Saturday, June 29, 2013

First Full Day in the Office in June
Saturday,  June 29, 2013

Can you believe I managed to get through the month of June and only spent one full day in the office and three partial days?  What a mess I had to go through to have most of the month off!  I broke my left elbow June 1 and had surgery to set it June 3.  On June 10, I had my Cochlear Implant surgery.  So here I am at the end of June.  How am I doing?  Not too bad.


My elbow is healing nicely as far as I can tell.  Almost all of the bruises are gone.  There is still swelling around the elbow, which does not allow full range of motion, but the range is fairly good.  Hopefully that will continue to improve.  The biggest challenge is not using it.  I am not to use it at least until I see the doctor July 18, but it is really hard to constantly remember that.  It is almost impossible for me to open a Zip lock bag with one hand.  So many challenges!

My hearing loss and Cochlear Implant present a different set of challenges.  I am really  having trouble with the ear bud to my amplifier; it keeps falling out of my ear.  They make different size caps for them, but none seem to really help.  I will be so glad to get rid of that "chain" in a few days.  Of course, since that ear bud is in my bad ear, hearing is difficult anyway.  Tomorrow for church I may go back to the headphones.  I think the surgery spot is now healed enough for that.

Back to my mention of a full day at work.  Friday, Ron took me to the office when he went in that morning.  It was the last work day for the month so I had a variety of tasks that needed my attention.   I started on the posting early in the morning.  Then about 10:00 my mom picked me up to take me to the dentist.  I had a dental appointment scheduled for June 3 to check on a chipped tooth, but had to cancel that when I broke my elbow and had surgery that day.  The dentist eventually decided to "let well enough alone" on the tooth since there is no pain. 

Mom picked me up and took me back to the office.  Our oldest grandson was there for much the day and it is always good to have time with him.  Our grand children are home schooled and I often use my time with him to be sure he is up to date on his current events.  He was on top of things this week.  Made me wonder if he has finally gotten interested or if my lack of hearing just meant I hadn't heard anything that wasn't common knowledge.  I think he is just doing a better job of keeping up. 

There was more posting to do, reports to prepare, spread sheets to fill out, and statements to prepare for customers.  I had books to balance and bills to pay.  By mid afternoon I was ready for a nap, but my desk is too hard for sleeping.  By the end of the business day, I was still a little ways from being ready to wrap it all up, so Ron called our friends and set our supper with them for an hour later than usual.  After closing time, he took a deposit to the bank that I had prepared while I finished the reports for the accountant.  All is now done except for balancing the checkbook, but the statement won't arrive until the end of next week.

I was mentally exhausted, but it was a good feeling to have all of the bookkeeping done since we will be closed most of next week for our Houston trip and the 4th of July holiday.  I feel like I have slept through June. 

Speaking of sleeping through a month, our youngest son has had a couple of doctor visits this month to check on a fever and sore throat and ear ache.  It turned out he got a call from the doctor Friday with results on blood work they had done and it turns out he has mononucleosis (mono).  I told him that I had it 50 years ago and would go on line and see what they are doing to treat it these days.  Turned out, nothing has changed.  The doctor's orders are: rest, rest, rest, and lots of liquids, and Tylenol.  So he may sleep away a good bit of a month while he tries to get over this exhausting disease.  Again, his mom can't go help.  That is hard, but there are others who will step in and do it for me.

We finally did join our friends for supper.  This was the first time we had been out to eat all month except for a stop on our way home from Houston.  It was nice to be back to some normal routines.  Our friends the  Lawlers have been our regular Friday night dinner companions for more years than we can count and my friend Pat (Patricia) has spent years repeating things over and over to me, but I have never seen her grow impatient with me or act like something wasn't worth repeating.  Once my hearing improves, our suppers together may be shorter if she only has to say things once.  Friends are treasurers!

