Talking to Strangers

I told my friend, whom I'll call "Elle Woods" (but not because she's ditzy--she's a cute blonde lawyer), that I was having my nose done and by this point, I just assume I've told everyone on planet Earth--strangers in the elevator, people I haven't talked to in ten years, everybody. Evidently, she's one of the five people I had left to tell.

Elle has a friend who had a nose job four years ago, and she put me in touch with Hillary (no, not Clinton...oh, criminy, I'm not going to get into the stupid free-association ways I come up with pseudonyms for people). I talked to Hillary on the phone for nearly an hour. She's very happy with her nose and it sounds like she had pretty much the same thing done that Doc is doing to me.

One of the most interesting things we talked about is that she had a lymphatic drainage massage done before her operation and she passed along the name of the therapist that did hers. She went three times on the days prior to her surgery for 1/2 hour each time. Hillary didn't have any bruising after her surgery, and she had to have her nose broken! This massage gets your lymph moving, which detoxifies your body and speeds healing.

I'm going to her therapist (for $1000 Trebeck!) next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday--I'm very excited about maybe not having any bruises!

The other thing Hillary said is that the anaesthesia really messes you up for a day: you forget things and are kind of loopy. Well, last time I went under, I woke up shaking and throwing up blood and I was seven and had my tonsils out, so I'm not hoping for a repeat...I'm banking on improvements in anaesthesia in the last 22 years. One other weird thing I've read about anaesthesia with a nose job--sometimes you don't go under general, you just get local...I can't imagine that, it sounds barbaric.

Anyhow, it was nice to actually talk to someone about the surgery who has been through the same thing. Even if you just jibber at them about how freaked out you are, it's nice to have someone to jibber to who isn't going to pooh-pooh you, or tell you that you really don't need surgery (nobody NEEDS cosmetic surgery), or many of the other well-meaning but doubt-inducing things that people who aren't having plastic surgery say. For example, a friend of mine asked me if I was still going to talk to him after I had the surgery, as if I'm going to be transformed into Aphrodite. I'm sure that was meant as a compliment, but, geez. It makes you wonder if your friends actually think you're a shallow ass. You don't need any more dumb things going through your head than you already have. Illegitimi non carborundum. I'm not much of a support group kind of person, but let me tell you, it's enormously calming to be able to have conversations with people who aren't going to unintentionally make you feel bad about yourself.

Another, unrelated, thought: I have ten days left to go. I'm ready to go, I want a new nose...NOW!!! The waiting is really starting to bug me. Like Elvis, I'd like a little less conversation, a little more action, please. Oh well...Tomorrow morning, pre-op appointment.