It has been: 10 months and 7 days since being implanted with implant #1 and 8 days since being implanted with implant #2.
I went in for my surgery the Monday before last, on November 29th, 2004. Preparation for the surgery went exactly as it did the last time, the same procedures, same places, and even a couple of the same people and the same operating room! Only this time they put me to sleep with something in my IV rather than with a gas mask.
When I woke up though, it was a whole other story. It wasn’t anything like the last one. Instead it was much worse! The dizziness was a lot worse, the tinnitus was a lot worse, and this time I had unbelievable nausea right off the bat, as soon as I sat up from the bed. I was so very sick! The pain was about the same, enough that they had to eventually give me morphine after a while. And to make matters worse, the bandage was wrapped so low on my forehead it was squishing my eyes and I couldn’t open them very well, and they wrapped my other ear up into it also so it was very squashed, and the bandage was so tight, much tighter than I expected. This time, Dr. Baker stapled my head instead of sewing it. Not sure why, but I actually like the staples better, they look really cool for shock value when you show people, but the best part is that it looks like there is going to be less scarring.
I cried the entire time I was in the recovery area, and I just couldn’t seem to get comfortable. It was unbearable. I couldn’t even move without getting unbearably sick. So we ended up staying well past when everyone else left except for this one nurse that stayed with us. She was really nice, I wish I knew who she was so I could thank her.
Anyway we did almost decide to admit me to the hospital to stay overnight, but since that required a car ride, I figured since I was going to have to get up and move and ride in a car anyway (that was what I wanted to avoid the most) I might as well tough it out a bit longer and go on home. So we did, after making a stop by the nearest walgreens to pick up the pain meds, since they were the only ones still open at that time.
I dry heaved or actually puked the entire way home. I could not see or hear anything because of the dizziness and ringing, and I wasn’t wearing my processor on the other ear. It was unreal, like a nightmare, and that is all I really remember of it. Finally we got home, and discovered that I was vomiting blood. After about the 4th time I vomited blood, I had my husband call the emergency number for Dr. Baker about it, Dr. Baker called back pretty quickly, and this was around midnight or so. I am glad he did though, he said it was normal and it was just blood that was running to my stomach from my head. So I was glad that it was nothing serious and it didn’t mean another car trip to the ER!
I finally somehow got to sleep despite all of the discomfort, and the next day I only vomited a couple of more times, this time there was no blood. Finally the nausea started going away and that is when things started to get quite a bit better, and ended up being more comfortable in general than the last time, as long as I remembered to take the pain pills. Without the pills, the pain was excruciating. On top of that, I could feel what felt like another blister forming on my eardrum. Dr. Baker didn’t see anything when he checked it out the following wednesday, but by Friday I was pretty sure I had another blister because it hurt very much and very similiarly to the blister I had the first time around. So my husband called Ginger, Dr. Baker’s nurse, about it, and she had him come up to get some ear drops for it. By Monday, which was yesterday, it was a lot better, as well as the rest of the pain on my head, although I still have to take pain pills. But I don’t have to take as many or as often. The pain goes from my shoulder all the way up to the top of my head and stretches out to the side of my face, kind of where my eye begins. It feels bruised and tender, like someone hit me really hard with a 2×4 on the side of my head. My neck and shoulders hurt only because of the way my head was twisted around during the surgery.
Just like last time, my husband has been an absolute angel, he took an entire week off work just to take care of me, and he did everything for me, went out of his way to take care of me and make me comfortable and happy without complaining one time. I couldn’t have asked for a better caretaker. How many guys will sleep on the floor next to the bed to avoid hitting my head in his sleep, change out puke bags, wait on me hand and foot, and get up several times a night to get things I need or help me to the bathroom? How many guys would put up with constant whining and crying and complaining for a week straight and still be loving? He’s the best nurse in the world, especially since he knows me so well, I don’t have to do a lot of explaining or asking for things I need, he already knows. I don’t know what I would have done without him. I know my recovery would have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for him. He may be a dork in other areas of life, but taking care of me is his biggest strength. I know it’s one of the reasons God put us together.
