The One With Helen Keller

Yes . . . . it's been a solid month with no postings. . . .  I know, it's bad.

I keep thinking "once we get past 'such and such date' things will finally slow down". Only it's like a mirage, and after such and such date occurs there are really ten more things that have to happen before life will slow down. I guess I'm finally starting to realize that the concept of life slowing down is really just a joke and I should put on my big girl underwear and get used to it. Time to master life.

Tuesday, January 29th we went in for Preslie's post-op after her second surgery for the tumor removal. Lots of good news - finally. Incision is healing great, and everything came back completely benign! Two thumbs up! This girl doesn't get many good doctor visits, but that's starting to look up too!

Wednesday Eric and I went and sat at a hearing doctor's office for like three hours. It was insanely long and mostly boring. Basically Eric has been deaf since approximately 3 minutes after I met him. I'm pretty sure Eric has "selective" hearing . . . . as in he can hear when he wants to hear, but anything I say something like "it'd be awesome if you'd clean the bathroom" somehow that gets missed. All kidding aside Eric is a great husband! But I have been trying to lower the loudness of my voice for the past six years (a loud voice seems to be genetic in my family), and Eric constantly saying "What???" is making it hard to keep to minimum decibels.

After an excruciatingly long doctor's visit that really left me wondering "why the heck am I here???" the doctor finally hit us with this one: Eric has a Vestibular Schwannoma . . . . also known as an Acoustic Neuroma. . . . also known as a small, slow growing tumor on the acoustic nerve that goes from the ear to the brain.

Another tumor? In this family? NO WAY!

I've reached the point where it doesn't even surprise me anymore. Instead of shock I move to - okay who do we call to get it removed? I don't even ask cost either, because who cares??? This is is hearing right?? Since it's so slow growing they are going to watch it for a bit. We head back to see Dr. Van for an MRI and his opinion of how to proceed. Southwest Idaho ENT must adore us and all the money we hand over to them.

Monday - post op. Tuesday - another tumor. We are on a roll.

Wednesday Eric had is yearly visit with his eye doctor. Last December (2011) Eric went in right before Paxton was born and got glasses. He's severely color blind but apparently a bit far-sighted as well so he got glasses. In the entire year he's had them I think I've seen him wear them three times. They look awesome so he should wear them more. But mostly he wears them for looking at a computer and driving.

This time the eye doc hugely dilated his eyes and kept him for a whopping two hours for an appointment that was only supposed to be about 30 minutes. Why you may ask? Well the answer is simple . . . . Eric has glaucoma.

Yes you know, that thing that only old people get where the pressure in the eye builds up so much that it makes them go blind???? Yes, that. My 29 year old husband in the past two months has gotten shingles which only old people get, glaucoma which only old people get, and a rare tumor in his head. The luck we have in the Marshall house will be legendary.

The way I see it, within about 15 years I will be married to Helen Keller - no sight, no hearing . . . we've already started learning how to sign into each others hands.

Kidding.
But only kind of.

Good news is that nowadays glaucoma is pretty easy to treat. They give you some eye drops that decrease ocular pressure, so that should be nice. Plus glaucoma is one of the most popular diseases that can receive a prescription for medical marijuana. So if all else fails in the career world we can always have a career as a dealer.