Thank You!!

I know there are so many people out there who are praying for me. Even people I don't know!! I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! That means more to me than anything. It's wonderful knowing that family, friends and friends of friends are sending a word up to God on my behalf. I really feel that God has led me to this place and He'll get me to wherever He wants me to go in His own time. I may have to take the scenic route, but I'll get there eventually!! Maybe with all of your prayers, He'll help me get there a little faster! We know that prayer can accomplish great things!! So, again, Thank You so very much and please continue to put in a little word for me every now and then. :-)

I am starting to see some slight changes. My beeping isn't just a high pitched squealing tone anymore. I still get a lot of that, but I'm also getting more variance in the sound. Just this evening, Rick, Mom and I were in the car. Mom was sitting in the back and was talking to Rick. I could hear her talking----couldn't understand a thing, but I could hear her talking. What I was hearing reminded me of the teacher on Charlie Brown --- wah wah waaah waah wah wah waah. If you've ever watched Charlie Brown, you know what I mean!!!

I don't know how to explain what I'm hearing. It's like I can hear the syllables and I'm picking up a variety in sound. I still don't get any actual word sounds, but I feel like if I could get a little more input, I think I could guess at what's being said.

I've only been hooked up for 4 days and I'm already seeing changes!! Life is good!!!

I can also get my head piece on much easier! Thank goodness!! The head piece is the part with the magnet that sticks to my head. It's too weird to reach towards the back of my head and stick a magnet to it!! It's just wild!!! Anyway.....the first couple of days I fought with that thing for 20 minutes in the morning!! Ohhh, I can get it to stick to my head, but as soon as I try to fluff my hair around it, it falls off. After I go through this about 15 times, it starts to get a little aggravating. Even if I fluff with one hand and hold the head piece with the other, it still manages to fall off!! When I saw Meg on Wednesday, she put a little stronger magnet in the head piece and that definitely helps, but I still have to be careful. However, this morning, I think it only came off about 3 times. I'm definitely improving!!!

However, on a whole 'nother topic that has nothing to do with anything.......I just have to tell you.......screws at Lowes are EXPENSIVE!! Rick needed to buy a few screws (it's been project day at our house!), so off to Lowes we go! I love going to Lowes. I can browse and browse.......always find something I need!! Weeeeelllllll, we picked up a few more things...we always do!! Those few little puny screws ended up costing us $156!!! See!!! I told you that screws from Lowes are EXPENSIVE!! Beware!!!

Day 2

Well, not a whole lot to report from today. We went back to see Meg and she tweaked my programs a little. I'm still hearing a high pitched tone, but sometimes it seems I may get a smidge of variety in the tone. I have 3 programs like I did yesterday. As I max out the volume on the first one, then I move up to the second, max it out, then move on to the third. I don't go back to the audiologist for 2 weeks. However, if something comes up and I feel the need to go in, she's just a phone call away!

Meg was pleased that I heard Scarlet "beep" at me last night! Even though I'm not hearing actual sounds, I'm still picking up things that I normally would not hear. My beeping is a normal occurrence and with time it will change into real sounds. It's just going to take a while. She also said that people with my type of steep slope hearing loss will generally have a little harder time. By "steep slope" I'm referring to the fact that I had hearing in the low tones, but it dropped off in a steep slope from there. People who have a more flat hearing loss will adapt more easily. Why do I always have to be in the "problem" category??? Somebody tell me WHY!!! Oh well, it will come. It may take a little longer, but it will happen eventually!!

I need to start hearing therapy soon! I need to get some books on tape and the actual book that goes along with it. That way I can listen to someone reading the words and I can follow along so that my brain can put the two together. Also I can read out loud to myself or have Rick read out loud and I follow along. That way the brain hears the word and sees the word and that will help it make sense of what it's hearing. This will really help things along, however, I can't rush things. The brain will adapt at it's own speed. I can help it, but I can't push it.

