Sunday, March 18th, Hearing Returns

Greetings! I've received lots of well-wishes and inquiries about the hearing loss I suffered on our recent trip to Africa. I want to sincerely thank all of you for the love and concern you all have showed. The good news is that the visit to my doctor last week showed that Pat's suspicions were correct about my left ear. A giant goober of wax dissolved quickly at the hands of a talented nurse and the right set of solutions. The Serengeti dust reinforcing it didn't help either. And that's the conclusion as to why both ears were impacted. Standing like a human weathervane at the top front of the land rover we used in Kenya and Tanzania caused both ears to receive prolonged trauma to the ear canal. They just weren't used to that much direct wind and dust. And recover wasn't aided by the inflamed nasal passages caused by the cold I've been trying to get rid of for two weeks now. But I can tell you all that I'm hearing fine now. Yesterday, Pat and I attended the memorial service in Marin of a good friend of mine from college, and I actually heard every word well. Because most of us attending are getting on in years, and our voices are fading anyway, I was happy to be there fully. I learned a good lesson about the frailty of ears. And have an enormous appreciation of the difficulties experienced by those whose hearing weakens. Gregory