Forever Young

A lot of my patients fly in solo, from all over the globe. But this one was a local bear who needed help.

You can see he’s pretty chubby, but he’d lost some stuffing from gravitational settling, particularly on his head and joints. His seams were suffering from the expansion (not just the ones in the photo). These were all treatable issues. He did have some light scarring on the side of his face from a previous accident, but the fur still felt nice, so treating it would be more invasive, and so I didn’t recommend that.

It took some time for him to come in, because his person, who is quite young, wasn’t ready for him to be gone for long, and so not only were there timing issues, but there was a question as to whether to have him cleaned as well, which would extend his stay. Eventually, everyone was ready and one Wednesday afternoon, after his youngster’s school, he was dropped off.

He started his care with the spa:

All new stuffing once he was dry relieved the lumpiness in his pre-op photos. But he still got a small amount of original stuffing in a heart in his chest:

Once restuffed, it was time to minimize his older seam scarring, and tighten up his other seams. Here he is, all better:

He went home to a very happy little girl and her family. They wrote:

He looks fantastic and D is so happy to have him back looking and feeling like new.

Thank you so much for your work on this.

They also asked for his story to be shared, so this is for D and her teddy bear. :-)

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Is the best part that he got doxxed? No.

Is the best part that he got tracked down by a local and beaten? No.

Arrested on state at federal charges, looking at up to 5 years and 50K? Nope.

The best part is the local city council's reaction.

It's already May 1st in Japan, and finally the day is here: it's time to wish happy 30th anniversary to our beloved Cardcaptor Sakura!!! 🥹🥹🥹

Sometimes I’m a full fledged surgeon, but sometimes I’m just an ophthalmological surgeon who provides a bit of spa relaxation on the side. That was the story for Towers.

His person wrote to me:

My sweet baby Towers suffered an incident. I am a college student, but nonetheless, I love my stuffed animals to death. I woke up this morning to find my 2004 Ty Giraffe Towers missing an eye. Thankfully, I do have the eye (and it is beat up, but if possible, I would like to keep him looking the same). I was hoping to get an estimate to fix the socket and fix it, and maybe since he is aging, give him a few good meals. I have been too scared to wash him for years, so maybe a bath would be nice. I would like him to not change too much. I teethed on his little top nubs that now look like sick dreads, I would like those to stay the same, just maybe sew up the bottoms so the top of his head isn't exposed. I have literally had this stuffed animal since the day I was born, and I care too much about him to lose him so finding your page seems like a true miracle.

As you can see, his eye actually broke off at the post, so he would need a new eye, but it is a fairly common style and I thought we could find a good match. He had also lost some of the posture in his spine, and had had quite a few grimy adventures, so we also agreed on a spa for his visit.

Here he is in his bubble bath:

You can already see his color coming back!

Once he was dry, he got restuffed including his small heart of original stuffing:

Next was the eye. We could keep the healthier eye, and just replace the damaged one, which is what you can see in this photo.

But the difference between a healthy shiny eye and an aged older eye is pretty obvious, so his person opted for two new eyes.

Here he is, getting his chubbiness approved. I always send photos of patients before they are closed up, so we can adjust chubbiness as needed. In this case, he has his new eyes, but his spine is open:

Those bottom two photos are me squishing him to show how dense his new stuffing is.

Towers got approved and flew home to Tennessee. She sent this photo of Towers back safely home:

And she wrote:

He made it home!! He looks so amazing - I am so happy!! Never in my childhood did he ever look this great. Thank you!! You are a true miracle worker!!

Towers wanted me to tell you:

“I had a great time at the hospital, thank you for taking such good care of me. I’ve never been out that far west before and it was a great fun trip! I hope me and my human can go out there soon!! Again thank you for making me feel better!! I’m so happy to be youthful again :)”

Again, eternally grateful for you! Greatful that you posted to NOT superglue eyes back in (because Towers then would have a bigger problem). I appreciate all you did for my boy. Thank you for bringing the joy in my childhood back to life again.