Updates

Not a lot has been going on here recently. Just me moving some stuff around the house and trying to get things settled in. My ear feels much better, no more balance issues, no more pain pills and I am about two weeks away from the activation date. I am attaching a few pictures of what my implant looks like and what the processor (the part on the outside of my head) will look like. I thought that would be a good idea for some of my friends that don't really know what the cochlear consists of. Hope everyone who reads this is having a good day. None of these are my pictures just some I found on the web. My processor BTW is a goldish beige color not the white one I have here.


This is the part that is actually inside my head now.







This is the processor which I will wear in order to hear. Its called a Harmony and its from Advanced Bionics.





This is how the processor hooks up. There is a magnet on the round part that connects to the other magnet which is in my implant.





This is a digram showing what they did during my surgery and where everything is located.






Hope this answers some questions any of you had and if it doesn't ask me!

Monday and Tuesday

Ok so Sunday was uneventful as you read and Monday started out that way. I went to lunch with a friend of mine, waited for Michael to get home and we went to dinner blah blah blah. Then I started getting really dizzy. In the course of all this I decided I would go to Cumberland to see my family on Tuesday for a few days. I took my antibiotic and went to sleep on Monday night. I wake up on Tuesday morning and I have a sour taste in my mouth and my balance is all over the place. I ended up getting sick, cancelled my trip and stayed in bed all day. Michael called the Dr's office and the nurse said TOO MUCH ACTIVITY and put me on house arrest LOL. So apparently I had been doing too much and it caught up to me finally. I am just lounging around a little bit today celebrating my one week anniversary for the implant. I haven't been taking pain meds just OTC stuff and it seems to be working. The doctor also said if my balance isn't better by next week I have to see a rehab specialist about it. So the Cumberland trip is postponed until I feel better (which honestly I do feel a lot better today and my balance is much better than it has been). That's all I got for now. Hope this finds everyone well.

Day Four after Surgery

Ok not a lot happened yesterday, at least things I can say YAY about. I do terrible in a car, the motion really makes me sick, Michael and I went to Baltimore for Mass yesterday and I thought I would puke the whole time. I also realized how much I was relying on the little bit of residual hearing I had left in my right and left ear. Since the implant I don't have any in the right and the left is bad. Sitting here at home with Michael and almost no background noise I am ok. Out and about with my hearing aid in and a lot of white noise ( its all environmental but it just sounds like static to me) is BAD. I could barely make out what anyone said to me yesterday, and then we went to dinner with three other people and I was lost, totally lost. I don't have a clue what they talked about, I said HUH a lot and smiled. :) Other than that not much happened. My incision is itching a little bit, but I was actually brave enough to try and feel the implant and I washed my own hair which was good. No new pics because it doesn't look any different lol. Hope everyone is well. Look for another update tonight I think.

Day Three and Pics

OK so I stopped taking the pain pills yesterday except when I went to sleep and I feel better. They make me so groggy its gross. I have been on ibuprofen only today and it seems to be working out. I have a lot of pressure in my ear like water or something and its a little sore but nothing like it had been. I also had Michael take some pictures of the wound area fresh from washing my hair. OMG I look like a punk rocker! They took so much hair off me. Its healing up nice though and my hair will grow back *sigh*. Not much going on today I am trying to take it easy, putting the TV up yesterday just about killed me so I think all we are doing is putting some stuff away and maybe riding to the store so I can get some thank you cards and some stuff. Enjoy the pics!

Day two Surgery pictures

Its not looking too bad eh?

Day Two After Surgery

OK I know this is early but I thought since I am being very cat-like (aka Lazy) today I would start and just update as the day goes on. The nurse at Dr Niparko's office let me take my bandage off today so I feel much much better. My muscles are still pretty sore but I guess that is trade off for being a scrappy Irish guy huh? Live and learn. I still think my patient charts now have a V for Violent on them or as a user on All Deaf said its like one of those charts at the vets office that has an X on it meaning I bite LOL. I love you guys, you always make me laugh and smile. The one thing I want to do is wash my hair but I haven't been given the go ahead. For those of you that know me, I have grown my hair out again so its big and you know how I get with it when its like that. UGH Shampoo where art thou? :) I am moving around a bit more than yesterday but definitely trying not to over do it, I can picture me doing too much and my ear falling off or the implant busting out of my head like one one of those things in Alien. Nice visuals huh? October 9 will not get here soon enough and yes that is the day I get turned on for my initial start up. It looks like October 20 is my return to work day so I am going to hope to get to Cumberland maybe next week or so and I will keep you all updated we must have lunch or something as I will only be there for a few days so let me know when things are good for everyone.

