Today I did an unusual thing for me. I logged into the Hill.  It has been

a long while since I last visited. I guess like many things in life, interests lasts only long as we let it.

I was looking at the groups and noticed over half had no activity for years. Makes me wonder. I remembered when the computer groups didn't lack for questions.  Maybe folks became more computer literate over the years.  Know I did.

4 comments View Entry

Accident prone or Munchausen Syndrome 23 years later. 

I was going through my past blog writings for the Hill and came upon this one. Figured an update to “an oldie but cute blog” was due. 

Well, Sorry to say, “Judy’s Syndrome”  never made it into the medical books. Here is an update of the mishaps of Judy that

 lead to the "Accident prone or Munchausen Syndrome" blog

Have had plenty of falls and pokes in the eye along with scratches in the 20+ years since I wrote this silly piece. I am happy to say that no accidents result in black eyes or broken teeth from my countless falls.  I sheepishly‍ admit much of what took place is a result of the fact that Sign Language is hazardous to my health. A broken foot and smashed finger were serious enough to send me to the ER. The broken foot received surgery with the added bonus of an implanted metal rod. The smashed finger had a thick bandage to cover up the damage.  Needless to say, both incidents required a dose of painkillers.

Now, remember it is important to read this with tongue in cheek.  Also, I want to remind you that it is ok to chuckle.

 p.s

below is a copy of the original blog from ages ago. 

Today I spent several hours googling to see if I could discover a clue for the clueless.  I am becoming increasingly dangerous to myself via “accidents” so thought I better check to see if there was a medical term or syndrome for me. 

First, I googled up the word Munchausen Syndrome but decide that was too far fetch for this gal to consider.  I’m not nuts even though I am beginning to wonder.  I hate pain so the idea of intentionally inflecting it on myself is about as appealing as jumping off a mile high cliff.  I have a doting husband so the notion of trying to get attention holds as much water as a leaky pipe since I get plenty. While googling I discovered a support site and immediately signed up.  I figured if I read about others experiences then maybe my self-confidence would reveal itself again.

The last year and half of accidents were normal I thought but yesterday’s poking myself in the eye while signing to a friend was the final straw. What’s the big deal about poking yourself in the eye, you are probably asking.  Well, how is this for an explanation.  In the last four weeks I managed to have a trike accident that broke two front teeth, gave me a hairline elbow fracture, fat lip and skinned knees.  Enough????  Oh no, I gotta fall again last week and bruise or broke a rib.  I didn’t or won’t go to the urgent care because we are on personal terms now and I already have had enough x-rays, MRIs and CAT scans to glow in the dark.  Now I am wearing a black patch over my right eye, peering through my left eye and pecking the keyboard with my right hand.

Finally, I looked up the word “accident prone” and would you believe they actually have dictionary definitions for accident prone.  Have to admit that the description might as well have had my picture by the definition.  The problem I had with this is that I never applied that term to myself in my 57 years.  On the other hand, when you consider the 7 times I have broken my left arm, broken both wrists, shattered my right elbow, broken a big toe and a little one and don’t forget fingers, countless skinned knees and a stay in the hospital because of burns, hospital stay because of a busted scalp that required staples, endless scratches because of sign language then I am forced to wonder that maybe I had a case of the fashionable term of DENIAL. 

All my research today didn’t yield any results that might explain this weird thing. Maybe I should coin a new syndrome and call it “Judy’s Syndrome.”  The definition of Judy’s Syndrome is the ability to have accidents on a daily or weekly basis, more frequent accidents than accident prone.

Sound pathetic?  Maybe but on the positive side, maybe I will get some comments with cute graphics that I can snag.

2 comments View Entry

I was going through some of my old writings to clean and toss and found this one.Wrote the following memory years ago. Polished it up a litte so enjoy.

A lifetime lesson learned

It was a hot May day in 1963 and I was a twelve-year-old prissy girl walking home from school in the opposite direction from the other kids.  I was about a block from home when I saw my brother Charles and his friend, David also walking home.

I saw David run the final 100 yards to the gate of our home. He opened the wooden gate and waited patiently for me.  With a nonchalant attitude, I just kept on walking and finally arrived at the gate.  David held the gate open then with a twinkle in his eyes and a radiant smile on his extremely buck teeth he made a gentlemanly bow and waved me through the gate.  Like a princess who thinks it was her due, I marched right through that gate and up to the house all without a word to my young knight. At 121/2, I was too sophisticated (I thought) to encourage a bucked tooth kid with a crush on me.

