Today was my birthday. I used to have a mug that my mother bought me that had that rhyme on it, with the first line largest in the center, because I was born on a Monday. I kept it long after I should have – it had big chip in the bottom – but I had stopped drinking from it forever ago. I think it finally went out a few months ago.
Monday’s child is fair of face, Tuesday’s child is full of grace, Wednesday’s child is full of woe, Thursday’s child has far to go, Friday’s child is loving and giving, Saturday’s child works hard for his living, And the child that is born on the Sabbath day Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.
I got up early today because I had an appointment with a knee surgeon at 8 a.m. The long story short is that I’m not a candidate for knee replacement surgery at this time. I’m too fat and I hadn’t had any treatment yet. Apparently the PT I’ve been doing for the past nearly 10 weeks isn’t considered treatment.
I ended up with a cortisone shot in each knee, which I didn’t really want but he said that they were considered treatment and should hopefully give me some relief from the pain I’ve been in since November. I think they are helping – I’ll know more tomorrow. I’m to stop going to PT after tomorrow and just continue at home. I’m to exercise as much as I can, which should be easier if I’m not in pain all the time.
And I’m to commit to losing weight, which is something I have struggled with most of my life . . .
But, onward I go. It was a good birthday all the same :-) I got myself two presents – an annual subscription to PBS Passport streaming service, and also an annual subscription to Britbox streaming service :-) I’ll get them set up on the Roku or on the telly itself tomorrow.
Found this by chance. Enjoy :-)
The Cambridge Singers – Monday’s Child (Five Childhood Lyrics)
Alrighty then. If you’re a regular reader (thank you!) you might recall that back in January I had a hearing test where I received a diagnosis of Normal to Moderately Severe hearing loss in both my ears with the left one being worse than the right. This was extraordinarily upsetting to me, but after doing some research and finding that there’s a definite correlation between hearing loss and cognitive decline, I reconciled myself to the fact that I was going to need hearing aids.
Here are some of the things I wrestled with:
Hearing aids are for “old” people. Yeah, it doesn’t matter that I’m on Medicare. I’m not “old.”
Hear aids are clunky/dorky/BIG. Mine are mini (!)
They squeal when someone gives you a hug. Mine won’t.
Am I disabled if I have to wear hearing aids? No.
Am I no longer a bagpiper? Never mind that I hadn’t piped seriously in at least a decade, this would have been the summer that I “got my pipes going.” (Yeah, right ;-) ) Once a piper, always a piper.
Is my hearing really that bad?? I was on the borderline and it was way worse than I realized.
I worked through these things, and made my peace with all of them. And then, at the end of March, I went back to the audiologist for a consultation appointment and to order my hearing aids. In fact, by then, if they had had red ones I would have been sorely tempted to get them (they didn’t and I settled on charcoal grey to match my salt and pepper hair).
And yesterday was the day. Even though I was reconciled to getting them and knew that they would be best for me, I had been dreading the day I would actually get them. I was not at all looking forward to a trip into the city (which I love), because it meant that I would be coming home wearing hearing aids.
You guys, I had absolutely no clue how much I was missing.
Oh. My. God.
The difference is so amazing, and I am so thrilled with them (and they are not even turned all the way up yet) that all my fears and unhappiness about getting them were washed away in an instant. Literally.
Here I am on my way back to the train.
That, my friends, is the face of a very happy woman. Can you see my hearing aids? Exactly!
Here’s my right ear. I swear I’m wearing them.
And here’s my left ear. You might have better luck seeing it on this shot, even though it’s a little blurry.
Here they are, and they are smaller than they look. Red is for right, blue is for left. The little tale is in my outer ear and helps keep them in place.
I’ve had minor itching. Nothing like when I tried one on at my consultation. I had been really worried about the itching, because, when they itch it’s pretty much unbearable. Well, these don’t really itch. Today later in the afternoon the left one started up and I ended up taking it out and then re-seating it. It’s been fine ever since. I’m using the anti-itch cream at night as directed, and I imagine that, eventually, my ears will get used to having something in them all the time.
I’m really looking forward to getting back some energy – the energy I’ve been expending trying to hear, always concentrating harder to hear, and worrying about missing stuff. Stressful even when you’re not actually aware of it happening – just like hearing loss. Gradual over time so that the brain begins to compensate until it can do so no longer. Well, I’m getting all that energy back to be able to use it toward other things. Yay!! Meanwhile, my brain is busy making new neural pathways, which is good for any brain at any time. :-)
I seriously had no earthly clue my hearing loss was as bad as it is. I tested it last night while watching telly. These hearing aids have an app that I can use to control them (it’s very cool), and I shut them off while watching telly. The difference without them floored me. What I had been hearing before without realizing it, was muffled – like hearing something at the far end of a tunnel. I turned them back on and could instantaneously hear.
