Surgery And Home

Just a quick post to say that the surgery appears to have gone well yesterday, and I came home from the hospital this morning. Feeling pretty good, just some soreness behind the ear, and neck. 

Only 4 weeks to the next big day.

Minneapolis Bike Tour

This morning I rode in the 2nd Minneapolis Bike Tour, doing the 37 mile route (plus 14 miles round trip to and from the Parade grounds) that covers most of the Grand Rounds. The weather was a little cooler than last weeks St. Paul Classic, but at least the rain held off until I got home. The crowd at the start seemed to be a little smaller than last year, but once I got started (about 8:30), it seemed about the same:

There was an early morning regatta underway on Lake Harriet when I got there:

Part of the route heads north on West River Parkway from Minnehaha Falls. Because of the collapse of the 35W bridge, last year, we had to cross over at Franklin Ave, and proceed to St. Anthony Falls on East River Parkway. This year, with the bridge almost finished, they opened West River Parkway for the riders. I had forgotten how much fun that climb from the river flats can be.

I wasn't too sure last year about the design of the bridge, but seeing it finished, it does look nice. I'm especially anxious to see it at night with the LED lights on. Somebody must have been very busy on West River Parkway this week, because last Sunday, I crossed over the 10th Ave bridge to show a friend the 35W work, and the parkway had a pretty good coat of mud on it. As you can see, it was pretty clear this morning.

I was surprised that there are still a lot of twisted pieces of the old bridge still on the flats. I'm guessing that with work on the ground continuing, that the parkway will close again for some time.

One thing I really disliked this year was the leg in NE Minneapolis. From Boom Island, they routed us counter traffic north on Marshall St. This wouldn't have been too bad, except that they didn't close that side of the road to parking (or if they had, they didn't enforce it and tow people). That meant that there were a lot of places where we had to move out into the lane into potentially oncoming vehicles to get around parked cars. Throw in groups riding two or three abreast, and I was really glad when we finally reached St. Anthony Parkway.

And finally, something that I hadn't noticed before when we crossed the Stone Arch Bridge is that I can't here the St Anthony Falls from there. That may be an early stop in November.

Activation

Today, I received the list of appointments for the first six months. Activation, when they'll finally give me the external processors, and start turning on the electrodes is scheduled for Oct. 28.

There will be two more "Mapping" appointments in the first 7 days, then, 5 more at various longer intervals through April. My audiologist said that I will also probably get a referral for aural rehabilitation ( hearing therapy), but those won't be scheduled until after activation. I assume that is because we won't really know what my rehab needs will be until then.

I think I've kept a pretty level head through this whole process, but for some reason, getting this list of appointments sent me into a bit of a freak out mode this morning. Luckily, things have been going pretty well in the lab this week. That took a little of the edge off.

18 Days

Only 18 days until the surgery. Everything seems to be set. All I need to do now is avoid getting sick so we don't have to cancel and reschedule. I'm registered to ride in the Headwaters 100 the 27th. We haven't had the greatest luck with the weather for that: more often than not, it's been cold, windy, and if not raining, at least very damp.

I turned in the selection form earlier this week. I decided to go with the Cochlear Nucleus Freedom, with silver behind the ear processors. My audiologist emailed back to confirm that they got the information. She also told me that she had submitted the follow-up appointments for scheduling and that she would send the list as soon as those were confirmed. That means that hopefully, I should know my activation date in the next few days.