Yes! There’s an orchestra in my chest and a choir in my head. The crud has found its target once again. Now, I’m not looking for symphony, I mean sympathy, because the wheezing sounds emitting from me provide a symphony — at least most of the time. Occasionally, it’s a solo, duo, or other small group.

A sense of humor to match my gratitude is the only way to get through this, but I swear I’m hearing these things for real. Despite my other hearing deficiencies, not all age related, this is not made up.

My head adds another dimension to the mixture with soloists, duets, trios, quartets, and sometimes a full choir. Chest and head wheezing in sync has provided fantastic entertainment while trying to fight to breathe.

On a more serious note, my lungs were weakened more than known from the bout with Covid pneumonia that lasted well into spring, so taking such a backstep threw me for a loop. Still fighting to stay out of the hospital, with the right medications and enough rest it will be okay, in due time.

The self-anger for failing to recognize the seriousness at this stage in a long recovery, when gym workouts were just showing results, is forgotten. Another start over is in the plan.

After spending most of last Friday at a local Doc in the Box, plus a good bit of cash at the pharmacy, by Sunday I was actually feeling much worse. Generally, the care received at the clinic has been top notch; however, with all that time and about ninety seconds total with a physician, they called in prescriptions and that was it.

This time however, they had no access to any of my prior illnesses except for the one I got rushed into the conversation and quickly dismissed. I left with nothing — no poke in the bottom to get me on the road to recovery quickly nor unknown until picking up the Rx later that day contained none of the medical miracle that usually pulls me rather quickly out of the pits.

Instead, all I got was worse — including a fever spike. That prompted me to do the unspeakable — send a text to my very kind, angelic medical professional who gave me her private phone number — don’t worry Missy, it’s safe with me.

She responded rather quickly, ordered the magic medicine needed and told me to call her if I wasn’t better soon. Family picked it up and literally within a few hours there was some obvious improvement.

We need to speak up. After all, this body has been solely mine since 1947, so the familiarity is quite profound. We need to find a medical professionals who will actually listen to what we say.

Unfortunately, modern medicine is to treat only the well — the sick and infirm must go elsewhere — a clinic or, heaven forbid, the Emergency Room. Anyway, being on the right track surely makes a positive difference.

Meanwhile, the symphonic sounds, though a bit quieter and more subdued each day, continue. One occasion they had me trying to hum along as if the wheezing, sneezing, and blowing wasn’t enough.

Since not fully recovered from the plethora of complicated conditions endured from November through March of this year, it may take a bit longer than usual to recover once again — entirely unrelated to my age, right?

Something else happened during this that makes me hopeful. An older cousin had tubes placed in both her ears, and her youthful hearing was completely restored — no more buzzing or high-pitched tones rang in her ears. Remarkable.

Since my appointment with an ENT Audiologist is finally about to happen next month, it boosts my hopes for the same option because after blowing my schnooter for the umpteenth time the other day, my hearing was completely restored for more than a day. It sparked hope that tubes in the ears might actually become a possibility rather than pricy hearing aids that only intensify the noises inside the ears, since there is no current cure for tinnitus.

My family was amazed that my hearing was so well amplified during that time period. The TV volume had to go from 23 (where I could barely hear it) way down to 8 with me making out every word.

Dear Readers, if you pray, please do that a simple tube can fix this. Since one ear has been entirely closed for over four years and the other one works only fairly, it would be another miracle to add to my growing list.

This may be the worst example of my writing, but there is stuff here that won’t leave my mind any other way. Sorry you got stuck with this one, but better stuff is coming. I promise!