So I just got back from my 1 week post op appointment with my surgeon... She said I can get the implant turned on in two weeks! So I've scheduled the date for July 16th, which is cutting my maine vacation early but its not a big deal since I would love to have my right ear back to hearing!
Other than that, that is all i wanted to share, and my head is healing good so far. The recovery time is flying by quicker than I thought it was going to be.
Just was a quick update for my readers.
-Annie
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Recovery continues
So it's been pretty much a week since my surgery...
and 14 movies later... i'm just about back to normal now, with a few exceptions.
Such as a large lump on the side of my head.
The lump/bump is where my magnet is and it feels unusual and i'm not quite used to it yet. But my ear itself is slowly coming back in feeling, like the nerves are not so sensitive anymore. It's barable now to sleep on the recovering side of my head now, and i find myself often on my stomach during the night flipping my head back and forth on the pillow every 5 minutes yet i'm in deep sleep and think it's all a dream. A biazzare dream that was caused by one of the movies i watched this week, alice. but it was quite a good movie and i liked how they used wonderland. (i'm referring to a movie that is a grown up version of alice in wonderland but different concepts of the story...)
In continuing with my surgery, I'm down to just my antibonics... and i realize i cannot spell it correctly after all this thing does not seem to have a spell check. Tsk tsk. =) Anyways, that's good so that means i'm not so loopy anymore since that was what the pain meds were doing to me. On wednesday I have to go back to the hospital for a one week check up... should be a-okay. =)
One thing I have noticed about my right ear since the surgery is very interesting. I feel like i'm hearing something but i do not quite know what it is. I feel like i am hearing a buzzing noise in my right ear... i think i have to ask my surgeon what that could possibly be. It's the same noise that I hear when i go for my audiology hearing tests yearly where they put this headphone on my head and i have to press a button when i hear a buzzing noise, and this is when i do not have hearing aids in. So... i'm curious of what is going on with my ear. I did not really know what to expect for the afterpart of the surgery, i pretty much prepared for the part leading up to the surgery but not for the part after. However, i'm not scared of this, it's pure curiousity going on of what was done to my head and ear.
Anyways, it's been a long day, time to sleep... and i hope this itch behind my ear goes away... it's unpleasant especially when i cannot touch the spot behind my ear... i'm too afraid of feeling what the stitches are like. And possibily make them come out... they are supposed to dissolve but im not sure how... that's a question i should ask the surgeon on weds. oh well for now my unconscious self can deal with it... good night.
-Annie.
and 14 movies later... i'm just about back to normal now, with a few exceptions.
Such as a large lump on the side of my head.
The lump/bump is where my magnet is and it feels unusual and i'm not quite used to it yet. But my ear itself is slowly coming back in feeling, like the nerves are not so sensitive anymore. It's barable now to sleep on the recovering side of my head now, and i find myself often on my stomach during the night flipping my head back and forth on the pillow every 5 minutes yet i'm in deep sleep and think it's all a dream. A biazzare dream that was caused by one of the movies i watched this week, alice. but it was quite a good movie and i liked how they used wonderland. (i'm referring to a movie that is a grown up version of alice in wonderland but different concepts of the story...)
In continuing with my surgery, I'm down to just my antibonics... and i realize i cannot spell it correctly after all this thing does not seem to have a spell check. Tsk tsk. =) Anyways, that's good so that means i'm not so loopy anymore since that was what the pain meds were doing to me. On wednesday I have to go back to the hospital for a one week check up... should be a-okay. =)
One thing I have noticed about my right ear since the surgery is very interesting. I feel like i'm hearing something but i do not quite know what it is. I feel like i am hearing a buzzing noise in my right ear... i think i have to ask my surgeon what that could possibly be. It's the same noise that I hear when i go for my audiology hearing tests yearly where they put this headphone on my head and i have to press a button when i hear a buzzing noise, and this is when i do not have hearing aids in. So... i'm curious of what is going on with my ear. I did not really know what to expect for the afterpart of the surgery, i pretty much prepared for the part leading up to the surgery but not for the part after. However, i'm not scared of this, it's pure curiousity going on of what was done to my head and ear.
Anyways, it's been a long day, time to sleep... and i hope this itch behind my ear goes away... it's unpleasant especially when i cannot touch the spot behind my ear... i'm too afraid of feeling what the stitches are like. And possibily make them come out... they are supposed to dissolve but im not sure how... that's a question i should ask the surgeon on weds. oh well for now my unconscious self can deal with it... good night.
-Annie.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Meds
This recovery period has way too many ups and downs. It's been almost 3 days since the surgery and I have now developed a love-hate relationship with my medicines. I'm currently taking antibonics and pain killers for it... the antibonics, i have to take 4 times a day... it's a bit much and it makes me feel sick most of the time. I am hating it already. But then the painkillers make it better... by making me feel like I am a drunk. I have been talking weird, and saying i love you to everyone who is in this house with me. And i cannot even walk straight... but that's due to my dizziness and unbalanced ears which was expected.
Some side effects to the surgery are unbalanced, metallic taste on my tongue, headache, thumping/popping in my ear... It kind of feels like a really bad hangover doesn't it? But the metallic taste in my mouth makes water taste more interesting so I'm enjoying my water, but it ruins food for me. I don't understand why I even have this as a side effect to the surgery, it has to be by far the weirdest side effect i've heard of. Oh well... hopefully it goes away quickly.
The recovery process is going... slowly... my mornings usually start off bad because I wake up and the painkillers usually have worn off by then and my head is just a throbbing mess and makes me not want to deal with anything. It takes me a good 4 hours to get up and make myself take more meds and eat something and then I feel alright. I guess I could say I am quite stubborn after all i think the meds are making me feel sick sometimes but it's supposed to help heal me in the long run so I hope it does.
But anyways, I removed the bandage yesterday morning and it was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a bloody mess or something from the stitches, but nope. They were the most beautifully done stitches I have ever seen, clean and precise. They cut right behind my ear where the ear meets the head, so where the scar will be, it won't even be that visible at all especially when I have my implant on my ear, it'll just cover up the spot. The stitches are dissolvable, so no worries there. It felt really good to not have a huge bandage on my head anymore as I slept, but i'm more nervous about hurting my ear or moving my neck/head in a way that it bothers the stitches. So far, no major misshaps with my ear... just a lot of pain once in a while... like the inner canal of my ear hurts a lot... i don't know why. probably from having a wire thingy put into my actual cochlear.
Woa... now i'm back to feeling loopy, my painmeds like to make me loopy and I just took it a little while ago so this means I should go sleep or something. Hoping for a better day tomorrow...
Night-
-Annie
Some side effects to the surgery are unbalanced, metallic taste on my tongue, headache, thumping/popping in my ear... It kind of feels like a really bad hangover doesn't it? But the metallic taste in my mouth makes water taste more interesting so I'm enjoying my water, but it ruins food for me. I don't understand why I even have this as a side effect to the surgery, it has to be by far the weirdest side effect i've heard of. Oh well... hopefully it goes away quickly.
The recovery process is going... slowly... my mornings usually start off bad because I wake up and the painkillers usually have worn off by then and my head is just a throbbing mess and makes me not want to deal with anything. It takes me a good 4 hours to get up and make myself take more meds and eat something and then I feel alright. I guess I could say I am quite stubborn after all i think the meds are making me feel sick sometimes but it's supposed to help heal me in the long run so I hope it does.
But anyways, I removed the bandage yesterday morning and it was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a bloody mess or something from the stitches, but nope. They were the most beautifully done stitches I have ever seen, clean and precise. They cut right behind my ear where the ear meets the head, so where the scar will be, it won't even be that visible at all especially when I have my implant on my ear, it'll just cover up the spot. The stitches are dissolvable, so no worries there. It felt really good to not have a huge bandage on my head anymore as I slept, but i'm more nervous about hurting my ear or moving my neck/head in a way that it bothers the stitches. So far, no major misshaps with my ear... just a lot of pain once in a while... like the inner canal of my ear hurts a lot... i don't know why. probably from having a wire thingy put into my actual cochlear.
Woa... now i'm back to feeling loopy, my painmeds like to make me loopy and I just took it a little while ago so this means I should go sleep or something. Hoping for a better day tomorrow...
