VIP Guest Blogger

Today I have a guest blogger (Woo hoo! I seem so important...I've hit the blogging big time). Don't get too excited though until I tell you who it is, because it might end up being a disappointment.

On Friday we learned about the auditory system and hearing from a neurological point of view. While it's interesting, I really could have skipped listening to that lecture because my entire life has been lectures about hearing and hearing health. Truthfully, I hate loud noises--especially loud music or TVs--and I'm quite confident that my dad is to blame. (DANG IT DAD!...Actually in this case, you killed it on the parenting front...my impeccable hearing and I thank you for being militant about protecting my ears). 

In about a month and a half my dad is getting a cochlear implant on his left ear. In about a month and a half I'll have a father that can hear again (fingers crossed!). For the first time in my life. 

There have been challenges growing up with a Dad who has profound hearing loss, but sometimes it also is entertaining...ask him the lyrics to any song if you're in need of a good laugh--the things he comes up with are hysterical! But as frustrating as it can be for my mom and me, I know that it's so much worse for him. 

We're all part of this service organization called Sertoma whose mission is to "improve the quality of life today for those at risk or impacted by hearing loss through education and support. This is actually the organization that Papa Jim got his Lifetime Service Award from a few weeks back. Well anyway, they asked him to write a blog about his experiences leading up to the implant and about the process. Below is his first installation. He's great (don't tell him...it'll go to his head) and I'm so proud and excited for him! 

As the Ears Go By: One Man's Search for Better Reception

My name is Jim Sharrick, and I am very hard of hearing. A year ago, I came to the conclusion that I would get a cochlear implant. It was not a sudden decision, and not my first step in dealing with my hearing loss. Mine is not a unique story, but one that I hope will be of interest to those facing, or the family of those facing similar decisions.  Like any journey in life, it helps to know where it began. So I will start with the story of my journey to this point. Then I will share my experiences leading up to, and hopefully, following a successful installation.

The condition that causes my problem is called otosclerosis, along with a dose of cochlear sclerosis. I’ve been told it’s hereditary, and the technical explanation is very boring. Essentially, the bones in my middle ear don’t vibrate as they should to activate the cochlea. Still with me? The curious and/or OCD amongst you can Google it. Anyway, both ears are affected, the left one much more so than the right. Both are affected so much, that apart from holding up my glasses, the left ear is useless.

I should point out that my hearing loss occurred after I fully acquired language skills, and that it was a sorta’, kinda’ gradual loss. This is a hugely important distinction, and why I don’t describe myself as “deaf” despite being non-functional socially without the hearing aid in my “good” ear. Being “deaf” typically means a person was born without hearing, or lost hearing at an early age, which makes language acquisition unbelievably difficult to this outside observer. I remember reading as a child, the word “horizon” as “hoar-ih-zon”, despite hearing it spoken as “hoar-eye-zen”. How anyone without hearing learns to read is beyond my understanding. I know it happens, all the time, but the effort must be daunting. My diction is standard, so you won’t hear what I call the “deaf accent” in my speech.

Since you are joining my story in the middle, maybe it would be best to do as if you were viewing a popular series such as “Downton Abbey”. You’ll understand better if I quickly just review the first thirty-five seasons. There I was, a towering 5’7”, 125 lbs, Ghandi-esque in physique, (only without all the muscle), 21-year-old. I was at a buddy’s house, and watching a magical new television service called HBO, provided by something called “cable”. We were watching a movie, and I apparently had the remote.

Some buddy this guy turns out to be, since he started crabbing about the volume level I set. After a few other public misunderstandings, including one really good one that involved my future wife, I had my hearing checked. Sure enough, the local ENT diagnosed the condition dead on, and put me on some nasty liquid fluoride supplement, with a calcium supplement as well to counter-act leaching from my bones. This didn’t last very long, as it tasted awful and ruined the end of every meal. I also didn’t think risking the integrity of my skeleton for what was then a relatively small problem was worth it. The same ENT sent me to a specialist in Denver, just a six-hour jaunt one-way, to see about corrective surgery. The doctor in Denver said I had too much hearing to gamble on the surgery, so the folks and I drove back the same day. All I really remember was that it was the furthest I had ever driven for a sandwich. It was a good sandwich, but not really worth the effort.

