BTW, we are in ABQ and have been here since January 2. I know this does’t even qualify for bland news, but that’s our life… We came here because we are in between volunteer gigs, we need to catch up on our doctoring, and we like ABQ. We thought doctoring was our only chore, but as usual we had to do some more tinkering on the motor home (another year, the same old same old), and now Lilly is at the vet this morning. But the sun shines most days, and I’m looking out my front window and seeing fresh snow on the mountains. I can think of worse places and situations to be in.

I apologize for the rest of this blog post. It’s gonna be mostly about medical stuff. I have observed throughout my life that talking about one’s medical condition increases as one ages. So this is an alert, if you’re younger than 70, you might want to stop and turn back. The following will just be boring medical stuff.

Most important, Shannon saw yet another cardiologist. This time it was at the clinic at the main UNM hospital. So, it is her cardiologist; however, her original cardiologist has escaped to somewhere else (CA?), and she saw yet another new cardiologist. Same practice; different cardiologist. However, this time she went forearmed with almost all of her cardiology records. It’s been good to finally have her records. They answered some of her questions and, or course, generated other new questions. Anyway, she could bring her new cardiologist up to speed quickly.

I must say, she has been feeling and doing much better since her heart attack in Roswell. The cardiologist in Roswell took her off a heart drug that was controversial across all the cardiologists and doctors she has seen over the last 4 years. Her new heart drug, which she was on years ago before we became nomads, seems to be doing the job nicely.

The questions,  among many, remain. What exactly is going on with her? Does she have A-fib? Why does she get pain around her heart? And, why did she have a heart attack? Her new cardiologist was not sure whether or not she actually has A-fib. (The cardiologist in SC and in Roswell believe she does not have A-fib.) And so, the NM cardiologist wants her to wear a monitor for 3 weeks, and if nothing shows up, he will assume she does not have A-fib, will take her off of her expensive blood thinner, and we get a green light to go someplace exotic…oh, maybe like Alaska.

And then there is me. Can’t hear a damn thing. I know you’re thinking that may be a good thing at times. Yes, at times, but the “times they are a-changin’.” I am scheduled for a cochlear implant on January 25. I’ve been in contact with someone here in ABQ who has had 2 implants, and tomorrow I go to a Cochlear Community gathering for recipients and soon-to-be recipients…me. Surgery on the 25th. Follow up with the surgeon a week later. And then the work begins. On February 6, I meet with the audiologist who turns on the implant. I meet again on the 9th when adjusting continues. I will then have continual follow up with the audiologist until she and I are thinking my hearing has improved and I can function.

I go into this with some, no with a lot of misgivings. The implant will be in my left ear. This is the ear that I essentially have not heard out of for decades, maybe 30+ years. I don’t remember. For the longest time it was labeled a “dead ear.” The surgeon at first was reluctant because the literature says results are better if the ear was used within 20 years. In other words has my brain lost its ability to process sound because it has not been stimulated for decades? The surgeon relies on the audiologist to make the recommendation. When I was evaluated by the audiologist, she found that the left ear was able to process sound. So, she thought there was enough hearing in the left ear for a cochlear implant to do some good. And so a cochlear implant will be done in the left ear on January 25.

I also learned why my hearing went and is going south. I was born with a condition called otosclerosis. It is a hardening of the middle ear bones (hammer, anvil, and stapes) so that they do not vibrate as they should when stimulated by sound. In my junior and senior years of high school, I had operations to replace the stapes with  plastic protheses. My hearing was phenomenal after that. (This condition is passed along maternal lines. My mother had the same condition, wore a hearing aid, and had the same operation as I did after seeing the success of my operations.)

I assumed that the stapes replacement was end of story for otosclerosis. Oh, how I was misguided. The CAT scan I had in November revealed that the disease has been ongoing throughout my life causing a loss of the bones; the middle ear bones have pretty much disappeared. No middle ear bones, no passing sound to the cochlea and brain. So, a cochlear implant makes sense; likely I will go deaf without the implants.

My-oh-my. This has gotten intolerably lengthy. If you’ve gotten this far, you have my great admiration. It definitely shows me that you have the stomach for full time RVing. Go for it!