I really don’t have much to say today – I spent today getting ready for our trips. I didn’t spend much time recognizing the extra-ordinaryness going on around me. It takes practise, I will keep practising!
But I will share something with you that I think is extra-ordinary.
Another person showed up in the news today after having a face transplant 3 weeks ago. He was horribly burned as a baby in a house fire and has not been able to ever lead a normal life since. Can you imagine how you would have developed if the people you meet or interacted with were either scared or pitied you from the time you were a baby? I find that surgeons can now help people with such disfiguring injuries absolutely mind blowing. Every time that a story like this comes up in the news, I try to check the status of all the 20 face transplants completed to date – what do they look like, how have things improved, has their life improved? I am fascinated by their journey, although so many of the patients limit their media exposure after their surgeries. I can imagine after years of not being able to leave the house, that it must be so wonderful to NOT be studied, or observed, but to be one of the many people in the world going about their business. They just want to be left alone to not be extra-ordinary.
I also find it amazing that the bone structure of the patient tends to override the features of the transplanted face. That the patient will often start to look like their old selves – although still different – after a year or two.
Isabelle Dinoire – the first partial face transplant face – said she initially felt disgusted having someone else’s body on hers but has learned to accept it. She also started to sprout hairs on her chin which she does not like very much. Really, does anyone?
February 20 Extra-Ordinary Event: Full Face Transplant.
The Daily EO 