Skip to main content

The breast of me






Right now, your BMI is 35, said Dr. Ben. After the breast reduction, you'll be 30.1.
So, I'm not obese?
No, you're just overweight.

I stood in front of Scott the other day, in my underwear, and showed him my rapidly shrinking middle. He couldn't believe it.
I had to show him in my underwear because, to the outside world, I don't look a hell of a lot different.
And that's because of my boobs, cup size G.
They are all you can see when I'm coming at you. They hide the middle, giving off so much shade that it really doesn't matter what the rest of me looks like.
Nothing can live under there.
To repeat a hurtful joke once told to me, I haven't seen my feet in years.
And so it was, at my last physical, I asked Dr. Ben to book me a breast reduction, something I've been fighting for years. I always thought that breast reductions were selfish things in a world when women were losing their lobes to cancer. My superstitious mind kept saying: be careful of what you wish for young lady.
Be grateful that your breasts haven't become the enemy.
But the truth is, they have.
They are crippling me up top, dragging me down like a Quasimodo freak show.
I can't move my neck to the right. The top of my spine has a distinctive curvature, and I've invested thousands of dollars at the local chiropractic clinic.
Walking around with a size G cup is the equivalent of carrying around a couple of musk melons on your chest. Add to that the distinction of having dense breasts, it means that if I get a breast reduction, I'll lose about 15 pounds.
And so the time has come give them back to God.
Thanks for the mammaries, dude, but have them back.
Give them to some deserving girl who is bullied for being a carpenter's delight.

I've come to realize that having a breast reduction is not selfish, it's a medical necessity.
I am now disabled, limited in the scope of my activities, arthritic in the joints.
If I can't exercise, I lose mobility.
So the boobies have to go.

I don't want to be one of those women I see at the mall, whipping around in a wheelchair, simply giving up on life's possibilities.
I want to run, I want to jump, I want to buy a friggin' bathing suit that wasn't made at Ottawa Tent and Awning.
Sure, there are risks. Remember Kanye West's mom who went in for a breast reduction and a tummy tuck and came out dead? Those things happen, right Joan Rivers? But I'm taking precautions.
I've asked for a doctor who works out of the hospital instead of a clinic.
I'm only having one procedure done because the risk of surgery increases the longer you're down under.
Still, it's major surgery.
Major elective surgery covered by the nice folks who pay taxes in Ontario.
God, I'm lucky to live in Ontario.
So thank you all in advance for supporting me in my quest to go from obese, to overweight, to chubby.
Oh, but don't get too excited. The wait time is over a year.
My doctor has a lineup that goes around the province, a wait time of more than two and a half years.
I don't have that kind of time.
So Dr. Ben put me on the urgent list, God bless his little Belgian soul.
A year's not too long when you consider that I need to lose 30 more pounds before the doctor will operate.
So it's back to the gymnasty this morning.
The circle of life, and hope.
I have a new goal.
And new hope for the first time in decades.
Let's get 'er done.
 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What Bell isn't telling you about Fibe TV

Update: This week, we switched back to Rogers after spending far too long using Bell's crappy television service. For those with Bell, read and weep. For those considering Bell, think twice even if you hate Rogers. RS I've always been an early technology adapter. I had a Betamax. That tells you everything (if you're over 50 at least). My first computer was a "Portable". It weighed 40 pounds and I had to lug it around town on a gurney. I've been through probably 15 computers in my lifetime. Apple is the best. It's also too expensive so I have a piece of shit HP, the one I'm writing this blog on. I've had cable, internet and now Netflix. American Netflix . That's how far ahead of the curve I am. I get all the newspapers for free. How? I disabled my cookies so they can't track me when I'm on the newspaper sites. Even the New York Times hasn't cottoned on to that trick. Hahaha. That will be a fifty buck consulting fee. Bein...

Ashley Simpson: Please sign this petition to help her family

Those who read this space regularly know that my family is frantic with worry about my cousin, Ashley Simpson , who has been missing 40 days now. Both her boyfriend and her landlord reported that she had left with no money, no car, no resources from her Salmon Arm, B.C. home after a domestic dispute over money. Since then, there has been no trace of her. The RCMP now considers this a homicide investigation, but the family has not heard any updates from them in more than three weeks. Just after she disappeared, her father, relatives and friends set out from St. Catharines on a long trek to B.C. to find her. They all left their work, and their lives, intent on finding Ashley who had always kept in touch. It was completely out of character for her to lose touch. Her parents have been consumed by worry. They have been unable to work, and are having a hard time functioning. As a result, they are now relying on donations from family and friends to keep the wolf from the door...

The strange case of Greg Etue

I got out of the daily news reporting game, I'll admit, because I didn't have the stomach to cover the many sad stories that came across my desk. I remember clearly once when I had to call an RCMP sergeant after his young son blew his head off with the officer's service revolver. "Please," he pleaded. "I really can't talk right now." "It was your gun, is that correct?" He slammed down the receiver. I was ashamed of myself. People have a right to some privacy in difficult times like that. I also used to hate having to go to the door of a dead child's home and jostle the competition for a picture. Really, it felt more like ghoulism than journalism. That said, I still believe that these stories must be told in an honest and forthright fashion with all the facts and none of the flourish and emotion that is all the rage in reporting these days. Over the past two years, we, in this community, have been treated to a lot o...