Right now my brain is getting information and sounds that it has not heard in a million years. It has no clue what to do with this info. It is also receiving the information in a weird way. It's not coming in by way of normal hearing, but there's an electronic device in my cochlea that is sending electronic impulses up my auditory nerve.......my poor brain is all confused!! It doesn't take much to send it into a frenzy!! But with time it will figure it all out.

Well, I just heard the phone ring!! That's something I don't usually hear. Right now it's fairly quiet. Rick has laid down to take a nap, the kitties are snoozing and I'm here at the computer. There's no other noise. If it's noisy, it's hard for me to pick out a specific sound because it all blends in together and gets overwhelming. All I hear is one big mass of noise. Quiet can be really nice sometimes!!!

Oh!! Something else!! After surgery, Dr. Jones told us that there was one electrode that wasn't functioning correctly. They can hook up the implant to a computer to get a reading from each electrode to see how it is doing. Meg explained more about it today. The first time he inserted the electrodes, they got bad readings on 6 electrodes. That was entirely too many. He took it out and tried again. The second time there was just the 1 electrode. That's not bad, so he left it alone. Usually the electrode may be too close to something in the cochlea, there may be swelling or it's just in a bad spot. However, she ran another test yesterday and they are all working great!! The "bad" one has adjusted or moved or whatever it does, and now its reading is right in line with all the others! YAY!!!!! That's great!

That's about it for today. I thought this was going to be a short post. That's what I get for thinking!!! Hopefully in a few days I'll have more juicy stuff to report!!

Here is Scarlet -- The Wonder Beeping Kitty!!

Activation Day!!

Today was the day!! I had high hopes but no real expectations. I've been told over and over to not get my expectations up and then be disappointed. I knew that most likely things would not start out great. Of course, I HOPED they would, but didn't expect them to. Meg put the processor on my ear and the magnet on my head, then plugged me into the computer. Here I am getting ready to start the process.






Then Meg punched some buttons on the computer, started talking to me and I was to tell her when I either heard something or sensed something. I finally started hearing some noise which was very similar to all the ringing that I have. I had to wait for it to get fairly loud to be heard above the ringing. (I hope that once I start "hearing", that the ringing will quiet down. However, that's a wait and see kind of thing.) She would mess more with the volume and then ask me how loud it was. In this picture she's pointing to the chart and I'm trying to tell her what I'm experiencing.

We did this several times so that the volume is about a 7, which is fairly loud without being too loud. We want it loud so that the brain can start getting used to hearing. Also, most likely, the volume will start to decrease for me fairly quickly as the brain gets used to it. If things start getting softer this evening or tomorrow before I go back to see Meg, then I am to turn up the volume. Once I max out this program, there are 2 more programs on my processor which will increase the volume. As things get softer, I keep upping the volume.

As of right now, I'm not truly hearing any real sounds. Everything sounds the same. All I'm getting right now are beeps. All noises are just beeps. Just what I need......more beeping in my head to join all those voices that talk to me!!! We've decided that it could be aliens trying to communicate!! I've got to figure out what the beeps mean!! They could be telling me where the secret stash of money is!!! I'VE GOT TO FIGURE THIS OUT!!!!

Yes, I had high hopes that I would be one of those people who came home and really heard some things. I didn't truly expect it, but hoped for it just the same. I'm not disappointed because I know things will get better. Things will change quickly. It's a process that will take time, time and patience, patience, patience!!!

For the first 3 months, we will work mostly on volume. Then after that, move into more programming.

I do have to say that I am hearing beeps that go along with sounds that I don't normally hear. Rick rang our doorbell, which I have never heard, and I could hear a soft beep. We tried the cell phones, and I heard them ring........well...beep. As I said, all sounds right now are the same beep. As I type, the keyboard beeps. When we were coming home, Rick was messing with me and would be looking the other way and make soft sounds......well, I heard the beeps. I'm hearing a lot of beeping that goes with things I wouldn't usually hear........but a person can only listen to so many beeps!!!