Anyway, after a few years passed, the condition worsened, so much that I would get angry if someone tried to talk to me while I was eating. The sound of my own chewing, (yes, my mouth was closed), was louder than the voice addressing me. I’m a really slow eater in the first place, and stopping to listen was starving me. So I was off to another specialist in Lincoln, (only a three-hour round trip this time) who recommended a surgery called a stapedectomy for my, I think, left ear. It involves removing the stapes in the middle ear, and replacing it with a metal prosthesis. After a few days, my hearing improved, and I lectured others like a reformed smoker, shushing anyone who was too loud. That’s the good news; the bad news was that it only lasted for about four weeks. The graft didn’t hold, probably due to a malformation of the bone to which the prosthesis was attached.

For the first time, a hearing aid was recommended, and I got one. Over the next decade, I had the right ear done, same result, got another hearing aid; left ear again; right ear again; and was told not to have any more surgeries. Oh, and was further informed, by the way, you also have deterioration in your cochlea. After that time, I upgraded from the full shell in-the-ear units to a smaller in-the-canal unit for my left ear. Ironically, it was my “good” ear at the time, and the one I used for the phone.

The final surgical attempt was in 2002, left ear for the third time, with again, the same results. I could participate in conversation in a machine shop without any hearing aids. Awesome, you bet! But that damned incus, (another ear bone, trust me), didn’t hold up its end, and that prosthesis dropped as well. Adding injury to insult, about a year later I started to notice that higher frequencies switched totally to the right ear. So much for the left side being the phone ear.

So I got even bigger hearing aids, behind-the-ear units, which worked pretty well for a while. The best part of the bigger units is that you can get about two and a half to three weeks of battery life, since they have room for much bigger batteries. I still noticed some fading, but really had nothing more to try. I already watched TV about a footstool away from the screen to keep the volume as low as possible, sat in booths in restaurants rather than tables to increase sound dampening, and religiously protected my hearing while mowing, vacuuming, (yeah, I do my share), and snow-blowing. I was down to tactics, not remedies, to keep up with the rest of the planet.

Fate and stupidity would intervene to set my path a couple of years ago. I have to remove my hearing aids to get my hair cut. The gal that cuts my hair knows about my hearing loss, and is perfectly comfortable conversing for the two of us, so this is a nice arrangement. It was winter then, so I shoved my hearing aids in each of my coat pockets. After the session was done, I got into the car, and while the car door was open, pulled out my gloves. The next day, I found the perfectly flat hearing aid for my left ear, right where I had driven over it. I felt fortunate to not be wearing it at the time of the incident.

So I got new units, a bigger, (how is that possible?), more powerful version for the steadily declining left ear, and a smaller unit for the right ear. Normally, I’d get the same size, but the bigger unit didn’t have the ultra-cool receiver for my new TV transmitter that plugs into the headphone jack. Did you know there is dialogue during chase scenes and very loud musical backgrounds? Anyway, by this time all I was getting from the left side was what is called residual sound, noise, but no discernible speech. However, it had to be used in order to stimulate the left auditory nerve, the one that goes from the cochlea to the brain. The brain is very big on modifying what you don’t use, so despite being a pain to decipher speech with the accompanying white noise, I knew I had to wear the darn thing. The end game was becoming obvious, which brings us to this time last year, when I made the decision to apply for a cochlear implant.

More to Come

Jim

National Student Research Forum

Oh. That's me. In front of a poster. 

