Cochlear Implant-Part II

Here's an update about my cochlear implant. Kirk & I went to St. Vincent's Hospital on 3rd & Alvarado in LA on Monday 6/29. He fasted with me, prayed and read in the waiting room. My surgery finally began at 3:30pm. My surgeon was assisting a brain surgeon, and so was late starting mine. He said my surgery was a "textbook" surgery. He made a tiny incision into the cochlea, in the inner ear, and threaded the electrode wire into it. Then he placed the battery, magnet, & computer chip (about the size of a credit card) under my skin, and sewed me back up. He even fired up the implant and says it's working.

Here are a few photos.

(Unfortunately I do not have Photo Shop on my computer, so I can't turn these pictures. You'll have to turn your head, instead. )

Here I am in my paper gown. It was actually quite warm with the booties for my feet, too.

Kirk snapped this as I was recovering from surgery, cute, huh?
My left ear was the one I had surgery on, but the doctor wrapped a turban around my head to hold the bandages on. It was SO tight; it felt like my head was in a vise! Kirk clipped it in a few places the next morning to relieve some of the pressure.

Here I am getting ready to leave the hospital at 9:30 pm Monday.

Here is the banner that Heather made to welcome me home from the hospital.

My Mom came & babysat me all day Tuesday. She administered meds, made lunch & dinner and gave me lots of TLC. She was the "hands & feet of Jesus" for me. :-)

Here I am with my Mohawk. All I need is a few piercings, I'll fit right in with the Punk crowd.

Today (Wed) Mary Henn, my friend & neighbor, came over & helped Heather wash my hair.

I can't get the stitches wet at all. So they had to be careful.
I'm mostly sleeping and reading a little. Kirk brought the teak lounge chair in from the yard so I can be in an upright position that's comfortable. I go back to my doctor for a follow-up appt. on July 7. Then I have to wait unitl July 20 & 21 for my 4-hour back-to-back sound processor hook-up appts. Then the work begins! I will need to work hard at reprogramming my brain to get used to the new "digital"sounds.
I have received many phone calls, emails & even cards! I feel loved & cared for. It is a blessing to be at the receiving end of the body of Christ!

A Busy Month of June!

June has been so busy; I feel badly that I haven't kept up on my blog. The day after school got out, we went on our Pacific NW cruise. We stopped in Astoria, OR, Victoria, and Vancouver, BC then back to Long Beach, CA. (I'll put the pictures up soon.) The day we came home we had a Father's Day dessert at our house. This week I've been doing my homework and going to doctor appts.
I wanted to finish my classwork for my Education Content class so I won't have that hanging over my head after my cochlear implant. Kirk's birthday was also this week, and we had 3 parties/dinners to go to. :-) This week, I also started going to Adventure Boot Camp for women. It is an hour of strenuous and fun exercise in a park nearby. I went 4 days this week, and am so sore! Unfortunately I have to take 2 weeks off after my surgery. But, I'm planning on jumping right back in ASAP. Tomorrow my surgery on my left ear begins at 1 pm. The (skull base) surgeon :-( said that I should be ready to go home at about 7 in the evening if I don't have any complications.
Today we went over and saw Philip & Abby's 3-on-a-lot place at 6037 Comstock. It is 5-6 houses south of Beverly (a few doors from Lu & Ed's old house on Comstock). The front house has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. The upstairs apt. is 2 bed. 2 bath and was built in the 1980's. The studio apt. where P&A will live for awhile has 1 room upstairs with 1 room below. They will be moving into the 2 bedroom place for a few weeks while they do the work on the studio.
That's all for now. I'll keep you posted about the surgery. Then, hopefully, I'll get pictures up from our cruise and P&A's house.

Mother's Day 2009

On the Saturday before Mother's Day, Philip, Abby, Heather & I went to downtown Pasadena for the afternoon! We walked among the shops on Colorado Blvd (We followed the line for the Rose Parade floats for a few miles looking for the best place to park).

We stopped and had delicious Gelato in an alley plaza. Then we went to Bird Pick, which is a tea store. There are huge glass jars of many types of tea. You can get a sample to taste. The teas range in price from $5.00 for 4 oz. to $11.00 for 4 oz! I got a yummy Hibiscus iced tea.
Thank you kids for the lovely afternoon. :-)

Heather bought me this cute flower arrangement at a shop where Christian college age students were selling handmade gifts to fund a mission trip this summer in Thailand.

On Mother's Day we all brought items for a hamburger BBQ at Mom & Dad's
Kirk got Mom these flowers.

We visited until the sun went down.

We ate, read our cards, laughed and had a wonderful time!

