Testing Terry

 

Friday, November 22, 2024

After the long drive, we both felt exhausted, so we crashed pretty hard when it came to sleeping. Terry awakened me to the cold air flowing through the room since the front door had been open. I could tell he was up and had already dipped into his cigar stash. 

I pulled myself up with everything I had. The day had begun, whether I liked it or not. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I could feel my balance shifting forward as I closed my eyes and tried drifting off again. I had to force myself off the bed to get dressed or I would end up face down on the floor. I can't drink coffee due to an allergy to caffeine, but all was good. I managed to dress myself while my husband gave me that loving, "good job, babe" look. We packed our luggage and left for the medical facility where the testing would begin. Ugh. Poor Terry. Two hours of testing to be exact. 

Once we arrived at the veteran's medical facility, we began our wait. Little did we know that patterns on the carpets in this building would become familiar. 

That tiny strip of paper on the floor had me frustrated for about 40 minutes. It was driving me nuts. Should I look ridiculous and pick it up? Should I leave it for the people who clean the place? I heard the saving voice of the nurse, just in the nick of time. 

Terry and I followed the tester back into the bowels of the building where they had great testing equipment. Just to make more sense of this trip, Terry is deaf in one ear as many of you know, and he has a cochlear implant in that ear. A hearing aid is worn in the other ear. As time goes on, as for all of us, his hearing aid is simply not enough to be able to hear well enough. He is undergoing some balance or vestibular testing. They would be testing his inner ear balance system to ensure the surgery to implant another cochlear device would not increase dizziness or leave him off balance. 

As I write about this test, I refuse to take photos of Terry. I felt this was too personal and needed to be left without photos. 

Terry was asked to step onto a platform with three walls. One in front and one on each side. All three walls had designs on them, such as black and white checkerboard patterns and trees, etc., drawn on. Dangling from the top of the three-sided testing box was a harness. Terry was strapped into this harness, and it was snapped onto a bar to protect him in case he started to fall. It was an interesting test!

As Terry stood there, the wall in front of him would move forward while the ground below would shift. It was making me dizzy just watching, but he stood there like the champ he is, well-balanced and not seeming to have an issue. While Terry was balancing himself back and forth and side to side, I was watching the computer screen. The screen was etching out a graph of green and red indicators of when he was doing great and when he was a little off balance. Terry had that screen green! Duck green to be exact, which is what it should be. There were a couple of red places as well, but once he got the hang of it, they too switched into green strips. 

This machine would throw him forward and backward by moving the floor beneath him. It was all quite forceful, but like I said, he stood there like a boss, keeping his balance and taking whatever the machine sent his way. He was crushing it!

Testing continued for quite a while and each test of balance was done three times before it was complete. After testing, we followed the doctor back into the office where he was going to test Terry's inner ear. This included pumping cold and hot water into his ears, one at a time. While this was being done, Terry was to name animals for each letter of the alphabet, and then it was occupations. Not as simple as it sounds, and definitely not as tired as Terry was. I was giggling through some of it because I couldn't think of anything for some letters. You have to remember, this was about an hour and a half later. 

Once this was done, he put his hands on Terry's head, asked him to keep his neck loose and he began to move Terry's head and neck in very jerky movements. I had to look away it was so jerky and violent looking. I know he wasn't hurting him and my husband was doing a great job at keeping his neck straight, but it was simply the idea of jerking him so hard. I kept thinking, "Please don't break my husband. I haven't had him that long." 

It was over after several minutes of the man trying to adjust Terry's neck or do whatever it was he was doing. I was over it, whatever it was. Now it was time we could leave the facility and head out to eat. We settled on Mazatlan Mexican Restaurant. Put the name into the car and she replied, "Let's go!" So off we went. 

I happened to leave my phone in the car (insert *gasp* here) and didn't get photos. Terry was shocked and taunted me a bit with, "I'll bet it's killing you, isn't it?" We giggled and kept on eating. 

I did find these photos on Yelp, however. 

A little blurry, but they work. 

I ordered a beef enchilada and a chicken tamale. Of course, as with most Mexican cuisine, this came with refried beans and rice. Good stuff. 

Terry was served a steaming (literally) hot pan of fajita makings and a second plate of refried beans and rice. We both munched away. I have learned one thing and that is my body doesn't seem to be able to go without food after a certain time of day. I do get shaky when I don't eat. Often I work for a couple of hours before coming home to grab something. This was one of those days. After eating, I seemed to calm down a bit. Dang diabetes!

***

Once we finished our meal, we had to return to the same place, but this time it was the Oregon Health and Science University, where Terry would complete his day. This time it was a consultation with the surgeon who would give him the thumbs up or thumbs down on the second cochlear implant. 

