Let Me Bend Your Ear About Mine

Final update...on Thanksgiving eve day I went to the ENT for my most recent appointment. I had another hearing test consisting of word recognition and pure tones. I thought I might have some additional improvement over the last test. This time I had 100% word recognition at 15 decibels. We had been testing at 65 dB. In the pure tones test I was in normal range in all but the last three tones. On the third highest frequency I was right on the line. On the 2nd highest, I gained back 15 dB that I had lost and in the highest frequency, I have finally gained back 5 dB. Small victories. Even if I never improved from this moment, my high frequency loss would be manageable. I can use a phone and listen to music. The loss is still in the moderate to severe range for those frequencies but I have gained back the ranges that are spoken word and that is most important. Rush Limbaugh had to have an implant to correct his loss. My ENT decided not to do the second treatment of steroids into my ear. Too bad, that made my knee feel great! I did tons of research and discovered that patients with my condition have an associated increase risk of stroke (150% increase). I have some things to work on. I don't go back to the ENT and audiologist for a year. I hope you all had plenty to be thankful for last week. You know I did.

Snow at the Library

This year I have already seen snow twice. The first time was a couple of weeks ago at Disney World at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. Through the magic of Disney, snow fell on Main Street. I know it was a special foam blown from the rooftops to drift magically upon the Very Merry Partiers, but as long as you don't catch it on your tongue, the illusion holds. This morning I experienced my second flurries and they were as unmagical as could be. Before we opened, ScheduleMaster and I were RFID tagging the literary criticism books that are shelved at the end of Fiction. These books are filthy; not the good kind that makes people want to ban books either. This filth caused flurries of brown dust snow with each book we moved. Gross. I prefer Disney.

Christmas Shopping

This past weekend I went on the annual Christmas shopping trip to Orlando with the Queen of TR and Grannie Annie. We had a blast. The outlets were crowded and so were the malls. I have oodles of empathy for the hearing aid-wearers who have problems in crowds and loud places with echoes. I had to put an earplug in on several occasions or leave a store because the sounds were too intense. We went to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and saw the lighting of Cinderella's Castle with the icicle lights. I know I mentioned it last year, but the enhancement of the castle with the ice is spectacular! On Wednesday I had a follow-up appointment with the ENT and audiologist and I have improvement. Word recognition is back to normal from 10%. Low tones have hit the normal zone and mid tones are almost there. High tones still score as moderate to severe loss. So I have room to improve, but, having improved means I'm not in the percentage who won't improve. In 10 days I'll be retested and I'll have the ear injection again and we'll keep watching.

Lucky, Lucky Girl (Again)

Two Saturdays ago I was sitting on the couch reading and I noticed that my left ear was picking up whooshing noises. Over the course of the day the sounds got worse and included other white noise and my ear also felt sort of full. I thought maybe my Eustachian tube was clogged like when I had allergies when I was little. My mother says I used to tell her I had bluebirds in my ears. So on Sunday I went over to my parents to have my father look in my ears and he thought I should try a decongestant. A couple of days of that with no improvement, and in fact, a decline in my hearing and I was concerned enough to do research (of course), try a neti pot technique I read about, and consult my physician again. He recommended an ENT. I went to the ENT on Monday and after an exam and hearing test I was diagnosed with Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss. Boom! Just like that, almost deaf. I wear ear protection when I work with power tools, I don't have my MP3 player loud, I use noise-cancelling headphones on the airplane, I even keep earplugs in my purse for movies and concerts. SSHL is what used to be nerve deafness. Anyway, my ENT asked me to return in the afternoon for an injection of Prednisone directly into the Middle Ear, which he said would have a 30% chance of success. Based upon my research, however, I believed the chance would be higher. The procedure was 3 days ago and I can now hear a dial tone and words through the phone, although the voice messaging system voice doesn't sound quite the same in both ears. I can hear the words through my headset if I play a video, even if the tone sounds a little weird. There's still whooshing but I am interpreting this as being in the 30% so, with luck and whatever other forces people believe in that surround me, perhaps I'll have a full recovery. We are all a little wigged out about it, but to have reached 40 without any other health crisis, I know I am fortunate. Keep your fingers crossed that I remain my grandmom's lucky, lucky girl. I really need it this time.