It’s a little overwhelming and I’m not ashamed to say that cried again at the audiologist’s office. This time, however, they were tears of joy at what I’ve gotten back.
If you’re over 50 it’s time to get a hearing test, even if it’s just to give you a baseline. Think about it – it could change your life. :-)
I haven’t heard this tune in awhile. There was a cover band in Portoroz in what used to be Yugoslavia (it’s Slovenia now) when I was there a very long time ago, and I remember hearing them rehearse it over and over and over. Enjoy
The knee update is that I’ve finished the seventh week of physical therapy, and, while I have made some progress, it’s feeling kinda like I’ve stalled out. However, measurements were taken again this week and I seem to have improved, which means that Medicare will allow me to continue for a while longer. I knew my legs were getting stronger, but I was pleasantly surprised that my knees are moving more. There’s a caveat, though – there is no progress in my ability to navigate the stairs, and even a visit to the grocery store leaves my legs/knees sore and very unhappy. I had a good conversation with my primary care doctor last week. He feels and I agree that it’s time for me to consider and plan for total knee replacements.
I’m not super happy about it but, just like the hearing aids, bionic knees will greatly improve my quality of life. I got some recommendations from my primary care doc and also from my current orthopedic surgeon (he doesn’t do knee replacements), and there was some overlap. I did my due diligence and chose one of the surgeons to see. I called, and the first available appointment was for July 2nd. I was on the wait list for an earlier cancellation appointment and I got texts pretty much every morning for an earlier appointment, but it was always with someone else in the practice. Since I’d done my research, I knew that I only wanted to see the surgeon I had chosen. I kept clicking the button to stay with my July appointment. But, toward the end of the week, an earlier appointment came up with him, so I snagged it!
I’ll be seeing him soon – on my birthday! April 23rd.
So, I’ve been able to get stronger with PT, and I was able to get a shorter walk in last Saturday (only to the first set of benches at the pond), but what’s happening inside my knees is not just arthritis – the tears in the lateral menisci in both knees will not heal on their own. If they could, the right one would have healed eight years ago. But it didn’t. Happily, I leveled up today to 20 minutes on my recumbent bike. It’s at the lowest resistance, but I’ll be able to start moving that up soon. It was a good plan to get it up to my sunroom as I’ve been on it 3x/week ever since it’s been upstairs. My knees don’t hurt on it, and they bend OK as long as there is no weight on them . . . well, they bend enough to ride the bike OK . . . so at least I’m getting some great cardio in. I know this is helping since my walking has been so curtailed.
Today I was talking about swimming with a friend of mine and I remembered that, back in the 80s swimming and Jazzercize were my favorite forms of exercise. I belonged to an old city gym in Denver. It was mainly a boxing gym and had originally been built in 1908 as a bathhouse. I guess that’s why there was a pool. It was in what was then a dodgy part of town (I’m kinda thinking it’s been gentrified now, since there are apartments nearby that are pretty spendy), but it was all I could afford back in the day. Women weren’t lifting back then – it was the era of Jane Fonda – but my strength came from endless laps in that pool and early morning Jazzercize before work.
I have loved the water all my life. My mom used to tell the story of taking me out to walk along by the beach in the winter in Chicagoland when I was a toddler. Out in my snowsuit (remember those? ;-D), I slipped through the snow fence (Chicago beaches used to have snow fences in the winter) and was making a break for the water . . . . I have no idea how she managed to get through the fence and catch me before I made it all the way there. :-D
I used to swim more at my health club, but I realized as I was chatting with my friend this morning that I haven’t done any serious swimming since before I tore the lateral meniscus in my right knee. That was more than eight years ago . . . I would occasionally try, but any sort of kick – scissor, frog, freestyle – really bothered that knee. I hadn’t realized that I’d let my world get so much smaller in this area until this morning – I mean, I was even lifeguard qualified back in my Germany days. I was never a great freestyle (crawl) swimmer. Side, breast, back and elementary back strokes were my forte. Back then, if you were drowning, I was the one you’d want to save you, because I could side stroke on either side pretty much forever while towing another person. Slow, steady, relaxed . . . I was always in the water any time I could be.
I’ll need both my knees in pain-free, working order to start again, but it’s something I always loved and it feels like it would be really nice to get back to it. Of course, that will be down the line after both of my knees are replaced (if that’s what the new surgeon and I decide upon), but it’s nice to think that I could actually be swimming again. Really swimming.
In other news, my hearing aid fitting got put off, but only by two days, thankfully, so it will still be next week, just later in the week.
In the car yesterday morning, the oldies station was really hitting tunes I loved. I always want to write them down, but I’m always driving when I hear them. :-D But this one, which I know I’ve shared before, came on, and it’s just so great that I thought I’d share it again.
This is Yusuf Cat Stevens – If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,from the amazing film, Harold and Maude.