Relief

What an amazing week this has been.

The most important thing is that Elvira spent a couple of days at Primary Childrens getting her diabetes regimen tweaked. We met with a diabetes educator, pharmacist, phlebotomist, social worker, endocrinologist, psychiatrist, and the nicest nurses you can imagine. She did so great, and I'm so proud of her! Some new things to try, new people in her life, and hopefully the start of feeling much better about everything. We all needed this very much.

I had my vocal stroboscopy on Tuesday, which was very interesting. That was quite the experience! I had to look straight up at the ceiling while he tried to put a long, metal rod way down my throat to get a view of my vocal chords. I didn't throw up like I feared I would, but I came really close. The pictures weren't very good--the equipment was having issues--but it appears that I suffered "unexplained nerve damage" to my vocal chords. It could have been caused by the fever I had for so long, indicating some virus that was attacking me, but even that probably shouldn't have been so specific to that one tiny nerve. It doesn't appear to be something that is reversible, so I think that the voice I have now is it. It's not really too different from what it used to be, except I can't yell at all. Good news for my family, I suppose! Zero pain associated with it, which is lucky. Now it's all in my ENT's hands, so I will wait to see if he sends me in for an MRI or further testing. If this is as bad as it gets, I can happily live with it.

I've had some other really amazing experiences this week that I'm not going to write about, but they were extremely cool. Having the opportunity to apologize, be forgiven, clear the air, mend fences--whatever your personal issue is--is an amazing gift, and one which I am truly grateful for. When you think about all the things that can happen in life to prevent you from ever having that chance again, it truly is a blessing when the planets align and you are given an opportunity to do so.