Right ear kept me up last night with pain behind the ear, in the ear and down my jaw. Went to the family doc this morning as a three day weekend is coming up and I have blood around the tube and a ton of fluid that is draining - thus the pain. So now I'm living on Tylenol, will start ear drops today and hope that it all is a bad dream.

 

I can't catch a break.

Well, my ears look good. Tubes are placed well, no swelling, no redness and what is causing my "tunnel hearing" is the fact that my ears are open for the first time since February. The doc asked if I could give it a month and I said I would try. I've found if I lay my finger tips over my ear openings (not pushing on anything, just blocking the opening a bit) I sound "right." That gives me a nice couple of minutes of relief. We'll see how it goes.

 

Lastly... today marks my father being gone 5 years. He was taken from us WAY too soon by cancer. I stopped to "see" him tonight and let myself cry. Dad, I miss you something fierce.

 

Well, my appt has been moved up to 11:30am today. So over my lunch hour I'll be having my ears looked at and I get to sit in the "time out room" and let them know when I hear beeps and get to recite words back to them for my hearing test. Wonder what they'd say if I asked if I could point to the butterfly, snowman and other things instead. (what they do for children)

 

I'll let you all know more when I know more. *hugs*

It's a week after the surgery and I'm still underwater. It's amazing how anxious you can get when you feel trapped inside your own head. Thankfully I can still hear things in the "world" just fine and can still work - but when I hear myself talk I want to cry. This is just crazy.

 

My DH (darling hubby) let me go see Mamma Mia again yesterday and for 2 hours I totally forgot that I was, indeed, on my way to the nuthouse. It was really nice. I then thought I'd go walk Jordan Creek mall and found out that the low bass tones of the overall noise in a mall was a BAD thing when you have a hearing/ear issue going on. By the time I got back to the car I needed a cry. Argh. But my back felt better with the walk ... so whatcha goina do.

 

Have I mentioned lately just how WONDERFUL my husband is? So caring and patient as I walk through this. When I'm laying in bed watching TV and feeling sorry for myself he doesn't say anything - and most times will come in and scratch my back. He's so wonderful. Or he'll offter to take me out on a date (Red Robin was yummy on Saturday night). He's an amazing, amazing man and I feel so very blessed to have him in my life.

"It's a simple surgical procedure. You can drive in, 10 minute procedure and then 30 minutes of time in the office to make sure that you are not dizzy and then you can drive home... and most go on to work."

 

*blink blink* I want to meet THOSE people.

 

Horrible experience. I showed up at the unGodly hour of 6am and got signed in, some fancy paper bracelets with my name and information on them and then changed into a gown and slippers. 7am rolls around and the doc stops by to see how I am, am I ready, blah blah... Yup, let's do this thing.

 

The nurse comes to get me and leads me back to the surgical room. I lay down and then they take a blood pressure reading and then strap... yes, STRAP my arms down. I'm thinking this is new - so I ask. And she said that sometimes people flinch when they get the injections. Woah, injections? I thought this was a topical type spray that were going to numb my ears. Ends up that you get a shot in each ear ... much like those you get at the dentist that pinch like holy heck and then burn? Yea... those - in your EAR canal. And once you are numb you get to hear about 10 minutes of loud white noise that sounds like a HUGE bug crawling over your ear drums - PER ear. It was awful.

 

I then got walked back to a chair in the recovery room and I felt like I was going to lose my breakfast... wait, it would have been dinner as I couldn't eat after midnight. So here I am, feeling like I'm dying and thinking "my car is out front and there is NO way I can walk to it, let alone drive it home." Dan had to come get me and it took him and the nurse to guide me to his car outside the door as my feet just wouldn't go forward as I was so dizzy.

 

So today I came into work as the dizziness is better but everytime I talk I sound like I'm underwater. It's awful, horrible and icky. They say it'll be 3-5 days before I'm better. What was with the whole "it's such an in and out easy procedure" cra*p. *sigh* No, I'm NOT happy. *sniffle* I'm going to go into the pity me mode here for a couple of days - you've been warned. *pout*

 

Yup, I get a set of ear tubes on Moday to help my retracted drums get back to normal. Hoping that will get rid of this consant pressure I've had, the slight lightheadedness, crinkling sounds when I yawn and other unsettling ickies when your ears aren't right. Whee.

It's that time of year where our small communications bureau is swamped with work due to the Iowa State Fair. Everything from brochures, order forms, banners, tshirts and magazines come from our shop. We also have to work the fair so we are running on a skeleton crew here at work during the days. It's been pretty crazy but we've gotten better at working around this time of year as we know it will always show up in August.

 

In the health department... things are going ok. Various medications are helping me get back on track and I will be heading to the ENT on thursday to have my hearing tested and my ears looked at. They have been retracted for the better part of five months now and we need to figure out if I need tubes or what. This constant every day fatigue and lightheadedness just has to go.

 

Dan's been working hard on stripping the old siding off the west side of the house by the fireplace and now has it completely wrapped with "Gorilla Wrap" to protect from the rain. Now it'll be easier, according to him, as he just has to put on the siding. Anything that has to do with 2 story ladders and roof work does't sound fun to me. So proud of him for working so hard and a HUGE thank you to his co-workers who have helped out over the weekend and then last night for awhile. You guys rock.

This past Friday night Dan and I finally went to the Iowa Cubs game for which we had tickets. I got them as his 3rd wedding anniversary gift. We had a perfect night weather wise and it was a perfectly blue skied afternoon. The game was very close and we pulled out an exciting 9th inning win. Following the game was friday night fireworks. What a wonderful, wonderful night spent with the man I love so very dearly.

 

On saturday we didn't do all that much, except housework and other things that needed to get done. We did, however, go out to eat and I had the most awesome shrimp pasta. He had a pulled BBQ pork sandwhich which appeared to be quite good. We don't eat out all that much anymore so it was quite the treat. We came home then and played a game of Ticket to Ride, the card game. I really enjoy spending time with him.

 

Today I went to see Mamma Mia, again, while Dan went out and took a bike ride before it got to hot. (right now at 8pm it's still 93'F and a heat index of 110'F.) I walked Jordan Creek Mall a bit and then came home once the temperature got a bit higher. Dan's out watering the garden for a bit before dark and tomorrow we're planning on fresh green beans and tomatos.

 

It's been an good weekend.