THEY DID IT AGAIN !!

Friday the hospital called and guess what? They changed my surgury time for the 3rd time!
First it was origionally scheduled for 7:30 AM. Then they called and said it was changed to 12:30, and two weeks ago they call and say it's going to be 9:15 AM, but Friday they call AGAIN, and say it's been changed AGAIN, to 7:30 AM. They're probaby spinnign a wheel with 12 hours on it! Round and round and round she goes, where it stops, nobody knows!!! So as of Saturday at 9:15 AM I am having surgury on Dec 31st at 7:30 AM. Check back hourly, things might change! I just hope I'm not mistaken for a sex change patient! I'll wake up with BOOBS!! WHAT THE !!!
My wife said that would explain my mood swings, and sudden interest in fruit wines instead of beer!

Here's me and my wife cindy at christmas:

FIVE DAYS LEFT!

Five days till I get implanted. Hospital called today and did the preregistration. I finally bottled two and a half gallons of home made beer. I made a Cream Stout. It will be ready to drink in about a week. MMMM! Meanwhile I still have some Red Irish Ale I made that will hold me over untill the stout is ready. I'm going to try to go back to work within a day or two after surgury. It will all depend on if I have any dizzyness and how bad it is.I have vacation time scheduled just in case.
Meanwhile, lots to do to get ready. I raise alpacas and llamas and I have to have a few days worth of hay and water set out for the time I'll spend in the hospital and at least one day of sitting around not moving!
No Snow in the forecast for central Minnesota so I don't have to worry about clearing snow, not yet any way. I'll be posting again when I get home so until then have a great weekend, and a happy new year.

22 Days and counting...

Here's another christmas joke. I'll try to have a new one each day.
In a small southern town there was a "Nativity Scene" that showed great skill and talent had gone into creating it.
One small feature bothered me.
The three wise men were wearing firemen's helmets.
Totally unable to come up with a reason or explanation, I left.
At a "Quik Stop" on the edge of town, I asked the lady behind the counter about the helmets.
She exploded into a rage, yelling at me, "You darn Yankees never do read the Bible!"
I assured her that I did, but simply couldn't recall anything about firemen in the Bible.
She jerked her Bible from behind the counter and ruffled thru some pages, and finally jabbed her finger at a passage. Sticking it in my face, she said "See, it says right here, 'The three wise man came from afar.'"

meanwhile back at the ranch! Our Alpacas are holed up in the barns riding out some pretty cold weather. It was 11 below zero this morning going to work. BRRRR!!!! And we haven't even hit our cold month yet.

See ya all tomorrow!!

Jim

23 more days till surgury!

Well time is flying fast. Only 23 days until I get implanted. With winter hitting us full blast, the holidays coming up, and a new year around the corner, the next 3 weeks are going to fly by.
To help get everyone off to a good start for the christmas season here's a christmas joke for you.
Man walks into a pet store: "Hi, I want to buy my wife a Parrot for christmas but I want something different"
Pet Store owner: "I have just the thing. I have a Parrot named Chet who sings christmas songs"
Man: "Wow, let's see him sing one"
Owner:"OK, all you do is hold a lighter under one of his feet and he sings a christmas song, watch" owner puts lighter under Parrots left foot.
Parrot starts singing "jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way"
Man: "Excellent, I'l ltake him" So the man takes the Parrot home and gives it to his wife and says "Hon, this Parrot is for you for Christmas, his name is Chet and he sings Christmas songs"
Wife: " yeah right, show me" so the man holds lighter under Chets left foot and chet sings "jingle bells, jingle bells jingle all the way" He then holds the lighter under Chets right foot and chet sings "Silent night, holy night"
Wife: "Wow that's cool. What does he sing if you put the lighter between his feet?"
Husband: "Lets find out" so he puts the lighter between Chets feet and Chet begins to sing
"Chets Nuts Roasting ore an open fire"!!

Check back for more christmas humor throughtout the month!

The weekend snowstorm dumped 10 inches of snow on us. The snowblower wouldn't work. Got the wide push shovel out and proceded to shovel about 1/5 th of my 200 foot teardrop shaped driveway. Got old real quick. My wife made some calls anda huge John Deere Tractor with a seriously big snowblower attached made quick work of the snow in the driveway.
THEN! Six more inches of snow fell tuesday. Like we really needed it. Went out and shoveled snow AGAIN in 5 degree weather partially clearing our driveway. AND, guess what's in store for Thursday!!!! Yep, MORE snow! AHHHHHH!!!!

4 sale: 10 acre snow farm in central minnesota..BEST OFFER...moving to Florida as soon as the ink dries on the contract!

