Valeria Out Loud

Hello! And happy Monday to you all!

It has been a strange week for me, for sure. Lots of good things but also some downers. Let me start with the positives…

On Wednesday night, I got my first round of the Pfizer vaccine. I am super excited to be on my way to helping my community with immunity, heh I rhymed, but I am bummed there was no micro-chip. Though, the rumor is, those are in the second dose. 😆 So far, no symptoms of much other than injection site aches that lasted a day. They say the second round is the killer, but I am tough! I think! Gulp.

Thursday night my youngest daughter auditioned for the Descendants school play, her favorite movie. She passed the first round of auditions that night and got a call back! This isn’t about me but I am just so happy for her! She is beaming with pride, and that is a great thing to watch.

I was super busy with work all week, but squeezed in some stitching time when I could. You can totally tell I was stressed out this week with how things look. But this path to learn embroidery is really a metaphor about life. At least I think so. It’s about the ups and downs, the frustrations of making it work, and if you aren’t centered, nothing will work in the positive ways.

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Which this all brings me to the weirdest thing I have ever dealt with.. I was just diagnosed on Tuesday with partial deafness. I know, weird right? A few months ago, around November, I noticed my hearing was off. It was annoying me to ask people to repeat what they were saying. Then the feeling of clogged ears and a muffling sound started after Christmas. I figured it was sinus related because I have been struggling with allergies all year for some reason. So I made an appointment for an ENT doctor. They were booked till March, which was fine. In the meantime, my hearing was wonky. Some days it was fine and some not so much. But I got freaked out one night when I had bought Jack a new toy; a bird that squeaks. When I took it out of the box, I shook and shook it but no sound was coming out. I was bummed because I thought it was broken. But. My cat came running, meowing his head off, and my family, who were at the table across from me, stared over like I was crazy.

The toy worked fine. It was so loud…I just couldn’t hear it.

So finally. Last week I had my appointment, and he checked my ears hoping to find some blockage, as I was hoping, too. And nothing. My ears were squeaky clean. My nose, however, he scoped my face through my nose and he said it was crazy inflamed. He actually said my face looked disgusting 😆. I guess my sinuses were blue from inflammation and he didn’t understand how I wasn’t suffering in agony on the floor. I couldn’t tell him that I was a badass but he saw. He saw. 😆

So my face inflammation might not be affecting my hearing…but maybe it could be. We had to start with a hearing test right then, that I horribly failed. The audiologist put me in the soundproof room, placed all the necessary ear buds in to test my ear pressure but kept making concerned faces. She asked me a few times if I blew out an ear drum, and I said no. Which made me feel concerned. The test was easy, however. She tested each ear separately then in concert. One test was beeps, one was a man talking and one was to hear distant sounds. She gave me the results right away, I failed and she mentioned that I could buy a hearing aid. (Uhm no)

Next steps are more tests… I have an allergy scratch test soon to figure out my inflammation issue, and I have a CTscan next week to make sure this is actual hearing loss and not some structural ear issue. I guess we have three thin bones behind our ear drums that can cause hearing loss if they’re not in the right place or damaged. So, if it is this issue it can be fixed. With surgery. 🙄

The life of a baddass. Am I right? Ugh. But anyways. I know this news is super weird, especially because it came outta nowhere. Plus, I haven’t really given myself time to digest what is happening because I feel there is something there causing my muffled hearing. So that audiologist can go pound sand with her hearing aids. 😆 Hearing aids. Fuck no.

Thankfully I live with a crew of loud people. 😆 Who knows what is happening with me. I am falling apart I guess. All I know is that I am going to figure this out and enjoy every moment in doing so.

I will definitely catch you up on what these tests find. And hopefully share some other good news, too. I really do appreciate all your support reading along. Thank you! Talk soon! xoxo