This Is It

Three days is like a long time without blogging nor visiting WordPress.

Last Monday, I had an appointment with Manila Hearing Aid Center, done more audiometry tests and had my ear mold measured.

This afternoon I went back to get the set of hearing aid I ordered. There are so many instructions that I have to remember. It is color-coded, comes with a two-year warranty and a year of that, I have to go back every four months for check-up. There is a one-month adjustment period until my next check-up on June 25, 2023. Today, I’ll have to use them for an hour only, tomorrow, I’ll add another hour until the seventh. I have to use it eight hours or more on the second week, then regular use after. Whew, I hope I’ll be able to remember everything by then. Pero may kodigo…haha. I find it a little noisy. Ouch, the battery is so expensive and it is only good for a week. Phonak brand is made in Germany.

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Timely

How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?

Jetpack prompt today is too timely. Among the four of us at home who had Covid almost two years ago, I was the only one whose sense of hearing was affected. When I had Covid, I heard loud sounds like several rolling drums. When I got well, my sense of hearing was affected. Initially, I could not hear ordinary conversations with people with soft voices. It went back to normal for a while or so I thought. It took me a year before I consulted an audiologist and an ENT. My ENT was not satisfied with the result so I underwent CT scan because eventually my left ear was infected. That was a painful experience. I was supposed to go back to my doctor these days for another check-up after more than a month but she was not around. I’ll be there again next Monday.

Quite apprehensive to use hearing aid. Besides being so expensive, I read somewhere that once you start using one, you ‘ll never recover having a normal hearing sense again. I need to undergo another audiogram.

COVID, you suck😷😠😢

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Health Is Wealth

My gosh, what’s happening to me?

For the past three days now, my left ear was throbbing like crazy. I’ve taken pain reliever twice already. My appointment with my ENT is not until Thursday next week. She asked me if I could bring along a companion so I asked Josef to accompany me. Maybe some of you would say that I keep complaining about my health. Life has to go on though despite what I feel.

I took advantage of Josef’ sched of working from home yesterday (it’s Saturday morning now) to attend to some pressing matters. Finally, I was able to file mom’s requirements for social pension at our LGU (local govt. unit) . If it is approved, it will start next year. I went to the bank to withdraw from our $ acct. to finance my hearing aid if ever. The peso is strengthening a little against the dollar. Just the same I have it exchanged to Philippine peso at the bank where they buy it back a little lower than in the market. It’s the convenience of not going to the latter. I had to compute even the value of stocks I invested into when I was still working at the bank. Just waiting for the two banks to declare cash dividends again late this year and early next year. The house needs some minor repairs, I really want have it repainted but Josef told me to take care of my health complaints first.

When one’s health is compromised, one gets stressed out. I always believe in the adage that health is wealth. Since Nissa was born, my health has become simply erratic. That was the time I experienced preeclamsia. I was admitted at the hospital on my seventh month of pregnancy and stayed there a whole month before I was induced to give birth to Nissa on my 8th month. She was left at the nursery incubator for almost a month. Imagine a 3.9 lbs baby when she was born, she was so small.

Since then, I had two major operations, a kidney bypass, six cycles of chemotherapy and chronic UTI. Added to that are my right eye needs cataract operation, my sense of hearing has severe loss. I read a few studies that having Covid before also affects the sense of hearing. In my case, I guess it is true.

Health is wealth.

U

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Hearing Tests

I went back to my ENT last Thursday to show her the result of my ear tests done by an audiologist. She said she is not happy with it because it is incomplete. There is no graph shown on my right ear. She said I’ll come back in two months around the first week of December and have another test done from an audiologist she will recommend. I actually told her that hearing loss advances every six months (per the advice of the audiologist) but she said it is not true.

I asked if it has something to do with the strange and loud sounds I heard when I had Covid-19 back in May 2021. She told me it has no relation but heredity does. I was talking to a maternal cousin two nights ago and she mentioned mom’s siblings and other relatives who suffered from hearing loss. It is indeed hereditary.

My ENT told me to canvass hearing aids in those companies she deals with. One has six months to pay with no interest if you use a credit card and also they have a 20% discount for senior citizens. Another one has a little lower cost and they are willing to make airmolds so the hearing aid would fit my ears. She even suggested that I file permanent disability to SSS (Social Security System). I went to the SSS yesterday to get an application form at the nearest branch here in our place. She gave me a prescription of vitamin B complex.

That’s the last of my going back to the doctor until next month when I’ll have my FBS and creatinine labs.

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Not Good

Oh my, on top of my pending cataract operation because my glucose is not normal yet, here’s another news that I have to bear with faith and prayers.

I finally had an appointment with an audiologist yesterday and the verdict is not so good. Forty five minutes of testing. It seemed like I was playing with a joy stick when I underwent three kinds of tests. I was made to listen to different density of sounds – loud, normal, soft and faint which I could not almost hear. Every time the headphone🎧 sounds in my ears, I have to press the stick once. The audiologist discussed the result with me after testing. It seems that I am already classified under severe loss of hearing. The audiologist said I really need hearing aid now. It could no longer be corrected. He quoted a price, 60,000 for both ears and that is already discounted. So expensive. I’ve had already spent so much for my medications.

I’ve been told that it only takes six months before the density of hearing loss advances. I’ll come back to him once I’ve seen my ENT on Monday. Whatever she says, I have to abide by it. There is a need to measure my ears via a mold which will be used for the hearing aid. I am not yet done with other issues on my health and here comes another. I am grateful though that I reached this age despite undergoing hysterectomy, surgical sigmoid operation, chemotherapy and kidney bypass a few years ago.

KEEPING THE FAITH AND TRUST IN GOD.

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