My Summer Vacations

I finally got home last Saturday but I haven't had my chance to update my blog right away. Annie wanted to go to beach so we went last Monday until today. We both were disappointed because the waves were stinky. The wave height was only 2 feet. It was not much fun sitting in the sunny. We ended up found other activities to keep us busy. Now that time I'm REALLY back home from my vacations.

On the first weekend of August I went to visit my Omi (grandma) in Graz, Austria. I stayed there for two weeks and it turned out wonderful vacation. It was sad to leave Omi and chocolate when it was time for me to go home. In some ways I was thrilled to be home because of my own bed, clothes (I only bought few clothes with me), shampoo/condition, a lotion (I forgot to bring it with me), better shaving blades, and small things.

We went different places and got lot of exercise (walking) including lot of sweating. I took some of pictures. You can see lot of my parents and some of Omi. Omi was difficult to take a picture because she kept moving and will not look direct to me when I wanted to take a picture of her. Oh boy! I managed to get pictures of her.

Oh if you guys seen the movie called, "The Errands of Angels". The first area the sister served her mission in Graz, Austria. That's exact where we went and there were many areas looked so beautiful. It's fun to see the places where I went or familiar with on this movie. When I saw the place I knew, I blah blah to Annie. Poor Annie. Well, it's not only the place, Graz but as well Salzburg and Veinna. I'm well familiar with Graz than Salzburg and Salzburg better than Vienna. :D

I think it's impossible for me to give in details from this vacation; however, I took pictures.

That's my littlest sister, Heather.

That's my beautiful mom..

That's my cute dad.

We went to Salzburg and visited Salzwelten (Salt mines) museum. It's fun to put white clothes to protect from dropping (mud) on us when we went under the ground. (Notice: Man's arm around Heather's neck? It's her husband, Lance. And little short lady is my Omi! How cute she is!)

This is Riegersburg Castle. It's top of the hill. We went up to the castle from the bottom. Steep! Steep! That did not warned me going up will cause me lot of sweating..

THAT STEEP! I have been walking on that kind of steeps lately!

This picture is one of my favorite pictures.

Omi beat us. Can't you believe that she is 80 years old?!

We went to the chocolate factory, Zotter SchokoladeTheater. OH COW! That was fun. Dad got sick after left the factory because he ate too much of chocolate. This was second part of taste. I think there were six or seven area with many different tastes. They gave you many samples that made from different cocoa that comes different countries. Also they gave samples with levels such as milk chocolate to bitter chocolate. Gosh! Can you imagine taste many different kinds. That taste chocolates became our lunch!

Milk Chocolate--you have to add a real chocolate bar into the hot milk and stir it. MMM!

We visited the places where Omi grew up. She lived that area for about 15 years. She remembered and told us what it used to be.

My parents and I went shopping in Graz. I saw this spoon and thought it would be cool to take the picture--the reflection.

That's where my parents got married--Civic marriage. Austria's rule that you have to married in civic first before church. My parents got married, the next day went to Switzerland Temple to get actual to be married in proper way.

My parents drooled over jewelry and watch. Mom loves necklaces and dad loves watches.

Poor mom.. Wait patience for me to finish taking pictures around the Graz.

We went on a hike. It was fun. Again, look at Omi! She was stubborn to go with us even she was sick with bad colds.

That's Gosing Castle. Omi's house is below of this Gosing Castle.

We went to visit museum that has old houses, how they lived, etc. Heather and Lance tried to follow the steps for a dance.

Omi likes to pet animals. She went straight to pet donkey.

I thought it was neat flower and had to take a picture of it.

Can you see the smoke up the ceiling? I caught the right time to take a pictures while the lights come in of the small windows. It made dad and Lance want to do the same. It looked neat!

Waiting for mom, Lance, and Heather.

Tried to do what kids did.

I still have a lot of pictures but it will put you in bed for sure. That's it for now. Whew!

My First Art

I do not know why but I noticed myself that I enjoyed taking pictures by using marco or focus. I thought it was fun taking pictures and see how amazing it looked after putting the pictures on the computer. Yes, that means I'm developing my new hobby. I thought why not show you what I have done while I was in Austria. Some of pictures you might click for better view.

Believe it or not--I used my compact camera. No fancy camera such as SLR camera. Enough with my hobby. At least I had fun time looking at new flowers, plants, and things while I was there.

