Arrrgh!!!

My family is so funny.

Sunday I came down with laryngitis. I've been without a voice for four full days. This morning you can hear me, but for the past four days we've had to use every means at hand to communicate.

I was trying to talk to Dear Husband about something that he would have to do in my stead because I couldn't use the phone. I was seated at the computer, trying to dash off a hand-written note to him, when I had one of those "DUH!" moments. I turned to the computer, brought up Word, and changed the font to 14 or 16, and typed like a mad woman. He could read over my shoulder as I typed, and it made "conversation" a lot easier.

I found that rather than try to make sound, if I whispered they could understand me. Well, Dear Husband and his son could hear me. Elegante Mother is more than a bit hard of hearing these days, so we did a lot of lip reading, and the guys would fill in what she missed.

I needed to gather information for a personal financial report. I had to call two banks to ask for account amounts. The secretary at the main bank and I are friends, so I called, got her answering machine, and squeeked a request that she send me her fax number. I faxed her an explanation of what I needed, and we conversed on and off through the day via fax.

I didn't know anyone at the second bank, but I went online to their website, and managed to find an e-mail address. I typed out the problem, and my request. They called me and asked me to tell them the last four digits of my Social Security Number, and then she gave me the info over the phone. Two out of two! Not bad at all. It takes some creativity, but you can get around a lot of problems in this electronic age.

What struck me so funny about my family was that as I struggled to communicate with them, their hearing got better! Dear Husband has been saying "What?!" a lot this past year. I discovered that when he is focused on me, he can hear me whisper across the room. If I have EM's attention, and she is watching me as I speak, she must lip read to get some of what I'm saying, and she's more likely to be up front about what she's missed now than she was a few years ago.

To resolve this situation, I have to be sure their attention is fully engaged! Dropping a plate behind their backs, standing on the cat's tail, "accidently" spraying them with the hose at the sink, touching them when they don't know I'm there......what else could I do???

I'm so very lucky that they were supportive. My voice is coming back, and the sinus stuff is abating. It's nice to know that I could have gone to bed, and they would have taken over for me, but it's even nicer to know that they were willing to work with me to mitigate the problems.

I'm sending a big THANK YOU! to my family, and to everyone who has helped make this week easier.