Ten minutes later Charles who was then eleven came into the kitchen where I was washing dishes. He tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention.  When I turned around he delved right into it.  “I just got done talking to David and he felt so bad.  You didn’t even speak to him after he ran all the way to open the gate for you.  You were so mean and didn’t even say Thank you.  That wasn’t very nice”. 

Those were his words then and 60 years have gone by and I still remember that hot May day and the shame I felt at being told by a younger brother that what I had done was not nice.  I was/still am an extremely sensitive person toward other people’s feelings so I learned my lesson well. No matter how simple the gesture of kindness or who performed it, a thank you should always be given.

3 comments View Entry

 Puppy From Hell With An Expensive TASTE

My dog, Pepper has been a problem from day one. She is now nearly four. She has calmed down a lot. I am not sure my sense of humor could have prevailed when her antics proved expensive. Oh, before you say, "you just need to train her,” keep in mind that I paid $700.00 for a private trainer, took her to obedience school, bought countless dog training books and gadgets.  All to no avail, I had to face the fact that my dog was learning disable dog which was and still is as dumb as a rock.

Pepper was an adorable puppy but as mischievous as the devil. If ever there would be a picture of a textbook puppy, her picture would be plastered in every dictionary. She loved to grab things then and beat it through the doggie door to the middle of the yard and play catch me if you can. A pair of $300 Bifocal glasses or a cheap pair of $1.00 reading glasses were equally tasty for Pepper. She gave everything equal attention and did not discriminate between cheap and expensive. She would jump on a kitchen chair and take whatever off the table to her favorite spot in the yard and then settle to chew, bite, or eat to her heart’s content or eat. We came home one Sunday to find she somehow managed to get the roast that was resting on the stove.  To this day, Paul and I haven’t figured out how she managed to get it since she was a small/ medium dog. She was full-grown about 25 pounds but still a puppy.  Not even a hearing aid escaped her jaws of destruction.

I came home one day and found a library book all chewed up. She adored paper. If she can swallow whatever the flavor of the day was then she would.  Her poo was always multicolored from swallowing fibers of colored paper.  Her penchant for paper does not stop there. She managed to swallow whole baby socks then spit them out half-digested or even whole.  Oh yes, she has had her stomach pumped because she swallowed my mother’s pills.

We went out to dinner one night and came home and found where Pepper got her paws on a dollar bill and a ten-dollar bill. Well, the ten-dollar bill was torn and spitted out.  The dollar bill was untouched.  This wasn’t the first time she got hold of green bills but it was the first time she left enough for us to take to the bank for exchange.  The ten must have tasted so bad that she didn’t like it thus the bill was not worth picking up because she left a disgusting reminder. Wonder if she plans to try for a twenty?  Hubby said he wonders how much her poop was worth.

Note of explanation of the term “poo.”

The British dog trainer Victoria Stillwell uses the word poo for poop.

Note

Pepper died at the age of 11, beloved by all. She was just so sweet and funny, We had her since she was ten weeks and she never once barked, growl, or snarled at anyone. She left us rich in memories.

2 comments View Entry

Tags: Memories Humor

1 comments View Entry

The other day I experienced the end of one decade and the start of another.  It’s been a roller-coaster of ups and downs. The last ten years have brought many changes in the family.  We saw 3 new babies born into the family. My husband and I enjoyed many trips throughout our marriage but an especially memorable one was the cruise with another couple.  When we got home, we found out that my beloved mother was dying. She passed a few weeks later.  On a trip to California to visit my brother, I got a text from my sister saying that my nephew had been in a serious accident. Without going into detail, it had a miraculous result for such a horrible accident. When we visited Charles and Sue in that little town, we fell in love with it.  We considered moving to Paradise, Ca to be near them and because we love that quaint little town.   We hadn’t made a decision because we had misgivings and other considerations.  Paul woke me up one morning several months later to tell me that the town of Paradise was on fire but thank the good lord, Charles and Sue escaped even though it was with only the clothes on their backs. They lost their home and belongings to the fire, so moved in with their daughter in her tiny 2 bedroom apartment.  Sometime later, Keather came home from work. She spoke with her parents, then was going to her room when she kneeled over then fell to the floor.  I guess we weren’t due for another miracle as she didn’t make it.  The doctors are not sure what was wrong. She was only in her forties. During the last decade, one of the biggest milestones to happen was getting an implant in my right ear and having the world of sound open back up.  I saw the world experience a pandemic. Masks became the norm and scare tactics became even more common than ever.

Now, I am entering my seventh decade and wonder what life has in store for me.

Tags: Memories

2 comments View Entry

First Kiss

Ten year old Judy was happy to be outside after being in the house all day trying to remain cool. The evaporative or swamp coolers were practically useless during the hot triple digit days.   Television could get boring after a while and she was bored big time watching her mama bustling around with an infant in her arms and three brats under ten watching the boob tube..  She was always delighted when the oppressive desert heat of the day would give way to cooler evenings and children seem to suddenly bring the quiet yards to life at six thirty every evening.