Again, we waited. The wait time was not all that long this time. A nurse came in and asked some questions and we waited for the surgeon. Once he arrived, he chatted with Terry and explained his test results were good. Terry then heard the words he had waited to hear; "You're in good shape to get the implant." Terry's body relaxed and he smiled. My husband looked about 10 pounds lighter after hearing those words. We were good to go. The only thing we do now is to wait for the scheduler to call. We were told they were out sometime in March. At this point, who cares? He is having it done. It was exciting and wonderful!

***

A couple of weeks ago, we took Mallory to Wildlife Safari to see the animals for her birthday. We saw two of the cutest cheetah cubs. The mother looked nervous as we watched them play while blurting out sounds indicative of the oohs and ahs you hear from people getting mushy over animals or small children. We were melting. But how can you not melt over these two?

They are just flat-out beautiful and adorable. Mallory always wants to take one home. I would, but that mother looked upset with us being this close and the other 10 cars trailing behind us. 

I just read an article on the babies and the mother. First, the mother is Zuri or ZZ. Zuri is the most genetically valuable cheetah in North America, hence the late date for breeding. Yes, hence. Since Zuri is known as ZZ around the park, her birth brought about the two boys now known as Hendrix and Zeppelin, born on September 24. 

Beautiful Zuri, AKA ZZ, is vigilant over her two boys as cars line up to see the new babies. I have to say as a mother, I felt her anxiousness. 

Photo released by Wildlife Safari. 

These are Zuri's boys, Hendrix and Zeppelin, justly named because their mother has the rockstar-themed nickname of ZZ. 

We have shared the photos of the babies in a previous post, but I had to again since more information about the babies has surfaced. Visit Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon to see the babies for yourself, or click on the link to learn more about the park, their work at keeping animals from being extinct, and their awesome cheetah breeding program. 

At the park also are a species of gorgeousness called oryx. The oryx are literally extinct now in the wild. Wildlife Safari and other reserves like them are keeping this breed of animal safe and helping them survive. All creatures on this planet are part of our ecosystem and are far too valuable to lose. 

Oryx are large antelopes. The oryx are native to South Africa and the Middle East. They are also known as "spear antelope" due to their long horns that both males and females have. 

The oryx at Wildlife Safari is one species of oryx out of the four that exist, known as the scimitar oryx. These are the oryx that have dropped to extinction in the wild. 

Gemsbrook oryx are of the least concern in terms of extinction. These antelope in the genus of Oryx are hunted in their natural home of South Africa, but the population is strong. 

In the desert of Arabia, the Arabian oryx is found, with a vulnerable level of extinction. There is a fourth oryx, known as the East African oryx. This species of antelope falls under the near-threatened level of danger. All of these antelope are beautiful, and all are hunted. 

As the human race, we should be aware of all animals on the planet in our ecosystem to better protect them. Between overhunting and poaching, our beautiful creatures on this earth are barely surviving, not to mention the depths of dangerous levels our earth falls to each day from pollution, plastics, and other forms of destroying what we have. 

The planet may not be able to sustain these animals, much less us, if we don't begin to care more about our environment. I would love my great, great, great-grandchildren the blessing of knowing the beauty of an oryx or large cat or even giraffe look like. The sounds they make. The beauty of their eyes, coloring, and personality. I just read the giraffe is going to be put on the endangered list for the first time ever. 

For suggestions on what we can do to help, visit NOAA, the National Ocean Service as a way to begin. There are many websites we can visit to learn more about ways to help. Voting in the proper politicians and laws can help too!

***

Terry and I arrived back home after all of the medical visits and finished our weekend by relaxing and watching TV in the evenings, and I delivered items to people as any other day. The calls came in and I took them. Some of the colorful leaves on trees are still showing off their gorgeous, bright colors. Beautiful to look at and a sign of healthy trees. Stunning. 

We are heading back to work tomorrow, as usual, and I'm sure as many of you are. We mentioned in an earlier post that the wild kitty, Meow-Meow disappeared a while back. Now we have another silver-gray kitty hanging outside who is shaped like Meow-Meow and did hang out with her at times. He/she is a lot more skittish, but I was actually able to pet it yesterday while laying out food for the baby. Here we go again, but it's always worth it to help out homeless fur babies. 

***

Stepping off the soapbox, we will leave this post here. We're at the end of the weekend and hope all of you have an amazing week! Gobble day is in a few days, so count your blessings, feel the love, and eat your day away!

Be sure to be thankful for all we have in this country. In this world. Take care of yourselves and thank you so much for reading the blog. We appreciate each of you. 

Shine your light! The world needs it!

Follow us. We've fallen and we can't get up. 

@psychicpoet0188