A Brand New Me
By Cindy Walker

Well, despite the major obstacles thrown in my path, I kept my appointment to have my varicose veins zapped. I was really looking forward to my visit, when I received a call from the doctor's office stating they had to reschedule my appointment because the doctor would be out of the office the day I was originally scheduled. So, they penciled me in for a week later, on August 11. OK, fine. No big deal.

Well, Monday morning was a typical drive to work – that is until I went to get on the freeway, and the transmission in my car decided it didn't want to go anymore. And that was the beginning of my truly wonderful week. I had a transmission shop look at it, and they estimated the repair to be at least $2,000. I just started to bend over. To make a long story short, my brother and sister helped me out and got the car moved to a garage closer to home, and I was able to get the repair bill down to $1,000. I went back and forth on whether to cancel my doctor's appointment because I already had $725 put back for that. On one hand I felt I should really put that money toward the car repair, but on the other hand I had wanted this procedure done for so long, and I'd finally taken the steps to begin the process to help me on my way to feeling good about myself again. I finally decided that if the doctor's office called again to reschedule the appointment, I'd take that as a sign that I needed to cancel the procedure all together and try again at a later date. If they didn't, I'd go ahead with the plans. They didn't, so I found myself keeping the appointment. I may live to regret that in more ways than one.

Just when you think the saga is over, here comes more car repairs. This time, they are coming in at around $850. Oh well – doctor's appointment was over, and Visa now loves me. Immensely.

Back to the tale of my doctor's visit. I arrived for my appointment just a little bit late. It seemed that no matter how hard I tried to get out of the office, someone was standing there wanting or needing something RIGHT NOW! But I finally made it. My first appointment was to discuss my weight loss, which I'd just rather not relive. However, the prescription I was taking did not work. It actually had the opposite effect and made me hungry. I have stopped taking it and hope it's worked its way out of my system. I finally got the guts to stand on that scale, and I have gained back nine of the 14 pounds I had lost earlier. That just sucks, and I am now in another one of those wonderful depressions where I keep asking myself why bother. Anyway, since I can't afford the Merida, we decided I would just try to get back on track with diet and exercise and see if I can begin to make a dent that way.

Then, it was the “magic” time. I was a little nervous because I really didn't know what to expect. How painful would it be? The doctor had told me it was like a rubber band snapping against your skin. OK – I gave birth to two children without drugs (and one was 9 lbs. 10 oz), so I could take a rubber band snap. I changed into my shorts and waited...and waited...and waited. Don't you hate that? Finally there was a knock on the door and the doctor came in. “Are we ready for this?” “Sure,” I said innocently and stupidly. I moved to the table, which was in a sitting position, and the doctor began putting cold gel on the areas to be treated. OK – it was cool as it has been refrigerated, so I thought, again stupidly, that it would “cushion” the zap. By the way, I looked lovely sitting there with all this goop on my legs. Finally he had all the treatment areas covered, and then the fatal last words were spoken: “Ready?” “Yep!” Then came the first zap, and the thought that ran through my head was “RUBBER BAND...MY ASS!!!!!!!”    more >>

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