Be Careful What You Wish For

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In this season of wishing for things, I am reminded that it pays to be careful what you wish for. My Christmas this year will be overshadowed by a surgical procedure to replace my breast implants because of scar tissue that caused one to flip backwards. No snickers from the peanut gallery please!

The reason I opened with being careful what you wish for is that for most of my adult life, I wished I had a bigger bra size.  In fact, I remember when I first started working at Mayo Clinic as a surgical recorder in Dermatology Surgery, I jokingly asked one of the surgeons why I could have the fat sucked out of my belly and injected into my boobs, effectively solving two problems at one time.  He answered me seriously that it wasn't possible because belly fat and boob fat were not compatible and would not work.  That was 1995.

Fast forward to 2017 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction.  Lo and behold, one of the reconstructions options was--get this--fat grafting; basically the same thing I had asked about back in 1995!  I declined this option in 2017 because it sounded a little too involved and complicated for me.  

Fast forward again to 2023.  I had my preoperative appointment with my surgeon yesterday, and he said that exchanging my defective implants with newer, better ones that (1) are more resistant to scar tissue formation and (2) significantly less likely to flip was the plan.  I said I was fine with that.  

He went on to say that he could augment the effects of the implants with some minor fat grafting.  I think it was a nice way of saying he could make my middle-aged figure look a little bit...perkier.  Sure, I am game for that this time around.  

So it occurred to me that I was getting what I had wanted for so long.  I just had to get breast cancer to do it.  Let me interject here that my breast cancer journey was infinitely less traumatic than most women.  I didn't have to have chemotherapy or radiation or hormone therapy, so I praise God for that.  

The other eventful thing happening in Brogan world in the near future is a kitchen remodel project.  I have been dreaming of this for seven years now and am so excited that I'm finally getting my wish.

I only had to lose my mom and receive an inheritance to get it.  Again, be careful what you wish for.  I know Mom would be happy that this is happening; I remember how happy she was when she remodeled her kitchen.  I just wish...maybe I shouldn't do that, but I wish she was here to see it.  

Then I remember that those who have passed are never really gone as long as we remember them.  I remembered my mom and channeled my inner Max to help Captain solve a fix-it issue.  The auger on his whole corn bulk bin got a hole in it so that corn dribbles out on the ground when Captain runs the auger.  

This brought back memories of my childhood and filling the feed chutes for the milking parlor.  Mom was in charge of filling these hoppers during each milking.  The "feed room" was in the loft above the parlor.  There was a small Harvestor silo with high moisture corn that got augered up to the feed room, run through a roller mill to crush it, and then it was augered across the feed room to three hoppers above each of the three feed chutes for the stalls in the parlor.  This cross auger had three holes cut in it above each of the hoppers.    

Let me say here that my mom was our very own MacGyver in a skirt.  Give her bubble gum, baling wire, duck tape, and/or WD40, and she could fix just about anything.  Remind me to tell you sometime about how she fixed the baler timing mechanism when Dad couldn't figure it out.  

Image courtesy of WD40.co.uk

But I digress.

So Mom needed a way to block the corn to any given hopper so that the corn would travel to the next available hopper.  It didn't take her long to come up with a solution.  She raided her coffee can collection for two coffee cans.  She cut out the bottoms of the cans and then used the tin snips to cut the can so that it could be snugged around the auger.  She tightened the coffee can to the auger with some good old baling wire (didn't I tell you!!).  This was, she could simply slide the coffee can over the hole in the auger without endanger her fingers.  So smart!

I won't say that I wish I could see Mom again because that would require my death and I'm not ready for that yet.  I will just say that I will be glad to see her again when the time comes.  

Don't wish your lives away, my friends.  Be present in your present and be grateful for everything that is good and right in your world.

Merry Christmas and God bless you!

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