I have a patron who attends my computer walk-in clinic. She is a really nifty 80-ish lady who is totally into politics and she wanted to learn to use the computer so that she could go to Web sites like deomocracynow.org and the huffingtonpost.com. Because of her, I have become addicted to the Huffington Post, myself. Today I was reading the Post and I saw that the Anchorage Daily News endorsed Barack Obama. What was interesting was the supporting article. I was very impressed with the argument for Obama. It was well written, even-handed, and compelling. Here it is in full:

Anchorage Daily News
Obama for President
Palin's Rise Captivates Us But Nation Needs a Steady Hand
(10/25/08 19:37:58)
Alaska enters its 50th-anniversary year in the glow of an improbable and highly memorable event: the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate. For the first time ever, an Alaskan is making a serious bid for national office, and in doing so she brings broad attention and recognition not only to herself, but also to the state she leads.
Alaska's founders were optimistic people, but even the most farsighted might have been stretched to imagine this scenario. No matter the outcome in November, this election will mark a signal moment in the history of the 49th state. Many Alaskans are proud to see their governor, and their state, so prominent on the national stage.
Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency -- but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation.
Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.
Since his early acknowledgement that economic policy is not his strong suit, Sen. McCain has stumbled and fumbled badly in dealing with the accelerating crisis as it emerged. He declared that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" at 9 a.m. one day and by 11 a.m. was describing an economy in crisis. He is both a longtime advocate of less market regulation and a supporter of the huge taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout. His behavior in this crisis -- erratic is a kind description -- shows him to be ill-equipped to lead the essential effort of reining in a runaway financial system and setting an anxious nation on course to economic recovery.
Sen. Obama warned regulators and the nation 19 months ago that the subprime lending crisis was a disaster in the making. Sen. McCain backed tighter rules for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but didn't do much to advance that legislation. Of the two candidates, Sen. Obama better understands the mortgage meltdown's root causes and has the judgment and intelligence to shape a solution, as well as the leadership to rally the country behind it. It is easy to look at Sen. Obama and see a return to the smart, bipartisan economic policies of the last Democratic administration in Washington, which left the country with the momentum of growth and a budget surplus that President George Bush has squandered.
On the most important issue of the day, Sen. Obama is a clear choice.
Sen. McCain describes himself as a maverick, by which he seems to mean that he spent 25 years trying unsuccessfully to persuade his own party to follow his bipartisan, centrist lead. Sadly, maverick John McCain didn't show up for the campaign. Instead we have candidate McCain, who embraces the extreme Republican orthodoxy he once resisted and cynically asks Americans to buy for another four years.
It is Sen. Obama who truly promises fundamental change in Washington. You need look no further than the guilt-by-association lies and sound-bite distortions of the degenerating McCain campaign to see how readily he embraces the divisive, fear-mongering tactics of Karl Rove. And while Sen. McCain points to the fragile success of the troop surge in stabilizing conditions in Iraq, it is also plain that he was fundamentally wrong about the more crucial early decisions. Contrary to his assurances, we were not greeted as liberators; it was not a short, easy war; and Americans -- not Iraqi oil -- have had to pay for it. It was Sen. Obama who more clearly saw the danger ahead.
The unqualified endorsement of Sen. Obama by a seasoned, respected soldier and diplomat like Gen. Colin Powell, a Republican icon, should reassure all Americans that the Democratic candidate will pass muster as commander in chief.
On a matter of parochial interest, Sen. Obama opposes the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but so does Sen. McCain. We think both are wrong, and hope a President Obama can be convinced to support environmentally responsible development of that resource.
Gov. Palin has shown the country why she has been so successful in her young political career. Passionate, charismatic and indefatigable, she draws huge crowds and sows excitement in her wake. She has made it clear she's a force to be reckoned with, and you can be sure politicians and political professionals across the country have taken note. Her future, in Alaska and on the national stage, seems certain to be played out in the limelight.
Yet despite her formidable gifts, few who have worked closely with the governor would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.

Roaming Gnome

For a couple of months I have been engaging in Technology-Specific Roving Reference. That is, I have been wandering around our computer stations offering help to stranded computer motorists and assisting with the reservation and printing systems. I have also had the occasion to conduct OPAC training and pre-screen reference questions to make introductory hand-offs to the Reference Desk. Our public computer area is, not far, just a shushh away from the desk. So I have been doing this for a little bit. Some patrons seem to find it a little creepy that I cover ground like a screensaver but most have found me helpful. I bought a button/badge-making kit so that I can make buttons that will put the patrons at ease while I'm roaming. As a department, we have begun roving reference in the stacks with the goal of 1 hour each per week. As I rove looking for people to help, I tighten the bookends and reshelve the widows and orphans. I'm defining widows and orphans as books left on the ends of shelves outside of the bookends, either on the same shelf where they belong or an adjacent shelf. Here's what I don't understand about people...They pull out a book, look at it, decide they don't want it and then-leaving a GIGANTIC GAP WHERE THE BOOK WAS- put the book back on the other side of the book end (thus creating an orphan). Furthermore, what possesses them to stick the book on a different shelf (widow-maker). Even if you don't understand our highly technical system called alphabetical order, you just made a gap, how do you think that happened?!

Count Your Blessings

Sally wrote in her blog about feeling very fortunate and those of you who have spent any time in my blog know I feel fortunate quite often. I commented on Sally's post that what she wrote reminded me of the song, Count Your Blessings, from the movie White Christmas. I think of that song from my Ray Conniff Christmas album. I wanted to post a video of the song onto my comment in Sally's blog, but I could not, so here it is...