by Didi Carr Reuben

I'd like to introduce you to Mary.a 56 year old patient who came to Costa Rica from Texas in November of 2005. Mary just recently retired from teaching school for nearly 35 years and Terry, her husband is recently retired from the nursing profession. Both decided that after all their years of hard work they each had earned a dream that until now, they didn't have the time or money to fulfill. Mary's dream was to have a complete physical make-over..a facelift, breast reduction and lift and a tummy tuck. Terry's dream was to buy himself a Harley.

Hello? How do you spell MIDLIFE CRISIS??????

Well, okay, forget the midlife crisis thing. Let's just stick with the "Dream" theme. Cause that's so much more romantic.and after all, this IS a love story.

Ok, so the first dream to be fulfilled was Mary's surgeries. Terry, Mary and I communicated about everything under the sun to do with the Costa Rica experience. Whatever questions I couldn't answer, or the website didn't answer, or Terry didn't have the answer to (it helped that he's a nurse!) Dr. Lev would answer..until finally after about six months of talking about it and planning for it.November 2005 came and Mary was off to Costa Rica for her exciting adventure.

This was the first time in almost 30 years of marriage that Terry and Mary were separated for longer than 24 hours. Mary had to stay in Costa Rica for three weeks because she was having three surgeries to be done in two separate hospital stays. She went in for her facelift first, then three days later, went back in for her tummy tuck, breast reduction and lift. Mary says it was too much surgery to do in one trip. There are too many things to heal from at once. After all, each of the three surgeries she had is considered a major surgery on its own. So having three done in one trip is a lot to ask of yourself.

But Mary was a trooper extraordinaire. Since I was there with Mary and her group, I was able to observe her before her surgery, the day of her surgery, and the days following her surgery until I had to leave. I admired her positive outlook so much. She always had a big smile on her face no matter how much she was hurting. She was always so grateful for this opportunity and showed her gratitude all the time by being a gracious and pleasant patient with Dr. Lev and everyone at the Villa Plenitud Recovery Retreat as well as wonderfully supportive to the other women in her group.

One day while visiting the Villa Plenitud, I went up to Mary's room to visit with her for a little while and she just happened to be on the phone with Terry. As she lay there all bandaged up from head to pelvis I heard her last words to her man before she hung up the phone....

"Your dream is next! The Harley.as soon as I get home!"

What a woman!

Mary and Terry talked almost every day. They missed each other so much. And Terry was always very supportive of what Mary was doing. He knew how important this was for her, and he was her rock throughout the entire experience.including the months prior to the surgeries and the months following. Terry took all the photos (except for the ones I took in Costa Rica) and sent them to me so that I could put them together for the website.

I hope you enjoy the photos in Mary's album. She is an inspiration to the rest of us girls and boys who have dreams.

P.S. Mary would be happy to correspond with anyone who might be considering a trip to Costa Rica for surgery with Dr. Lev. Her email address is maryjaneelwell@juno.com

The end
(enjoy the pics, please click thumbnal for larger image)

This is the first pic that was sent to me of Mary by hubby Terry	This was taken of Mary the night before her facelift at the Villa Plenitud	Mary the night before her facelift (side view)	Mary the night before her facelift (side view)	Mary and Didi at the hospital the day of her surgery
Mary and her private duty nurse Laura at the Cima Hospital	Two days after facelift and one night before her breast surgery and tummy tuck	Two days after facelift, the night before her breast surgery and tummy tuck	Two days after tummy tuck and breast surgery (reduction/lift)	Mary in her room at the Villa Plenitud six days after facelift, three days after the tummy tuck and breast surgery.
Six days after facelift, three days after tummy tuck and breast surgery	Six days after facelift. Mary and Didi in Mary's room at the V.P.	Dr. Lev at the V.P visiting Mary	Here’s Mary with her group and Ron (owner of the Villa Plenitud)	This was taken six weeks after Mary returned home
Mary two months after returning home from Costa Rica	Two months after returning home	Full body shot of Mary two months after returning home	This is Mary and Terry on New Year's Eve 2005!	Two dreams have come true... For Mary ....and Terry, too!
And here's Mary eight months after her surgeries