I'm excited to see all the new upcoming changes!! Hopefully before too long, I'll start to really hear and be able to make out what the sound is. I guess I'm going to have to get to work on re-training this old brain!!

I just now heard Scarlet (one of my cats) beep for the first time!!!! I've never heard any of them meow. Well, she beeped for me!!!! Love that baby girl!! I'll throw some cat pictures on here before too long so you can see my babies..........I have 4 of them.

So, that's where I am right now. Just sitting here listening to lots of beeps!! I'll let you know tomorrow what's new.

Beep on!!!!!

2 MORE DAYS!!

It's getting close!!! Thank goodness! I am soooo ready to get hooked up and see what happens. I sure hope I can make sense of things and I hope it's not all just a big jumble of noise. We'll see. It's different for everybody, and everybody adapts at their own speed. We will know pretty soon!!

Don't have any real news to report. Nothing going on.......just waiting.

While we're at the audiologist on Tuesday, I do plan to have the doctor look at my lump and see if everything is ok. I think it's just the way the implant sits, but I want to know for sure.

Well, that's about it. Sorry nothing juicy!!

6 More Days!!

Less than a week till hook up day!! Wheeeeee!!! I am ready to get a move on!!

Now I'm having a weird issue. First of all, let me say, I have ringing in my ears all the time. For as long as I can remember, they ring and chirp and squeek and make all kinds of noise all the time!! Since surgery, the implanted ear rings continuously. That's not a problem. It happens to most everyone.

Last night Rick and I went to the gym for the first time since my surgery. We walked around the track for a while, then started to jog a little. Shortly after starting to jog, the ringing in the implanted ear started to get much worse. Well, I would jog a little and then walk some more, then jog a little, then walk. However, each time I tried jogging, the ringing got much worse. It got to the point that it was overwhelming and overpowerful. It was bad!!!! So I had to give up on the jogging. This morning Rick called the doctor to see if there might be a problem. They've never heard of this and have no clue what the problem is or why it is happening.

Well, this evening I figured I would see if it happened again. Rick and I went out walking and jogging in the neighborhood (spring is in the air!!!). As long as we were walking, everything was normal.....just the usual ringing. When we started jogging, it took about 45 seconds for the ringing to start intensifying. About that time we came to a little hill and stopped running. I'm just getting back into jogging, so I don't do hills yet. :-) But yes, it looked like it was going to be the same thing. However, the next time we ran, it was downhill. As long as we were going downhill, the ringing didn't get worse. As soon as things leveled out and I had to put forth more effort, the ringing started cranking up. If there was a little incline, it got much worse. We did either 4 or 5 jogging sections and it happened every time. I would always stop before the ringing got to the overwhelming point. However, the last time I just about pushed it too far and it started to cross the line to overpowerful/painful. I wonder if it has to do with a rise in pulse rate/blood pressure. It's just all so strange!

Also, I have a lump that is right behind the incision line. It's a pretty good lump. It doesn't hurt or anything. While Rick had the nurse on the line this morning, he asked about that too. They said if it's not swollen or painful, it's probably just the way the implant is sitting on the bone. When we came in from our walk/run this evening, I happened to feel of it. Wow! It's much bigger!! Still not painful, but MUCH bigger!

It looks like I'm going to be one of those problem patients!!! They will start talking ugly about me before too long!

So, I guess Rick is going to call them back tomorrow and let them know that the lump grew! If it goes down by tomorrow morning, we'll probably just ask about seeing a doctor when I go to the audiologist on Tuesday. If it looks like there might be a problem, they may want to check me out sooner. I sure hope I don't have issues! I don't like being a problem child. I swannie!!

I guess we won't be doing any more running until I get things checked out. I don't want to screw something up!

Fun With An Implant!

