June Already

I always  think a blog post is more interesting with a photo.  So I put one on even though the photo has nothing to do with the post.  

I mean, who wouldn't just love to look at this cute kid.

What is really nice is that I get to squeeze him often and you don't.

I can't believe it's June already.  In spite of some very long waiting days and weeks that were taking place this spring, I guess I was living April twice, because it was rather a shock to look up this week and it was the first of June.  

Of course, a lot of that might have to do with our rainy May weather.  We really didn't get a lot of rain but we had more gloomy, damp days than not.  It didn't help that I spent most of those days in a funk.  

Recovering from surgery is never fun.  I wasn't even like myself until the end of the week, and I walked around on eggshells for three weeks waiting for some restriction-free and pain-free days.  

I couldn't bend, I couldn't lift, I couldn't work hard. I took medicine several times a day.  I had to have ear drops three times a day.  

After my post-op check on Monday I  feel more like me again.  I have a little more energy because I'm able to do more.  

We've also had a couple of sunny days. 

(It's still raining, however)

I didn't want to blog during that time because I was having a hard time keeping my spirits up.  

I was having to sleep on an incline, on my back or only one side.  

Here I had one more thing wrong with me that had to be dealt with with the expectation of having the other ear done eventually.  

And then there's the whole issue of my hearing loss.  I can't hear out of that left ear because there is packing in there holding the graft done on the ear drum still in place.  As the packing dissolves I should be able to hear better.  

I am beginning to understand how difficult it is for people with hearing loss to cope.  

It's HARD sometimes.  Sometimes it takes a lot of work to listen.  It's so much easier to just tune out after while.  I think it's like listening to someone speak in a different language and you aren't fluent.  

Every word that comes in has to be translated from one language to another.  I have to listen hard, and then, "oh, that's what they said", and by that time I'm behind.  

And then, it isn't a given that this repair is going to work.  If it does, I am only going to get hearing back to where it was last September and my hearing loss was getting pretty close to interfering with normal life.  

I had a couple of hearing tests done before surgery and one was to test nerve function and that was the answer I got. My nerves are still working as well as they were last year.  That is good news really.  Before surgery my hearing loss was classified as severe to profound in the left ear and moderate to severe in the right.  So, that is how I am hearing right now.  We hope it goes back to the moderate hearing loss stage. 

 What to do then, is another step in this process.

 It takes 6 more weeks to heal the ear drum, and then we talk about surgery for the right ear and healing that before we even think about that step.  

Some days are harder than others. 

I'm really looking for the sun. 

Although, I had a really good time weeding in my flower garden in the calm, light clouded evening tonight.