Now I’m even more pissed than I was last night, as these antibiotics are like speed. I’ve only slept for 2 hours in 30 hours. I just spoke to Kim about it, and I think Andy tried to call me this morning. I know he called Brenda, but when he called me, I never got to the phone in time. It turned out that Kim wouldn’t have been able to come down last Saturday anyway. I pray I don’t sleep too late tomorrow. I need food, and then on Wednesday, I see Martha.

Kim is such a super person. I’m so grateful for her helping me take care of this infection, getting me out of Crack Alley, and much more. I told Kim about my ear surgery on building my outer ear and about going to Mass Eye & Ear Infirmary 3 years ago. I told her how the chief of ear surgery took CAT scans, which they didn’t have when I was little, and determined that if he opened the closed-up opening, I should hear. I also told her the operation never got done, as no one wanted to bother taking me and I didn’t want to disrupt their lives. There’d be a few visits besides the operation itself and several follow-ups. I explained I was too chicken to go alone and didn’t have the money for all these bus tickets back and forth from Boston. Also, the hospital people would never let me go home by bus after having major head surgery. Lastly, I told her that with Mom being 1400 miles away and Tammy with 3 kids, a husband, and a business, there was no help there, either.

She was just as thrilled at the thought as I was, even though I tried to block it all out of my mind. I tried telling myself I was born partially deaf and that I would stay that way; it’s nothing new. Her eyes watered as well as mine, and she half begged, half demanded that she take me through this operation, maybe this summer. She said it would thrill her and make her just as happy.

Also, she said I’m stuck with her no matter what. That’s ok with me, as she’s one in a billion decent people that I can ever get. I told her 3 or 4 years ago she’d have run like hell, and she said, “You never know. You may have been surprised.”