If this is posted, it means I had my surgery this morning. I asked my son, Blake, to post it after the operation was finished. I'll be in the hospital a day or two. I'll get back to posting as soon as I can. So many of you have sent lovely notes & I appreciate every single one. The poem below describes how I feel about the whole thing.
GOODBYE, LEFT BREAST (ODE TO A MASTECTOMY)
I just thought I’d like to say
goodbye
As you go to that medical waste
disposal in the sky.
Say hi to my tonsils and have no
fears.
We’ll all get back together in a
few years.
You’ve known me the seventy-nine years
of my life.
You saw me as a teen, and then a
wife.
Your first job was attracting men
And
next you were a breastaurant for my children.
When the doors of the milkbar
finally closed
You went back to a purely
decorative mode.
Which was fine, until that week
When
you (and other parts) became antique.
I no longer attract young men of
twenty,
But that’s all right, because
I’ve had plenty.
And as for that other use, well,
we all know
The
odds of me nursing again are low.
But it’s in my nature to be a
little sappy,
And with or without you I’ll keep
on being happy.
Most would count this a loss when
it comes to my score.
Will
I miss you? A little. Do I need you? No more!
I will be losing some symmetry,
On this I think we can both agree.
I may tilt to one side as I walk
through town
But I’ll try to adjust and not
fall down.
Yet I’m not through having fun
And lifting my face to the warmth
of the sun,
And being with friends and
laughing (I’ll show you)
So ta ta, left ta-ta, it was
nice to know you!