It's been a busy couple of weeks for old Dan. I've been to so many doctors, many times multiple in a day, being poked, prodded, tested and more. Talking about so many aspects of my health in preparation for surgery! December 5th,, that's the day my ENT wants to install a cochlear implant on my right side. Then I'll be able to hear! First, I had to go see a hematologist, who told me I'm iron anemic and have been since July. I dunno what happened in July, but okay. I have to get 5 infusions of iron into my blood, then another lab and a follow-up. My ENT wanted me to see a rheumatologist too, so I did that today. She said she doesn't think my hearing loss is due to an autoimmune disease because the steroids didn't work, but that I might still have one anyway because of how fucked up my whole deal is. Gotta get lab work for her too. So I've been running around, getting a CT scan, an MRI, and going to get my balance tested, and did I mention lab work? All of this is in preparation for Friday, December 5th. One small thing, insurance needs 30 days notice to pay for a cochlear implant, and the hospital won't do the surgery until insurance approves it. So, it's all been pushed back to February 20th, next year. I'm gutted. I was so looking forward to starting the new year with my implant, learning to hear better, and getting back to a semi-normal life. This is such a slap in the face. I feel like it's a stark reminder of my new handicap and that I need to learn to cope with it without hearing, just in case. It's time to learn ASL. Time to switch to iPhone. Time to get fitted for some of those Meta AI glasses. I'm not looking forward to any of it.

I haven't posted anything in the last couple of days, and that's because I've been trying to evolve what I've started with here. So far nothing I've made feels quite as good as this does yet, but that's 100% because this is my first attempt and I already styled the front and back ends and all that. I will almost definitely use this same design, or a slight variation of it on the final CMS. (I should mention that I'm currently talking about the back end of the site, I love the 2000s blog-o-sphere feeling on the front end still 😚👌) I've been working with Laravel to try and build a bigger CMS though, one that controls not only the blog, but a portfolio on my main site and allows me to build pages for both sites and update them from the same spot. I'm still working with Claude, but being a bit less hand-holdy about it. I tried using Google's new Antigravity to build it out last night, which feels like cheating big time. It was very confident it nailed it, but nothing actually worked. I think it was because it was being slammed by so many people trying it yesterday. I'll try again later, maybe this weekend. Until then, I'll keep working with Claude on the one I actually need to help with.

I woke up around 7:30 this morning, which was probably about 30 minutes too early. I was almost immediately greeted with a text message from my dad. How did he know? Anyway, he wanted to come over. My balance is still not great, so climbing up on ladders isn't something I should be doing, and he was insistent that if my gutters weren't cleaned right away, that my home itself would be at peril. So I told him to come on over. As I said, I'm not one for ladders yet, so he would go up the ladder and scoop out the gutters, and then rinse them with the hose. I would do the rest, cleaning up the ground below him, getting things out of his way, moving the ladder, getting the hose ready, etc. It went fairly quickly as it's been dry out. I appreciate the help, but being nearly half his age, it makes me feel a bit worthless, despite everything going on right now.

While he was here, I mentioned that I wanted to move my TV. I had put my LG C1 in the basement and set up my consoles and what not down there over a year ago, but I don't like being down there now. It feels too disconnected now that I can't hear sounds from upstairs. He agreed to help while he was there, but since I hadn't unplugged a single cable yet, we agreed that he'd come back in an hour or so. I unhooked everything, took the old TV off the wall and ran all the HDMI cables for the new setup through the way. I texted him to come back, and my god. Between my balance, me getting weaker over the past year from all the… everything, and my undying fear that I will split the C1 in two, just getting it up the stairs was an exercise in patience. I thought I was going to have a panic attack and fall down backwards on top of him by the time we reached the top. We got it upstairs though, and put it on the wall. I gave him my electric piano to take home to my mom, and said goodbye. 

It took me hours to get all the cables hooked back up, and I still left one off. The TV is up though, everything is plugged in. The apps are signed in to. It's all good, just took way took much effort on my part compared to just a year ago. I did get this cool metal Metroid box cover in the mail from Nintendo today, so not everything was a struggle!

Metroid has always been one of my favorite Nintendo franchises, despite it not getting enough love. This game looks like it could be one of my favorite games of the year. I cannot wait to play it, I just hope it has better accessibility options than Pokémon Legends Z-A does. 😬

It was late summer in 2024. I had been having stomach issues, and so I went in to get them checked out at a clinic. I was referred to a gastroenterologist here where I live. I go in, I meet with him, and he tells me to get a colonoscopy (I'm middle-aged now, sorry), so I do. The results come back, and it turns out I have an autoimmune disease called ulcerative colitis. Basically, the way it was explained to me is that my immune system was attacking my own body. Scary stuff, but I get put on medication for it and think that's that.