I spent half of my week in (sometimes) sunny (but always hot and humid) Galveston at the National Student Research Forum. Both stressfully and luckily for me, I presented my poster right away on Thursday morning after arriving late Wednesday night. No time for nerves! I think it went alright. Here's a picture of me looking awesome in front of my poster....

We hung around for several hours to listen to some speakers and also to listen to CeCelia do her oral presentation. She is from Maine, goes to Brandeis now for her Masters degree, but spent a month in Nebraska with Dr. E doing research in the same clinic I worked in. I actually collected data for the second trial of her longitudinal study last summer while I was working in clinic. Anyway, she killed her oral presentation and I was super proud of her (Go CeCelia!).

After the speakers, we headed to Gaido's for dinner. It's a family-owned restaurant that has been in Galveston for over 100 years and it's SUPER delicious.

Cajun crawfish fondue

Goat cheese beignets

This was my meal. Grilled scallops
and blackened shrimp.

We had a breakout session on grant writing (like to the NIH) that we went to. The speaker said "The most important part of grant writing is actually writing well". And then she suggested that many of the applicants aren't able to do that and that might be why they don't get the grants. In that moment I was SO proud of my liberal arts education at Hastings College and especially proud of my degree in religion. Newsflash, science isn't everything! The humanities matter too. Later she was talking about in research they'd like you to have a straight trajectory of research interest. It's interesting to me that I have been inundated with the exact opposite information at UNMC (which is apparently not true for my Uni of Texas Med peers).

Once again, I am so proud to be part of the UNMC family.

We are good physicians, but first we are good people. We are frequently encouraged not only to do well in our course work, but also to do good within the community. To have something that makes us interesting outside of classes. Whether it's volunteering at the NE Humane Society or running marathons (PS GOOO Suzanne for rocking the Boston Marathon on Monday!) or even involvement in extracurriculars at school. And I think this is so, so, so important for taking care of patients. Just one more reason that UNMC is an amazing school!

Enough blabbering about my love for UNMC. We also headed to the beach, stopped for Rita's ice (they use margarita machines to shave ice and mix it with ice cream flavors...holy yum!) and I even did some studying by the pool. PS has anyone ever had their pen explode on them on an airplane? I have. Conveniently it was purple ink and I could not figure out how to get it off. I looked like a purple people eater during my presentation...maybe the judges thought I had a strange skin disease...?

Beach!

Water was pretty warm...
not Jamaica warm, but I didn't freeze!

Rita's shaved ice

Purple people eater...!

...or a skin disease? 

The poster. 

Another great blog!

Okay, it's true. I love medically related blogs. This one from a student at Harvard. Bonus, NPR published one of her blog posts. Or at least part one one. So you know I'm all over that.

Okay, I know I send y'all on a lot of goose chases to different sites, but this one is worth it. A little graphic/sad if you've lost a loved one during surgery, but incredibly powerful. Thanks Mr. Justin for tipping me off to 'Why Am I Dead?' He Never Asked. Here's the Answer He Never Heard. You better bet that I'll be obsessively reading over all of her past posts in the coming weeks.

It's (about) the freaking weekend

Soooo I had planned to post this Sunday, but as per my usual, my plans went awry. But for good reason! I was too busy having a life that I didn't have the time to write about my life! It's such a hard knock life for me... (not).

Well Friday was a test day. And a ginormous one at that. We had testing for most of the day (10:30-11:45 am and then again 1-3:30 pm). You say, "Oh that's under 4 hours, no biggie!", but in reality trying to keep your game face (more like "game brain") on for that many hours, especially if they throw a break in there, is really hard! Well anyway, it was our first neuro test. I think it went alright. We shall see later though...

Friday night was med prom (they named it Hippocratic Hustle this year). It was a grand ole time! Headed to dinner with some fellow M1s and then danced the night away with like 100 of my closest med school friends and their significant others/dates.

Syd!

Miss Megan!

