Step One: Meeting with the audiologist and surgeon

Dan has decided to get a cochlear implant, so this week I went with him to his first appointment with the surgeon who will do the surgery. The surgery will take place at UW Hospital, which is just down the street from where we live.

We started with lots of testing with the implant audiologist. She took him to a sound booth and did lots of tests to determine his hearing quality. Dan emerged from the booth and said, "Yep, still deaf!" With the help of hearing aids, he can hear about 20% of sounds, making him a prime candidate for a cochlear implant. He has been a candidate his whole life, but within the last year he has decided to go forward with the process. It was a big decision! They will be performing an irreversible surgery that has the potential to damage the little hearing he has left and also making him ineligible for any future advances in research. Not a decision you make on a whim.

We spent almost 3 hours with the audiologist performing tests and going over the whole process. We then met with the surgeon for about 10 min. I will admit that we were a little taken aback by the meeting with the surgeon. It was too brief and we felt very rushed, but we concluded that while technically the surgeon is the one performing the actual surgery, most of our time will be spent with the audiologist going over questions and discussing expectations etc. It is the audiologist, not the surgeon, for instance, that activates the implant.

The next day, Dan got a CT scan, so that the surgeon could evaluate his cochleas. Now, the audiologist and the surgeon will provide their recommendation to our insurance and once the insurance gives approval (usually within 2-4 weeks), we will be able to go forward with the next steps. He will then have at least 4 more testing sessions with the audiologist and a surgery date will be set.

We're not setting any summer plans until we know when his surgery will be since there will be a long recovery process. After surgery, he will need about a week to physically recover, but then he won't be able to use any hearing aids for about 4 weeks in order to let his brain recover. Around 4 weeks after surgery is when the audiologist will activate the implant. And THEN he'll have to re-learn how to hear and speak. Overall it will be long process, but ultimately the goal is for Dan to hear more than 20%. The surgeon guaranteed he will be able to hear more than he can currently hear, but the extent of success is variable. His hearing could increase a little or a lot, and there is no way of knowing how successful it will be.

(outside the sound booth)

(inside where all the testing is done)

The implanted part is in the top left corner of this picture (clear, circular-looking thing that has longer electrodes coming out of it). The circular part is the magnet that will be placed under the skin, above his ear. The electrodes are placed inside the cochlea. The processor will hang on the back of his ear like a normal hearing aid and a microphone will attach via magnet on the outside of his head. 

Brewers vs. Cardinals

For Dan's birthday his parents gave us Brewers tickets, so we headed out to Milwaukee to see them play the Cardinals. Even though they didn't win it was still a lot of fun!

CSA and Jam Making

It's been a while. I know. It's because we're having so much summer fun.

First, we joined a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, you join a local farm and they give you a box of fresh picked vegetables each week all summer long. Our health insurance reimburses us if we do this, so it is actually really cheap compared to buying produce in the store, especially organic produce. We are splitting a full share with another couple that lives close by, so we divide up our box each week. So far we've been getting a lot of greens and salad stuff and green onions..... so. many. green. onions! I've been eating a salad for lunch every day, otherwise we can't finish it all by the time we get our next box.

Week 2: This was a full share that we later split in half with the other couple. Lots of lettuce and green onions. We also got a tomato and pepper plant, which we gave to the other couple, since Abbey would eat them.

Week 4: This is our half of the box. More lettuce, cabbage, snap peas, rhubarb, kale, black berries, and that ball-looking thing in the middle: kohlrabi. What do you do with kohlrabi you ask? I don't know. I was too frightened to do anything with it before it wilted. 

A few weeks ago I went strawberry picking with a friend and made strawberry jam. I thought making jam sounded like a domestic skill I'd need one day, so I was in. I always thought jam making involved   the whole canning-jar process, which is serious business. The old farm that I grew up on had a small canning house on its property. A whole structure solely devoted to canning things. That's some serious business. I think we mostly used it for storage and one of our cats had kittens in there - which is like Christmas day for any child. 

