Reflection and a new/old avatar.

I have tears flowig....THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL....Thank you

Antionette

 Okay, you're trying to make us cry, aren't you?!  Both on the sentimental side and the team challenge!  

Thanks for your post!  It is too bad you feel ashamed and suspect you're not alone (well, I know you're not alone but can only speak for myself).  I would recommend you change the last paragraph to read She IS.... rather than she WAS.  Its like speaking of a person who has passed away.  Just because they're gone from our present reality doesn't make them past tense.  All the good they did, they still did.  All the love they are , they still are, it shouldn't change the tense of the subject to past tense because they have passed. You don't stop loving someone just because they are gone.  Just my opinion.  

That was kind of the point, Ian. She (the old me) has gone away - well, at least her physical self has. I agree with your points about still loving them once they're gone - and I do. All I was trying to say was that she/I are the same person - just in a different package.

Thanks for your thoughtful words. (And I will reach 100 Km one of these weeks... just not this week!)

You are both beautiful!  Thank you for sharing!

Wow - well said.  I had been thinking about another post and about avatars lately and how I don't really recognize a lot of the ppl who were around when I started on this site because they have changed their avatars.  In my mind, they are the people that I originally saw (old avatars) and who I would recognize in a minute and I don't really think of everyone as they are now after surgery.  After reading your post I realize that we are those people too, they are us.  No wonder I keep looking for those familiar faces!  and all I keep seeing are these skinny *****es.... 

Oh my goodness, I am sitting here at work with tears in my eyes. Thank you for posting this, it is very moving.

This journey is so bittersweet. Getting your life back is a wonderful thing, but there is so much pain from your pre-op life.

Yeah, there is pain but I didn't intend to make it sound like I wasn't a happy person pre-op. I was - but with limits. I feel like life now offers so much more to me (and I to it as I'm much more willing to take chances.)

I know I'm not always kind when I think/talk about the old me and I think "she" deserves better - so I'm going to try to be better at that.

Thank you for writing this. It was very beautifully written.

YOU are lovely. No matter the size of you.

OK... back to the new me.