I had the MRI on my knee today and was so happy it went well!  I am somewhat claustrophobic, and the only other MRI’s I’ve had were of the head (I’ve had 3 over the years relating to my hearing loss) and I had to work very hard in the past to stay calm and get through them!  The thing that makes me the most claustrophobic is when I can’t move my arms.  I’m a large person and that MRI tube is small, so when I’m in there I can’t move anything and my arms are pressed inward, so I really have to work at staying calm and getting through it.  Anyhow, when they scheduled this MRI I asked if I had to go all the way in (since it was a knee, after all!) and they told me I still had to go in up to my neck!  They offered to schedule me to test in a wider MRI machine and I happily took them up on that offer!  I’m so glad I did!  It was sooooo much better for me!  This machine was wide enough I think I would have been okay even if I had had to go in up to my neck, but they only needed me in up to my waist (makes so much more sense!).  Let’s just say I was almost giddy I was so happy and the test went absolutely fine!  Whewwww!!!!  Next step will be on Wednesday when I see the surgeon to go over the results!

We had our first ASL class on Monday night and it was awesome!  The instructor had some technical difficulties getting set up, so we got started late, but once things got rolling I thought it was great!  It was fun and informative and I believe all 22 students had a good experience.  I’m looking forward to the next session.  The instructor told me that about 3/4 of the next class will be considered a “deaf zone” and there will be no voices allowed, only signing.  That should be quite interesting, considering how little we know at this point.  This class is not a traditional ASL class.  It’s called “Easy Signing” and it’s geared to be very interactive and personalized to the specific needs of each class.  There is a book that we all have been assigned to read at home about a woman who also experienced sudden hearing loss and I have found it very interesting for obvious reasons.  The teacher gave me a copy that was signed by the author, which I thought was really nice.   I found a couple of apps for my Nook Tablet that show ASL signs and I think they will be a great help for me as I try to learn this.  My family has been signing and it’s great practice!  I need it at this point!  Cody’s remembering a lot more than I am!

Today I was thinking about controlling our thoughts.  For years I have had an odd thing happen to me….when I am deep in thought I often say out loud what’s going through my head without being aware of it.  Think about that for a second!  Does anyone really want any random thought that goes through their head to be spoken out loud without their knowledge?  I sure don’t!  It’s weird.  The kids tease me and when they were young they’d just say “Mom, you’re doing it again!”  Back then what I would say would be in more of a whisper, so it wasn’t always clear what was being said to those who could hear me.  It seems like I haven’t done it much until lately (although I’m home alone more than I used to be now that the kids are mostly grown, so maybe there just isn’t anyone around to hear it and tell me about it anymore!) Recently, I’ve been “doing it again” only out loud and in words that are discernible!  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I have lots of dark or inappropriate thoughts that are spewing out of my mouth!  Usually when I’m deepest in thought is when I’m working out a problem or frustrated and I tend to go over the “scenario” multiple times in my head or replay it saying what I should have said or how I should have handled the situation, or will handle the situation or whatever!  One of my favorite scriptures is Philippians 4:8:  Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.  I think about this often and consider it one of the key scriptures for life:  you can’t really have a bad attitude about something or have trouble forgiving or whatever if you don’t dwell on the wrong things.  I was saying my thoughts aloud this morning without being aware of it, and Kinsey came in and repeated a couple of sentences that I had said.  Initially, I thought she must have misunderstood.  I didn’t think I had been thinking  those things.  Then I realized that I WAS thinking about those things!  Nothing horrible, just thinking about something I found frustrating and it reminded me that I need to be careful what I allow myself to think.  I was considering that in the context of speaking my thoughts without realizing it, then it occurred to me that we all should probably be watching what we allow ourselves to think about regardless of whether we say our thoughts out loud or not!  Of course, considering how to handle a situation is a good thing and we need to evaluate problems or issues, but there’s a difference between doing that, and dwelling on them and allowing ourselves to get worked up or stay upset or frustrated.  That’s when we need to control our thoughts.  Anyhow, thought I’d share!