Our dinner group! Plus some photo bombs by the lovely M2s

Saturday was spent at the jail and youth detention facility. Oh and a VERY long nap to catch up on my pre-test week lack of sleep. I also got to catch up with my lovely friend Lizzie and her mom, Mary. Bonus: I got to try a new restaurant too!

No worries, I promptly went into a sugar coma after lunch.
Creme brûlée and baked apple crepes. 

hot chocolate

On Sunday, my mom came up for a quick visit--lunch and the MasterSinger's Broadway concert (Bravo MasterSingers, bravo!). We headed to the tried and true, Wheatfields so I could stuff my face with some crepes. Later that evening, I headed to sushi with Miss Emily and Mama T (I think this weekend was the weekend of Moms!). Always a joy to be around those two as well.

Amidst all of that, I got some work done and some room cleaning too--although, proof of that is going to be hard to come by...it still looks like a tornado tore through there! Now back to work...I have a busy week of poster-finishing and general catching up on real life things to do! I suppose I'll do some studying in there too.. Hope all is well!

WAIT! How could I forget?! I'm doing the Take Steps for Crohn's and Colitis Walk in June. Let me know if you want a t-shirt ($10-15ish) or want to join the team. The t-shirts are pictured below.

Front

Back

Jamaica

Sally and I at Scotchies!

I am FINALLY getting around to writing about my incredibly amazing experience in Jamaica. My apologies that it has taken this long! So here we go on a Caribbean adventure...

A group of medical and pharmacy students (accompanied by 4 docs and 1 pharmacist) from UNMC headed down to Jamaica to provide medical care to around 400 patients. We flew into Montego Bay (in Saint James parish--purple--on the northwest coast). The air strip is basically in the water, so it was a bit unnerving to not see land until a split second before we landed. But the water was gorgeous so I guess I didn't mind an impending water landing. We stayed at a Methodist Church in Falmouth, which is the in the neighboring parish, Trelawny (brownish on the map).

Once we were settled in with all of our personal belongings, we started dividing the loads of vitamins and tylenol/ibuprofen into little snack baggies with a 30 day supply in them. We handed at least one of these baggies to basically every patient we saw. That night the church ladies cooked us jerk chicken, some sort of other meat stew stuff, rice and peas (beans...but they call 'beans', peas!), potato salad, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, and cooked green beans and carrots! It was good. I only had a little bite of the mystery meat stew stuff--definitely steered clear of the chicken (icky)--and had my fill on everything else. We also had some REALLY delicious ice cream from a local ice cream shop. I wouldn't be opposed to having some of that every day for the rest of my life...

The Dream Team (including Tommy for once)
Clinic group!

Inside the pharmacy at the Falmouth Clinic. 

The next morning, my group started in the clinic. We saw lots of patients with a variety of illnesses. It was super awesome! I don't really see adults ever in clinic (I shadow a pediatrician), so I was terrified to be in charge of their care. As it turns out, it's not all that different...you just have to ask questions slightly differently. I performed my first pap smear on a human instead of a plastic model and I saw this very hard of hearing lady. I'm sure everyone in the clinic heard me take that poor lady's medical history.

We spent the afternoon on the beach and the evening at a local restaurant called "Nazz." I had this baked fish (baked in some sort of vinegar stuff) and, of course, had to try the rum punch. One was more than enough for me though!

Wednesday morning our group toured the parish of Falmouth and also toured the elementary school, the infirmary (like a nursing home, but next to the ocean!), and the markets. We spent the afternoon in clinic again, although it was slower patient flow than the morning prior. We spent the evening doing a "M & M" (morbidity and mortality) session with the doctors...just talking about interesting cases we had seen and also common cases to prepare for so that we knew better treatment options. It was lots of fun! And then Sydney and I teamed up to play dominos with several of the other students and two of the docs.