Not much has been happening this week. Well, I've been busy, but there's nothing juicy to write about. We tried several times to find the magnet in my head, but never could get anything to stick to it. Well, last night we found it!!! It sits back a lot farther than we thought. If you have an implant, you can stick refrigerator magnets to your head!! I know you all are jealous!!

This one actually has different colored lights that blink on and off.....you can't see it in the picture.....but it looked really cool!! When I walked in the bathroom to check it out, I could just see all the lights blinking......I felt like Data from Star Trek Enterprise!!! Not too many people can stick a flashing magnet to their head! I feel so special!

Things are healing up nicely. You can't tell it from the pictures because we've been messing with my hair, but my bald spot is mostly covered and you really can't see it when my hair is fixed right. Also, my hair is growing back fast. It won't be long before it's even with the rest of it!

I've got 2 or 3 little scabs at the top of the incission, but for the most part, it's just a faint line. Still somewhat red, but not bad at all!! I'm very impressed with the whole hair/incission part. Yay!!!

Here is a picture of Romy, Rick and Keegan. (My husband and my 2 little nieces) They are anxiously awaiting the Easter bunny!!

Here is Keegan hording the cat toys!!

Staple Free!!

Today was staple day!! I was very surprised.......it was not bad at all! There were 25 in all. The 3 at the top have been very sore. Any time that I touched them, they were pretty painful, so I really expected them to be bad. They did hurt. Not like OH MY GOSH I'M GOING TO DIE!!!, but more like OOUUWWIIEEEE!!! The rest of them were nothing. No pain. Barely felt them. I was a happy girl!!! The doctor said everything looked great. I guess I won't be seeing him anymore, but will now just be seeing my audiologist, Meg.

Meg saw us as we were going in at the office and while we were waiting for Dr. Jones, she came back and talked to us. We had misunderstood something that Dr. Jones told us in the hospital and thought that one of the electrodes was not able to be inserted into the cochlea. However, Meg said that the first time Dr. Jones inserted them, they did not get good readings. (While I was in surgery, after Dr. Jones did the implant, Meg then came in and hooked me up. They make sure the implant is working ok and that everything looks good.) Since they were not happy with the readings, Dr. Jones re-inserted the electrodes and the second time they were much happier with the readings. She said there was one electrode that had a higher reading than it should have, but lots of times, after things have time to settle down, then they will get the reading they want. She talked to us quite a while about what to expect and things to come! Of course, Rick had to ask her lots of technical questions. Poor Meg......I felt sorry for her!!

Things are going great!! I have felt really good and haven't had any more episodes. I think all of that is behind me now. Thank the Good Lord!! I've not had any problems driving and no problems with going to work. The only trouble there is the piles and piles of stuff staring me in the face needing to be done NOW!!!

So now we just wait.......and wait.......and wait. Hook up day is 2 weeks from today!!! I am very anxious for that!! At times, all of this just seems surreal. I guess it's the not-knowing exactly how things are going to be and also all the waiting. Sometimes I'm just sitting there minding my own business and all of a sudden I get that WHAT IN THE WORLD HAVE I DONE feeling. For a brief second I'll feel like I have made a horrible mistake. But that passes and I know that I have done the right thing. Also, I guess part of it is that right now since the implanted ear is useless, things are much harder for me to hear and understand. Today has been especially bad. I don't have a clue why, but my left ear has been very stopped up so I'm not hearing much of squat out of that ear! It's been a hard day.

Then to beat it all......I scooped 5 bags of dog poop this evening and there's still tons more!!! Oh my gosh!!!! How can they poop that much!!???

Much Better!

I think I'm finally over it!! Thank the Good Lord!!! I've had a really good weekend. I've been out and about a lot and have felt good the whole time. Yesterday I got a hair cut and then visited with my friend Holly. Today was church and lunch at PF Chang's, then home to do some cleaning. A few days ago I realized why it was taking me so long to feel better -- it wasn't actually a surgery problem -- it was PF Chang's withdrawals!!!! My close friends and family know that PF Chang's is my very FAVORITEST EVER!!! They finally built one in town and it opened in mid December. Let me just say.....I have eaten there often! However, with everything else going on, I've not been for almost a month --- SEE....I'm having withdrawals!!!! So, today, Mom and I went and chowed down on lettuce wraps!! OH MY!!! They are sooooooooooooooo good!!!

