Cut & Run (Again)

Happy Sunday, everyone. Hope you all had a nice week and weekend.

The word I would use to describe last week is "eventful." In a good way, thankfully. Three separate ongoing concerns came to a conclusion last week.

I'm holding off on discussing one of them for the moment; it's the most significant in the long-term, but I'm not quite ready to go into it yet. Soon, I promise.

For details on the other two, follow me over to the other side...




While I can't tell you everything, I can tell you, however, with a mixture of exhaustion and relief, that I managed to meet a major deadline at work on Friday for my projects. It has been an intense, at times frantic, effort to get done all that needed to be done, for several reasons... but I made it.

As I've alluded to, the past four months or so have been challenging on the personal and professional fronts. I'm proud that I was able to manage both challenges - and they were significant - at the same time.

It's a measure of how far I've come in the past year - and particularly in the past 6-8 months - that I was able to do so. I had a session with M, my therapist, yesterday, and was telling her, jokingly, that I wish I had a dollar for every time someone has told me how different I seem (in a good way) in that time.

She replied that it was the result of the hard work I've put in - really, from the beginning of my transition, but in particular the last 12-14 months. I was not in a great place at the end of 2014, to put it mildly. But at my lowest point I decided that I was going to do what it took to ensure I never went back there again.

And I did... and here I am. :c)

I had a nice moment with my manager L on Friday. As always, she has been unflinching in her support, both personally and professionally. She called me on Friday afternoon with a question about one of my remaining tasks, and I was happy to tell her I'd completed it earlier in the day.

"Way to go, girl!" she exclaimed in her Texas drawl. "You rock!"

I thanked her, laughing, and said, quite rightly, that I could not have done it without her help and the help of the folks on my teams.

"Maybe so," she replied, "But you're the one who made all of your deadlines, even with everything that was going on. You should proud of yourself."

And I am. :c)

We use a spreadsheet to track the status of the various tasks we have for a particular release. As I was saying goodbye, L asked me to hang on.

"I need to do something right now," she said, "And I'd like to share the moment with you."

And with that she opened up the spreadsheet and, one by one, went through all of my items and marked them complete.

"And that is the last one!" she said as she finished.

"Yea for us!" I said, grinning.

"Yea for you, actually," L replied. "You did it, Cass. And I'm proud of you."

Have I mentioned what a great boss I have lately? :c)

While I still have a number of items on my plate before we wrap things up in the coming weeks, they are more than manageable. The pace will not be nearly as frantic as it has been the past few months.   And thanks to my teammates and the folks on the Doc team, I made it. And for that I am grateful.

***

The other news I can share is on the personal front:

I had my stitches removed following my surgery the previous week.

Yes, they finally came out on Wednesday morning.

I wasn't ever really in pain during the week following the surgery; rather,  I was in a state of discomfort. I couldn't sleep on my right side (the surgery was to my right cheek), nor could I really get comfortable for long sleeping on my left side.

Also, the incision was longer than the surgeon had anticipated, and ran under my right ear. Try as I might, I was never able to find a comfortable fit when dressing it. I finally resigned myself to having a bandage running directly under my ear - a very awkward feeling indeed.

But that was a minor quibble, quite honestly. I could manage. It wasn't until Tuesday that the stitches began to be itchy - a sign that things were healing, as my manager L noted.

Needless to say, I was glad I'd booked my appointment to have them removed first thing Wednesday morning.

The nurse had the stitches out in a matter of moments, which was a nice feeling. A few minutes later Dr. S, the surgeon, came in and greeted me warmly, just as he had last week.

"So, the moment of truth," he said, smiling. "How would you describe my work, Cassidy?"

"Swell," I replied instantly.

We both laughed.

"I see what you did there," he said, still laughing. "Not bad at 9:00 AM."

"And pre-caffeine, I might add," I replied.

He laughed again as he examined his handiwork (which was outstanding, all joking aside).

He said that it looked terrific, and that within a matter of months it will be nearly undetectable. There is still some swelling, but even that is receding quickly.

I took this photo on Wednesday afternoon, several hours after the stitches were removed:

You can see my face is somewhat puffy, although considerably better than the previous week.

This was taken on Friday:

The swelling has gone down quite a bit in 48 hours, as you can see.

The picture at the top was taken earlier today (Sunday), following my run (hence the blotchy red skin on my chest). I wasn't able to run while the stitches were in, of course, which was very difficult for me (particularly when I need to unwind after work, which I most definitely did during that week).

As a result, this was the fourth day of running out of five. I knew a few minutes into the run that I may have pushed it a bit too much (hard to believe, I know).  While I got through it unscathed, nonetheless my body has made it clear we will NOT be running tomorrow. I've learned to listen to it at long last. All part of the transition process, I suppose.

Well, it's late, I was cleaning all day today before running, and I need to get to bed. I hope you all have a good Monday and a better week.  If I can, I'll write another post during the week. Take care in the meantime, everyone...

***

The title of this post comes from a terrific song called "Scorpion," written by folksinger Lucy Kaplansky.

She worked with Shawn Colvin early in their respective careers before returning to school to become a clinical psychologist. But the pull of music was too much, and she eventually gave up her practice and became a full-time musician. As you can tell from this song, medicine's loss was our gain:

As a bonus, here's her wonderful cover of the late, great Bill Morrissey's "Texas Blues":