Category: Health Matters

Hearing Aided by a Bone Conduction Implant

Posted on by Kimberly Anne
Hearing Aid

I love to learn new things. However, I learned about Med-El’s bone conduction implant the hard way. It all started with surgery in November of 2019 for a non-cancerous brain tumor. Since then I have been waiting for some type of hearing aid to compensate for the hearing I completely lost in my left ear. I never expected this would be the answer.

Med-El’s hearing aid implant is quite new. In fact, after I had my brain tumor surgery and I saw the audiologist, I had to wait until March for the surgery because it was not yet available in my area. Of course, March came and Covid-19 stopped surgeries so mine didn’t happen until July, four months later than I had expected.

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My Journey Back to Normal Ends

Posted on by Kimberly Anne

I last wrote about this journey in April. At that time I was anticipating receiving a call to schedule my BAHA surgery. I expected that call to come any day. It didn’t.

BAHA is a bone attached hearing aid. It’s a type of cochlear implant. It is my possibility of once again being able to distinguish where sounds come from. Until my BAHA is attached and I receive the exterior part, I cannot figure out where people are that are talking to me. Whether they are behind me or to the left of me, I have no idea. It could be a difficult thing if a stranger were sneaking up on me. My husband, who should know this is a problem, will walk up behind me and start talking. That is when panic takes over. I look to my right and to my left and then behind me until I find him.

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My Covid-19 Test Experience

Posted on by Kimberly Anne
My Covid-19 test experience

My sister had pre-warned me, I would not be able to handle the test. I decided, even though she had recently had the test for an upcoming surgery, I would show her otherwise. I felt I was pretty tough, most of the time. Surgery for my bone attached hearing aide (BAHA) would be coming soon and I knew I would have to be tested prior.

Test day

Sure enough on Saturday, July 18, I was scheduled for my test. With our hot weather, in the 100’s by 3:00, I wasn’t looking forward to sitting in my car, going through the line. I arrived at 9:55 for my 10:00 appointment. The line was long and we were looping around the parking lot. I wondered how many of us had 10:00 appointments. And I wondered if maybe some of them didn’t have appointments and they were hoping to be let through. There were people that did get turned away. I guess you do need an appointment as they had told me. If you didn’t have an appointment they would not have your test materials together with your name and identification on it.

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UTI – What you Should Know

Posted on by Kimberly Anne
UTI

You know the feeling, the awful feeling. You have another UTI. Urinary Tract Infection. As we age, we are more susceptible to urinary tract infections, especially after menopause. For anyone that has a hysterectomy, menopause may have come early, maybe in your thirties or forties. It’s not as common, but men can also get UTIs. A urinary tract infection is one of the top five most common infections.

Identifying a UTI

Once you have had one it’s easy to identify your next one. The signs of a UTI may vary by person. They include, but you may not necessarily have all of them: pain or burning feeling when you urinate, a burning feeling even when you aren’t urinating, and an urgency to go. With the urgency, if you ignore it you may not make it to the bathroom in time and when you arrive, you may be annoyed because only a little dribble will come out. It’s very frustrating, especially at night-time when you are trying to sleep. Other symptoms include cloudy or bloody urine, low-grade fever, and a change in smell or color of your urine.

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My Journey Back to Normal – Falls Behind

Posted on by Kimberly Anne
My journey Falls Behind

Back to where I left off

It has been about three and 1/2 months since I saw my audiologist to see if any hearing remained in my left ear. I had suspected I would have none and I didn’t. The following week I went to my primary neurosurgeon for my two-month follow-up appointment. I came with a list of questions. Right after the surgery, my mouth tasted like salt when I had a glass of water. It had now changed to a metal taste. My doctor assured me that it should go away within a year.

At the time of my appointment, I was still having a lot of balance issues. Pulling a sweatshirt over my head, closing my eyes to wash my face or hair, and turning my head too quickly to the right or left would cause the feeling of potentially falling. My doctor would have physical therapy contact me. He said that I would probably need 8 to 12 weeks of therapy. I was frustrated about not driving yet, but the physical therapy would get me to the point of driving if all went as planned.