Yesterday and today I have made quite a bit of progress in my recovery. At first my balance was nonexistent, my husband had to help me get anywhere. But now it is a lot better, and as long as I have something to hold on to, I can get around decently. The dizziness has calmed down some too, although the tinnititus hasn’t. I still get pretty dizzy when I try to read, though. Other than that, I am doing pretty good. I was in bed the entire time all the way up until Sunday night, so I am glad just to be out of bed and to be able to get on the computer and do something besides watch tv.
So all in all, I’m pretty comfortable now. I look forward to being able to walk normally again, drive, get out of the house, and just DO things. Oh, and wash my hair on my own. My mom and my husband helped me wash my hair for the first time since before the surgery today. It really needed it and felt so good. I also look forward to activation day, which is January 17th, 2005. That’s when the implant will be activated and I will get to find out how good it will be, and hopefully finally be rid of the tinnitus. I just hope the magnet is in a similiar place as the other one.
My only real complaint about this surgery is the fact that my ears are uneven. My left ear, the one that just got the new implant, is lower on my head than my right one vertically. It’s not very drastic, but it’s enough that I cried for a whole day when we took the bandage off, and it really bothers me. Just about anyone I’ve asked about it can see it pretty easily. I mean, one starts above my eyebrows and the other starts below them! I know that they were even before the surgery, because I am very critical of my appearance when I look in the mirror and I definitely would have noticed them before. Besides, I wasn’t even thinking of the fact that they could be uneven when I looked in the mirror after taking the bandage off. So I wasn’t even looking for that. It was a slap in the face!
I am very self conscious about my ears now, it was bad enough that I am going to have so much equipment on my head, so now I am probably never going to show my ears in public again. That means no more ponytails or “do-rags”, or my hair pulled back in the front, my all time favorite styles, and really the only styles that work with my unruly hair. I am very upset about it, and I plan to mention it to Dr. Baker, although I am pretty sure he is going to deny that it has anything to do with the recent surgery. But we are going to try to find pictures and prove it if that happens, and if it comes down to it, yes we are going to sue for the cost of getting it fixed or for him to fix it himself. So I really hope that he will be a man about it when we confront him and step up to the plate, and arrange to get it fixed. I really don’t wanna mess with the whole legal battle, but I don’t want to have lopsided ears for the rest of my life either! I feel like I have a right to have even ears if that is how they were before. I know it’s not a big sacrifice in exchange for being able to hear, but I am going to do what I can anyway.
There is a small chance that they are only lopsided because of swelling, but this seems pretty unlikely to me that swelling would affect the vertical position of my ears. Especially since I am judging by the top part of my ear that is next to my head, not the “flaps”. I very much hope that once it is healed up it will go back into place, but it just doesn’t seem very likely from a physical standpoint.
Anyway, I have an appointment with Dr. Baker tomorrow at 1:30 to get the staples taken out. While we are there, I am going to discuss some things with him, and maybe the issue of my ears being lopsided as well. But the other issues I am going to discuss for sure are basically elaborations on something he was trying to tell me wednesday, but I was too dizzy to read his lips then. It was something about vaccinations against two different bacteria to prevent menningitis, and that he thinks I don’t have Meniere’s disease after all because during the surgery, he noticed that the fluids in my ears were pulsating with my heartbeat, which was really odd and wasn’t supposed to happen. That’s all I really understood, so I am hoping to find out more tomorrow. My mom is going with me and my husband, so we will have two people to help grasp everything he says. The fact that he thinks I don’t have Meniere’s disease is a hard thing for me to accept, because I have grown up all my life struggling with all the symptoms! I think he said something about the symptoms for Meniere’s disease and the symptoms for my birth defect, which is Large Vestibular Aqueduct, were very similiar, so maybe that is it. I hope to find out more tomorrow. And I hope he’s in a better mood.
Here’s a picture, taken 5 days after surgery:
(Note: You can click on the pic and it will take you to another website that has the larger version of it on there.)
