Tag Archives: hearing aids

November 30, 2025 · 12:50 am

Losing the Lard November Report

Sharp_Requirement803-Reddit

It’s the end of November, just after Thanksgiving with little time before Christmas, but I promised that I would report my progress each month on my efforts to lose the lard and get healthier.

The short report is that I have now lost 84 pounds – 29 of them since I moved to Thailand. There is about 77 inches less of me now. I think my goal is to lose around 6 more pounds. I want to see how I feel at that weight and then will make a decision as to whether to lose more or go to maintenance.

The thing that has helped the most since I moved to Thailand in April is that Brian and I eat two meals a day. Our heaviest meal is breakfast after working out at the gym. We treat ourselves to a chocolate drink or an iced coffee many afternoons a week. We eat pretty lightly at dinner. I’m not worrying so much about eating low carb these days. The food in Thailand is almost all full of carbs. Even if you’re trying to watch carbs it’s difficult. I’m controlling my portions. We order a meal that serves one. I eat 1/3 of that and Brian eats the rest. We may have a side of some fruit or a small portion of pistachio nuts with that.

I’m taking supplements to help my digestion. I let Chia Seeds sit in a full glass of water for at least 10 minutes in the morning and then drink it down. I take a tablespoon of olive oil. Before dinner I drink 1/3 of a bottle of probiotic liquid. Before bed I take a probiotic pill. This combination has been truly wonderful for me. This has solved digestion problems here, but it also has made me more regular than I have been in my entire life.

I’m exercising every day. I will never be an exercise enthusiast, but I realize how important it is to my health now. I walk a mile on the treadmill every morning, 7 days a week. I used to hold on to the bars on the treadmill for dear life because my sense of balance was impaired by my surgery in February. Now I can walk not holding on at all. I still have to correct at times, but basically am comfortable so that I can now increase my speed a bit as well as the incline percentage.

I do either yoga stretching or exercises for my arms with water bottles on alternate days for half an hour. I also do some daily balance exercises I found on the net, plus dance daily for several minutes to some really great music on my computer.

Problem areas:

  • My belly will be the last to go. I’m trying to include belly exercises, but I’m also reading that some of these may actually make my problem worse. Encouraging, right?
  • My sense of balance is controlled by my inner ear and my brain. My balance and hearing were both impacted by either the anesthesia or the fact that my heart stopped twice on Feb. 11th and had surgeries to install a temporary, then permanent, pacemaker. I am now wearing hearing aids. I’m adapting to wearing them, while re-training my brain and body is a slow process.

Otherwise, I’m feeling better. I have more energy. I’m feeling more sure on my feet. Brian says I’m stumbling less over the very uneven sidewalks and streets here now. My blood pressure has improved to the point I’m on half the dosage I started on back in April. I haven’t been sick in the 7 months I have been here. Soon, I hope, I can shop for jeans that fit and a few new tops.

Onward and downward – I hope!

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September 10, 2025 · 1:11 am

Thoughts on 8-102025

Tina Ann

I just love Tina Ann’s artwork and sense of fun. I just can’t find enough of her work to satisfy me. 😃

My day has been a bit of a mixed bag. It started out with my feeling woozy with low blood pressure and opting out of my gym workout, to be closely followed by POURING rain and some leakage of my windows, necessitating towels and my bucket. I did my laundry and set up to have it dry on the rack inside. I then rested.

Now I’m feeling fine, my blood pressure is almost perfect on half of my BP pill, and the sun came out, causing me to move my drying rack out onto the balcony. I’ll watch closely to see if the weather changes….

Brian and I are at work on getting an image of the finished owl puzzle printed on glass by a company called FractureMe.com who made the wonderful image of my dad’s painting Brian got me as a housewarming present for my new place.

My idea is to do this for each of the puzzles I finish and put the glass images on the shelf in my living area with the painting my dad did as the centerpiece of the display. I love the idea of my vision growing and making a special statement. I took a pic of the owl puzzle earlier and sent it to Brian. He said it sucked (not in those words) and will take a better image for this project when he comes to my place later.

I’m going to concentrate on doing some sketches this afternoon. While I was typing this, though, I was distracted by birds singing their hearts out outside my window. I hadn’t heard them before and now CAN – because of my new hearing aids! What a delight!!!!!

(By the way. although each of us is different, if you’re in the market for help with your hearing, the brand I settled on is Oticon Intent 3. I love them because they are so comfortable I forget I’m wearing them. (an example of this is that I started to put my headphones on the other night to listen to YouTube on top of my hearing aids!) They have rechargeable batteries, so I take them off and put them in the charger until I want them again. There is a phone app so I can adjust them to suit conditions, making them louder or softer or using the ‘voice boost’ feature – when I’m needing to quiet the background noises. End of commercial. 😂

I hope that you’re having a wonderful day or evening, depending on where you are and that you’re finding beautiful things to enjoy.

