Recovery from surgery is going well. I ended up taking the whole week off form work. I had thought I would try and go back the Thursday after. I probably could have, but Wednesday, I made trip to the store with my dad, and even that short trip pretty much wore me out, so I decided to take a couple more days. Even with the full week off, the first couple of days back to work were pretty tiring. Here are a few more impressions and thoughts at two weeks post surgery:
-Apparently, I spent a lot of time in recovery. Typically, it’s one hour in recovery. Turns out I spent 3 hours, as they tried to get the pain under control. Luckily, I don’t remember much of that, and since then the pain has been minimal.
-The loss of the residual hearing in my right eat (expected) is both better and worse than anticipated. It’s a very different feeling, receiving no sound from that ear anymore. So far, however, it’s revealing how little difference it making when it comes to understanding speech.
-The swelling has largely gone down, and I think I’ve figured out where the implant is positioned. I haven’t tried on my bike helmet, as the incision and the ear are still a bit sensitive to touch, so I don’t know how it will interact with the helmet.
-The implanted ear feels stuffed, or full of cotton, some of the time (again, expected). At first it was all the time. Now, it just feels that way after I’ve been up and moving around for awhile.
-The tinnitus I have in that ear seems to have actually decreased right now. A lot of people report a big increase after implantation.
-Taste is still off a bit on the right side. However, it seems more of a “burnt tongue” thing than anything. It doesn’t really seem affect how things actually taste, but taste doesn’t “linger.”
-My neck is still stiff and sore, mostly because I’m still sleeping entirely on my left side. The implant side is still too tender to let me sleep on my right side.
I go back to see the surgeon in about one week for the post-op exam. That should be a really short visit, since the incision seems to have healed well. Hopefully, he’ll also clear me to start biking again. I’ve been really bummed to have missed some really nice October biking weather this last week or so. Activation is in two weeks on the 28th.
Monday was the big day. Surgery was scheduled for 7:30 AM. We got to the hospital at 5:20, and was checked in by 5:30. About 5:45, the nurse took me back to begin surgery prep. Gown, anti-embolism boots, vital stats, more medical history, and then mostly waiting. About 6:15 Dr. Levine, my surgeon stopped by for a quick review and to mark me up for surgery:
(update: The N stands for "Nucleus," the trademark name of my implant. I had a choice of which device to have implanted.)
Next up the anesthesiologist and her resident stopped by to set up the IV. Big time fail for the resident. His first attempt in my left hand, he missed completely, resulting in a big balloon of IV fluid building up under the skin. His second attempt on the right hand was better, but even that, after they wheeled me in to the operating room, they re-did the IV a third time in my right arm.
After wheeling me into the OR, they strapped me down to the table, and within a couple of minutes I was out, and the next thing I now, I’m waking up in the recovery room. The first thoughts I remember waking were the Cowboy Junkies “Darkling Days” and their cover of “Sweet Jane.” Other than that mostly, I just remember the nurse saying that they had finished at 10:30, and asking every few minutes for me to rate the pain, and her giving me more painkillers by IV.
Being moved from recovery to my room made me a bit nauseous, so they gave me something for that. Other than that, the pain was surprisingly bearable: mostly in my jaw (the surgeon’s resident said they had to cut a little bit of muscle), and my neck (from being stretched to one side for three hours).
I think I’ve only had three or four percocet for the pain. The rest has been plain Tylenol. Just as well, since the percocet gives me a rash. They held me over night at the hospital, which I spent mostly sleeping and watching the fall out from the failed wall street vote in the House of Representatives.
The next morning, the resident removed the bandage, showed off the incision to a group of medical students, and cleared me for discharge. No lifting over 15 pounds, and no strenuous activity (including biking) for two weeks. My post –op exam is scheduled for Oct. 21.
The incision is probably not even going to be visible after it heals. The made it right in the crease behind the ear:
I think I’m going to take at least one more day off,and maybe try to go in for at least awhile on Friday.
