Confessions of A Tired Audiologist

...you don't actually want to know how I look right now. It's not for the squeamish.

I'm home from the hospital (got home yesterday afternoon), Bryan's yelling at me for moving around too much and I'm cranky.

Despite my penchant for never doing anything the easy way, the surgery went very nicely. I adore my doctor, Dr. Keefe. I work with ear nose and throat docs, who are the ones who handle the type of surgery I have. I'm thankful I knew my docs well and could choose Dr. Keefe.

I'm told that I started asking questions as soon as I woke up from the anesthesia (which should be no surprise to anyone who knows me well). Unfortunately I also spiked a temperature over 100 degrees and projectile vomited after waking up. So that was fairly unpleasant, as I was roasting hot and severely nauseated.

Dr. Keefe explained that I had one bad parathyroid, which was removed, and he took a look at the others as well. He felt things went very smoothly, and kindly explained the findings three different times - once when I first woke up, once shortly before I left recovery and then again Thursday evening when he came to see me (at 8:20 at night!). The pain was really pretty minimal - mostly a sore throat from the anesthesia - because Dr. Keefe did some tricky thing with long-lasting painkillers as he was stitching me up.

I didn't get much sleep Thursday night. I was roomed with a woman who had some sort of abdominal surgery that obviously had her very uncomfortable and despite not being in a lot of pain, I was uncomfortable from my neck drain (ugh) and the bandages around my neck. Predictably, my calcium tanked and they started me on prescription calcium stuff and Tums.

Friday afternoon, Dr. Keefe came to see me between surgical cases to release me from the hospital - and I was thrilled to go home! I'd only gotten about an hour of sleep and just wanted to be home where it didn't smell weird and I didn't have to drag an IV rack with me every time I wanted to go to the bathroom.

I've spent friday afternoon and most of today snoozing and reading. Bryan has been my go-to guy (or slave), getting me drinks, meds and helping me take a bath to get rid of the hospital smell.

I'm tired and uncomfortable, but still not in a lot of pain, thanks to Mr. Vicodin. The dressing and drain are awkward, and I won't be sorry to get rid of them on monday when I see Dr. Keefe for my post-op appointment. I'm still not super-functional - I've had a couple of brief phone calls, and they tire me out.

Apologies for bad typing/spelling/etc. Vicodin, you know?

More later.

So I just heard about this disease called Morgellons today. Apparently symptoms include itching, burning and/or stinging under the skin, accompanied by a feeling of movement under the skin and sores/lesions that produce fibers.

I guess the CDC is looking into it, but most patients are getting a diagnosis of delusional parasitosis. There are suggestions out there that this is some bioterror agent, that it's a legit disease, that it's a psych disorder and that it's some hoax to promote a horror movie.

Supposedly San Diego is among the areas where cases are concentrated, yet this was the first I've heard of it. The whole thing seems weird - guess I'll hold off on forming an opinion until we see what the CDC determines.

Today I had my pre-op appointment for the parathyroid surgery I'll be having next thursday.

My parathyroids have been out of whack for at least two years, probably more like three to four years. It was discovered by accident when my calcium levels kept coming up high on my blood tests (hyperparathyroidism).

Your parathyroids help to regulate the amount of calcium in your blood. They act like a thermostat - when the level of calcium drops too low, the glands make parathyroid hormone which signals the body to absorb more calcium from the intestines and to release it from bones. Once the level is appropriate, the parathyroids knock off the amount of hormone they release. In my case, my parathyroid(s) are constantly telling my body to give me more calcium - they don't "shut off" the way they should.

You actually have four parathyroids in your neck. Usually only one of them is out of whack, but occasionally all of them can malfunction. We haven't been able to tell from MRI, CT, ultrasound or nuclear medicine scans if it's one or all of them, so my surgeon will have to go in and poke around a bit to figure out what the problem is. If it's just one, they'll remove the bad one. If they're all bad, they'll remove three and a half, and transplant the remaining half to another part of my neck.

I'll be in the hospital overnight, possibly for a second night if my calcium levels are (as Dr. Keefe says) "in the toilet" after the surgery. Then home, with a six inch scar on the front of my neck. Whee! I've got strict orders to take it easy (read: channel surf on the couch) for two weeks, and then I'll be back at work half time for a week. So I'll either be bloggng a lot ('cause I'm bored) or very little (because I feel like crap, and I'm irritable and can't be bothered).

So I've got a week to wrap things up at work, make sure Alec is comfortable with the hearing aid stuff he'll have to cover while I'm out and get the grocery shopping and housecleaning done before my activities are restricted.

Anyone read any good books lately? I think I'll actually have some free time to read for once!

Well, folks, we are in the midst of a heat wave.

This seemed to work in our favor at Disneyland yesterday. Despite a later-than-planned start, we managed to get up there and get parked by 10. We headed straight off to Pirates of the Caribbean. The line said it'd be a 40 minute wait, but the reality was only about 20. The verdict? It's not all that different. Yes, they've added about four Jack Sparrow animatronics (and they're pretty impressive - very realistic) into existing scenes. There's a Davy Jones waterfall feature that's pretty darned cool, and they've changed the last scene to one of Jack Sparrow. They've also changed the audio, and "Dead Men Tell No Tales" seems to echo throughout the ride about every twenty seconds (which is kind of annoying to tell the truth).