Night-
-Annie
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Post-Op
So, it's been 24 hours since i went under the blade.
Let's start at the beginning when I arrived at the hosptial 6 am to check in. There, i went with a nurse to check over everything and making sure that my body is in good shape and ready to go for the surgery. After that she gives me a lot of scrubs to put on... the pants were so long on me that she had to roll them up but it didn't even matter because once I got to the surgical floor, they had me take the pants off and keep the top on. But before that I met with two doctors explaining to me the anthensia process. The first doctor was this very old lady who I could not even hear and had to struggle lip-reading her in order to answer questions! The second guy was another doctor explaining what I was recieving and sign off on a bunch of sheets.
After that point, I was told to go with an intern to walk me down to the surgical floor where I was put onto a bed and given the warmest blanket ever. I was so comfortable for this. Many docotors and nurses came to me to ask me questions, mostly just asking if i have allergies over and over. Then finally the anthensiologist comes to put me under, and he was russian and had a heavy accent... that was quite tricky. But we managed to figure out how to communicate, and he put the IV in my left arm instead of my hand... i guess you cannot see my veins there! Before he put me to sleep, my surgeon and the nurse working with her came by to check in with me and make sure I was okay. Smullen was happy to see me and glad that I decided to go with the right ear after all. Everything seemed to happen very quickly in that entire hour of getting prepped for the surgery.
After she had came by, I was rolled out of the waiting room where everyone that was getting surgery at that time had been waiting, there were 8 of us and I was the youngest... very young... haha everyone else was in their 40's and up. I remember seeing the little mermaid painted on the wall too and it reminded me of my roommate Ashley who loves that movie. haha.
They took me to operating room 10, and put an oxygen mask on me... I was gone after that point. I do not even remember closing my eyes or anything. I woke up back up on the 9th floor on the bed, and a nurse was there... I'm guessing she woke me up or something? She had me move from the bed to the big comfortable chair to kind of wake me up. The first thing I felt when I woke was how extremely thirsty I was and asked for water. Many people told me before the surgery that I would have to pee like crazy afterwards... surprisedly I didn't need to go right away. =) the nurse then told me that she will get my parents, and my parents came in and kinda laughed at the huge bandage on my head which i didn't realize was there until they said something! haha. It's like a huge bump on the side of my head where it was operated on and it makes me feel like i'm carrying 10 pounds on my head. I was still under the anthensia and kept falling asleep, at one point they had me eat some crackers which isn't a good idea to eat since it gets my mouth more dry.
This really nice nurse was talking to me a lot and at one point my dad came back to see if we could go, and I was pretty much out of the sleepyness and we decided that i could go. I had to change and that was tricky due to being dizzy when i stand up!
They had to wheel me outside of the hosptial and the minute i got to the car, i felt so sick and threw up just water... and the medicine that I had just taken 10 minutes before to help with the soreness on my head. The drive home was rough for me due to roadwork most of the way and the bumpyness made my head hurt. I slept pretty much all afternoon after I got home, and feeling a little better today.
My head is feeling alright, just throbs once in a while where the stitches are and feels really heavy with the bandage on right now, but I'm taking it off in 30 minutes and we'll see how the stitches look!
That's all i feel like writing now,
more updates tomorrow probably.
-Annie
my head all wrapped up!
Let's start at the beginning when I arrived at the hosptial 6 am to check in. There, i went with a nurse to check over everything and making sure that my body is in good shape and ready to go for the surgery. After that she gives me a lot of scrubs to put on... the pants were so long on me that she had to roll them up but it didn't even matter because once I got to the surgical floor, they had me take the pants off and keep the top on. But before that I met with two doctors explaining to me the anthensia process. The first doctor was this very old lady who I could not even hear and had to struggle lip-reading her in order to answer questions! The second guy was another doctor explaining what I was recieving and sign off on a bunch of sheets.
