I am not even sure where to begin…time has literally flown by and here I am, in California, four days before my second PAO surgery. Life has been chaotic to say the least, between work, year-end accounting on my businesses, holidays and preparing to be away from home for a month. In fact, to add to the stress of leaving town and preparing for a major surgery, I decide 48 hours before my flight to reschedule to leave a day early (on my birthday) to avoid flying into the storm that hit the Bay Area yesterday.
That said, just when I feel like I am losing my footing, I find ground to stand on. The day after I flew into town (yesterday) my exhaustion finally caught up with me. I watched the rain pour down, seeing water starting to rise against my sister’s house foundation and then recede. In the midst of the storm, I start to feel a sense of peace: letting go of control, going with the flow, riding the storm.
Today was my pre-op appointment. Reflecting on the day, I connect the dots and I realize the day I was dreading turned out to be fantastic. I was happy to have unexpectedly meet a fellow hippie in the parking lot before my appointment. We have the same surgeon, Dr. Bellino, and she was there for her 5 week post op appointment. I hope I instilled a little spark that there is light at the end of recovery. Pre-op with Lisa the P.A. went smooth. Then another unexpected gift occurred: Dr. Bellino stopped by to where I was in the clinic and we chatted about 5 minutes, which I know is rare as his time is very limited. It certainly lifted my spirits and I was pumped to finish my pre-op labs and meet my fellow PAO soul-sista, Jessica, at Stanford Hospital to visit another hippie who had her PAO with Dr. Bellino on Tuesday.
Jessica and I made sure we shined our light and spread our Unicorn Rainbow Pixie Dust to our fellow PAO warrior, who has had a tough go the past couple of days. It made my day to see her smile and see hope in her face. Yes, PAO surgery sucks, but its worth it and it gets better. Her thank you note later this afternoon on the PAO FB group warmed my heart.
As I was leaving the hospital, I thought about how in the craziest of times, there is beauty in chaos. Beautiful things happen, we just need to be open to see them.
I will leave you with a picture of what Jessica and I found snooping around Stanford Hospital; good to see the orthotics department has a sense of humor!
Hip2bHippy 