Just another thing to check off my list...

Yesterday I took a break from the usual list of projects I've got going on around here-- the DIY-organizing-experimenting-creating kind of projects  I tend to get myself into. Instead I checked another item off of a list of sorts I've been working on for a while.  Yesterday I had minor hand surgery to have a piece of glass removed from my hand.  If you know what the past few years have held for me, then you'll be able to guess how it got there!  That little piece of glass has been annoying and irritating me for years now.  Well, surgery was a success!  It wasn't fun.  I won't tell you all the gory and squeamish details, but I will say that I definitely grabbed a much needed coffee at Starbucks on my way out-- thank heavens for Starbucks in hospitals!  I needed a moment, and a coffee, before driving myself home.  I also brought this souvenir home with me for bragging rights.

The picture doesn't really show you how big it is... let's just say it is bigger than the piece removed from my wrist and smaller than the chuck I found in my ear.

The surgery itself was not all that significant.  What is significant about yesterday's step is that I'm now done with accident related surgery-- I've officially informed my surgeons and doctors that I'm calling it quits!  I am currently on a waitlist for ACL reconstructive knee surgery, but that's a totally different story :)  Am I done because I feel and look like I did before the accident four years ago?  Absolutely not.  Nope, I'm done because I've decided that the new me is okay.  I'm comfortable with the new me.  Let me recap the past few years a little bit for you.  A while back I had to  come to terms with the fact that my shoulder will never function or feel the same as it did 4 years ago-- there's no surgery that will fix it.  A few months ago I finally came to the conclusion that no amount of plastic surgery would make my shoulder look like a shoulder... and somewhere along the way I've realized that I'm comfortable with the way I look today.  In fact, I wish I could have felt this comfortable about myself 10 years ago!  Does this mean that I'm going to go out in public wearing a sleeveless top anytime soon?  Nope... probably never.  But it does mean that I'm okay with a few of my new realities.  I'm comfortable with the fact that I will never wear a shoulder-revealing bathing suit at a public pool or beach-- that's why I brought Hawaii to my backyard in the form of an above ground pool-- yeah baby.  I'm comfortable with the fact that my +35 degree weather attire is a tank top paired with a cardigan sweater-- I have a cardi party going on in my closet... let me tell you.  I comfortable with inquisitive children's questions about the scars on my arms and hands-- although I will admit that I have told a few particularly cheeky kids that I got the scars because I disobeyed my momma ;)  There will still be moments of uncomfortable-ness... but that's okay.  So while yesterday wasn't the best of days, it was one more step forward.  And that's a good feeling.

One more step in this journey... done.  Many more to come.

And, I will be taking a few days off from any sewing, painting, crafting projects because quite frankly this is real pain in the hand :)