Loss of Hearing and Snow Storm Coming

Wednesday, Jan 21

Here’s a couple of cute photos of the grandsons this week. They are hoping for snow too, but they are looking at a lot of ice scenarios I think, maybe worse than we are. Trace helped Katy do some cooking.

River did Trace’s bedtime story one night. That is so cute. I miss them terribly.

Well it’s been hard to find time to blog this week, sadly. My days have seemed very busy. Yeah, yeah, I get it that I play a lot on Farmville 2 Country Escape. But it both relaxes my mind and stretches it. That said, I probably need to put a timer on it. I can kill 1.5 easily with a blink of an eye and it’s taking away from my other tasks. But let me back up and try to cover the last few days.

SUNDAY

Sunday was busy with church and getting groceries for Mom. The rest of the day I rested, played, and didn’t do a lot. I’ve been trying to lean into Sabbath like routines on Sundays and push everything else off to other days. That’s great, until the other days come.

MONDAY

Monday’s are still very much a Monday, lol. I have a lot of admin work scheduled for myself, phone calls, following up on things, the YouTube week starts over again, and so forth. But I’ve definitely had way more scheduled than time would allow. NO worries I told myself, there’s always Tuesday and Wednesday so I lean into being simple, casual, and not thinking much about it. But in the back of my mind I need to edit a video, vlog a video to edit next week, and get ready for life group coming Sunday.

Monday night at 8:00 my hearing in my right ear went out. It went somewhere. I don’t know where it went, but I couldn’t hear. It was very concerning. I tried to tell myself it would correct itself that it’s just a weird thing for the moment, many of which I have at times.

But no, going to bed was weird. The sound machine was to the right of me, but only my left ear that lay on the pillow could hear it. My left ear was amplified and picking up sounds that it normally can’t hear. Whattt? Was it overcompensating? Was my left eardrum perforated again? Maybe my right ear is normal but my left ear drum is just perforated and everything is loud. No No, I definitely can’t hear anything in my right ear.

At 1:30 in the morning when you wake up and everything you hear is amplified on one side and deaf on the other, still, you lay there and wonder what is wrong with me? George’s snores – even the slightest ones – were heard by my left ear, buried into the pillow, but my right ear is picking up nothing. So I checked with Chet (AI). And he said something to the effect of: I don’t want to alarm you but you need to see an ENT right away as there’s some conditions that may need to be attended to right away with SHL (Sudden Hearing Loss). I had no cold or sinus issues to my knowledge, and no pain. So Chet said it was of concern. Ugh!

TUESDAY

So the next morning I told George and he offered to skip mens prayers breakfast and get me to the doctor. But… there’s more, a few days prior, George had picked up my Rx from Publix and had to pay full price because my insurance with United Health Care through Cobra, was no longer in effect. I had spent Monday trying to get access and figure out what my coverage was, if anything. I was a little panicked. But finally found that it had changed plans and it looks like I was now covered on Cigna. Whew! These things happen on Holiday Weekends always, right. I’m worried about my insurance coverage and everyone at Cigna was celebrating Martin Luther King day.

So I told him no just to go on to prayer breakfast so I could call Cigna (finally everyone back from their holidaying) and maybe I can get my insurance card downloaded and get my coverage info. I did finally. Turns out you have to request a hard copy in the mail. Long gone the days of customer service and them taking care of your needs. You have to claw, beg, and treasure hunt for what you need. I finally was able to get it downloaded. I don’t have a printer so at the mercy of George to print it, which he did. It came out fuzzy so he had to print it as a very large thing. It’s hilarious. I have now done my duty as a single interested person in my own insurance coverage and requested a plastic copy of my cards. (Who are these people running the companies out there? Whaddya mean I have to go digging for my coverage card. I mean the companies I worked for asked that they send everyone a new card at the beginning of the year. But IDK, maybe the world is so transient and dishonest now they are afraid to do that. Anyway, I clawed and scratched and got my card and I am happy to say there was no screaming or crying involved. But there easily could have been. I supposed I’m getting more used to an insufficient, screwed up world in which getting what you need or what you want is just a whole thing.

By the time I get that done, I’m behind on life in a big way. Most of my Tuesday is out the window. I got my card, got an appointment made by telling them what Chet told me to say, that I need to see someone today because I’ve had sudden hearing loss. So they double booked an appointment and got me in.

Ummmm. By the time I was sitting in the ENT’s lobby at 2:30 p.m., I noticed my hearing was not double sided anymore. It wasn’t perfect, but I had some hearing back in my right ear and my world did not sound as lopsided.