Shell Shocked

WHAT?!!??! Janette?!! What heck with people who voted her? I thought she would win this season, but pppfffttt.. I think she was the BEST dancer than any girls in this season. Seriously, what are they thinking?! Are they thinking of music itself? Or popular? What the problem with her? That one I will have to say.. BOOO to people who voted for her. I'm on the same boat with Nigel for that one. That show ruined my night! Blah! Wondering who heck people think the best dancer is in this show beside Janette.. WHATEVER!

Can't Wait

Yesterday afternoon at 2pm, I had last minute appointment with Steve. Yes, Steve--my audiologist because the problem is back and much worse than ever. Steve suspected it would do something related to the second surgery. True enough, my left ear decided to pick up more sounds and the sounds became too loud. The high frequency became too high and smash the low frequency again. Everything bothered me so much. It's just the same as before.

I cannot able to stay torture until August 25th. And I do not want to suffer through on my vacation--visiting Omi, my grandma, in Graz, Austria. (As well, my mother's brother, Michi) I'll staying there for two weeks with my parents. My little sister and her husband will tag along with us for a week. It'll be lot of fun. The point I do not want to torture myself with that. Steve was so nice to make his schedule open for me the next day, so I went.

The appointment was fast as usually. He had a student with him. She was interesting woman. When we entered his office, Steve introduced me his student. I sat down and spotted my name on the box (EF) behind Steve. (He have a big shelves on the wall. There are several boxes with name on it. There were three different companies of cochlear implants. There were only two boxes that are from Med-el.) I knew one of them was for me. It's my NEW RED processors! I got Annie's attention and said, "Look! My name is there! Look!" Annie didn't get it at first but got it second time. Steve saw me what I was trying to tell Annie. Steve just smiled and point to it. He confirmed that I was right it's mine. He didn't take it out, but smile. DARN!

Annie was hoping that Steve would said well since you're here, why not we get over with it. Bring my new second processor, does that happened? No. Bummer. I can't wait until August 25 for my second activation. Sighs. Too bad for me. After the appointment, Annie and I left to go home. Annie made comments about blogs she read that some of people had activation a week after the surgery, other two weeks, other three days etc. Why Steve made me to wait for six weeks! We discussed and finally decided that they must have a good reason to wait for six weeks. Dang it.

That's alright, I guess. Things will help me distract and the days will come quickly before I blink. I have one more week of school then Austria for two weeks, then one more week of vacation.. BINGO the day arrives! Time for second activation! Grin. Can I wait and patience? I don't know.

First Idiot Accident

Hello guys! I'm back and much better than last week. I finally got mostly of my energy back--slowly. I was thrilled found out that my new glasses was best choice because it didn't bothered my sensitive area as I had with first surgery. My first surgery, I can't stand wearing my glasses because it hurts so much. Whew, I guess it was a good thing that I broke my glasses awhile ago.

Today I went to see my surgeon and he took the stitches out. Well, the appointment was very fast! We accomplished less than an hour. YAHOO because pay fifty cents less for parking. Anyway, he said it looked GREAT.

Last night I was watching a television show. While I was eating my dinner on the couch and I have a cup with milk in middle of my legs. (My legs holding it while I'm holding the bowl with food in it.) In the middle of my dinner, my rechargeable battery has died and I took it off and put it on knee so I can put my food away and blah blah. Well, a small move caused my processor fell in the cup! Yes, there are still some milk in it. I screamed! Of course, Annie was next to me and she grabbed the processor out of the cup and ran to the sink to try to clean of the processor because uhh I slid the battery pack cover half way off from the rechargeable battery.. Idiot, right?

That leads me to became agitated thinking that if the thing died, then it is not funny because that costs a leg and an arm. I do not know if the insurance will cover my idiot accident. Gosh, good thing I have back up second processor. Whew. I took apart my poor wet processor and put it in the special dryer for cochlear implant for overnight.

After put the wet things in the special dryer, I was too lazy to assemble my second processor (you have to hook up things together because I only took the computer processor part with me every time when I see Steve.. It's worthless to bring a whole thing.) So I announced to myself that I'll go without using cochlear implant for a night.

We finished with our dinner and a television show. I realized it's not the SAME without using my cochlear implant to watch the show. I wanted to watch a television show called Burn Notice. I knew I had to get my body up and assemble my second processor and get one piece from my wet cochlear implant to finalize the assemble. I did it. I enjoyed the second show much more than the first one. I know it's silly but dropping the processor in the cup with milk can give me a heart attack after knowing how much it costs. Darn, I wish I don't know how much it costs so I don't have to go through drama over that thing!

FYI: My processor is still working after overnight being trapped in the special dryer, whew.

My Prayer has answered..

