Well is my face red and it’s not from the sun! \u00a0I didn’t mean to, but I’ve neglected this blog for far too long\u00a0– the last time I wrote was December 2013! \u00a0If I were getting a note from my mother, it would probably say, “Please excuse our blogger\u00a0from her recent absence as she has been very busy, sometimes\u00a0\u00a0distracted by events in her life, and unfortunately, had a very sad occasion.” \u00a0My mother isn’t here to write notes for me anymore, but I hope you’ll all forgive my very long break\u00a0and pick up where we left off. \u00a0Get a cup of coffee, a Diet Coke, or whatever you like to drink \u00a0and make yourself comfortable \u00a0because I’m going be here awhile. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
There have been a few major events in my life since I last wrote.<\/p>\n
The Big Fall<\/strong><\/p>\n Last August I had a nasty fall and cracked my tailbone, hurt my back, tore ligaments in one finger on my left hand, and dislocated and fractured two fingers on my right hand. \u00a0I was wearing three casts for weeks and typing with those casts is not easy. Without going into too much medical detail (just in case you’re not a fan of Gray’s Anatomy), I wrecked my right hand and was in physical therapy for months.<\/p>\n The bad:<\/strong><\/p>\n It hurt<\/p>\n My dislocated finger looked weird with one half of it sitting on top of the other half.<\/p>\n It still hurts<\/p>\n It’s probably always going to hurt (say all the doctors – I’m working on that one.)<\/p>\n The\u00a0two fingers on my right hand are still huge and I’ll probably have to have my rings resized (if it’s even possible to do that so they fit again.) \u00a0They were both fractured, I tore ligaments in the ring finger as well, and severed two ligaments in the middle finger.<\/p>\n I have to work very hard at moving them and using them. (Hint: Don’t hand\u00a0me\u00a0anything small or fine because it will slip through my fingers. \u00a0I can’t close them all the way anymore.<\/p>\n The good: <\/strong><\/p>\n I had spectacular care in the hospital in New York as well as a spectacular hand surgeon. \u00a0I do wish he’d stop telling me “Dislocation is a major injury” but I really can’t complain.<\/p>\n I had fantastic physical therapy in the hand clinic and they couldn’t have been nicer. \u00a0And I made friends there – a few of us had our therapy at the same time. \u00a0And after hearing how they got hurt, I didn’t feel so embarrassed about how I did.<\/p>\n I learned how to type with casts on my fingers. \u00a0Granted, it was mostly indecipherable, but my friends all accepted it and even said I was giving them good brain exercise while they tried to figure out what I meant.<\/p>\n I learned once again how strong I am and how I can cope<\/p>\n The Small Fall<\/strong><\/p>\n Last week I was on my way out and somehow managed to lose my footing on the steps in my garage. \u00a0I was able to grab onto something to stop the fall, but unfortunately my right foot twisted inwards, fell off the step, and smashed against the next step down. The bruises were on the top of my foot, so you can imagine the position. \u00a0I was hoping it wasn’t broken (I’ve already done that to the left ankle) so I figured I’d see if I could walk. \u00a0It hurt, but I was able to, so I got in the car and went to my appointment. \u00a0Darling Hubby insisted I go to the doctor the next day, and wouldn’t you know it, I injured the ligaments and badly bruised the foot, but it was NOT broken!! \u00a0Yay! \u00a0It’s been about 10 days and it’s still somewhat swollen and sore, but I can move it and use it. \u00a0I’m not going dancing anytime soon, but I’m not complaining!<\/p>\n The VERY VERY VERY\u00a0\u00a0Sad<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s still hard for me to think about this, let alone write about it or talk about it. \u00a0We lost our beloved hu-dog* Brody on December 16th, 2014. \u00a0Seven months after, I’m still crying, hurting, remembering vividly his last kiss, his last breath, and the pain of having to let him go. \u00a0He was only 10 1\/2 years old but cancer doesn’t care about age or how much we love someone. \u00a0We had been waiting two years to get him a little sister – he was going to show her the ropes and she was going to keep him young and active. \u00a0It didn’t work out that way. \u00a0Our girl came to live with us on December 21st, 2014, just five days after we lost\u00a0Brody.<\/p>\n *hu-dog – Brody was as close to being human as a dog could possibly get<\/p>\n The VERY VERY VERY GOOD<\/strong><\/p>\n Our seventh Keeshond, Brooklyn (or as she likes to be called, “Princess Brooklyn”) \u00a0joined our family on December 21st, 2014 at the age of 8 weeks old. \u00a0She’s an absolute doll\u00a0and like all our previous Keeshonden, she’s gorgeous, brilliant, and funny. \u00a0But most of all, she’s loving and sweet and doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. Her personality and grin\u00a0win everyone over – even people who don’t like dogs in general will usually smile at her. Brody never had the chance to meet her physically, but I think he’s watching over all of us.<\/p>\n The VERY GOOD<\/strong><\/p>\n So I’ve been wearing the new (ok not that new now) hearing aids since NA got them for me last January. \u00a0They are the new Siemen’s and they’re much more programmable than the old ones, so I’m really enjoying some benefits. \u00a0For example, I can now have Bluetooth and Telecoil in addition to my two programs. \u00a0(I didn’t want to give up a program to have both before so I gave up Telecoil.) \u00a0Now that I have both, I can use even more support devices, making it that much easier for me to read lips and communicate.<\/p>\n There’s also another new device on the market (only in the U.S. though — shame on you Canada!!) which is a caption telephone. \u00a0It’s not the same as the Voice Carry Over system of old – it’s a normal phone that anyone can use, you place and receive calls yourself, and everything the person on the other end says is captioned. \u00a0The phone we bought has a big screen, is easy to use, and seems to work very well. \u00a0Of course the other party has to speak clearly and not too fast to be captioned accurately, but hopefully people will get used to slowing down for me. \u00a0There is a 2 – 3 second delay while the captions are being typed, but I just tell the other party at the beginning of the call that I’m using an assistive device and reading what they say. \u00a0So far no one’s complained.<\/p>\n The biggest problem I’m having with it, is that I’ve forgotten how to talk on the phone. \u00a0It’s hard to believe most of my teenage years were spent lying on the floor of my room with my feet up on my bed, telephone attached to my ear. \u00a0Now with email and texting, we’ve all gotten used to having a chance to really think about what we’re going to say before we type it. \u00a0And we can decide if it’s really worth saying before we hit send. \u00a0Talking – actual talking – just feels so weird! \u00a0I’m muddling through it, but I know it’s going to be a good thing. \u00a0Come on, Canada! \u00a0The U.S. government pays for the captioning for all hearing impaired people. \u00a0Can’t you do that too??<\/p>\n I’m sure I’ve missed things but that’s ok. \u00a0I’ll be back!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well is my face red and it’s not from the sun! \u00a0I didn’t mean to, but I’ve neglected this blog for far too long\u00a0– the last time I wrote was December 2013! \u00a0If I were getting a note from my mother, it would probably say, “Please excuse our blogger\u00a0from her recent absence as she has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":567,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}