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Coronavirus – Lessons to Learn

Posted on by Kimberly Anne
lessons to learn Coronavirus Pandemic

In 2020, our lives have changed in ways we could never have imagined. There are many lessons we can learn from this time. Most of us are adapting well. Others are having a hard time. And unfortunately, some are choosing to live their life as if this doesn’t concern them, putting themselves and others in danger.

Stay Calm.

There is enough food and water. Unfortunately, some have chosen to hoard supplies, making those that really need them, unable to find them. Things like rice, ramen noodles, eggs, flour, milk, paper towels, diapers, formula, water and toilet paper are difficult to find. If people had stayed calm and only purchased what they truly needed this would not have happened.

Last week I waited 40 minutes to get in my grocery store because they were limiting the number of people that could enter. That should not be a big deal. It’s for our safety. It was an opportunity to have some great conversation with those in line with me, who were a shopping cart away (social distancing.)

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My Journey Back to Normal

Posted on by Kimberly Anne
On on a journey back to noraml

When I woke up after five hours of surgery, my life had changed completely. I had known it would, but I hadn’t realized it would be so difficult. I felt worse than I had expected. This wasn’t just any old surgery. I had had a craniotomy. A portion of my skull had been removed and replaced, allowing my brain tumor to be removed in the process. I now have a plate on my skull as extra protection. For more of my story follow this link: https://growingoldereveryday.com/protect-your-hearing-before-its-too-late/

In reality, my life hadn’t changed completely, only small parts of it. I remained married with two children and four grandchildren. The rest of my family remained intact. We still lived in our same home, with our same neighbors. Only a small part of my life had changed, but it has felt huge, as I am living through it. Now, at eight weeks post-surgery, I wonder if I will ever go back to what I knew as normal a few months ago.

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I'm Really Not Fine

I’m Really Not Fine

Posted on by Kimberly Anne

Since I was diagnosed with my vestibular schwannomas brain tumor, life had been going really well. I’m aware of what to expect in surgery, I have a surgery date and I’ve been following through with the pre-op appointments. My headaches seem to be more frequent and more painful, plus both my ears and my jaw hurts, but other than that everything seemed to be going well. I’m hoping that will all be relieved after I recover, or at least most of it. If you ask me, I will tell you “I’m fine.”

And then last week happened. On Monday, I had a phone appointment to go over my prescriptions and previous surgeries. Tuesday, I had a phone appointment with a physician’s assistant to go over my surgery and how I would feel afterward. He wanted to make sure I understood that there was no guarantee I would retain any of my hearing in my left ear. And he told me that I would likely have nausea, vertigo and maybe vomiting right after surgery. Also, I should expect pain where they removed the area of my skull to remove the tumor.

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Brain Tumor Surgery Results

Posted on by Kimberly Anne
Surgery results could be vs surgery results will be

God will remain in control of my life and everything will go as He has planned. And I will continue to trust Him.

In a few weeks, when I have my surgery, I’m planning on what is certain, not what could be.

Kimberly

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Who is in Control - God or You?

Who is in Control – God or You?

Posted on by Kimberly Anne

I had my future figured out. I would retire from my job, once we had paid off my husband’s truck and the line of credit. In the meantime, I would get my blog all figured out and maybe this winter complete a few quilts. Once I retired we would visit our grandchildren more often. It seemed like I had everything figured out. The only problem was, it wasn’t my plan that controlled the future I had forgotten that God was in control.

Maintaining control

Maybe you make New Year’s Resolutions. Do you accomplish them, or by March are they a forgotten memory? I will write down goals throughout the year, but usually, they are in my head, filed away with numerous other bits of information. Sometimes, I reach the goals, but other times I change my mind, possibly dreaming up a better plan.

Can you make a list of five goals or plans that you have for the next year or two? Is retirement in your near future? Do you have a money savings goal you must reach? Are there a few more bills that you want to have paid off before you start working fewer hours, or maybe retire? Do you plan to move to a smaller home?

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