Yesterday I was so tired and took two short naps but I was able to finish my homework. Annie and I bought a meal that looks yummy to us. We decided to have this for our dinner. Our dinner was a bacon wrap with cheese and shrimp. Our dinner was great, we had no problem cleaning up our plates.

It was time for us to go bed because I have to go school next morning. Annie will still have to take me to school because I still have a little dizzy but much better than first few days of surgery. Anyway, I jumped into my bed and Annie turned off the lights. Suddenly the fears crawl all over me. I do not know why but got scared. I feel like my body burning up. I asked Annie to test if I'm having fever. Nope, I didn't have any fever. (I wanted to make sure no fever because of surgery..) My body started to shake like it's making a progress to threw up. In my mind, oh no! I cannot afford to threw up because it can be the problem with my second surgery. The surgeon said I cannot sniff, blow nose, etc etc..

Of course, I fought with myself not to get scared. I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help my body calm down so I do not have to threw up. I prayed so hard and ended up I had to go pee every 15-30 minutes for several hours including LOTS of burps and farts. Every time I burped, it tasted like a bacon wrapped with cheese and shrimp. My body has gone crazy cold and hot. I struggled but continued praying that I can get through night without threw up. That thing kept me up until about 4:30am. I finally able to snooze away until it's time to get up for school. My stomach was uneasy but grateful that I'm okay. I realized that Heavenly Father truly listened my prayers last night because he did get me through night without threw up. I'm so grateful that He did.

Amazing--I was surprised that I have enough liquid to go pee almost every thirty minutes. Wow, but that means I will need to drink lot of liquid today to catch up what my body has lost.. Oh yikes, I better go and fix my hair before go to school..

Am I sane?

Last night was dramatic for both of us (Annie). Well, we ended up went to ER. No fear, I'm okay. It was one of our fears from the paper that caused us to worry. Let me tell you the story how it happened.

At first I got home from the surgery and had nap then woke up. Eat food. Pee lots. Mom called me to sure I'm okay. I got up and feel pain from my left behind knee. It hurts when I straight my knee. I told Annie about it. She read the paper and saw it said I need to call the doctor if I have any legs pain etc. The doctor was worried for any patient who were under anesthesia longer than usually. It might caused to have a blood clots. Leg pain was one of signs.

Annie called one of ENT and he couldn't make up decision if we should go to ER or not. At first he said it was up to us but after my blah blah about knee pain. He gave up and told us to go to ER but emphasized that we should call him when we get there so we don't have to wait there FOREVER. Oh umm okay.

Annie and I left our apartment at around 8pm. Grins, it's not good starter for me since I got home from surgery! We drove to John Hopkins Hospital and walk FAR to the ER. We finally found ER through maze. Seriously, I couldn't find it without asking for help to find that ER. We saw there are LOTS of umm interesting people who sat there for many hours to get service. Annie overhear one woman said she have been waited for six hours and still not have seen doctor. Gulp, that's why ENT said we should call him right away or we will stuck here for many hours just like that woman stayed there for six hours. Weird. I admitted it's creepy to sit down and be one of them.

We found right place to tell the nurse to call the doctor, but the nurse just blinked and said go sit down--basically ignored us. She thinks we are one of them. Add to this, I have a weird big white cup bandage on my right ear. Duh. AND Annie DID told her that I had a surgery this morning. Is that important enough to go through in her head... But I don't think it didn't hit her through many visitors drama.

After about five minutes, there are no way for us to pull the white flag to wave and get our attention so Annie fed up and called the doctor herself with her dying cell as hoping it won't die on her when she contacts the doctor. Whew, it did got through and paged the ENT to come and get us. We waited another thirty minutes until the nurse decided to notice us and get us in her cubicle room. My friend, Annie, of course blah blah blah why I am here. Well, I did too. At first Nurse didn't get it. Annie had to repeat until the nurse get her bulb working. Finally she tried to call the doctor but at that time ENT arrived and got us.

ENT had to borrow one of their ER room to do test on me. That was very interesting part because ENT asked a woman (a weird doctor) if we can use that room. The woman stared at him and said we cannot do that. It started a little firework as trying to find a room for us. The woman said it's low risk of blood clots while ENT said it could be dangerous. It seems both of them couldn't make a decision. We ended up went a room. Still both were blah blah blah what if what if what if. My head feel like a ping pong ball. Of course, I couldn't move my head fast enough and gave up. My head have been spinning because its too much drama here in the room. ENT touched my behind of knee to see if there is any blood clots. He don't know what to look for, so ask her to see if she could identify the problem. She touched and said it's fluid like blah blah blah. She thought I strained against it during surgery and knee thing popped out. It looked like she is trying to be smarter than he is. At last both of them finally decided to give me a ultrasounds to see if I have a blood. And they talked about risk and benefit. It means if I have a blood clot, they cannot treat it because of my surgery. Both left the room leaving us alone.

