Taken: April 2, 2010, 7 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, Ca
Twenty years ago today, April 2, I was on an operating table at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City having my right lung removed. Now those of you who didn't under stand my blog's title can be let in on the joke.
The details of my diagnosis and surgery can be found here and here. I talked about it way back when I started this blog a couple years ago. Hard to believe it's been two decades since I became a one-lunged person. Hard to imagine what it was like to have two. Funny how that shit works.
It's strange to be marking such an event but there was a chance back then that I wouldn't be here today -- my doctors were convinced at first that I was looking down the barrel. They gave me five years to live. But a wonderful surgeon by the name of Patricia McCormack who was an ex-Jesuit nun married to an ex-priest and a Georgetown grad no less, saved my ass. Even years later, when I tracked her down in her retirement way out somewhere at the edge of Long Island, she couldn't believe I was still alive. That's one time when shocking the hell out of someone felt damn good.
I used to be sure how the whole experience changed me but somehow these days I've been rethinking all that stuff. I know it did change and I know for a solid fact it changed me for the better, but what it all means, well for the first time in a long time, I'm trying to figure that out.
For now, I'm just going to raise a glass to Dr. McCormack and just be thankful I'm still here doing what I'm doing. Whatever the hell that is.
Shot this with my K100D today and edited it in Photoshop.
2 comments:
Cheers Elizabeth.
That really touched my heart, and I am glad you are still here.
T
Thanks, T. Appreciate that.
Post a Comment