Tomorrow I go back to work. I've been off almost 2 weeks. I'm sure Dana and Regina will be so glad to see me......they won't have to do my work anymore!

I want to send a HUGE Thank You to lots of people. I have had so many people send me flowers, gifts, food, cards, and I've gotten a lot of emails and phone calls. I greatly appreciate everyone's prayers, concern and love!! It has truly meant so much to me.

Also, Rick has taken such good care of me. He has really waited on me hand and foot. He's such a good boy!!

Tuesday is back to the doctor to get the staples removed. I hope that's not too bad. That area is still pretty sore. Then I have to wait 2 more weeks for hook up day. WooHoo!!! That's probably going to be a long 2 weeks.

Getting There!!

Well, I think I'm finally on the home stretch!! I had another bad evening on Wednesday, but Thursday was a very good day. Rick called the doctor's office to let them know what was going on. They wanted me to remove the motion sickness patch and also to get up and about more. Apparently I have to get used to the way things are and work at getting my equilibrium back. I was nervous about taking the patch off, but everything went great and I was never dizzy or woozy. It was the best day I've had since the surgery. Today I ventured out. Mom and I went out for lunch and I drove. I figured I needed to see how it was going to affect me. All went well!! It was nice to actually get out of the house.

Today is just a FABULOUS day!! It's sunny and about 70 degrees. So, I went out and cut back my rose bushes. I only have 4 so it took about 5 minutes. Then I went out back and started scooping dog poop. That's always a fun job!!! I've just barely got started. There's TONS of it out there!! Joy, joy, joy.

So, things are finally starting to get better. I go back to the doctor on Tuesday to get my staples taken out. That is making me nervous!! I really didn't think that it would be too bad. But today while I was getting ready, my fingernail hit a staple twice. OUCH!!! That really hurt!!! So I can't imagine what it's going to be like when somebody starts ripping them out of my head.

Well, that's about all for today. I may actually go to Walmart later on. Wheeeee!! It's a big day for me!!!!

Boy, That Was A Bad Idea!!!!!

Well, I was doing pretty good yesterday and thought I would go to work today. Yesterday I was up and about more and felt good. I still got light headed after a while, but it was a big improvement from previous days. So, I thought I would be able to make it to work. Big, Big mistake!!! I got up and got ready. I was tired, but still feeling good. However, as soon as I started driving, all of that changed. I started feeling horrible. I don't know if it was the motion of the car or the vibration or what. And I can't explain what it felt like. It was totally different. I wasn't dizzy or light headed, but just felt very weird and spacey. I was scared for me and everybody else on the road. I just kept praying that God would get me there safely. Well, I did make it to work, but knew I couldn't stay and I DEFINITELY wasn't going to try to drive home. Rick called and I told him I needed to come home. He drove down and picked me up. Now he's going to have to have somebody take him back so that he can drive his truck home. I swannie!!! I won't even try to go to work tomorrow. I'll see how tomorrow goes and if I'm feeling good, maybe I'll go out driving around the neighborhood in the evening and see how it affects me. I may make it to work this week and I may not!

When I got home, I took a pill and laid on the couch. I've dozed away the afternoon. I still don't feel very good. I have spent quality time on the couch and see that there's more of that in my future!! Please continue to keep me in your prayers! Apparently this surgery was harder on me than I was expecting.

Here is a picture. You can't see the spot from the front.


From the side, there's only a little bald spot peeking through!! Rick said you really don't notice it until you see the shinyness of the staples. So, the hair issue is not bad.

I'm Alive!!!

