stitching that can pull and shift probably even more than the external!  There are places that feel like things just got wired wrong in terms of nerves. Running a finger down the mid-line incision causes sharp tingles all the way out to the sides.  And, funny but too personal…the breasts (really the nipples) are hilarious!  One feels double wired so that it almost hurts and one we thought got no wiring, but then discovered that it’s just somewhere close by…we’ve decided that it’s like the north pole versus true magnetic north!  I’m deciding that this, along with the little foothills between my breasts are just fun new quirks that make me even more unique!

The other set of interesting things from the surgeon is the looking to the future.  I know I’ll talk more about this down the road.  Suffice to say that she’s known from the beginning (and tried to tell me, but I haven’t wanted to look at it this way) that this large a surgery can only result in the best possible initial result  and there is more to consider once we know how things settle out.  Don’t jump in with me on this, please.  I need time to have opinions about THIS body and time to really enjoy it – to dress it and move it and all kinds of things.  If there is more work that is needed, that will be a decision backed by a TON of questions and a TON of personal inquiry about what would be important and impactful to me.  For now, it’s definitely just something for my percolator.

The other part of Stage Three is how I spend my time and what I hope to come out of this period of time having done.  Relaxing/refreshing is certainly a big part of that (as is the recovery, of course).  And the hobby business that Nelson and I have (Cheese Weasel Logistics) has it’s big annual event that is right at the 8 week mark – the Gen Con convention in Indianapolis.  We’re on top of the work for this, but there is a load of work for this and that will pick up here.  I think I’ll write a small series of blogs to start explaining the pieces of my life (like this one) as the blog transitions from my health/weight to my life as a whole.  So more about Cheese Weasel then.  The blog writing is happening and I think it will be easy to continue that, though I can’t promise any certain frequency of posts.  The other focus is my music and that’s got a few big areas to it.  The song-writing.  The start-up work for the band that I’m forming with a friend.  And Plunge! – my nonprofit cabaret theater that I have with my friend and collaborator, Tim, that is ready to work again and we want to find the venue for that.

I want a balance of picking up work on these things, spending time that is usually harder to clear, and feeling only the pressure that I want around accomplishment.  That’s a tricky thing.  And that’s the debate as Recovery Stage Three gets underway.  To acknowledge that half of the time has passed and “only half” is left, but also relax that it’s still time and really a different stage since the first part was so taken over by the physical recovery.  This is where I need to bring back my thinking on making things “munchable” – choosing the accessible first pieces and doing them (and enjoying them) and trusting that they will lead to the bigger picture.

And so…Stage Three…ready or not!