A Funny Experience I Had (a writing prompt)

I've been frustrated lately because I cannot, for the life of me, think of anything to write about that I haven't written a hundred times before! I don't want to break my streak of writing every day, but it's hard to think of stuff. So, I'm going to choose topics from my writing prompts here and there when I can't think of what to write.

When I was looking through the topics, this one jumped out at me because I was just talking about it a couple of days ago.

It happened in 2013. I had worked it out with my sister's husband, Shawn, to surprise Jeanie by showing up the day before her first half-marathon and running the race with her. She had been a little bummed about running it by herself, so I thought it would be fun to show up and do it together. She was super surprised when she saw me at her house, and we had a fun weekend!

Anyway, while I was at her house, a friend of hers stopped by (I forget his name). After a quick introduction, Jeanie left us outside for a minute while she ran into the house for something. I'm terrible at small talk, but I said it was nice to meet him and explained why I was visiting Jeanie for the weekend. 

He replied that he'd met my "other" sister a few years ago when she visited. I was confused--I only have one sister. After a bit of questioning to figure out who he might be referring to, I realized that he was probably talking about ME--before I'd lost the weight.

I asked him, "Did she look a lot like me, only heavier?" and this question obviously made him uncomfortable (never comment on a woman's weight, of course). I was kind of eager to see if I was right, though, so I said, "I think you might be talking about ME--I lost 125 pounds a few years ago, so I look a bit different!"

He laughed then and realized that he was, in fact, talking about meeting me. He knew he'd met Jeanie's sister, but didn't recognize me after I'd lost weight. I thought it was hilarious and it totally made my day! Haha.

One other funny story regarding my weight loss...

After I had my skin removal surgery, I was really nervous about post-op complications--my incision coming apart, hematomas, etc. I was inspecting my incision frequently and everything seemed to be healing fine. Until about a week after my surgery.

Here is what I wrote about it back when it happened:

Last night I noticed that my left hip was hurting a little bit more than usual. There is a drain there that hasn't had any drainage since the day after my surgery. I poked around a little, and felt a hard lump. I immediately started thinking of all the bad things it could be-- hematoma, seroma. I was very careful with how I slept last night to avoid any trauma to it.

This morning, when I was taking a shower, I noticed that it's definitely a noticeable lump. I pressed on it and it felt really hard, so I didn't think it was just normal swelling. I showed my mom, and she was worried that the drain tube was blocked, and all the fluid was just collecting in there. I called my doctor (who is away) and one of the residents who works with her called me back. She asked me about all the usual signs of infection, and I had no other symptoms. She said for peace of mind (if nothing else), I could go to the nearest emergency room and have it looked at.

I debated whether to go, and finally decided I would rather be safe than sorry. So my mom drove me to the ER, and I was seen right away. The first person to check it out (a nurse practitioner) seemed completely undisturbed, but he got a doctor to come look. The doctor was pressing around, and I pointed out the spot. I said, "It's a hard lump right here. It's hard enough that it feels like my hip bone."

The doctor said, "Katie, that IS your hip bone."

Hahahaha! Boy, did I feel dumb. I'd spent $100 on an ER co-pay only to learn that I did, in fact, have hip bones. I'd never felt them before--I was always overweight/obese and then I had excess skin that covered them. At least the experience made for a funny story, though ;)  (Here are all of the posts regarding my skin removal surgery--it's been just over nine years! I can't believe it. This year, I'll have to write a 10-year post-op update.)