I had been born premature and breach; the docs used forceps to pull me from my mother. The forceps slipped and damaged the muscles in my eyelids. I had my first surgery when I was around 18 months old to correct the damaged muscles in my eyelids. It took two more surgeries, spaced out over 13 years to get to the final correction.

My next surgery was for a breast cancer scare in 1996. That one was benign, however in 1997 they found lumps that were not benign. With my breast cancer I had a total of 9 (I think) surgeries for lumpectomies, then the mastectomy and reconstruction over a period of 2-3 years. Somewhere in there I also had a back surgery to remove a cyst that was pressing on nerves in my spine.

I've gotten so blase about the whole pre-surgery prep, going under, coming to as I've been through it so many times. I even know the nurses and anesthesiologists and which hospital has the best care. Scary! I hope I don't have to go through too many more, however my breast reconstruction has to have some work done on it; just not this year as I've too busy dealing with the earthquake retrofit on my apartment building.