Granada's Garden Tour

We all met at GHFC and listened to the expert talk about planting succulents. His cute assistant kept the photo slides going on the screen. Phillip answered questions, was funny and remembered people's names. :-)

Then Abby and Philip put together 3 pots of succulents to give away as door prizes.

My friends, Mary & Pati, whom I teach with, went together with me from house to house visiting gardens and being inspired. Look at the cool baskets in this yard! The homeowner has a garden business called "The Blessed Gardener." She sells these and puts flowers in for people with black thumbs. We also dropped in on Mary Taylor. She graciously showed us around her lovely home and beautiful backyard. After visiting yards, we had a delicious lunch at The California Grill.

Here are P & A in their little oasis they've created in the backyard next door to Robin & David's house. It's full of potted succulents, bamboo, ferns & other lush plants.

This is the wall next to the bathroom wall. The large pot is a fountain to help drown out the traffic noises. Haven't they done a wonderful job?

A Long, Fun Weekend in San Diego (Marriott Coronado Island), Flower Fields in Carlsbad, CA, USS Midway

The Windmill Hotel &and restaurant in the background

We stayed on Coronado Island at our favorite place, the Marriott. We walked back and forth on the boardwalk to dinners, and to take the ferry to the USS Midway. It is an aircraft carrier which is now a museum.

On the flight deck are many types of planes, old and new, that have been used by the Navy.

This is a group of statues honoring all the different groups of service people who Bob Hope entertained during his USO tours. It is built next to the USS Midway.

A 25 foot statue of the famous black and white photo taken after WWII ended.

We stopped at the Madd Potter in Carlsbad. We love their fountain pots, and would like to get one.

Here I am inside the "Artists' Garden" at "The Flower Fields" in Carlsbad.

We got to enjoy 50 acres of Tecolote Giant Ranuculas.

The flowers are grown to harvest the bulbs. They get 6-8 million bulbs a year to sell!

Here we are back on the USS Midway. Kirk is standing on the "horn." It served as a low point on which the catapults would snap against when a plane would take off.

We climbed 4 VERY steep ladders to arrive up on the 07 deck. This is the bridge where the captain guided the ship.

Cool shot, huh?

Here I am in an ejector seat.

The pilot trainer plane

Kirk's wide angle view of the aircraft carrier.
It was in use for 47 years-from Vietnam War through the Gulf War.

Here I am back by our room on the bay. That is the Coronado Bridge behind me.

This is the view from our villa. We were given an upgrade!

We ate our breakfasts each morning on our patio. What a relaxing time!
We also went to the outlet mall in San Ysidro. The parking lot butts up to the wall between US and Mexico. We are SO fortunate to be Americans!

Coronado on Dwellable

Happy Resurrection Day!

Here are David, Jerry & Kirk practicing with the BB gun.

Here are all of the "Easter-egg Hunters" showing off their loot.

Fred Taylor (Abby's dad), Jerry, Mom & Dad. Kirk & I sat with them to eat our ham dinner. Everyone brought delicious side dishes & desserts!

Robin, David, Gretchen, Chris, Jane (from Taiwan) & Mina. Anders was taking his nap, so Gretchen & Chris had a relaxing meal :-)

Heather, Jeff, Natalie (from Malta), Luke, Philip, Abby & Jessica Taylor.
(Sorry Jeff & Philip for the bad pic)

In our Easter duds

We are so grateful for our family & friends. On this Easter Day, we paused to thank Jesus for his sacrificial death and resurrection, so we too can be resurrected! Hallelujah!
He is Risen!

Serve Day at Granada

In January, Philip & Abby joined the Trustees committee at GHFC. They volunteered to be in charge of completely gutting and redoing the garden area between the sanctuary and the church offices. For the last month, they have spent Fridays (since Philip only works 4 days a week due to declining work) and Saturdays on it. Philip drew the plans for the area. They took out a truck load of dirt, put in new drainage, sprinklers, put in electrical lines, poured cement pads outside the office doors, drilled a hole in a rock to make a fountain, etc. Today was the day for the rest of us to help put the plants in the ground. Here are a few pictures.

Here's Kirk with his post-hole digger putting in Rosemary plants. It was a wonderful treat for Kirk to work under Philip's direction. Included in the plantings are 2 dwarf citrus trees- Kirk's favorite!

Here Philip is showing people how to gently get the plants out of the plastic pots.

It's so neat to see Abby come alongside Philip and help him with this project. :-)
They have worked hard on it together from the beginning.

Here's Abby planting Mondo grass.
They are also going to add 2 Crepe Myrtle trees and Kefir Lilies (sp?) & Camellias in the shady areas. Two fountains are going to be installed as well.
It should be beautiful!