But back to jam making. It isn't actually that hard. Literally sugar and mushed strawberries boiled for a long time.

I have to say, it turned out amazing! 

We're already half-way through our big jar. Next year, we'll need to make more!

Summer

This winter has been the worst. The WORST. Seasonal Affective Disorder is real, people. Today is actually really nice outside and it is making me crave summer. Since Dan and I spent most of last summer in Norway, we haven't had real summer weather in a long time.

So I've compiled a bunch of happy pictures from around the internet that remind me of summer:

Also, here is our summer bucket list:

• Concerts on the Square. In the summertime the Madison Orchestra plays on the steps of the capitol and people bring elaborate picnic set-ups with wine and cheese and snacks.

• Visit the zoo. Madison has a small zoo that is free to the public.

• Go to Summerfest in Milwaukee. I've never been, but it sounds like fun.

• Spend as much time as possible by the lake.

• Spend as much time as possible at our secret beach. Last year Dan and I found a tiny little beach that is only probably 10 feet wide. You have to walk through a forest to get there so we think it is pretty secret. It is a 10 min walk from our apartment and I plan to spend as many evenings here as possible.

• Go tubing down a river. We've done this a few times since living in Madison. You rent some tubes (one especially for the cooler) and tie them all together, then float down the river for a few hours.

• Go camping with friends.

• Enjoy the flowers. This also includes Olbrich Gardens which has a special place in our hearts.

• Hit up the Madison Farmers Market

• Attend a ridiculous amount of cookouts

• And of course attend my sister's wedding in Oklahoma!

I can't wait!!

A lesson in compassion

A few updates:

1) I passed prelims! This means I am ABD (all but dissertation). I will hopefully be graduating in 2 years.

2) I gave my first talk at a conference! I practiced quite a bit and it went really well.

3) Dan and I served on a "Newlywed Panel" at a marriage retreat. I know what you're thinking, "what do they know?" Well, we were invited to give our 2 cents along with 2 other couples at a marriage retreat that all Catholic engaged couples have to attend before getting married.

4) Lastly, I found this story that I wrote back around Thanksgiving, but never published. I thought it would be good to post it now so we don't forget about it. Also, I think it is really funny how I thought 9 degrees was so cold! So naive!

Last night it was freezing in Madison. Around midnight it was about 9 degrees and very windy. It snowed over the weekend, so the ground was covered in snow (and will probably stay that way until May). Dan has been working a seasonal job until he starts grad school at Marquette in January, but he gets home late, most nights after 2am. Last night I dozed off before he came home as usual and then suddenly woke up around 3 in the morning to the smoke detector going off. I go into the kitchen to see what is going on and I see Dan standing by the stove making soup, completely oblivious to the piercing noise filling the apartment. Dan can't hear high pitched sounds even with his hearing aids on. I am furious. Not only did he wake me up, but he isn't eating the dinner I left for him in the fridge (Hawaiian chicken and jalapeño poppers, which were amazing btw!) He tells me there is a homeless man in our stairwell. Me being the compassionate person that I am respond by saying, "Well tell him to leave!"

You see this has happened before. Last year Dan and I came home one night and used the front stairwell instead of the elevator like we almost always do. The heater is always blasting in there because it is by the front door. On the 2nd floor landing we found a homeless woman sleeping. We carefully stepped around her and then emailed the condo president about the situation.

After my ridiculously selfish comment, Dan just grinned at me and said, "I brought him here." Dan was making soup for this man that he picked up on the side of the road who had fallen down in the snow. He offered to drop him off at the homeless shelter, but it turns out they lock up after a certain hour, so Dan offered the toasty spot in our stairwell (knowing full well I'd freak if I found someone sleeping on our couch). Dan went out to the stairwell to bring him soup and find him passed out on the landing. He placed the bowl of soup next to him and left him alone. By morning he was gone and the soup bowl was empty.

I think this is such a good example of what a great person Dan is and the very reason why I married him. He challenges me everyday to be a better person and I don't know anyone else who pursues Christ's love more than him.