My Mom wouldn't make it in Hollywood

My mom would never make it in Hollywood. I now have proof. The land where Ashlee Simpson is coy about having her nose updated is a place where my mom would never fit in.

Four days after having eyelid surgery, my mom went to church - bruises, swelling and all!

I guess I need to back up a minute here. Okay, 11'ish years ago, my mom had cataract surgery on her left eye. While the surgery was successful, it left her eyelid stretched beyond its limits. (Think stretch marks from pregnancy, that kind of thing). 5'ish years later, she had the same surgery on her right eye. Fast forward to a couple-three months ago, and she's in for an eye exam to check on her eyeglass prescription. She's doing the eye chart exam, and has to literally lift her eyelid up in order to see the whole chart. (Her left eyelid - it has done the most drooping since her surgeries). The optician in that office does a vision field exam with her eyes "normal" and does one with her eyelids sort of taped up in the position that they should be. Big, huge difference. Don't get me started on how nervous this made me about her safety with driving and the like.
So, her ophthalmologist refers her to a plastic surgeon that specializes in eye surgeries and Mom proceeds to almost immediately start questioning whether or not she should do the surgery. She doesn't want to be seen as vain or as trying to look 35 or some such thing.

Let me interject something here. While I have always been leery of the idea of plastic surgery, and "messing around with what God gave you", I'm sure a lot of that stems from my extreme tight-fisted'ness with money. After seeing the results of Mom's surgery, I can honestly say that in some situations, this type of thing - even if it is done purely for aesthetic reasons - can be a really great thing! My opinion of the whole shebang is starting to change. Perspective can do that a person.

So, anyway, she finally takes a deep breath and goes in for the surgery not quite 2 weeks ago. Let's face it, if you have to lift up your eyelid in order to have a clear field of vision; if you are literally looking at your eyelid when you are looking straight forward, then this surgery can seriously improve your quality of vision.

And, bonus for Mom, you can see her whole eye again! No, she doesn't look 35 - at almost 70, that wasn't what she was going for anyway. But, the excess eyelids are no longer blocking her eyes so her whole face looks fresher. And, when I talked to her as she was on her way home from the actual surgery, she said she could already see a huge difference in her vision. Yay!

So, anyway, back to the Hollywood thing. We know most of the folks over there have all sorts of things fixed, sucked, tucked, pulled, and lifted. They exist in a world where image rules, so who can blame them? But their tight-lipped attitude about it seems to be more than just medical privacy. They're almost ashamed they had things "done". My mom, on the other hand - because she really hates missing church - showed up 4 days after her surgery looking like she lost 3 rounds with Mike Tyson. She came to Poodle's last swim lesson the next day still bruised and slightly swollen. And, no, she wasn't walking around with sunglasses on. Nooooo - she was out there for any one to see! Like I told her - she didn't do anything wrong. And what she did to fix her line of vision had the nice added advantage of opening her eyes back up.
Go Mom!!!

Now, is this about to lead to a life of botox and face lifts and restalyn? Nah. As much as she enjoys surgery (not!), all the rest of that stuff is not appealing to her. But I'm proud of her for not just doing what she needed to do, but for putting on her big girl pants and for trying hard to not be ashamed about it. Even though she was worried about people thinking she was vain. Even though she didn't want to be a subject of conversation. Even though she knew a lot of people might not understand.
Way to go!