I arrived home tired and ready for a hot bath, but first took time to do the mono research for my son.  After sending him my findings, I got that hot bath and then returned to the computer.  Our daughter-in-law Vickey and I have worked out a system for our evening chats.  She calls.  I get on the phone in front of the computer and she does the same 1,200 miles away.  She types a question or statement in a private Facebook message to me.  I verbally answer her on the phone.  Then she types her next comment or question and again I answer her out loud on the phone.  We spent about an hour and a half last night catching up on news with each other.  She, like my friend Pat, is patient and goes the extra mile to keep the lines of communication flowing.

Today was a lazy day.  My sweet housekeeper came and while she cleaned, I got several loads of laundry done.  I had been hungry for oatmeal cookies all week so I mixed up a batch.  A friend from my quilt group showed up with a wonderful meal for us.  She and another lady in the group had gone together to fix some goodies that will probably take care of us until we leave for Houston.  About the time we sat down for lunch, Mom called that she was going to stop by.  She brought some additional treats and was able to stay and have lunch with us.  We had a nice visit and she helped put away left overs before she headed home.  It seemed that an afternoon nap was in order.  The afternoon was spent reading and napping and that is not a bad way to spend a hot, South Texas Saturday afternoon.

God continues to meet all of our needs at the office.  Customers have been understanding about our irregular hours lately and many often ask for updates on my health issues.  Nearly everyone this past week:  family, friends, customers, etc., have asked if I am nervous about my trip to Houston next week to have the Cochlear Implant activated and programmed.  Nervous is not the term that comes to mind for me.  I am not sure I can even put those feelings  into words, but I will try.

I don't have any reason to not believe that I will hear sounds at an almost normal volume.  I say almost normal because they don't set it at full volume in the beginning since that would probably be overwhelming for me.  The volume will be gradually increased over the first month.   I won't know what I will actually hear until they activate it. 

Last week, I read a blog by a man who said in the beginning when his implant was activated, he heard beeps and squeaks which sounded like R2D2 from Star Wars.  Our son Jeff had an R2D2robot that constantly emitted those sounds as it wandered around the house following Jeff's remote control commands to the little guy.  I said if that is what I hear, surely I should be able to understand it after listening to that little robot for years.

The the man said after a few weeks the voices he heard sounded like Alvin of Alvin and the Chipmunks fame.  Again I should adapt well.  One year on vacation our boys had gotten tape recorders that had variable speed control on them.  They would record their voices and then play them back at the fast speed and it did sound like Alvin was with us for thousands of miles that summer.  Of course now that I think about it, both R2D2 and Alvin nearly drove me crazy!  I am eager to hear real voices: the voice of my husband, our sons and their wives, and those precious grand children, as well as our moms and extended family and friends.  It just may take a while to get to that point.  Our youngest grand daughter has only started talking since I lost my hearing.  I am eager to hear what she has to say to her Grandma!


Impatience might be the word to describe my feelings about the trip to Houston.  I want to start HEARING!  I want to be able to ask a question and HEAR the answer.  I want to HEAR when my husband walks into the house, and not jump out of my chair when he puts his hand on my shoulder to alert me to the fact he is home.  My request to those of you who believe in the power of prayer is that you would pray for me to be patient in this whole process.  Pray that frustration would not overwhelm me, and that I would understand all of the many instructions we will be given this next week.  There will be so much to learn!


4 comments:

  1. Sounds like you're feeling better. I'm so glad! Will be praying all goes well in Houston this week and the first sounds you hear will be a lot more normal than predicted! Love you!

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    1. Thanks, Tiny, I am finally feeling good. I think Thursday was the turning point; it dawned on me part way through that day that I felt fine. I hope your prayer is answered. I would love to be able to understand speech quickly.

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  2. Thank God for friends & yes they are treasures to be had. I's so excited about the dr turning on your "new ear"!! I'd love to be there but will wait patiently for your post. As I work my daily routine, I drop in a prayer for you & will continue to do so!! God answers prayers so everybody put your hands together please!!!

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    1. Thank you, Dottie for the frequent prayers. It really is a blessing to have so many people praying. I hope to be able to post Tuesday night after the first day of work with the new device and the visit to the surgeon.

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