Judy joined the group of children ranging from 6-10 in a game of “Kick the Can.”  Fourteen year old Jack sat on the tiny concrete slab that was supposed to be a porch, watching Judy  He was her secret protector and only Judy mother knew that Jack had appointed himself to watch over her.  One of the younger kids was “it” and the game had begun with the count. Judy ran to hide at the edge of a huge yard where there were some oleander bushes and crept to the shadows.   She felt rather pleased with herself, she remained still for what seem an eternity.  Finally she thought it had been long enough so she peeked out.  No one was there. It was as quiet as it had been during the heat of the day.  Where was everyone? She began to get scared so with a sinking feeling of loneliness, and a little despair, she turned around to go home across the desolate yard..

As she  walked across that long, long yard she saw a shadow and with her heart in her mouth, she let out a loud gasp. As if by magic, it was her friend and secret protector.  He looked so serious when he told her everyone went in for the night and she had better go too. Judy was the oldest sibling so was more used to barking orders than taking them. She looked at him and said that he  didn’t tell her what to do.  Jack knew Judy’ personality well. She had to be in control but she absolutely had to go home.  It was dangerous to be out that late in a crime and gang ridden neighborhood.  Jack looked at that little stubborn face and put his arms around her. She looked up at his face as he looked into her deep blue eyes and then his lips came down on hers.  The adult kiss terrified her. Judy pulled way with frightened eyes and ran as fast as her tiny feet could move.  Jack just stood there with a half smile.  He was satisfied as he watched her opened her door and disappeared into the house. Mission accomplished.

1 comments View Entry

I am not sure but if I did it was one of the very first blogs that was deleted before I knew to save them as blogs.  The incident still makes me laugh whenever I think of it.  My beloved mother is no longer with us but the memories always will be.

Mama and the Pie

I was home from college for the holidays. Mama spent her days cooking and preparing various dishes.  One of her favorite things to bake were pies. To this day, I have never tasted a pumpkin pie as good as Mom’s but I digress so will return to the tale.  That day Mama was making a lemon meringue pie.  I happened to be sitting at the family’s favorite place and that was the kitchen table.  Mom went to take her pie out of the oven.  It was beautiful with brown tips and perfect peaks.  Mom took it out of the oven with oven mitts and stood straight up, looked at her pie and exclaimed, “Ohhh, what a beautiful pie.”   Just as she finished that sentence,    SPAT went the beautiful pie all over the floor.  Mom looked at that mess with a crestfallen face and then looked at me.  I was laughing so hard that nearly joined the pie on the floor. Mom was so stunned but then she burst out laughing with me.  When I got myself under control, I solemnly said, “Pride goeth before the fall.” Mom looked at me and the laughter started all over.

Tags: Memories Humor

0 comments View Entry

December 17, 2020

Thought I would write something since I haven’t writen anything for ages. Be prepared for a mini novella. LOL

The Greatest Gift I Gave Myself

This story begins a year and half ago.  It has been a tremendous journey into the world of sound..  At the age of nearly 68, I decided to get a cochlear implant. When I suddenly lost my functional hearing at the age of seven years old and could no longer hear or distinguish words, I never ceased to hope my hearing would return.  As the years passed, I coped but didn’t accept my deafness until I was 21. That’s another story but from that day in 1971, I accepted my deafness and stopped the wishing for something that was gone.. I used hearing aids for many years as my hearing deteriorated so my ability to use hearing aids. In the summer of 1986 my aids were not working so I took them to be repaired but he audiologist assured me they were in working condition.  I then knew that soon I would be in total silence. The time came sooner than I expected and loud noises were a thing of the past for me and just silence.

Fast forward 35 years and I am now retired. One day I met a young woman who recently lost her hearing so got an implant. I was impressed with how small they were now and how improved they were.  I began doing some research and found out that even though my hearing loss was a pre-existing condition that the insurance would pay for everything.  This made no sense to me since insurance won’t shell out $1500-3500 for hearing aids but would pay  nearly two hundred thousand dollars for the implant and surgery.  I called the Mayo hearing clinic and got the ball rolling. I had to wait 6 weeks for an appointment with the audiologist who would evaluate my hearing, main means of communication and expectations for the implant.

