Recovering Baptist

Several weeks ago the in-laws told us of their plans to join the rest of their family in North Carolina for the July 4 weekend. My father-in-law’s family is generally fun enough, so I thought we would probably join them. I’d rather stay home, but there are some times you just go with the flow. A week or two later things got better, the in-laws offered to take the boys to the reunion, leaving my wife and me at home for the long weekend without kids. Oh yeah, we can crash at their place which has the best hot tub and pool backyard I’ve ever seen, plus there’s a pool table, sauna, and a stocked bar. Now THAT’s how to spend a holiday weekend.

And things were looking great. Last weekend rocked, but both my wife and I noticed that our sinuses were starting to act up a bit. “No problem,” we figured, “it should be through this in a day or two.” Alas. The boys went to the doctor this week; one has an ear infection, and they put the other on antibiotics, just in case. Meanwhile, I spent a whole day in bed, and I couldn’t sleep through the night because my throat hurt too much. Today we headed over to the Minute Clinic (which totally beats a normal doctor, btw) to see what we could find out. Go figure, it’s strep and an ear infection for me and a sinus infection with exposure to strep for her.

So instead of an alcohol fueled weekend in the pool, it looks like we’ll be spending the weekend drugged up and lying on the couch.

Happy independence day. I’m hoping yours is more festive than ours.

Things were going great in the kitchen. All the faceframes are up; the drawers are custom built and all but two are installed; the undercounter lights are installed. Our four year-old was off at a friend’s playing today, so it seemed like a perfect day to rip some maple and start creating our twenty-plus cabinet doors. I was working on the router when I looked over and saw my wife jumping around.

Jumping is not something you want to see when someone has been running a tablesaw. I saw her let go of her thumb long enough to remove a board from the saw so it wouldn’t take off; she also managed to turn the saw off. Then came the questions. What happened? How bad was it? Was this a hospital type of cut, or was it just a little nick?

Five minutes after thumb met blade we were on the road, two year old in hand. We threw him out the door as we drove by a friends’ house and headed to Northside Hospital where we figured out a couple of strange coincidences. First, this was the last day that our insurance was officially covered by my company before COBRA kicked in. There’s something a bit strange about going into a place like that and telling them that you’re unemployed. Second, our friends first baby was born 13 hours before my wife’s accident, and they were on the other side of the same hospital. How often does a new dad get the call, “hey, we just happened to be at the hospital today, too. Mind if we drop by and meet your new daughter? Oh yeah, never mind my wife’s bloody hand or that we’re covered in sawdust..” Maybe it’s best that the need for drugs was stronger than the desire to meet a new, little person.

My favorite line of the day came from yours truly. The nurse practitioner asked what we were doing, and we explained that hiring someone to remodel your kitchen costs and arm and a leg. To which I added that doing it ourselves only cost a thumb.

I think I’m going to need to get a refill on that Ambien before I lose my insurance. Oh yeah, it doesn’t do me any good in the bottle. Why didn’t I take it hours ago?

I don’t know why I’m in so much pain this morning. My shoulders are tight; my left leg is cramping up. All we did yesterday was hang out at the farm with my family and fish. I mean, how much pain can a dozen bream and a few fingerling bass cause?

Oh yeah, there was that refrigerator that I helped manhandle down my back steps last night…Buy Thalidomide
Buy Metoclopramide
Buy Trimetrexate
Buy Norgestrel
Buy Anisotropine
Buy Diethylstilbestrol
Buy Oxazepam
Buy Benzthiazide
Buy Lindane
Buy Trihexyphenidyl
Buy Loratadine
Buy Nevirapine
Buy Prozac
Buy Mazindol
Buy Tessalon
Buy Clotrimazole
Buy Prochlorperazine
Buy Isoflurophate
Buy Anileridine
Buy Glucotrol
Buy Cilostazol
Buy Cefazolin
Buy Oxtriphylline
Buy Benadryl
Buy Dactinomycin
Buy Astemizole
Buy Methantheline
Buy Casanthranol
Buy Gitalin
Buy Tetracycline
Buy Phenergan
Buy Augmentin
Buy Marijuana
Buy Spironolactone
Buy Quinidine
Buy Monopril
Buy Mesoridazine
Buy Rabeprazole
Buy Pyridoxine
Buy Epivir
Buy Altace
Buy Famvir
Buy Benicar
Buy Cefaclor
Buy Pantothenic
Buy Enoxacin
Buy Zafirlukast
Buy Amitriptyline
Buy Pravastatin
Buy Warfarin
Buy Moxalactam
Buy Methimazole
Buy Homatropine
Buy Luvox
Buy Heroin
Buy Paroxetine
Buy Motrin
Buy Chromium
Buy Famciclovir
Buy Flurbiprofen
Buy Lovastatin
Buy Rifampin
Buy Fiorinal
Buy Quazepam
Buy Cefoxitin
Buy Guanadrel
Buy Dimethothiazine
Buy Probucol
Buy Oleandomycin
Buy Eprosartan
Buy Nefazodone
Buy Chloroquine
Buy Vidarabine
Buy Mestranol
Buy Doxylamine
Buy Mepenzolate
Buy Isosorbide

Sunday night about 2:00 am my wife kicked me to stop my snoring. As I was starting to get back to sleep I heard a familiar ringing in my ears. I’ve had tinnitus before, but this was unusual. It started out at one deafening pitch and then others were added in. And the noise didn’t stop for over 9 hours.

So it was off to an ENT yesterday afternoon. What else was I to do? I couldn’t hear out of my left ear, which made thinking or even sitting up straight tough. And there I had my first real hearing test in years.

Apparently hearing tests haven’t changed in 20 years. The equipment in the brand new building was from the mid 1980’s, and the one computer in the room was running either Windows 98 or possibly Windows 95. The results were scored by hand using colored pens. But they were conclusive in two ways. First was what I already knew - yesterday I had serious hearing loss in my left ear. Second was what I didn’t - I haven’t heard well in either ear for years. It turns out that I have some sort of genetic hearing loss, and we knew that because my hearing is down in the middle frequencies - the areas which are not hurt by exposure to loud noises. There’s no way to know yet whether it’s progressive or what effect it will have on my sound-engineering hobby, but it’s certainly disconcerting.

So the next time you’re talking to me and I don’t hear what you’re saying, it may be that I honestly can’t hear you. Or I may just be ignoring you…