Naughty, Nice or what?

The Happy Holidays Everyone!

So I have a question for you.

If you are good, Santa is supposed to put presents in your stocking right? If your naughty he is gonna put a lump of coal in your stocking, or that is how the story goes. This story has been passed down generation after generation and the rules are always the same. Naughty or nice, presents or coal. 

Now, I have never gotten a lump of coal, even though there were many years when I probably deserved one. OK, so there was no probably in it, I really deserved one, but I still got presents (thanks Santa!).  But this year, I am getting something extra special in my stocking.  Can you guess it?

Do you want an hint?   Guess who has another stricture forming? 

That’s right, Roger is getting a dilation in his stocking. I knew you could guess it. Isn’t that just special!

   

Now I keep telling myself that this is all good and since part of my full-time job is marketing I can put a good spin on this!

For instance. They need to keep the opening open. If the strictures are allowed to continue and left unchecked, then they will keep coming back and we will be in the amazing cycle for a long time. However, if they can get the scar tissue to stay at 15mm then my strictures will be a thing of the past. In order for that to happen I cannot let it get as bad as the last one was. They want to do the dilations earlier and this is all part of the long term plan. See that ones pretty good.

Another spin is that from a financial stand point it came at the best time possible. The appointment is for the week between Christmas and New Year and both Edie and I have the week off from work so neither of us need to take the day off. And most importantly it falls in this year’s health insurance calendar and thanks to the surgery I have blown past my yearly out of pocket. After the first of the year, I would have to cover my deductible/out of pocket all over again and these dilation cost over three grand a pop. See another good one. 

You buying any of this? Me neither, but it is what it is. I would love to say that these things just sneak up on you but they don't. You know that they are forming and you just have to deal with them. I have not been able to put any of the weight I lost with my last stricture back on, so today I sit at 189 pounds. The last stricture I had I let go too long. The stricture was a nasty one and I lost six pounds in four days. If I want to get ahead of these things I need to manage them and not let the manage me. So Christmas or not Christmas it has to be taken care of as soon as possible.

So I head back down Monday the 28^th and need to be there just before the butt crack of dawn for the procedure.  For those of you without a clock that reads butt crack time, my alarm will go off before 4:00 am so that I can make it to my appointment in Rochester by 7:00 am. When you are supposed to be on vacation, then four in the morning qualifies as butt crack time. 

They talked about doing it on Christmas Eve, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that.  We spend Christmas Eve with a good friend of ours in Princeton and the thought of having the procedure before going there just didn't appeal to me. They told me that they had plenty of openings though. I guess the giving of dilations for Christmas isn't on the hot products gift list again this year.   

So in the end:

If you are Good…  You get presents.

If you are Naughty.. You get coal.

If you are Roger in 2015…. You get a dilation.

We just need to add a little to the original story.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light, from now on, our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay, from now on, our troubles will be miles away

(Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas   Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane)