Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 09:16:50 -0600 (MDT)
From: Ali Zimmerman 
To: Everyone
Subject: an update...

Hi everyone,

This might come sort of out of the blue for some of you, but you are all
my friends and I wanted to let you know what is going on with me right
now. 

In January of 2000, I was diagnosed with Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease,
which after several months of struggling with vertigo and hearing loss,
it was nice to have an answer.  However, the disease did leave me with no
hearing in my right ear (which I hide very well if you haven't noticed).
The future was very uncertain as to what would happen.  No one had any
idea if it would come back, or would attack my other ear, and if so what
could be done about it.  

Well, the future has arrived, and my left ear has been attacked.  I am now
almost completely deaf and have been since Tuesday.  Barry and I will be
travelling to Iowa City to stay with my parents from this Sunday until
Thursday, during which time I will be in the care of the University of
Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, including the doctor that first diagnosed me.

Things are very difficult at the moment, and email is my easiest means of
communication.  I cannot talk on the phone, nor can I understand people
face to face unless they are extremely patient with me and are willing to
write things down.  

I do not know where this leaves me.  There are options to hear again, or
at least better, and there is always the possibility that the hearing will
return naturally.  Barry and my parents have been incredibly supportive
throughout this, and I would be lost without them.  

I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers you all have for me.  Please
feel free to pass this on to anyone who asks, as well.

Thanks,
ali.

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Ali Zimmerman                  http://www.dreamwell.com
ali@dreamwell.com              http://www.dreamwell.com/ali/
"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The 
moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely 
knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark."
                                      -Agnes de Mille
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