Outside the Falmouth Clinic

Thursday was our group's day at the away clinic. Each group got to take a trip into the hills of Jamaica and visit a clinic that only gets medical attention every few months. It was utterly nuts! There were 60 patients waiting for us when we got there at 9:15 am! We saw 72 patients in under 5 hours with the equivalent of 2.5 rooms. What an exhausting and busy day! My notes were practically non-existent on patient histories because we moved so quickly between patients. I do remember seeing lots of brother-sister combos though. Dinner was in Montego Bay at a restaurant with wifi! Hooray! Unfortunately my phone was basically dead (it took 4 days without charging it, but it finally died!), so the wifi was short-lived for me. I had curry shrimp and jerk shrimp spring rolls.

Deeside Clinic

Friday morning was back in clinic, but instead of being the primary care providers, our group was in charge of triage. It was a slow morning, so I spent some time with a 6-year-old little boy who was waiting to for his mom to be done with her exam. He very generously showed me how to play temple run. That afternoon was Dunn's River Falls (like a waterfall you climb!), which was both semi-challenging and fun. I will not post any pictures of that though, because my hair looks terrible! :) After the falls, we headed to Scotchies, where they cook your food over a fire and wooden planks! There were TVs there, so much catching up was done on the basketball tournament.

Scotchies!

Saturday was our final full day in paradise and we spent it at the beach! We even got to eat dinner on the beach at a BBQ joint. Seriously some of the best food I've ever had. PLUS we got to watch the sunset! It was absolutely incredible!

Sunday, we went to church, packed up and headed (reluctantly) back to Nebraska. The cold weather nicely welcomed us back home. It was an incredible (and quick!) trip! I'm so glad I was able to go and able to meet the wonderfully kind people of Jamaica!

Away clinic!

Jamaican bobsled!

Deeside Clinic

My food at Scotchies: grilled fish, yam, conch soup,
festival (looks like a breadstick, but is sweet bread) and a rum pineapple!

My food at Bigg's BBQ: cheese fries, baked mac and cheese,
grouper sandwich, grilled veggies, coleslaw, a bite of pulled pork
and a bite of ribs. Yummmm!

Sydney and I in clinic.

Sunset by the beach.

Falmouth Methodist Church

The spice lady!

M1s!

The group. 

A patty. Pastry dough filled with grilled veggies

fruit stand. 

Surprise!

I'm the worst at surprises. Truly. From an early age, I've always been horrendous. Once we were with my Grandma when I was young (maybe 3-4ish) talking about her birthday. I was curious about what we were getting her for her present, so I asked my dad. He made me swear that I wouldn't tell her. I dutifully agreed and he whispered it to me. Not 2 seconds later I turned and excitedly informed my grandmother that she was getting a "Yadder" for her birthday. Surprised ruined.

Even now, 20 years later I completely suck at surprises. I'm not very good at receiving surprises because it throws off my whole schedule/check-list of the things I plan to get done during the day. I can't surprise anyone because I somehow give it away because I'm so excited about the surprise that I can't contain it. It's ridiculous really, but I think I'm still just a 3-year-old at heart, who is really excited about giving presents and surprises.

But today I finally succeeded at a surprise!

My parents and I are part of this service organization called SERTOMA. Its mission is to help the deaf and hard of hearing throughout the world. This weekend was the national convention for the group and it just so happens that my dad was to be awarded the Lifetime Service Award (along with three other men) from the outgoing president of the organization. 

I don't want to inflate my dad's ego anymore than it already is, but he's a pretty darn cool guy. And he's done lots of stuff for the organization (Mom has too!). For some reason they think he's funny--some days I'm not really sure why--and it seems like people think he's pretty cool--I also question this... He has a reputation for loving dessert and there are usually people lined up during meals at conventions with their dessert plates for him to take off their hands. Last year at convention, he gave a presentation about being hard of hearing and the challenges it brings as well as how he has been able to reach out to others who are deaf/hard-of-hearing through this organization. He's served positions at the local, regional and national levels. So I guess he's pretty awesome and deserving of the award.

And the best part...he had NO idea he was getting it.

