That's a Long Time!

My heart surgery was two weeks ago this morning.  I'm praying that things get back to normal soon.  I don't feel like I'm myself, having to take things slow, forcing myself to get up and move and walk around, finding something useful to do to pass the time...  

Two weeks ago this morning, the anesthesiologist strode into the room where the nurse had just shaved me from collarbone to kneecaps.  He looked down at my left hand and said, "Your wedding ring."  I was wondering if that was going to be a problem.  I haven't taken it off since the evening that Tricia put it on my finger on our wedding night, October 20, 1990.  That's been 12,346 days.  Or 33 years, 9 months, 19 days.  That's a long time.

I've tried to take it off from time to time, but my left knuckle forbids it.  It is stuck on there.  When I think about the fact that it won't come off, it makes me a bit claustrophobic.  The anesthesiologist told me that they don't want to have me start swelling and have it be a problem.  I told him I give him permission to cut it off it it comes to that.  He squirted some gel on my knuckle and asked me to work on it.  I seemed to remember a trick with some dental floss, too.

I added more gel, and worked on it hard and whaddaya know?  It popped off!

There it is - like the Lord of the Rings.  My little precious!  I looked to see if my initials and Tricia's initials and our anniversary date were still engraved on the inside.  It was weird having it off after all those years.  (My fingernails were dirty at the time I took this photo.  I had been planting some fall cucumbers in the garden.)

I weigh about 10 pounds more now than the night we got married.  Tricia and I talked about taking the wedding band to a jeweler and having them re-size it for me.  I don't want it so big so that it easily falls off.  I want it tight enough where I have to work at it to make it come off.  I don't want to lose it.

That's a long time to have a wedding band on that's never come off.  You can see the pale line on my finger that's smooth and slender where it's been sitting all those years.