Well I just sessioned with Lisa for the first time in over a month and it was good, Reiki, energy clearing, but she said I needed to write more. Good god I've been clocking in daily lately but ok. Since I imagine Christy and I's surgical shoe decorating and sleepover plans will not be conducive to writing I'd better say something this afternoon before I go to my 4:30 massage with Leah. She's new and I really like her we bonded on a psychic level I learned a lot from her and hope to learn more.
MaryGrace is on her way over with Girl Scout cookies the kids will be so excited and I'm excited to see her she is the pilot who works for Falcon Jet and she is tough as nails and super handy she's always doing home projects like Laurie it's fun for her if you can believe that. She's the kind of gal you would want to have along if you had to walk down a dark creepy ally in the middle of the night. Whenever someone in Super Girls Survival group asks about something like flooring she chimes in like she memorized the encyclopedia on the subject and it's very impressive.
Speaking of women pilots there aren't that many and I happen to know three - my Great Aunt Genevieve was a WASP, well she passed, but my friend from residency Mellificent got her license a few years ago she and her Urologist husband Walt did it for fun together. Sounds a little scary to me but whatever floats your boat. We caught up recently when I was off a couple of weeks ago and she casually alluded to some big surgery she had and I was like What? She said oh Betty I told you about that and I said I'm pretty sure I would remember no you didn't. Turns out she didn't know about my jaw either and she made me tell that story first and we laughed about how doctors are the worst patients we ignore shit forever. Our shared mishaps happened the same year, in 2016. What a terrible year that was.
Turns out she started having leg weakness and ignored it for a long time then she was having trouble starting to pee. When that happened she got a little worried and mentioned it to her husband and they decided it needed to be checked out. What ensued was a trip to numerous specialists all over the Southeast - it's a good thing she had her license because she was flying around all over. She had some extremely rare disc herniation - usually they herniate out but hers was herniating inward and bumping up against her transverse spinal cord. She learned that the traditional surgery was to crack open the chest and go behind the heart to fix it and the morbidity and mortality rate for that was super high but some young whippersnapper in Tennessee (Betty I didn't like the thought of someone that young working on me but I was slowly convinced) had just trained in a new surgery where they go through your back. Apparently the recovery was like 6 weeks in ICU and three months in rehab she had lots of swim meets and society commitments. She was in Junior League when she was here in Arkansas that was super impressive to me way over the top they make you jump through tons of hoops not for me.
Anyway it was November she said and she planned to have it done in January after the holidays because it would be more convenient and the kids had tons of swim meets coming up. She went to one and she was talking to a coach and passed out but she ignored that too. She was getting lightheaded a lot. She was speaking to 600 people at a society function (wow!) on November 10th and after the speech was over she passed out. When she came to her friends were trying to get her to call Walt and take her to the ED she was like no it's fine I just need to go home and go to bed but rationality prevailed and Walt took her to the ED and she had to have emergent surgery by Doogie back doctor on November 11 because the herniation had progressed so much it was bumping up against her parasympathetic ganglia and causing bad issues.
Then she said well Betty guess what I was out of the ICU in just a few days and home by the next week. Typical Mel, beating all the odds. She was my mother mentor and my breast pump mentor and her daughter Corinne is now a Freshman in Chicago hard to believe I remember holding her at 8 months once while babysitting playing with a mirror for almost an hour she loved it. We commiserated over how hard Freshman are having it with the pandemic they have no social network (Jack too) at their new schools and going all virtual is so bad for their mental health. They struggle with grades too. Jack is catching up he's back in real school and at least he has family support nearby Mel said they are flying to Chicago a lot. Jack cracked me up the other day saying he finally ate with a couple of guys at lunch he really needs guy friends he's getting sick of hanging out with the girls. They get all mad when he says something to one of them on social media they feel ignored. Oh the problems with being a 15 yo hottie lol.
Ok I'd better go I need to pack up for my sleepover I think I'm going to use my $700 Brave bag I haven't used it yet and I know Christie will appreciate it she's into all the fancy bags she owns a full set of Louis Vuitton luggage. Oh well if I'm in tie dye and sneakers it will be an interesting contrast. Hope you are having a good Saturday. Much love, Elizabeth