Annie and I were not sure what to do but decided to call my dad what he thinks. He told us it's low risk and it's up to me. I feel much better and think dad and the surgeon are right. It's possibly sprain while I was in OR. Annie gave a good point, if we stayed here for ultrasounds and other tests, then we won't get home until maybe 2 or 3 in the morning. We will become one of weird people in the ER. I decided not to be one of them and told the woman forget it.

Funny, when we told the woman and she blinked at us. She acted weird and said we need to sign AMA. Funny that she did not thinks it was a blood clot but then she said it's still possible blah blah. It's low risk but nonzero. UH?! Okay, that's it. She finally printed the AMA and made me sign my name it so I cannot sue if I die. Uh, how can I sue if I died?! Well, she was nice when we left. She said if it's still the problem, I can return to her. And she added before we walked out of the room, she said hope I can hear. Funny, I had my left cochlear implant on. She didn't know that I have second one.

Oh boy, we finally left the ER and went home exhausted.

But am I sane that I decided to go to school the next morning? Yes, I had to get up early and Annie came along with me. Of course, I didn't go to school with my big white cup bandage. I took it off!! Annie careful not wash my surgery area, just my waxy hair. We left and got there a little late because washing my wax hair took forever!

I survived through long class and left home. That morning killed me and left me fell on my bed snooze for about two hours. I think I have killed Annie as well cuz she took two hours nap too. Wow, it's long day for both of us yesterday. Today was much better but still feel sore and blah. I'm looking forward tomorrow for a real shower. Yay! Now am I really sane?

Second Surgery

Before the surgery

You'll need to read some from my first surgery experience to understand what's up with this. (Click on that highlight to access this)

After the surgery, didn't I look like unn high drug?

HAHA! See the wire straight up? The coil is a magnet and it stuck to the lid because it's metal!

My second surgery has ended! I'm home and resting. Wow, the surgery took longer than first surgery last January. My first surgery has took about a little less longer than second because the surgeon had to cut a nerve for my taste. (Annie didn't tell me until I ate something!!) I'll tell you more later on that.

Anyway, I was brought to the recovery room. Well, I had hard time recovering because I felt pain behind my ear and nausea! I was not feeling GREAT. Nurse said I was still on Stage 1, haven't transfer to Stage 2 yet which Annie was not here. I ended up stayed there for about three hours! That was double longer than my first recovery!

It was very different experience for me between first and second surgery. It's so funny because it's only six months apart even same surgeon. (Of course, different nurses, OR, anesthesiologist, etc). Still they are nice and friendly. And my interpreter was MUCH better and I liked her lots. She was so nice and made sure everything okay with me.

Well, I got home and couldn't keep my eyes open so had to take a nap. I had hard time to find comfortable to sleep with a cup on my right ear PLUS I have to be elevated. UGH! At least I got some sleep and woke up feeling much better. So I have been up since from that nap. I put my cochlear implant on. AHH, I was able to hear the movie! Not like first surgery! Whew! Interesting, it didn't affect anything much as Steve was curious about.... OH I ate a few of pretzel with peanut butter, ramen noodles, and ice cream! Well, I want more... I want to eat something.. UMM what's next to eat? That shows I'm okay.

Oh about my taste, I got home I feel something in my mouth--obviously I wanted something to eat or drink. I ended up had a popsicle--a orange. I was so happy because I was able to taste the orange. I told Annie about it. Annie's facial expression changed to a giggle. Something going on here. I asked her why it was funny? Annie asked me funny question, can you taste a whole like right side of tongue, etc. I was puzzled and tried what she told me to do.. I think I can taste all of side. I was curious. Annie told me that the surgeon emphasized not to tell me UNTIL I commented about taste. UH?! Annie explained what the surgeon told her. Basically he had to cut a nerve of taste because it was blocking him from inserting the electrodes. He moved the nerve and sewed it back together. He didn't want me to know about it because I would probably look for it and complained or call him or freak out. He said maybe it wouldn't affect me, so wait and see what I say about it.

Interesting!! That's why my interpreter made that expression when I was drinking ginger ale and cookies, and I talked about I was glad it tasted fine! She was with Annie when the surgeon talked to Annie. Hahaha, everything made sense to me. She was sneaky!!

Alright, I'm done with this. I want to find something feed my stomach!