After that point, I was told to go with an intern to walk me down to the surgical floor where I was put onto a bed and given the warmest blanket ever. I was so comfortable for this. Many docotors and nurses came to me to ask me questions, mostly just asking if i have allergies over and over. Then finally the anthensiologist comes to put me under, and he was russian and had a heavy accent... that was quite tricky. But we managed to figure out how to communicate, and he put the IV in my left arm instead of my hand... i guess you cannot see my veins there! Before he put me to sleep, my surgeon and the nurse working with her came by to check in with me and make sure I was okay. Smullen was happy to see me and glad that I decided to go with the right ear after all. Everything seemed to happen very quickly in that entire hour of getting prepped for the surgery.
After she had came by, I was rolled out of the waiting room where everyone that was getting surgery at that time had been waiting, there were 8 of us and I was the youngest... very young... haha everyone else was in their 40's and up. I remember seeing the little mermaid painted on the wall too and it reminded me of my roommate Ashley who loves that movie. haha.
They took me to operating room 10, and put an oxygen mask on me... I was gone after that point. I do not even remember closing my eyes or anything. I woke up back up on the 9th floor on the bed, and a nurse was there... I'm guessing she woke me up or something? She had me move from the bed to the big comfortable chair to kind of wake me up. The first thing I felt when I woke was how extremely thirsty I was and asked for water. Many people told me before the surgery that I would have to pee like crazy afterwards... surprisedly I didn't need to go right away. =) the nurse then told me that she will get my parents, and my parents came in and kinda laughed at the huge bandage on my head which i didn't realize was there until they said something! haha. It's like a huge bump on the side of my head where it was operated on and it makes me feel like i'm carrying 10 pounds on my head. I was still under the anthensia and kept falling asleep, at one point they had me eat some crackers which isn't a good idea to eat since it gets my mouth more dry.
This really nice nurse was talking to me a lot and at one point my dad came back to see if we could go, and I was pretty much out of the sleepyness and we decided that i could go. I had to change and that was tricky due to being dizzy when i stand up!
They had to wheel me outside of the hosptial and the minute i got to the car, i felt so sick and threw up just water... and the medicine that I had just taken 10 minutes before to help with the soreness on my head. The drive home was rough for me due to roadwork most of the way and the bumpyness made my head hurt. I slept pretty much all afternoon after I got home, and feeling a little better today.
My head is feeling alright, just throbs once in a while where the stitches are and feels really heavy with the bandage on right now, but I'm taking it off in 30 minutes and we'll see how the stitches look!
That's all i feel like writing now,
more updates tomorrow probably.
-Annie
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Continuing the countdown
So now it's 3 days...
The weird thing about all of this is that I am surprisely calm about all of this. I think i've had enough time to mentally prepare myself and not get nervous over all of this. This is my first surgery in a hospital, and I hate hospitals usually... and somehow I am not thinking about how bad it is going to be, and just focusing on the positive sides to this surgery.
There is only one con to the entire thing, and that's the recovery period being a month... only listening out of my left ear for a month. It kind of restricts me from driving so much and missing a lot of conversations. Also I cannot exercise for 2 weeks... so not looking forward to that! I love to keep in shape and do a workout everyday... I forsee myself becoming a couch potato during the month of recovery.
Most of my friends are going to visit me and watch movies during my lazy week, which will start right after the surgery date.
Thank you to everyone who keeps telling me that they are nervous and will keep good wishes in mind for me during the surgery. It is a peace of mind to have other people do the worrying instead of myself... I just need to remain calm and get through this without any issues. If i start to freak out, it would make things seem worse for myself and I know myself and need this to go smoothly.
I am quite tired, so I should get my rest.
Good night
-Annie
The weird thing about all of this is that I am surprisely calm about all of this. I think i've had enough time to mentally prepare myself and not get nervous over all of this. This is my first surgery in a hospital, and I hate hospitals usually... and somehow I am not thinking about how bad it is going to be, and just focusing on the positive sides to this surgery.
There is only one con to the entire thing, and that's the recovery period being a month... only listening out of my left ear for a month. It kind of restricts me from driving so much and missing a lot of conversations. Also I cannot exercise for 2 weeks... so not looking forward to that! I love to keep in shape and do a workout everyday... I forsee myself becoming a couch potato during the month of recovery.
Most of my friends are going to visit me and watch movies during my lazy week, which will start right after the surgery date.