He also had no idea that Mama worked it out that I would surprise him as he was receiving the award. I don't think I've ever even seen my dad speechless, but he was this afternoon! I'm so proud of you Dad! Congratulations, you deserve it! (And congratulations Mama, we did it too! I'm not sure how you kept that under wraps since Christmastime!)

Sunset above the clouds last night!

Lunch dessert!

My special tofu lunch!

Congrats Brownie!  

(L-R) Dad, Tim Hazel (outgoing Sertoma President),
Steve Brown (also an Lifetime Award Winner!)

Lifetime Service Award Winners plus Tim

Proud of you Dad!!

The proud family

Butternut squash ravioli

Banquet

Good news, I'm still alive!

Hello, hello, hello! It's been a bit more than a week since I returned to the US from Jamaica and yet I have still to update y'all on the trip. First off, it was awesome!! Secondly, I don't have time to write out a whole post about the trip right now...I'm hoping to get to that this weekend (and perhaps a few other post of the extremely long list of posts I want to write...).

BUT, I do have a lovely little post for you about my weekend and a little update on other things.

• Challenges: March's challenge of the month was to not complain. I wasn't super great at it, but I will admit that spending a week in paradise definitely helped reduce the number of daily complaints! This month is running a mile per day. I haven't done my mile yet today, but I hope to get it done after dance class tonight. I got some new running shoes (any excuse to buy more shoes!) just for the occasion!
• Neuro: We're in our final 6 weeks of the M1 year and it's the Neurology core. And it's freaking awesome. I seriously love every single day...well not so much today because we talked about programmed cell death and that isn't super brain-y (even though it happens a ton in the brain during development). I've held several brains to look at the anatomy and we hemisected our dissections yesterday! I'm super pumped for Thursday's lab too!
• Shoutout: I don't know how this happened, but I never gave a shout out to my wonderful ICE group...Cason, Danny, Hugh, Sam, Alissa, James, Levi, and Michelle. Killer Common Problems presentations! I especially think James, Levi and I's presentation was the best because we had the rototiller picture. I swear I'm not biased...
• Weekend: I had quite the whirlwind of a weekend, but it was absolutely incredible! Let' see...studying at Aroma's and Kitchen Table on Friday night. Jail project (STD testing)

  

  Aromas! Chai tea lattes that
   kept me up until 2 am

  Saturday morning, quick review in the anatomy lab, several hours of neuro studying, New Works performance by my good friends and lovelies at Ballet Nebraska, and a late-night drive home.  I drove home because Sunday I got to see my incredibly talented friend, Beau, give his senior thesis in studio art! I am so proud of you Mr. Beau! It really came together...and I appreciated the pictures of the progress along the way! I also got to see Mr. Justin get inducted into the Tri-Beta Biological Honor Society (he's kind of a big deal now...but he won't admit it). Got to catch up with my parents, grandma, Laura and Justin's parents. AND Mr. Justin and I celebrated our monthly "trip" to Jamaica with spicy jerk shrimp, rice and peas (beans...they just call them peas in Jamaica), mangoes and brownies (they were not laced with anything...). It was a crazy 
  

  

  Kelsey and Erin.

  Excellent job dancing the both of you and, as always, I

  love your original choreography, Erin!

  quick trip, but lots of fun! I'm so proud of Erin, Kelsey, Beau and Justin this weekend!  

BBB initiation. Congrats Mr. Justin!



Yes, we match. I picked my outfit out first.
He should have changed.
No, we did not go to prom together



Beau presenting!



Excellent job Beau!

Spicy jerk shrimp. Rice and peas. Green beans. Mango. 

• Spirit Day: For whatever reason UNMC celebrates Spirit Days and today we got free root beer floats and popcorn with different kinds of candy toppings. I don't understand it, but I definitely don't hate it!

Spirit Day! Popcorn and root beer floats!

Okay, hopefully some better updates this weekend about my trip! Hope all is well with all of my loyal readers!