Plastic Surgery Cheek Lift

For those of you that don't know this, fishermen by nature are a frugal lot.

Being penny wise and pound foolish is standard fare, and I am no different.

I recently noticed that the felt soles on my wading boots had become worn out on the bottom. I found this out the hard way,of course, discovering this while fishing on the river, going into my rendition of the "slick rock disco", and falling into "the drink".You would think I would have noticed that my felt soles had worn out and that I was now wearing hockey skates in the water, but with my wading boots being much like my car, I just get in them and go.

I headed on down to "The Blackbird", which is my favorite outdoor store--(not because of service or price but because they have this giant fifty foot,black and yellow blackbird statue in the parking lot)--and proceeded to reaquaint myself with wading boot prices. Having last bought wading boots circa 1990, fifteen years inflation certainly caused my jaw to drop.

Outside of standing there and looking like one of the "appalachian" characters from the movie Deliverance, I was quickly convinced that my boots still had plenty of life in them, and that a "re-sole-ing" was the answer. I found that my good friend Hodgeman made felt sole replacements for my boots, and that the fifteen dollar cost was quite reasonable.

I also thought this would allow me to "become one" with my boots and give me that nice "do it yourself" project, that gives one that warm satisfying moment when one feels self-suffecient.

You see it coming, don't you?

The instructions seemed fairly simple,Step 1: first remove the old felt soles.

Since. there wasn't much felt sole left, this didn't seem like a very demanding first step.
But, what was left was secured to the bottom of the boot like a barnicle to a pier. I pulled and peeled and cut, (and at one point seriously consideredusing my Dremel tool) until finally getting enough old sole removed.

Step 2: Spread a thin layer of supplied "felt sole cement" on the felt, wait 30 minutes.

This went rather well. No problemo.

While I waited, I "scuffed" up the bottom of the boots to help with the adhereing of the felt soles.
This seemed rather redundant, since I had gouged up the bottoms pretty well during the felt removal process.

Step 3: Repeat spreading of "felt sole cement", wait thirty minutes and secure felt to bottom of boots. Note:You may want to use a generous amount of tape to help hold the felt in place and help secure the heel and toe area.

Boy, was that an understatement.

After about a roll of duct tape and the use of some large c-clamps that were laying around, I think I finally got the felt to adhere to the boot. I say "think", because there is so much duct tape around the boot that I can no longer even see the felt sole and can only trust that the tape has secured the two surfaces together. Not to mention that the boots now look like a pair of freakish silver Michael Jackson dancing spats or a pair of "punked out" Air FrankenJordans.

Step 4: Allow eight hours drying time.

This is where I am at now.Past history tells me that nothing good can come of this.

I am afraid to remove the tape, feeling the same anxiety a plastic surgery patient feels when they remove the bandages. Maybe I am being a touch negative here, but I have the feeling when I remove the duct tape-- that of course assuming I can get the sticky duct tape off-- the felt sole will simply fall to the ground, be stuck to the duct tape, or that the shoes will scream"I'm alive, I'M ALIVE HA ha ha ha...."

At this point I feel compelled to show you an actual "un-retouched" photo of my boot repair operation. If you are unable to view this wherever you are reading this you might want to visit www.twoguyswithflys.com in order to get a full understanding.

Yes, these are my wading boots. This is what they have become!

Perhaps, the boots will remain shaped in this contorted figure that the duct tape-clamping combination has transformed them into. With my luck, I will be walking around with the toes pointed skyward like some "pixie shoed- fishing gnome", with leaves all stuck to the outer surface because of the tape "residue" left on the outside of the boot!!

Maybe, the soles will initially be fine and as soon as I hit the cold clear water of the Rogue river they will just simply shrink up and fall off.We all know about shrinkage and cold water-now don't we fellas?!

I just have a BAD FEELING about this!!

At any rate, I will be back down at the "Blackbird" this afternoon repricing wading boots.

As usual, I will have spent fifteen dollars more than the actual price of the boots, and wasted two hours "becoming one" with my boots.

I don't know what it is that makes us fishermen so frugal and why I continually get sucked into thinking I can "do-it-myself", but I know this won't be the last time...

...In fact, there is this pin hole in my breathable waders somewhere that I can't find, anyone know how much a patch kit is?

A.J. is a writer of fishing humor and the characters that are in and around the world of fishing. He also is a peddler of fly tacks?!~? You can view his fly tacks and get some laughs at http://www.twoguyswithflys.com His first book is due out in December of 2005.

In my pre-surgical consultation for gastric bypass weight loss surgery I remember asking my surgeon will I lose my breasts? He assured me, yes indeed, I would lose my breasts. Nine months and 100 pounds later they were gone. I was embarrassed by my after WLS breasts, now deflated skin balloons hanging low on my chest. My breasts my sexual pride and joy for so many years - were now ugly sloppy flaps of skin. I loathed my trimmed down naked boy-body. Something had to be done.

First effort: I increased my exercise: bench presses and butterflies. That didnt help. Any exercise that works the pectoral muscles will help tone the chest, but not the breasts. Breasts are not muscle tissue, they are fatty tissue, and therefore do not respond to weightlifting or resistance exercise of any type.

Second effort: I tried some rub-in creams ordered from the back of a fashion magazine. They promised to grow my breasts by two cup sizes. The promise was a lie; dont waste your money.

Last step: Consult with the plastic surgeon. He congratulated my weight loss, complimented my muscle tone (I really did do a lot of resistance exercise) and then he suggested mammoplasty & augmentation. He would take my deflated skin balloons, put them back front and center where they belonged and inflate them with implants. I was about 18 months out of surgery and had maintained my weight loss for two or three months. I felt confident the time was right to get on with the finishing touches.

The surgery was done under general anesthesia in surgical suite at the plastic surgeons office. He removed excess skin, lifted my nipples and repositioned them and inserted implants beneath the pectoral muscles. He closed the area with surgical tape and bound me in a surgical support bra. After I was awake from the anesthesia my husband took me home to rest and recover.

There was a great deal of pain from the muscles being lifted and moved in surgery. Also, the weight of the implants seemed great on my chest. Sitting was the most comfortable position. Lying down or standing caused discomfort. I took prescription pain medication for six days and then over-the-counter pain medicine for another two weeks. At first the breasts didnt look normal (whats normal about implants?) and I had the equivalent of breast postpartum sadness asking repeatedly What have I done to my body?

However, as the pain subsided so did my sadness or regret. My new breasts settled nicely onto my new small body and to this day I do not regret the procedure. I feel like a sexy, curvaceous woman the woman I never thought Id become.

For a detailed explanation of breast augmentation I recommend this article by Kimberly A. Henry, MD and Penny S. Heckaman WebMD Medical Reference from The Plastic Surgery Sourcebook found at www.webmd.com

Breast augmentation, or augmentation mammoplasty, has become one of the most frequently requested plastic surgery procedures by women of all ages. It is most commonly performed to increase the size of small breasts, correct a difference in size between the breasts, and for breast reconstruction following mastectomy for breast cancer. A breast implant is inserted either behind the breast tissue of each breast or behind the pectoralis major muscle, the major muscle of the chest wall, thereby increasing the size of the breast.

Kaye Bailey is a weight loss surgery success story having maintained her health and goal weight for 5+ years. An award winning journalist, she is the author and webmaster of http://www.livingafterwls.com and http://www.livingafterwls.blogspot.com

LivingAfterWLS is a no-nonsense resource for people Living After Weight Loss Surgery. Our community is growing in numbers even as we are shrinking in pounds. Together we support one another in this lifestyle, that it turns out, is NOT the easy way out.

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