Thank you to everyone who keeps telling me that they are nervous and will keep good wishes in mind for me during the surgery. It is a peace of mind to have other people do the worrying instead of myself... I just need to remain calm and get through this without any issues. If i start to freak out, it would make things seem worse for myself and I know myself and need this to go smoothly.
I am quite tired, so I should get my rest.
Good night
-Annie
Friday, June 11, 2010
10 more days to go!
So we're in the homestretch now.
I went in today for my preop appointment and it went well. Met with Dr. Ting to make sure that I'm in good shape for surgery and ready to go, all that is set.
So here's a new thing to this entire thing... I met with Dr. Smullen, and she suggested that I get my right ear done, not the left like I had been thinking. My logic was that the left ear does not do as well as my right ear when it comes to listening, everything usually just blurs together when I just listen with my left ear where in my right ear everything is more crisp and I feel like I can listen better with it. So I was thinking that it would be a good idea to improve on the worser ear... the experts think otherwise. They think since I can perform better with my right ear, that it would be more successful to have the cochlear implant in that ear rather than the left.
When she suggested that, I sort of got upset over this. I feel like I am more emotionally attached to the right ear due to it being better at listening. In reality, both ears hear about the same but it's up to my mind how well i want each ear to hear. It's all psychology pretty much in my head. But they did have a good point of how well I can hear with the right, and how much better I can do with that ear... So I'm going with their decision of doing the right. I had the choice though, but they know more, and I just have to trust them on their thoughts. It's tough because there is the risk of the cochlear implant not working, but everyone stresses that is a low-risk due to my ears being a good candicate.
So this is going to be happening so soon... 11 days. Well its more like 10 days due to the surgery being in the morning... very early morning... nothing to drink or eat for 6 hours beforehand. I think I probably will be very grumpy for not getting to have my usual cup of tea in the morning... but I'll be put to sleep later and wouldn't care too much.
After the surgery, it's a month recovery, so I'll be functioning on my left ear only... and we'll see how that goes. I already decided that I am not driving anybody during that month... if only we lived in England and I could be sitting on the right side of the car in order to drive... oh well. hahaha.
That's all on my mind right now relating to the surgery.
time to start getting nervous... soon. I'm not actually that nervous at all. It's my mother who is doing all the nervousness for me... haha.
Goodnight everyone,
-Annie
I went in today for my preop appointment and it went well. Met with Dr. Ting to make sure that I'm in good shape for surgery and ready to go, all that is set.
So here's a new thing to this entire thing... I met with Dr. Smullen, and she suggested that I get my right ear done, not the left like I had been thinking. My logic was that the left ear does not do as well as my right ear when it comes to listening, everything usually just blurs together when I just listen with my left ear where in my right ear everything is more crisp and I feel like I can listen better with it. So I was thinking that it would be a good idea to improve on the worser ear... the experts think otherwise. They think since I can perform better with my right ear, that it would be more successful to have the cochlear implant in that ear rather than the left.
When she suggested that, I sort of got upset over this. I feel like I am more emotionally attached to the right ear due to it being better at listening. In reality, both ears hear about the same but it's up to my mind how well i want each ear to hear. It's all psychology pretty much in my head. But they did have a good point of how well I can hear with the right, and how much better I can do with that ear... So I'm going with their decision of doing the right. I had the choice though, but they know more, and I just have to trust them on their thoughts. It's tough because there is the risk of the cochlear implant not working, but everyone stresses that is a low-risk due to my ears being a good candicate.
So this is going to be happening so soon... 11 days. Well its more like 10 days due to the surgery being in the morning... very early morning... nothing to drink or eat for 6 hours beforehand. I think I probably will be very grumpy for not getting to have my usual cup of tea in the morning... but I'll be put to sleep later and wouldn't care too much.
After the surgery, it's a month recovery, so I'll be functioning on my left ear only... and we'll see how that goes. I already decided that I am not driving anybody during that month... if only we lived in England and I could be sitting on the right side of the car in order to drive... oh well. hahaha.
That's all on my mind right now relating to the surgery.
time to start getting nervous... soon. I'm not actually that nervous at all. It's my mother who is doing all the nervousness for me... haha.
Goodnight everyone,
-Annie
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