My 2nd FWW visit............

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Rennie and his lovely wife Jan dropped by early this afternoon for a few minutes en route to Wallace, ID.

Sharon and I enjoyed their visit. Sharon had a dentist appointment she couldn't reschedule so unfortunately she had to leave but she said she dearly enjoyed Jan's company!

Jan took a photo of Rennie and I.....I will have to defer to him and/or her to bail me out with a photo.

Sharon and I just got back from a 4500 mile driving trip to visit family and friends and on the 2nd day her Nikon crapped out. It's currently been sent to Nikon for repairs so I was unable to take photos.

Thanks for stopping by Rennie! Come back again!
 
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Good to see you drop in, Ken. :wave: Sounds like you had a great visit. Rennie is one of the people on my "hope to meet in person" list. :thumb:
 
Larry,

Sorry I couldn't get to your place. There were life long friends and some family members we couldn't work into our schedule.

Originally when we made the plans and hotel reservations, I was supposed to have had implant surgery and had to be back on last Thursday for surgery. I also had a doctor's appointment the day we left, so we were kind of locked into some very specific dates and had reservations at specific places on specific dates.

My apologies! I'll get to your place eventually. Of course, if you offer me some scotish ale, it could happen earlier than later but even that offer is relative not specific and very generic.:D

On another subject......I wish I had Rennies calm nature! What a pleasant person to be around!
 
By now I am sure you have heard, I'm legally deaf and had to retire for safety reasons.

Being deaf is the pits. Rennie will tell you between a little distorted sound that I hear and reading lips, I manage but in conversations, the person I am talking with will have to repeat themselves often.

General Electric was extremely generous to us when I awoke to find myself deaf last year when in July my left ear died . It was incredible how they treated Sharon and I. I will admit I fought some slight depression for a while not so much over the deafness but losing the ability to work for a living. The financial situation didn't clear for us until late March of this year. I didn't do much of anything until then as I didn't want to incur any unnecessary debt.

The financial dust finally settled and then I realized we would make it without too much belt tightening.

I am qualified for a cochlear implant in my left ear and currently am waiting for the one I want implanted to be approved and returned to the US market after a self-imposed recall. It's technology is decades ahead of the competition and a lot of it's recipients are able to hear music again. The company had 2 out of 28,000 fail and they recalled all of their devices that hadn't been implanted yet. They found the problem, developed a resolution and have been accepted on the European, Asian and Canadian markets. The FDA is currently reviewing their changes before approving it for US implantations.

My right ear most recently tested at 10% and everything is distorted. That 10% is with me wearing the most powerful hearing aid made. Without the hearing aid, I am totally deaf.

The hearing aid can't be worn in the presence of x-ray or an MR magnet. That prevented me from continued employment as a diagnostic imaging field engineer for General Electric Health Care. Once implanted, I won't be able to have an MR scan without surgery to remove part of the implant and can't even go into the scan room without that surgery, thus I had to retire. Luckily, I'd been in the business for over 34 years and qualified for a complete retirement from GE and from J&J.

I am confident once implanted I will hear again....and I will hear music again.

Please understand, I'm not looking for sympathy but rather updating you with my current status as I haven't even logged in here for months.
 
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Ken its good to have you back, well done Rennie on rounding up one of the gang. Luckily Ken you only need fingers here to paricipate.
I hope to see some more of your humor here like before.
Sorry to hear of your difficulty, its a tough one, one tends to take things like eyese and ears for granted until they aint availble no more.
Any idea what caused the sudden deafness?

sent from my Atrix
 
Rob,

They don't have a clue what brought on the sudden deafness. I have had MR and CT scans and all are normal.

I have been treated for severe vertigo for about 7 years and have tinnitus in both ears. My original ENT has said for years I have "Meniere's-like" symptoms. My implant ENT/surgeon has diagnosed me with Meniere's disease. There is no definitive diagnostic test for Menieres' disease. It's only diagnosed based on a patients historic symptoms. Tinnitus, vertigo and hearing loss are all symptoms but...typically the hearing loss is not sudden rather...slowly decreasing. I take medicine daily, a "water pill" to reduce the fluid pressure in the inner ear and keep the vertigo at bay.

My implant ENT feels I will eventually lose the hearing in my right ear.

Normally they would implant the ear that has the residual hearing which in my case, would be my right ear but....it lost most of the hearing 12 years ago so they will implant my left ear as the auditory nerve in that ear had normal stimulation until last year.

Note, my brother has been diagnosed with Meniere's disease and takes the same medicine I do. Experts argue about whether or not Menieres' is genetic or hereditary.

The concensus is that the "hairs" in my cochlea have fallen off. These hairs are the ones that wiggle with fluid movement in the cochlea. The wiggle causes the hairs to stimulate the auditory nerves at the base of the hairs.
 
By now I am sure you have heard, I'm legally deaf and had to retire for safety reasons...

I'd not heard that news. Sorry to see it. I know you were looking forward to retirement, but I doubt you wanted it quite this way. Hoping for the best of success on the implant procedure.
 
well ken i will be sure to talk slow for you to catch on to what i am saying if you ever get back to my parts.. and still remember the scottish ale and the great time you gave us while we were there at your place.. come back more often and visit us ken.. and you have a open invite to my home when ever your nearby..
 
I'm really sorry to hear the news Ken, but I'm happy to hear you are dealing with it, and I hope you get the implant and can hear music again! Heck I'll sing you a song just to double check it is working :D

I went through my own problems in the last year, a fight that I'm wining against cancer, so I know where you are coming from, in a way at least.

Glad to see you back, hope you can drop in more often!

Cheers!:wave:
 
Stu,

There are a lot worse things than deafness and I upset several deaf folks when I made that statement at a cochlear implant website......one deaf doctor got really angry....

Your cancer is one example.....quadraplegic or paraplegic is another.....

Lot worse things......I jerked a lot of chains with that statement.

I am playing the hand I was dealt. If I happen to end up being in that 1/2 of 1% that CIs (cochlear implants) don't help I will continue to deal with it as best I can. But.....I could be a lot worse off!

Thanks everybody for your well wishes.

Larry.....I will ring your doorbell one day......
 
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Ken, thanks for stopping by...I have a couple friends that battle hearing loss. They approach it much the same as you, nothing but good vibes on the way from IA. :thumb:
 
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