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August 23, 2025 · 11:05 pm

Nice Sunday – 8-24-2025

Source: I Can Has Cheezeburger?

I did 25 minutes at 12% incline on the treadmill this morning! I used 5 minutes to get up to the 12% incline and then just walked the rest of the time. I think I will do the 12-3-30 method one day and the Japanese method the next to keep my body awake and working without hurting myself. 💪🏻

I will also TRY to do a better job of getting my yoga stretches in, as well as my exercises with water bottles, and my dancing to wonderful music. Since I’m a lazy woman, I think I will try for ONE of these things each day in addition to the treadmill and then try to incorporate more once I actually DO this – rather than just INTEND to do it.

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I’ve been working on my owls puzzle, and have to admit it’s still frustrating me, although I am DETERMINED to get it done eventually. I got the owl eyes in the middle recently, but they were running into pieces in place toward the top. When I looked super closely, I had to remove some pieces in the top owl to be reworked. 🤨

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Two sketches I painted recently. I really love trying to reproduce designs I find on the net the best I can and then paint them. I’m hoping to improve my ability to draw what I see. My progress is slow, but I have a blast trying and the time flies by so fast! 😄

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I’m very happy with my new hearing aids. I had one afternoon where I was overwhelmed by sounds all around me that I haven’t been hearing since my surgery in February, and then smooth sailing after that.

They are rechargeable, so they go from my ears to the charger. They are comfortable – in fact, sometimes I forget I’m wearing them! I can hear Brian now whether I can see his lips or not, whether I’m facing him or not, even though he is VERY soft spoken. I miss a word or two now and then, but he doesn’t have to repeat virtually everything he says anymore.

I can hear the traffic now, but the background noises don’t drown out someone else’s speech. If there is any problem with unduly loud background noise, I can use my phone to either increase the volume or use a thing called ‘voice boost.’ I haven’t had to do much fine tuning with my phone, but it’s great that I can do this myself, rather than having to get an appointment with the place that sold us the hearing aids to get an adjustment.

HOOORAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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August 19, 2025 · 2:13 am

Tuesday Thoughts 8-19-2025

Freepik

As I type this, I am wearing my new hearing aids! I lost a significant amount of my hearing when I underwent surgery twice (temporary and then permanent) when they installed my pacemaker last February after my heart stopped. I could hear, but everything was super muffled, like someone had wrapped my head in a bubble. I particularly had trouble hearing Harvey and Brian, the two most important people in my life. (They both speak softly and weren’t about to change.) They had to repeat almost everything they said, even when they got my attention first and I was looking at them plus trying to read their lips.

Now I’m in the process of trying to adapt to everything, including my own voice, being so LOUD! These hearing aids discriminate between voices and background noise, like traffic. There is a phone app that Brian has already installed for me that allows me to control a bunch of things from my phone, rather than trying to push a button on the back of the hearing aid, or having to go to the hearing aid place – after getting an appointment – for the lady to adjust things for me.

They use rechargeable batteries, so I just put them in the charger overnight and they’re good for the whole next day, plus.

Right now I’m feeling overwhelmed. For example, I didn’t know my keyboard on this computer makes noise as you tap the keys! I’ll have to learn not to be distracted by that.

My plan for right now is to put them in after I shower and dress after we’re back from the gym and then take them out after dinner when I’m back at my place for the night. I think my poor brain will adapt more quickly, and I’ll get a routine going on recharging, cleaning, taking them in and out, etc. Later I may change to just wearing them when I’m out.

On one hand, it’s a relief to be able to hear again, whether I’m looking at the person or not. This will add to my safety when I venture out for walks, too, as I’ll be more aware of traffic around me. On the other hand, it’s a bit stressful to be newly aware of all the NOISE around me when I’m used to everything being muffled.

I’m an extremely lucky lady. We don’t have insurance to cover these, and we had to pay up front, and a lot of people have to wait a lot longer or just have to do without. I am SO, SO thankful.

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July 31, 2025 · 2:57 am

The Last Day of July, 2025

@weskrntz.bsky.social

When we left to go visit my husband this morning, there was a cat sleeping on some of the packages on the pick-up table in the condo building. He isn’t as cute as the one here in the picture, but his coloring is similar. Apparently he comes and takes a nap here often.

Today’s visit with Harvey was sad, as my husband is quite frail and was essentially non-communicative today. The only thing he said was we needed to buy a hospital bed. After many questions, we finally figured out that his bed squeaks when they crank it up or down.

Two concerning issues – 1) we bring him a no sugar grape drink he likes. He would sip some, then just hold it in his mouth. We told him to swallow, and eventually he would, but only partially. His mouth was still full of liquid. After a lot of coaxing, he finally swallowed it all, taking about 5 minutes per sip. We did this several times before deciding he/we had had enough.

