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!!!