So it's a few months later, and we're just slipping over into winter. I complain to my coworkers that I think I might have impacted wax in my ear because I'm feeling a bit dizzy. The next day, I woke up with vertigo so bad I couldn't even get out of bed without wanting to vomit. After 2 days of missing work and doing nothing but lying down and trying to keep down water, I went to a clinic. They clean out my ear, give me some motion sickness medicine, and tell me to go to the E.R. if nothing changes in a couple of days. So two days later, on Christmas Eve, I go into the E.R. At this point, I also can't hear anything with my right ear. They gave me a CT scan and told me I have Meniere's disease. I'm told to go to physical therapy, a neurologist, and an ENT. I make appointments with all three, but only one can see me soon. I went to physical therapy for six weeks. He tells me it's Labrynthitis, not Meniere's. My balance comes back, my hearing returns, everything is great!

So a couple of months later, my Primary doctor contacts me. He tells me he saw the CT scan and saw something he didn't like, so he wants me to get an MRI. So, I went and got an MRI. The results come back, and lo and behold, one of my greatest fears had come to pass. I had had a stroke at some point. Not sure when, but we know one thing: I should be having them at my age. So my doctor has me do a bunch of tests to see what could be causing it. All of them come back normal. I never did meet with an ENT, but I did see a neurologist. He says the stroke and vertigo are unrelated. Great. So, I had one last test, I had to wear a heart monitor for two weeks. I wear the monitor, I press a button whenever I feel off, and note what I was doing. I finished my two weeks and sent the monitor in to get the results. About a week after that, on a Friday right after work, I got a phone call from my doctor telling me to go to the E.R., again! So, I go to the E.R. They take a look at the results from the monitor and find out I have a heart block. My BPM was getting down to the 30s while I was awake and even down to the 20s while asleep. This is not ideal.

I wound up staying in the hospital all weekend. No treatment, just monitoring. Eating hospital food and watching reality television. I meet with a cardiologist, who says it could be any number of things, and he doesn't want to jump the gun. After my weekend getaway, I'm told to wear another heart monitor, this time for a month, and this time it does everything itself. It even included a Samsung smartphone to phone home with. My four weeks come and go, and I get a call. Got to come in to the cardiologist. It turns out I'm going to need a pacemaker. My heart seems to be getting slower, and the pacemaker will keep it above 50 BPM, and keep me alive! So, I go back to the hospital, a different one this time. It has been months at this point; we're back in early September, oh, and I forgot to mention that I lost the hearing in my right ear again, but it didn't come back this time. Anyway, I'm told it's a simple surgery, it will be done, and in a couple of hours, I'm going home. Well, that was not true; the doctor wanted to keep me monitored overnight, so I stayed the night. The next day, I'm on my way. I get back to the house, and I try to relax; it's all good. About two days later, I'm having severe chest pains. I went into the E.R., and they told me it was very good that I did, because I was in a bad way. After a lot of testing, they find that one of the cables has come loose and needs to be reattached. I'm going down for another surgery! This time it sticks, but I'm told to take it even easier. 

After a couple of weeks, the water seal on the bandage gave out, the day before my follow-up. When I go in, he's not happy. I've spent two months going in for regular check-ups as the wound very slowly healed, with some annoying hiccups along the way. Right around the beginning of October, I started to feel dizzy again. I woke up the next day with vertigo, and even better, the hearing in my left ear was going out. This time I went to an ENT right away; I didn't want to be deaf. I'm told my hearing in the right ear is gone, forever, but that the left ear can be treated with steroids, so that's what I do. At first, nothing happened; my hearing went completely. But then, a little over a week later, I started to hear things again. They're buzzy and are only loud sounds like doors slamming, but I could hear them!

Then we got hit by a high-pressure system and all the hearing was gone. It didn't come back either. I'm currently seeing another ENT, and he has me on a double dose of steroids, both taken orally and being injected directly into my ear through my eardrum. It's do or die at this point, as I'm running out of time. My hearing is not improving, and I'm hearing a lot of tinnitus and “musical ear syndrome” 24 hours a day, so even sleeping is hard. Hopefully, we'll see signs of improvement soon; otherwise, my only options are cochlear implants or just being deaf. He warned me that on average, people only understand 60-70% of words when using implants, and that they'll sound robotic. He also said music is not going to be enjoyable anymore. Both are heartbreaking to hear, but 60-70% of words is a lot better than the 0% I'm hearing now. He also wants me to get an implant on the right side, no matter what happens. So I could end up with two in the end. He also dropped a shocker. The hearing loss could be because of my ulcerative colitis.

It's been really hard, especially recently. I didn't even mention that 4 days before the vertigo hit and took out my hearing, my cat of 11 years had to be put down. I can't seem to get back on my feet and just get back to normal before something else goes wrong. I'm told I may have a blood condition now, too, so I have to see another specialist for that in two weeks. I'm trying to stay optimistic, just face each new challenge as it comes. That said, I'm seeing so many doctors and getting more and more bad news. It's hard. Anyway, that's what I've been up to for the last year. Here's hoping that 2026 is a little better.

It's been what, 20 years since I've posted on Asleep at the Wheel? I know since then it's been at least 2 porn sites. I lost track after that. A lot has changed since then, especially lately. I want to talk all about it, but it's 10:15pm, and I'm tired after getting this Laravel setup running on Hostinger. Thank god for Claude or I would have probably never got it running. I decided to skip Wordpress this time and build my own CMS. It's really in early stages, but it seems to be working for the time being! Anyway, I'll explain more tomorrow. I want to get away from this infernal machine and wind down before bed.