2) He needed to spit soon after we got there. We found that he had been holding a pill – or maybe more than one – in his mouth. He spit it out. We have spent lots of time getting more affordable pills, and we have seen him do this once before. Brian wrote to the management when we got home. They said they would now crush the pills. Less pleasant for him, but at least the meds will get down his throat. We’re also worried about him choking with the pills, since he isn’t being cooperative.

One nice thing – he did pat Brian’s arm at one point, almost making me fall apart.

Tomorrow will be a better day for me, with a trip to the gym, a massage, then my place getting a thorough cleaning. I’m almost ready for her to come. I’ve changed the sheets, changed the towels, gathered the trash, and straightened up a few things. Her money and thank you card are out and ready.

Saturday I’m getting a haircut! I’ve ‘gone to seed’, it having been two months since the new person I found cut my hair. Another really pampering thing coming up is a mani/pedi. It’s been two months there, too, and my nails have grown out. Amazingly, the gel polish they use still looks good, though there is about 1/4″ bare nail between my cuticle and the polish.

If things work out right, we’ll get Brian some new sneakers. He has worn all the tread off the pair he wears to the gym daily. He’s doing some research, reading reviews, etc., before he decides what he wants.

We’re going to try to take advantage of a promotion that the hearing aid group we like are starting tomorrow. I’ve had a hearing problem ever since my hospitalization in February, and hearing better will be a very welcome thing. I hate that the hearing aids are all so expensive, but I’m hoping they will essentially last me the rest of my life. I won’t wear them all the time, though – basically wearing them when I’m out with Brian. I’ll leave them off when I’m at the gym, and at home alone, especially in the evenings when I wear my headphones to listen to YouTube on TV and not bother my neighbors.

Brian and I are making a gradual switch to eating more Thai food. We’ve been eating “Western” type stuff because I’ve been trying to avoid carbs in an effort to lose my lard. The Thai meals also have a lot of hot and spicy ingredients that are a bit difficult for me to handle. This switch is a good move for us, though, allowing me to learn to love the cuisine here, improve my tolerance for the hotter stuff, and also save money. We had a bad experience earlier in the week and both suffered through digestive problems, but we’re over that now and ready to experiment again.

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May 30, 2025 · 9:32 pm

A Bit of Progress 5-31-2025

Time

Since today is the end of May here in Chiang Mai, I’m doing my official accounting of my efforts to lose the lard.

I have a new set of digital scales from the one I had in the states, so I’m not sure of the accuracy, but I think weight is a relative thing, and that ALL signs of downward results should be celebrated loudly, with great enthusiasm. 🤣

I am now down 62 pounds from my heaviest, and have lost 51.75 inches.

We went to a clinic here a couple of weeks ago to get a baseline on me since our move to Thailand. It was showing a fairly alarming blood pressure and lesser concerning reading of high cholesterol, relatively speaking. I started a combination of two blood pressure meds, taking one-half pill for 6 days and then switching to a whole pill daily until I see her again on June 23rd. She advised me to lose the lard (imagine that!) eat low carb (we’re already doing that) and exercising (I’m walking the mile on the treadmill every morning, walking to places close to our building during the day, and doing yoga stretches at night). The scale is showing I’m down almost 4 pounds since the initial appointment, and I’m hoping to have a good amount down by the time I see her again, plus better blood pressure and improved numbers otherwise.

I go to a 2nd main place for hearing aids this morning. We found a good candidate at another place awhile back, but wanted to see what this second place offered before we make a decision.

In each place, I am asking that I go outside wearing the pair I think is the best so I can hear how they perform with lots of background noise. We will study, read a lot of reviews, and then decide what seems best to do.

I still find it amazing that I could hear normally before I was admitted to the hospital for my low blood oxygen, ending up with heart failure and a pacemaker, plus a significant loss of hearing when I was released. No one can find anything physically wrong, and I’m very grateful that hearing aids may help.

Onward and downward, I hope, becoming healthier as the days pass.

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May 12, 2025 · 6:26 am

Can You Hear Me Now?

Just returned from seeing the 2nd ear doctor.

He couldn’t find anything wrong with my ears.
He did suggest, after asking me for more information about my hospitalization and surgeries, that there were a number of things that could have affected my ability to hear, but none are fixable.
He wanted me to do another audiogram and see a specialist at the hospital with which he is affiliated.

Brian and I agreed that probably nothing could be done and we already had a recent audiogram, that we will now research hearing aids. I do know that for the short time I used the computer headphones Brian got me, I was delighted to be able to “turn up sound” on my computer, the TV, or even on my phone.
So now we will see what is available and go from there.

One day maybe I will say, “YES! I can hear you now!”🙏

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