Hello all!!! I'm still alive, but barely!! The last couple of days have been very rough. After the surgery on Tuesday, I was mostly tired and kind of out-of-it. Didn't have any real pain. I was feeling nauseaous and they gave me something for that. Later on I felt much better. Wednesday morning, all of Dr. Jones' doctors came in about 6:30 that morning and took my bandages off. Everything looked fine. Dr. Jones came in about 9:30 and said all was well and I could go home. Well, it wasn't until about 11:30 that I finally got the paperwork and was released. I was very anxious to get home. I just laid around and took it easy. Thursday I didn't feel real good. Achy and lightheaded. Then on Friday, I got up and was feeling pretty good. I took a shower and washed my hair. That was FABULOUS!!! I had some company later on that day and I think I moved my head around too much. Later in the afternoon, I got to feeling HORRIBLE!!! Extremely lightheaded, dizzy and sick to my stomach. Nothing seemed to help. I got up this morning and was feeling the same. Rick called Dr. Jones' office and talked to the doctor on call. If I'm not better by tomorrow, they will see me on Monday. However, Cynthia had a motion sickness patch and also some valium from her trip to China. She brought those over and I quickly applied the patch, took the valium and also a phenergan!! After a little while I was feeling much better! I finally ate some lunch and thought I would try to update my blog while I'm able to sit up for a few minutes. I'm still very lightheaded and will lay back down as soon as I'm done here. Thanks to everyone for all the prayers!! They are the main thing I need!!



Right now the right side of my head is still a little numbish, but not as much as yesterday. However, my right ear is VERY numb. It hurts when I touch it and doesn't even feel like it's part of my body. It will itch, but I can't scratch it. Oh well. Dr. Jones said it may take a few months for that to pass but it will eventually move on.



OHHHH!!! I got a letter from Meg yesterday. She's my audiologist. I go for my hook up on March 27!!!!! Just a little over 3 weeks!!! YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!



Here are some pictures. They aren't very good, but I thought I would post them anyway. You will get the basic idea. I don't feel like messing with them a lot right now, so this is what you get!!!



Here I am with the "Yes" written on the ear I want implanted!!

Just waiting to go into surgery. It's a very comfy room!!! They also gave me snappy socks to put on my feet. They were just lovely!!

After the surgery with the bandage on. On the right hand side they have a string tied around the bandage......I guess to hold it all together. That's the main thing that hurt. I ended up with a BIG ol' whelp right there when they finally removed the bandage.

Another bandage shot with the drainage tube sticking out. Pretty, pretty.

Waiting to leave the hospital.

This is what they shaved. It's really not bad!! I was expecting much, much worse. My hair mostly covers the spot. I'm a happy girl!!!

Another view of the incision.

My hair is already growing back!! It's unreal!!! Cynthia said something about it yesterday and I'm like noooooooooo, there's no way!! But I felt of it and YES!! There's hair there!! There's even more today!! Wheeee doggies!!

Secret posting

Poor Cherri doesn't know I am posting to her blog, but I have heard from many of you that are inquiring as to her healing. Here is a recap of the last couple of days:

Cherri got released from the hospital on Wednesday about noon. One of her best friends made her dinner so they were well provided for in the dinner category! That day she was pretty sore and achy.........ready to be home.

Thursday - not a good day............very, VERY sore, achy, woozy, etc............not a good day.

Friday - MUCH better day.......Cherri took a shower and got to wash her hair! That HAS to make you feel better getting all the "surgery" funk out of her hair! BUT I believe she over did it today......I think since she felt SO nasty yesterday and today she felt SO much better - she did a smidge too much. She was quite queasy tonight......puke bucket and all! Poor thing - we (the whole Farley clan) dropped off some Krispy Kreme donuts (good for curing what ails you) and she was on the couch with her cold rag and puke trash can (complete with trash bag liners) just ready to go at any minute!

She has some serious healing to do so please continue the much appreciated prayers! I will post pictures for everyone tomorrow! Until then have a blessed evening! Cynthia