They looked in my ears and determined they looked good enough to do a hearing test. They did some checks and determined I did not have any infection – just inflammation. They gave me the hearing test and I do have some pretty good hearing loss. I saved the paper but they said I did have hearing in my right ear and there was no concern. I was so happy the hearing came back. I felt like a fool but the day before I couldn’t even hear my fingers snapping or rubbing together in my right ear. They said it was likely congestion b/c my nose was stuffy inside. I guess I’m used to being stuffy b/c it didn’t seem stuffy to me. But they gave me a couple of meds to squirt up my nose. One was a Flonase type of thing and the other is an antihistamine.

After that we went to the new IN and Out Burger here close by in Lebanon. We went in and ate and was behind only 1 person. So it was quick. It was less crowded than the one in Dallas. Anyway, that was nice to do.

All the while, we get news of the big snow storm coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So I call Mom and talk to her and tell her to be putting her things on the grocery list that we’d go get them tomorrow (Wednesday). Because we won’t be able to get her things on Sunday. So she did.

We then went to Costco for ourselves as we had a couple of things to buy. Our freezer needs more chicken. So we bought a lot of packs and a great price and got a few other things being that we will likely be snowed in. We ran into our preacher’s wife and also in our life group. We talked about the weather and I said “likely I’ll be sending out a cancellation notice as it’s going to be bad.”

Then we went to Publix in Mount Juliet to get my RX that the doctor’s called in and to get a refund for my Blood Pressure Med that we had to pay full price for b/c Cigna didn’t send my card to me and we didn’t even know I had new insurance when he picked it up for me.

So the “fill- in” pharmacist at Publix had no clue how to do a refund and honestly just got the impression she didn’t want to work on it. I didn’t argue with her as she seemed overwhelmed and they were behind on the RX. It had been 4 hours since my appointment but they didn’t have it filled yet. ::sigh:: Honestly living in today’s world is exhausting sometimes.

So we shopped and came back and it still wasn’t ready so we just went home as the dogs were past time being taken out and fed. I just said we would come back.

We took all our Costco and Publix groceries in and took the dogs out and put groceries up and headed back out again. It had been at least 1/2 hour if not more. As we approach the pharmacy counter…..

“It’s still not ready” she said. I told George if she says that again, I am going to say “no problem, I can wait” and I will stand there at their counter and watch them do things until it is done. I was not going to go away and be out of sight out of mind. She either needed to fill it now or needed to have given us a more reasonable time frame if she couldn’t. And so I didn’t budge. I just said “no problem, I’ll wait right here til you get it done.” So it was 5 minutes. I’m sure they wanted to get me away from their counter and out of their site.

I was so tired by the time I got home.

WEDNESDAY

I moved all my stuff on my list to today. I woke up and thought, “yay a whole day to try to get stuff done”. And then I remembered….oh, we are going to be going to get Mom’s groceries today and take them to her. Also George had a few other things he wanted to do while we are out.

Ok no problem. I will just do everything Thursday. But Thursday I have lunch with a friend. So I’m limping along this week with the video for Saturday and with housework and with all the things on my list.

Mom called and asked if we could get her neighbor’s groceries too as they have the flu. Sure, we can help with that. But then she called back and said they were better and were able to go out and get their own.

Anyway, today we have been out to Publix, got my refund as the lady last night couldn’t handle that. So today the guy handled it just fine. Seemed like an easy process. I told him the lady last night told us to come back this morning. I figure maybe if they know she doesn’t know how to do refunds – maybe they can train her to save someone else from having a night like we had last night.

So I did a few things this morning – World Bible School, devo, laundry…and cancelled Mom’s doc appointment for Monday as it’ll still be bad and if it’s not snow or ice, it’ll be too cold for Mom to get out. So I have moved her appt to the end of February. She can still get meds extended by calling them so it’s good.

My ear still seems to be fine today. We got Mom’s groceries done and picked up a few of our own. I stopped and got donuts for her from our local donut shop. She loved that.

And I have done two loads of laundry. I canceled our life group for Sunday. I vacuumed while Dexter was gone to doggie daycare. And I have had to change our video for next Saturday as well. Instead of Company’s coming it will be Snowstorm Coming. LOL.

So I will vlog it this weekend from Friday through Sat or Sunday and then transfer the files Sun night so I can edit it next week. I will continue with the Company’s coming video at a later time.

So, I am really struggling this week to get things done, but the video is uploading now to YouTube and will be scheduled for Saturday morning.

