The Green Light

This is pretty exciting (for me, at least): I spent this afternoon at the U of M Medical Center for several appointments: A CT scan, a meeting with the surgeon, and an appointment with a health psychologist.  As it stands right now, I have been approved to receive a cochlear implant. It will probably be 2-4 weeks before I have a surgery date set, as we need to wait for the prior authorization from my insurance company.

The day was mostly pretty boring. The appointment for the CT was at 12:20,  I checked in just after 12, and the technician came to get me within five minutes. I was done with the whole CT by 12:20. My appointment with the surgeon wasn't until 1:30, meaning I had and hour to kill, so I picked a chair in the lobby and read for a while before heading up to the ENT clinic. 

About 1:20, the nurse called me in, and took some more medical history. Then another wait in the exam room for 30 minutes for the surgeon. The surgeon finally came in, said he had examined my CT scan, and that there were no problems. Then, he asked "Which ear are we doing?" his next question was "Which device are we going to implant?" He spent another 10 minutes or so discussing risks of the operation and answering any of my questions, the nurse came back and we went through the pre-op packet, and I was on my way to the next appointment, with only 40 minutes to wait.

I had no idea what to expect with the psychology evaluation.  This one lasted about an hour, and we discussed my hearing loss, the risks of the surgery, and what kind of support I have for the rehabilitation. The last part of the evaluation was pretty much just a depression screening. After that, he told me I was cleared to proceed, and asked me if I knew when the surgery was scheduled, which I don't yet.

The current plan is to implant my right ear,  and my next step is to decide which manufacturer to go with for the implant.