Answers

Today is Lion’s pre-op appointment. As you can guess from his post this morning, he’s in panic mode. I’m sure he’s always worrying about the surgery, but he hides it most of the time. Occasionally it comes to the surface as fear and possible depression. Ironically, taking into account my general pessimism, my laid back personality allows me to roll with the punches a bit more. In his professional life, Lion is used to controlling things. He can’t control most aspects of his surgery and recovery.

When my son was training in the army, he sent me a text that said he had just jumped from an airplane for the first time. Crap! The next text I got was a picture of an X-ray showing rods and pins holding an ankle together. Double crap!! Then a text that said it was his friend’s ankle. Whew! You might want to lead with that, rather than send the scary picture first. The point is, he does scary things, and I can worry all the time but I can’t control the outcome. He’s a well-trained soldier who could die at any moment, in combat or even “just” training. But I have to believe he’ll be fine.

So we’ll go to this appointment and ask our questions. We’ll have the horror stories in the back of our minds and listen to what the doctor tells him about recovery. Lion will have a better idea of how the whole process will unfold. I’ll have a better, more authoritative, idea of what to expect. And we’ll walk away still worrying, to some extent.

I do know you heal faster with a positive attitude. I’ll have to keep Lion motivated. Generally, he’s in an upbeat mood. He knows we’ve prepared well. He knows there are things we’ve forgotten. I hope the pre-op appointment will shed some light on things we may not have thought about. The bottom line is, this surgery will not end Lion. He’s stronger than that.