We are hopefully prepared for this thing. Our first look at the weekend forecasts combined, listed a total accumulation of snow b/w 1.5 to 2 feet. I don’t think that is the case now but we’ll have to keep watching. It’s both exciting and scary. Because I love a good snow and we are set to be snowed in for a while. But if there’s ice or a lot of snow it could be bad!

Friday, January 23, 2026

OK, well it’s Friday now. We are expecting to have 3 to 5 inches of snow and sleet and about .75 inches of ice accumulation. I’m a little scared about the ice and power. But it’s really all out of our control. We are as prepared as we can be except that we did not buy a generator. So I hope the power does not go out. But I’m told it will be likely as this is a pretty severe situation. It’s been a long time since we had an ice storm and so I guess we are due. Isn’t it awful to have to say “we are due”? But that’s the state of the world/universe now that we are “not in Eden anymore”. But, all that said, God will take care of us.

I didn’t get to blog yesterday as the morning was busy, and I had my shower and let to go eat lunch with the girls (former coworkers). So that was nice. Back home I took dogs out, as George was gone with Ron to see a couple of things in Nashville (music related museum things) etc. And then I set in to Farmville 2 and reading. I finished The Tenant by Frieda McFadden and it was great. A page turner, as always. And we will take that to the library this morning.

I suggested to George while we were out we grab lunch and a beer out as a last hoorah of getting out because we may be iced/snowed in for a few days and up to a week and we’ll be wanting to get out. So we are going to go grab some Greek food.

I think we have been to the store every day this week as we’ve thought of something we needed for this or that.

My ear has been fine, other than tickling and itching. Otherwise, I can’t tell that the meds are making a whole lot of difference but maybe. I think my nose and sinuses stay partly congested all the time so I wouldn’t notice anyway. Everything seems normal for the most part. Hearing is back.

Well I need to post this and get my shower so we can go out for lunch. I’m not eating breakfast at this point, even though I’m getting hungry. We will just wait and eat there.

I have so much on my list today that I have thrown off my list and forwarded for about two weeks now of just too much going on and playing too much Farmville 2. So I think I’m going to have to set a timer. Or just ignore it all together.

Ok I need to pay some bills for Mom before I dive into the day further. I have paid her property taxes for the city and state this week and she should get refunds back on some of it as I sent in her discount vouchers last week.

I’m excited that there is a possibility of getting some extra things done during the snow/ice storm if the power stays on. I plan on videoing the winter/ice storm as a video and hopefully we will have power where I can edit it. But if not, I will just have to forfeit and tell everyone sorry as we’ve had a major ice storm. Anyway, it will all work out. I’ll either get a lot done or not as much. Either way it’ll have to be ok. I’m just glad I don’t work because I can’t imagine the shouting that would occur if I didn’t come in after a couple of days. Someone tried to intimidate me (bully me) a bit once by someone that kept calling and asking why I wasn’t coming in when we could not even get up the driveway. And the same person yelled at me (yes yelled) because I left when ice started to come down in Nashville and I had a 45 min drive home. He said I left and shut the plant down. I only did what the Mayor said to do, “leave now and go home or you may not get home”. No compassion or understanding whatsoever for employees. That person is now retired also, but I’ll never forget it. I held my own and defended myself. He met his match for sure that day. I was sure I’d be fired. Our relationship was never the same since. I didn’t trust him as he reminded me of others in my life that would blow up in a heartbeat over anything. I didn’t walk on egg shells around him, but avoided him completely, lol. So snow and ice storms bring back a trauma memory for me. I’ve always wanted to be the person that pleased others but somehow find that mostly I just piss people off. I don’t know why that is except I’ve determined based on some tests I’ve taken and discussions I’ve had and research I’ve done —-that I am likely borderline high functioning autistic and that can lead to a lot of being misunderstood by others. Regardless, bottom line, doesn’t matter who I am or who anyone else is – I DO NOT DRIVE IN SNOW AND ICE. And the fall out from that will be what it will be. Mad bosses or not. Loss jobs or not. I didn’t lose my job and I’m grateful for that. Because in this case, I yelled back as loud as my voice would carry telling him he was wrong. I had too because he was yelling himself. lol Yeah he definitely met his match that day. I honestly have never minded telling my feelings and taking up for myself. I guess that doesn’t sit well with others that think they can run over you and intimidate you. I can think of a few others that thought that would work with me…..didn’t. lol. I never minded calling people on it.

Oh that was good to purge off my chest this morning. OK gotta go. See ya in the journal pages next week. Maybe I can do better! I’m just enjoying the days regardless of doing all the many hobbies. I wish I could do all of them in one day!