The vaccination shot left me feeling like c rap for a couple days, but I'm much better now. Just in time to ride out our first Winter Storm of the season. Expecting over 10 inches saturday and saturday night. Not looking forward to it at all! I raise Alpacas and have them all set up in the barns to ride it out. They don't mind the cold weather at all. They actually spend more time in the barn in the summer than the winter. They have dense fleece and can tolerate the cold easily but can get stressed from the heat of summer. Plus no misquitos or flies so they're perfectly happy in the barn durning the snow storms or laying around outside when it's below freezing. We did have one old female who got hypothermia last winter. She was 17 years old which is older than dirt for an alpaca. We ended up bringing her into our kitchen and setting up a makeshift stall for her to stay there. She wasn't able to walk for 3 days and spent a week in the kitchen, We made a coat for her out of a hunting vest and velcroed it on her and she spent the winter with it on. She was fine after that. We put it on her again last week. She's a sweet old girl so she deserves all the spoiling she gets.

While watching the landscape disappear under tons of snow saturday we will begin remodeling the bathroom. Some of it anyway. Then I'll be bottling a five gallon batch of beer I just made. It's gonna be soooo good.MMMMM!!! I already have two more kinds of beer I'll be making before I get put down on Dec 31st.

As far as the implant goes, I chose the Advanced Bionics HiRes. I'll be getting two processors, and my actication date is janurary 22nd so it's all coming together. I'm gonna be busy!
Well gotta go get the snowblower out of the barn and ready for the "blizzard"!

If y'all want any snow, i'll send it all your way!!

Went to Fairview in early November and was qualified. Heard from them just before thanksgiving that Insurance approved implant. Now surgury is scheduled for December 31st.
Activiation date is scheduled for Jan 22nd.
Just got my meningitis vacination and only have pre-op physical to do the week before surgury. Making a couple batchs of home made beer to before surgury so I'll have fresh beer on hand. So everything is going smoothly at this point.

QUALIFIED!

I went to Fairview Hospital in Minneapolis and had a full day of meetings and tests. The day started out with a meeting with the Audiologists to discuss whick brand implant I wanted. My testing from two years ago was still recent enough to use for qualifying so I didn't have to go through all that again. I chose Advanced Bionics Hires90. I will get two processors. I asked the cost of each processor and they said $7,000 EACH! Woooo!

the next hurdle was to get a CT Scan to determine if there were any problems with the Cochlea. It was found that I have Otosclerosis. That's an inheritable disease that cause scar tissue buildup and will make the surgury more difficult but it does not disqualify me as a candidate. So the Surgeon wanted an MRI to determine the extent of the disease so he can decide which ear to implant. Both of my ears are close to dead, so to speak.

The MRI was scheduled for 7 pm that evening. Meanwhile I had to see a "shrink" so he could check my mental state as far as expectations, support group, knowledge of the implant process and expected results. yada yada yada. He asked me if I had ever seen a "shrink" (easier to spell) before and I said once, for multiple personalities, but I'm totally cured. Then I proceded to argue with myself. Just kidding. I said no.

After that it was a 4 hour wait for the MRI. That took 45 minutes. Then at 8 pm we had a 2 1/2 hour drive home and I had to get up at 3:30 am to get ready for work. I was tired to say the least.

So as far as Fairview is concerned I am a candidate and surgury is schedules for December 31st. What a way to start the new year eh? Of course it's all dependant now on the insurance company approving it (fingers crossed).

Until then, it's work, work, work, and drinking homemade pumpkin beer. Ahhh, life is good!!!

Summertime is trying to hang on for dear life in central Minnesota. After a dry summer, mother nature decided to give us our annual amount of rainfall in one day, or it seemed like it anyway. We got over 4 inches of rain on Thursday.
One nice thing about the dry summer is the mesquitos were close to nonexistant. But they're making a serious try at a comback with all the moisture. Thanks god for Mesquito Magnet!Nearing the last week of September we're getitng closer to our first hard freeze, first snowfall, first huge heating bill. YIKES!
On the positive side, I'll be going to Fairview Hospital in Minneapolis in November to go through the testing to qualify for getting a Cochlear Implant. If all goes well it will be done between christmas and new years, while the plant I work at building transit busses is shut down for the holidays.
I've slowly lost my hearing over my lifetime. I was taught to read lips in 2nd grade, got my first hearing aid in 6th grade (hated it). it was a box type aid with cords going to both ears and at that age other kids were quick to tease and make you feel like a leper so I took it off and come hell or high water I wasn't wearing it again.
So after high school I got behind the ear aids for both ears. I wore those for several years before they weren't getting it done and I had to switch to a body aid. I had the body aid for about 15 years and now that is no longer working for me so my only option at this point is cochlear implants.
I've been scanning as many sites as I can to learn what to expect. Now it's all up to Fairview and the insurance company as to whether I will be a candidate or not.
We'll see soon enough.