UPDATE: I got to wash my hair, thank the gods for that one. I feel much much better. Today is shaping up to be a good day so far I have a few new pics of the surgery site I will get them posted up later today.

Pics

Day One after surgery

Today was pretty uneventful. I woke up took pills slept, its been my schedule most of the day. Michael changed my bandage for me so I do have a few pics of the actual surgery area, not as bad as you think it would be. So those will be posted up at the end of this entry. I am still sore today, and I get headaches from the bandage around my head but I am walking much better today and I don't feel as sick to my stomach as I did yesterday. Still pretty sore though, my arms and back are killing me which I am guessing is from the fight with the OR guys over the tube in my nose and not the actual surgery. :) Hope everyone is doing OK, I cant wait to get this thing turned on so now I know why they say the four weeks it takes to heal is a killer. I am ready NOW:)

Surgery Day

Ok so needless to say I couldn't sleep very well the night before all this was supposed to take place and I contribute that to a few factors. First I couldn't eat after midnight, which most of you know I work overnights so midnight is my lunch time so that was out. Second I couldn't drink anything so of course that means that at 12:01 I get thirsty, and third I couldn't smoke. I know why I shouldn't smoke anyway but still with a surgery coming up the only stress reliever smokers have is to light one up. I couldn't do that. BLAH. So pity poor Michael as he had to drive me thirsty, hungry and smokeless to an appointment. So I get to the hospital at around 11 or so and we go check in and wait. Then Father David shows up to give me a blessing and anointing with oil for a good surgery. I really appreciated that, it was very cool. So right after that they take me back to prep me for surgery and I am told I have to strip all the way naked and put two gowns on and that I cant leave my St Therese medal on which made me mad. SO I go through all this and the nurse comes back and they bring Michael along and we fill out some papers. Then a Dr. Stewart, who works with Dr Niparko, comes back to show me my implant. Honestly it looked like I was at Best Buy getting a new iPod. It was all in a box with bar codes and things on it, it was funny. Dr. Tan then had me sign a form telling me what they were going to do and that they might take pictures and things during my surgery since Hopkins is a teaching hospital. Dr Niparko came back next and talked to me for a little bit told me that it should only last about an hour and a half! I was shocked. I thought it would be much much longer. Just talking to this man you can tell he is very smart I felt so comfortable with him and I felt better knowing he was doing my surgery. I was introduced to the anesthetic team next (more on these poor guys in a minute) and then a few nurses. I had my IV put in, went to the bathroom and was on my way to the OR. Keep in mind they took my glasses from me so I am now effectively Helen Keller since I cant see and I cant hear. They take me back to the OR and I lay down and they start hooking up things on me and they give me the oxygen mask and I am watching them then I drift to sleep. Next thing I know I am waking up and damn it I want up NOW! Two nurses had to hold me down and the best part was later when they told me that I had started breathing funny in the OR and they put a tube in my nose and I wanted no parts of it. It took six people to hold me down in there and I was knocked out! I felt bad, they were all so nice to me. So I am awake and I have to pee which is a good sign but when I try to stand up WHOA, I am so so dizzy and sore. They bring Michael back to me and we wait a little bit then they tell me I can go home. They give me some meds (Oxycontin, an antibiotic and a pill to keep me from puking) and a bag of stuff to take with me and we head to Emilio's house to rest. I am so dizzy at this point and I cant really remember too much I do know I have something on my head and I am sore but other than that I am out of it. So next I find out that my anti nausea pills are actually suppositories which I quickly rename into ass candy. Eh its all good though I guess. I take some pain pills take some ass candy and take a nap. I remember waking up to see Fr David and Michael that is about it until about 9 or 10 when I wake back up and decide to eat. After about an hour or two of being up I go back to sleep and effectively wake up about every two hours to pee and then back to sleep. That was it for Day One. Dr Niparko told Michael the surgery was good, he had it all put in where he wanted it at and that it was a very successful implant.

Intro

Hey everyone, this is my first blog entry on my journey to being a CI-Borg, which will be in a day! I am hoping to keep everyone up to date on what is happening, how I am feeling and what happens once I get my cochlear implant.