Enter In

I'm just sitting here recovering from aforesaid surgery.  The last surgery it was very easy to sit around and do nothing because I felt like doing nothing.  This time, I'm having to enforce resting periods so I don't do too much and it is difficult.

So, I'm going to show off the photos of the entryway project this morning. 

Here we are ready to start.  The door is in the sidewalk and stoop are ready to go, 

(We being the occupants of the house, not the actual laborers, which was Jim)

Jim rented a hydraulic hammer drill to knock out the concrete with our excavator.

Then the hauling out, piece by piece. 

There go the steps

Concrete!!

Pouring the footings for the steps.

Clean up machine, our vacuum excavator truck.

Jim is putting up a few foundation blocks with Zane's help.

The forms are done.

Steps poured.

Removing the forms.

Sidewalk poured.

Jim is staring our decorative brick.

I like it!

It is really nice having a handy husband.

Back on the Operating Table

The first tests are over, the first ear surgery is finished.  It was out patient surgery, but as it was done with general anesthesia I went home with a sore throat as well as a sore ear.  

It is hard to be a creative writer when under the influence of pain killers, so this will be just the facts. 

Monday, I had an extensive hearing test starting with the normal beeps to each ear,  then words spoken by the audiologist (one of which I could not get even after repeating), then a man's voice.  

Next, was a test where they put electrodes on my forehead and behind my ears to measure the nerve  function.  That test is a variety of harsh noises delivered through ear plug type things.

During the consultation afterwards we learned that my hearing as it stood then, was bad.  Severe to profound to be exact,  

What they are hoping to do with the surgeries is bring back my hearing to what it was last September, because the nerve function I have is the same as then.  The hearing I had then is not very good, but better than I had before surgery. (which is like going around with your fingers in your ears for people with normal hearing.) And if my hearing can be restored to those levels through the mastoid being cleaned out and the ear drum repaired (both ears) I would need "normal" hearing aids.

I've discovered I don't want implants.  The outside snap on part is about the size of a peanut.  They try to choose the best side to put the implant on so you have better hearing in only one ear, and yes you can have one for each side, but not usually. Then they can't be around water, the skin site they are snapped on to has to be cleaned.  Mine would have to be put toward the back so it could get in the way and snap off.  

Ugh.

So, I'm hoping for the best. 

The first day my ear was covered up with a shield.

After the shield was off, Jim took a bow off my glasses to protect the incision site.  It didn't work very well.  With the glasses perched precariously on my nose it made me sick to my stomach to look at the computer.  So, it went back on before too long. 

Here's a photo of my nice little corner in my bedroom with Mother's Day flowers to look at. 

And the rose from the surgery center. 

I am home resting now, especially in-between painkiller tablets, which usually results in napping. 

This surgery will need to be done again on the right side in 3 or 4 months.  

What the Best Dressed Doll Wears

And...here they are, the missing photos.  One with the detail of the tucks and lace, the other with the chemise and drawers?, pantelettes?,

whatever.  

And these are the the original photos from when I first started the project because I blogged about the pillow cover she's leaning against and which I think was a dumb post and a dumb project and the pillow cover is gone.

Well maybe I shouldn't go so far as to say that.  It was my first experiment on making one thing into something else, and it wasn't what I wanted after all. 

 Here is the post if you are interested.  

Doll Fashions

A long time ago, I sewed up the body for this doll and put her together, made her a petticoat, drawers and chemise and took a picture and I thought posted them on my blog.  As far as I can tell I didn't.

I spent the last two weeks, sewing up the wardrobe I cut out that long time ago, and of course, falling into the trap of making a couple extra things.  

Fancy dress

Back View 

Purse

Shawl Front

and Back 

 White Lace

Velvet Cape, Bonnet, and Muff 

Petticoats 

Second Best 

Summer Bonnet and Cape 

Work Dress and Apron 

Large Cape and Winter Work Dress 

Larger Cape 

Radiation--Friend and Foe

      "Sickness, ... changed a man.  He thought the of invalids he had known.  How often he had dismissed their querulousness and complaints as the outcome of self-pity! He knew better now.
      It was not only with themselves and their pain that the sick were concerned.   They were worried for others.  They grieved for the work they were causing, for the disruptions of other people's lives, the sapping of their energy, the tensions within a family and the awful possibility of increasing helplessness."
                 Return to Thrush Green--Miss Read

I received an unpleasant truth in an email from my sister-in-law a couple of days ago: 

"More and more I realize that radiation is a really sneaky thing—the aftermath just keeps coming and coming."

