ways in which this surgery differs from the last
This surgery - and the aftermath of the surgery - feels quite a bit different from the first one. Some of this may be just because I knew what to expect, but not all.
First - and this just about had me cracking up in pre-op. At my first surgery the nurse had a hard time finding a vein to put my IV in. I ended up with six or seven extra pin-holes in me before the anesthesiologist finally got the needle in. This time? "Oh", said the nurse as she looked down at my arm, "You have GREAT veins". And got the needle in on the first try. I think I just proved that "good veins" is a subjective judgment, and is more about the person holding the needle than the veins in question.
Second, I'm in a lot less pain than last time. Mostly it's at night when I'm lying down sleeping. If I inadvertently roll over onto the implant site, it hurts quite a lot, but when I'm up it doesn't really hurt at all. The neck muscles on that side are quite sore, but that's normal too. What's kind of surprising to me is that the site of the actual drilling, where the implant is, doesn't hurt unless I lean on it. That's different.
Third, when I woke up after the surgery I couldn't hear anything till they put my processor back on my right ear. (The surgical nurse was great, she was concerned about being able to talk to me when I woke up and got a container to put the processor in, and she took it off me when I went under and put it back on as I was waking up. (They woke me up in the OR this time, though I'm not sure why. Last time I woke up in post-op). But I didn't hear anything through my newly implanted ear, which used to be the one that worked best.
And I figured, OK, I knew that was something that might happen and I was prepared for it. The CIs are so much better than what my pathetic residual hearing could bring me that it really wasn't even a question for me.
And a couple of times now Ron's tried to talk to me when I didn't have my processor, and nope, nothing there at all. But there are some things that I can hear. I can hear my own voice (badly) and I just now heard the lid pop back on a bottle of ibuprofen. Barely, but I heard it. So maybe once the healing is complete and there's no fluid in the inner ear, I'll have a little left.
It doesn't seem like it will be enough to matter - I couldn't hear my alarm clock before, and I'm sure I won't now. I'll have to talk to Ron about whether he wants me to use my old alarm clock and let it wake him up so he can wake me, or if he wants me to use one with a shaker.
And then I should probably get a smoke alarm with a shaker too, preferably one that I can take traveling.
So whether I do retain some residual hearing or not, I'm going to need to make some changes to accomodate this. And that's fine.
That vein thing is still making me laugh, though.
First - and this just about had me cracking up in pre-op. At my first surgery the nurse had a hard time finding a vein to put my IV in. I ended up with six or seven extra pin-holes in me before the anesthesiologist finally got the needle in. This time? "Oh", said the nurse as she looked down at my arm, "You have GREAT veins". And got the needle in on the first try. I think I just proved that "good veins" is a subjective judgment, and is more about the person holding the needle than the veins in question.
Second, I'm in a lot less pain than last time. Mostly it's at night when I'm lying down sleeping. If I inadvertently roll over onto the implant site, it hurts quite a lot, but when I'm up it doesn't really hurt at all. The neck muscles on that side are quite sore, but that's normal too. What's kind of surprising to me is that the site of the actual drilling, where the implant is, doesn't hurt unless I lean on it. That's different.
Third, when I woke up after the surgery I couldn't hear anything till they put my processor back on my right ear. (The surgical nurse was great, she was concerned about being able to talk to me when I woke up and got a container to put the processor in, and she took it off me when I went under and put it back on as I was waking up. (They woke me up in the OR this time, though I'm not sure why. Last time I woke up in post-op). But I didn't hear anything through my newly implanted ear, which used to be the one that worked best.
And I figured, OK, I knew that was something that might happen and I was prepared for it. The CIs are so much better than what my pathetic residual hearing could bring me that it really wasn't even a question for me.
And a couple of times now Ron's tried to talk to me when I didn't have my processor, and nope, nothing there at all. But there are some things that I can hear. I can hear my own voice (badly) and I just now heard the lid pop back on a bottle of ibuprofen. Barely, but I heard it. So maybe once the healing is complete and there's no fluid in the inner ear, I'll have a little left.
It doesn't seem like it will be enough to matter - I couldn't hear my alarm clock before, and I'm sure I won't now. I'll have to talk to Ron about whether he wants me to use my old alarm clock and let it wake him up so he can wake me, or if he wants me to use one with a shaker.
And then I should probably get a smoke alarm with a shaker too, preferably one that I can take traveling.
So whether I do retain some residual hearing or not, I'm going to need to make some changes to accomodate this. And that's fine.
That vein thing is still making me laugh, though.
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