The audiologist appointments:   

The first appointment finally arrived and hubby and I make the 45 minute drive to Scottsdale.  The audiologist tested my hearing and afterwards began asking me what I wanted from the implant. Since I had already done so much research, I knew my chances to hear speech was nil or impossible.  I am a realist so just told her that I would like to hear my dog bark and environmental sounds again and didn’t expect normal hearing.  She showed me my audiogram which as pathetic.  I had absolutely no residual hearing so had a higher than average change for the implant to be a complete failure which meant in the end I would have a mini computer with a blank hard drive in my head that was useless. I just said “so what, I won’t be any worse off.”  She gave her approval for the operation. We had three sessions.

The Doctor/surgeon

The doctor was the next step. He kept emphasizing that there was 85% chance of a complete failure. I had him explain and he said worse case scenario is that when they turn on the implant, the result would be zip ,nada, and nothing-  not even environmental sounds. I said I have nothing to lose. His reply was, “your life from the anesthesia.” I didn’t count on that possibility but Paul was a little upset. In the end and out of consideration for Paul I decided to postpone my decision and discuss it w/Paul.  As usual, he said it was my decision. I think he didn’t want to influence me at all. Four days later, I decided to go for it.

The big day

Finally, the big day was here. It was an out patient procedure or surgery.  The operation itself only took an hour and half. Pain was practically non-existence but now I had to wait 30 days before the implant would be turned on.   They do that to give the body time to heal and accept the foreign object. Unknown to me, they already knew the surgery and implant was working.  Later I found out my audiologist tested the device from her office miles from the surgical center.  Have to admit it was a long 30 days.

Turning it on, Did it work?

On a rainy day we headed to Scottsdale. My audiologist did some tinkering then when she thought it was programed enough, she whispered to Paul to say something. I wasn’t paying attention when all of a sudden, I heard aa voice. I looked at Paul and burst out crying.  It was such an emotional thing. I would need to go back to her the very next day for more tuning then the appts would be spaced over time. We went home and I stopped in the women’s restroom. I was overwhelmed with loud and blaring noises.  I went into a stall and hear voices, toilets flushing and even a funny, rather steadily sound that I couldn’t identify.  I found out later that it actually was the ladies urinating. Toilets flushing was the worst.  LOL  Now comes the big test now. Would I be like many deaf folks and give it up because they can’t tolerate it. For me it would be a worse ordeal because I lived in total silence for 35 years. We get home and immediately I fell asleep and in the following days, I suffered extreme fatigue. That was normal because your brain is trying to adapt and so on. A rather strange incident happened on that first day.  I could hear every little patter, click and clack even when sleeping.  I guess it was some time later when I hear this ugly and loud sound I couldn’t stand. I opened my eyes and could see Paul asleep in the next recliner. Sill I could hear that awful noise but what. Finally, I was aggravated and demanded to know what that sound was and stop it. Paul work up and I grumpily asked him what that noise was.  “What noise?”  I replied I didn’t hear it anymore.  Poor guy sheepishly said, “It probably was me snoring.”

Now,nearly two years after My CI

It wasn’t easy to get used to a head full of loud noises that most folks take for granted.   There are still sounds that hearing folks might not like but can tolerate where as I still can’t tolerate and one of those things is the washer/dryer. There are days when I refuse to put on the device and want a day of quiet but those days are fewer.  The most amazing thing is I actually defied the doctor and audiologist’s  declaration that I wouldn’t be able to recognize various sounds or distinguish words but I do and it is so thrilling for me.  I will be doing a puzzle or something and hear a word or two from the TV and will ask Paul if they said such and such. I am not taking the therapy they recommend which usually come with the implants my niece and grand-nephew are taking.  Neither one was totally deaf and my niece had normal hearing most of her life.  She began to lose it with each pregnancy. They need the therapy to learn to hear “normally” with the implant.   I felt I was too old to start all over with therapy and am happy with how well I am doing.

Some thoughts

Many people asked why I didn’t do this before.  For me, it was the fact they improved and were not such bulky and awkward devices like the previous ones. I will also admit to procrastination but again that is another story. Many deaf people who are born deaf or became deaf before the onset of a verbal language do not feel like they need to be “hearing” to be “complete.” Probably around 75% of prelingual deaf people eventually quit using their implants.

The professionals all said sounds would be foreign to me. In other words, in other words, I had nothing to help me recognize and know what I was hearing. This is a tough concept for most people to understand but just imagine being born blind and never seeing colors, shapes or objects. You suddenly are able to see the world around you but would you know what you were seeing? My sound memory was buried too deep after 62 years of deafness and would be of no help. Happy to say the naysayers were wrong. I was walking to the car and asked Paul if I was hearing birds because I heard chirping sounds but couldn’t see any birds because the foliage was too thick. I could go on but will end this with thought that the would of sound is amazing when you never had it.

1 comments View Entry