I have been living with the effects of radiation for nearly three years.  It is because of the radiation that I have life and I am thankful for that.  When treatment I rather expected that sooner or later I would return to a 'new normal', that looked quite a bit like the 'old normal', but I didn't expect some of the other problems I have encountered.  

I have been struggling with increasingly poor hearing since a few months after treatment was over.  My Eustachian tubes shut down filling up my ears behind my ear drums.  It felt like my ears were stuffed so I had tubes put in, with the information, "this can happen after radition." 

Oh. I didn't know that. 

Even though, I had less hearing that before, I was going along with new strategies to maximize listening: no shouting from room to room, looking directly at the speaker, etc.

Time went on.  My hearing got worse.  Oh, a tube fell out. 

"These will have to be put in every 18 months or so, but this one has left a large hole in your ear drum, which will affect your hearing." 

"And... your normally overproducing of wax in your ears is made worse because of the radiation"

It's hard and dry.

So, I was making regular 6-month trips to the ENT for tube insertion and wax removal.

"Now the other ear drum has a large hole as well, no need for the tubes."

It's getting harder and harder to hear in large groups, and even 'one-on-ones' need attention.

Is it time for hearing aids?  The apparatus is all there, It's just fluid and holes and...

I want my ears to work.

I'm only 51, by the way!

Wait, there's more.  

My left ear started draining.  The kind that drips right out of the ear, so after another trip to the ENT and a course of ear drops the drainage slows and stops.  But not before the infection had spread to the mastoid, which is serious and not something to play around with.  

I had a CT scan which showed, yes infection is there, it's not good and will have to be surgically fixed. 

On to Omaha, to an ENT specialist whose field of expertise is base of skull ear surgeries.  

Yes, surgery will be done to clean out the mastoid.  He can fix the ear drums with cartilage from behind the ear, and wants to test my hearing to see if I am a candidate for BAHA, 

Bone Anchored Hearing Aids.

(My hearing is also tested to see how much the infection removal and ear drum repair helps.)

I'm still rather stunned.  I'm not sure about an implanted hearing aid.  The surgery won't be a really big deal, there is no overnight stay.  Each ear will be done separately.  It is important that the ear drums are repaired because the holes make infections more likely,  I think the doctor said he will put valves in there, but I'm not really sure about that.  

It's a pain, but it's doable.  It's another hurdle, but a small one.  I can do this.

There are worse things.

This Old House

Last week we said "hello" to a very precious heirloom and this week we are saying "goodbye" to another.  

This piece of history has a story.  When I was a girl my daddy built me a Barbie doll house.  He built it from the cheapest plywood that may have been used for something else before.  I watched him saw out the 4' x 1' slabs and draw the cuts for the doors and windows.  

I suppose I watched him make the walls and doors, paint and carpet, but I don't remember that.  I do remember thinking that watching the building process was better than the finished project.  

I loved the finished project, too.  We played and played with it and I brought it to my house when my first daughter was born.  

It was a very special project, Dad painted it white with a red door, just like the house we lived in. 

The doors were cut to fit and had real hinges and little door knobs.

 Our door had a diamond window, so did this one.  

The windows were trimmed in red; our house had red trim.  When dad built the house the windows had wood sashing to make it look like window panes with thin clear plastic for the windows. It had a back door into a hallway.   

One bedroom had the lavender paint and yellow carpet of my bedroom.

It had the carpet of the boys bedroom, but their room had paneling.  I don't know where the orange paint came from. Both bedrooms had closets with rods.

The living room is yellower than this.  The carpet is the same as our living room carpet.  The yellow was from something else.  

There was an arch into the hallway.

And a door with no door into the kitchen. There was a bathroom but it was too narrow and the worst damage and I didn't want a picture of that. 

Dad mounted wheels on one side to made it easier to move and store when stood up on that side.  

This is just a glimpse when it was down in playing mode.  I didn't get very close with these, because it is broken now.  Somehow it got badly damaged in storage.  Someone who didn't value it as I did. 

I wish the yellow of the living room would have photographed faithfully, but it didn't.  Since this post is for me to remember I am posting photos of each side.  

This house still looks pretty good on the outside, but damaged enough on the inside that it would take too much time and energy to fix.  It is large and awkward and hard to store.  It has made great memories.  

Especially the one where I can say, "My Dad made this for me."