The park was surprisingly un-crowded, certainly the smallest number of folks we've run into over our last several trips. We hit the usual suspects - Astroblasters, Space Mountain, the Haunted Mansion and (for the first time) the Winnie the Pooh ride. Temperatures were ridiculous (98 degrees), and in desperation, I actually dragged Bryan onto "it's a small world," since I knew it would provide a nice, long time in air conditioned bliss.

By 2:30, we were tired of sweating, so we headed to the movie theater in Downtown Disney and caught Pirates of the Caribbean. That gave us another two and a half hours of air conditioned-ness, and by the time we got out of the movie, the temperature had started to drop to bearable levels.

We headed over the California Adventure to grab some dinner, then hit up Screamin'. An interesting note: there was music on the roller coaster. Yeah, it was the usual boardwalk surf guitar stuff that they play in the park, but it was a new addition. Preparation for the rumored conversion to rock at night? We hit up Soarin' and then Tower of Terror twice. By then it was a very comfortable 80 degrees, and it was time to head home.

All in all, a great day. I don't think we waited more than 20-25 minutes for any one ride, and we managed to hit a lot of the major ones. The rehabbed Pirates wasn't the major conversion I'd expected, but it was fine, and the changes didn't seem to negatively affect the charm of the original ride.

(sigh) Back to work tomorrow.

We're off to Disneyland today. We've been meaning to go for about a month now, but between Bryan's underway and duty schedule and my teaching, it hasn't worked out.

We're going early, so we can get there in time to check out the remodeled Pirates of the Caribbean (hopefully) without a mile-long line. In our favor: the fact that it's now blackout dates for the people with the cheap annual passes. Against us: It's summer, and lots of folks are on vacation. Oh yeah, and it's supposed to be insanely hot, although maybe we can count that in the "in our favor" column, since my friend Holly (a frequent Disney visitor) said that in her experience, hot days are better because the locals stay home in air-conditioned comfort.

At any rate, I need to get in the shower and roust Bryan out of bed - he had a late night with his friends and didn't roll in until about 2:30 this morning. So he'll be about as cheery as a ticked off grizzly bear.

About halfway between work and home on my daily commute, I pass MCAS Miramar, the Marine Air Station. We frequently go there for less expensive gas and to shop at the commissary and exchange. One of the cool things about living near Miramar is that sometimes you'll get to see all kinds of aircraft - fighters, helos, cargo planes. They even do an annual air show in October.

For you Top Gun fans out there, Miramar is where they supposedly went to elite fighter school. They did a lot of filming in the San Diego area, and tourists still frequent some of the sites used in the film.

So there I was driving home yesterday with my sunroof down and my windows open, and suddenly Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" came on the radio. As I was driving through Miramar, suddenly two F-something fighters came streaking across the freeway, low, headed in to land at Miramar.

It was a very Top Gun moment, especially with the soundtrack that the radio station had so thoughtfully provided.

Oh yeah, I was thrilled to hear that the Wild re-signed Derek Boogaard for another year! This means I have another year to try to get Boogaard to autograph my jersey. We'll actually be in Minnesota for Bryan's friend Mike's wedding in October, right around the start of the season.

If anyone out there knows anyone with Wild season tickets, please help me out - season ticket holders can buy individual game tickets before the general public. If anyone has connections with a season ticket holder who would be willing to get us tickets for any games around October 7th, please let me know - I'll get a check to them! Lower level, anywhere is fine! Bryan still hasn't been to the X, and while we'll definitely make it up to LA/Anaheim games, Wild games are just more fun at home!

I spent the Fourth of July with the Coast Guard.

Bryan's boat had a dependents' cruise for the Fourth. A dependents' cruise is an opportunity for crewmembers' family and friends to get underway with the boat for a few hours, usually as part of a routine patrol. In this case, the Sea Otter was tasked with providing a security zone around the fireworks barges in San Diego harbor to ensure that boaters kept a safe distance from the barges.

We started the afternoon with a barbecue at the pier, and got underway in the evening. We did a cruise along the harbor, under the Coronado Bridge and back down to the central harbor, where they began setting up the security zone.

Around 9 o'clock, when it was finally dark, the fireworks began. We were in a perfect position - because we were about 100 feet from the barge launching the fireworks, we were directly underneath the display in the sky. We were also in position to see the fireworks from Sea World, Pacific Beach and (I say) Chula Vista (although Bryan disagrees, he says they were in National City). At any rate, we had a great position to enjoy the festivities. After the fireworks were over, we pulled in at the pier to let the families off, and the guys got back underway for patrol.

We had a little more excitement over the weekend - our hot water heater took a crap last Saturday night. We discovered a leak, and immediately contacted the landlords...who waited until Sunday afternoon to get back to us. We were at the San Diego County Fair when they called, so we had to leave to get back to the house to go over things with them. (For the record, the SD Fair has absolutely nothing on the Puyallup Fair or the Minnesota State Fair.

Anyway, after much difficulty (and $114 out of our own pockets to bring the water heater up to code), a new one was installed on Monday afternoon. Now we need to see about reclaiming our $114 from the landlords and get them to do something about the disintegrating porch overhang.

Bryan's back underway until Sunday afternoon and I'm helping with a CAOHC course my boss is teaching Saturday and Sunday. Oh well, I guess I'll get to see him one of these days...

If anyone's jonesing for a Coast Guard fix, there's apparently an Ashton Kutcher-Kevin Costner movie coming out in September. See the trailer here or go see "Pirates of the Caribbean."

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