Feeling somewhat wizard-ish, or ninja-ified, after getting into the surgery garb. Starting to get a bit stressed out thinking about the surgery and the month that lays ahead. Now absolutely dreading what is about to happen. Get back to my normal self for a few brief moments right before I get sent into the operating room. The very first thing I hear when I wake up, via Kristi: 'I need to get a photo of this.' At this point, I am feeling really good while eating some graham crackers and pounding apple juice. I wasn't allowed to eat for the 14 hours prior to surgery, so I was taking in everything they offered. Yeah, feel pretty good, playing around with the oxygen meter, or whatever that was, on my finger. High. As. A. Kite. Starting to feel less awesome. The pain is setting in, the painkillers are knocking me out, and have an overall feeling that I just got hit by a bus. Can't really see a whole lot going on with the toe, but I can sure feel it at this point. That still doesn't look that bad, but it doesn't look too natural either. OK, it doesn't look *that* bad. Lots going on here. The painkillers were making me terribly nauseous, but it was impossible to squat by the toilet with my toe being pinned. Also, my foot would throb with pain if I left it below my heart for more than 15 seconds. So, I had to camp out on the floor next to the toilet until the nausea passed, with my foot propped up on a drawer to keep the pain manageable. This was by far the low point of the entire process. Yeah, definitely the low point. At least, my good friend, The Tuna, had some sympathy for me, and tried his best to keep me warm. I think I still might have been a little bit high from the drugs. After a couple days, I got the OK to remove the bandages from the toe. It honestly makes my stomach turn to look at the toe with the pin hanging out of it. Eesh. I am not amused with this. Ew. Some marker, some bruising, some blood, and one toe with a stupid pin in it. Two-to-four weeks left, and I should be as good as new. I can't wait to get this thing out of me.