Healing continues to go well. I’m back to my normal routine, including exercise. The twinges of pain have dwindled down to very occasional, and that side of my head is no longer tender to the touch. I was able to put the left arm back on my glasses a couple of days ago. I can even lie on that side again, although I don’t really sleep that way yet as there’s still a little discomfort when I do that. The ear continues to be numb, which I think is contributing to the discomfort if I try to lie on it, but the doctor said it may take a couple months for that to go away. I’ve had no trouble sleeping since the night after the surgery, so I’m not complaining.

I’m a little jealous of all the people on the FB CI group who got activated a week or two after surgery; my doctor said four weeks, and so my activation date is August 16. However, I don’t really want anything else behind that ear yet — glasses are enough — so I guess it’s for the best. Still, I’m eager to see whether all this turns out to be worth it!

I probably won’t post another update here until after activation, unless there’s anything interesting to report (which I hope there won’t be).

Saw the doctor for my post-op check today. He said everything went well during the surgery (I didn’t see him afterward, so anything I heard about the surgery that day, I got from what he told my husband), and everything looks fine now. Oddly, I am actually feeling a bit more pain now than I was in the couple days immediately following the surgery — some twinges in my ear and the occasional throbbing on that side of my head. But none of it is very long-lasting or very high on the pain scale and Tylenol helps, so the doctor decided not to give me antibiotics or anything, especially since there’s no sign of infection.

I went back to work this afternoon; had been planning to work the whole day, but the doctor’s office rescheduled my appointment to several hours later than it was originally and it’s closer to home than work, so I did a half-day instead. The doctor also cleared me to start exercising again, so I guess I’ll go back to the gym tomorrow. I’d love to take a bike ride since this heat wave is supposed to break, but I don’t think I can wear a helmet just yet; that side of my head is still pretty tender.

I’m supposed to make my activation appointment for three weeks from now; currently I’m playing phone tag with the office trying to schedule it. Hopefully I’ll get them tomorrow.

Not a huge amount to report now really. Recovery continues to go well. After that first awful night, I’ve been sleeping fine. No real pain from the incision, but in the last couple days I have started feeling an occasional twinge of pain in the ear itself — like in the ear canal, not the incision site. I plan to ask the doctor about that tomorrow, but so far it’s not been bad or long-lasting enough to be much of a big deal. I’ve continued to take Tylenol, but haven’t felt the need to take any more of the tramadol. The little bit of hearing I had left in my implanted ear seems to be completely gone, but there was so little there that I’m not really noticing it much or bothered by it. The top of my ear is numb to the touch, but people on the FB CI group assure me that that’s normal; the feeling might or might not return eventually.

The doctor said I should wait 3 days after surgery to wash my hair; I decided that I’d wash it when peroxide poured over the incision no longed fizzed, which should indicate that it was closed and healing. That was yesterday, and oh, such bliss to finally have clean hair again! It had been getting really, really gross. The fact that it’s mid-summer and we’re in a heat wave didn’t help, even if I have been staying in the air-conditioned house most of the time.

I’ve gone out a few times on errands with no problems. My post-op check with the doctor is tomorrow morning, and I expect to go to work afterward unless the doctor says I shouldn’t. Everything is healing well as far as I can tell, and I have a sedentary job, so I don’t expect I’ll need more time off. I do need to find out when I can exercise again; looks like we might get some decent weather this week so I’m wondering if I might be able to go biking. (Hmm. I probably won’t be able to wear a helmet yet even if I am allowed to exercise, because my head is still very tender, so maybe not.)

3 days since the surgery and I’m happy to report that I slept both of the last two nights with no problems. I haven’t taken any more of the tramadol — I’m not in any real pain anyway, so it’s not necessary. Now my biggest complaint is not being able to wash my hair, but I should be able to do that tomorrow. (Probably could today, but I’m trying to be good and follow the doctor’s instructions exactly.)

I have not experienced any of the other problems I’ve heard of people having after surgery — everything tastes normal, and there’s no jaw pain or vertigo or balance problems. The side of my head with the implant is tender to the touch, especially after my husband does the daily cleaning of the incision site, but otherwise isn’t bothering me.

Still haven’t left the house since I got home, but that’s as much because it’s horribly hot outside and I don’t want to go anywhere as anything else. I’ll probably go out tomorrow. Planning to return to work Monday afternoon, after my post-op check, unless the doctor tells me I shouldn’t.

Happy to report that I slept all night. However, when I woke up I found that my incision had bled a bit, possibly because Ray had cleaned it with peroxide and put some Aquaphor on it (per doctor’s instructions) before bed. This morning I rinsed the blood off in the shower and then Ray cleaned it again; this time he covered it with gauze and put a pressure wrap around my head to keep it in place. It is throbbing a little after all that, but not too bad. Ray thinks I should put the ear cup back on, but I really, really hate that thing and would prefer to avoid it if at all possible. So far the gauze is staying on, so I’ll leave it for now.

Edited to add: The doctor’s office called this morning and they don’t think the tramadol is what caused my sleeplessness the other night, but rather the steroids they gave me during surgery. However, since I’m not really in any pain, I still don’t think I’ll take it again. I don’t think my pounding heart was caused by the steroids, since that didn’t start until after I took the tramadol.

Ugh, had a really rough first night post-surgery. I wasn’t in much pain yesterday, but I decided to take one of the pain pills the doctor prescribed (tramadol/acetominophen combination) to help make sure I slept. I’d never taken tramadol before, and unfortunately it had the opposite effect on me: it made my heart pound and kept me awake. Add to that the fact that I couldn’t find a comfortable sleeping position with the ear cup on, and my normal post-nasal drip was pretty bad, and I wasn’t able to take Benadryl because I looked it up and it seems to have an interaction with tramadol, and…yeah, miserable night. The one good thing was I didn’t have any pain, but some sleep would have been nice! At least I get to take off the ear cup today, but obviously I still won’t be able to sleep on that side for a while.

I will be napping and doing not much of anything today, I expect. Glad I took the rest of the week off work.

The day of my surgery didn’t seem to start out well. The doctor’s office had told me to report to the hospital at 6:30am for an 8:30 surgery time, but the check-in person said my surgery wasn’t until 10am. We weren’t all that pleased; could certainly have done without having to get up at 5:30. But then they did end up getting me in by 8:30 so it worked out fine.

So once they took me back into the prep area, they gave me the usual gown and socks, set an IV, asked a bunch of health questions, took my vital signs, then we waited until the doctor was done with another surgery (Ray was with me). The doctor, an assistant, and the anesthesiologist came to talk to me, discussed the risks, had me sign the waivers, and then Ray was told to go back to the waiting room and they brought me to the OR. They told me when they were starting the anesthetic (though I knew it anyway — it always stings a little when it’s first going in), and then I woke up in Recovery. It was about 1pm by then.

They gave me a cup of water to drink and brought Ray back in, and after a while they took out the IV and gave Ray my painkiller prescription to fill at the hospital pharmacy. They wheeled me to a different recovery area with recliner chairs and I sat there for a while more. They gave us the post-op instructions and asked if we had questions. Once the prescription was ready, Ray went to get the car and they wheeled me to the door and we came home.

I have a big cup around my left ear (they refer to it as a “Princess Leia” cup) with a bandage around my head holding it on; I can take it off tomorrow. I do have a little bit of pain, but it’s mostly just like the pain I sometimes get in the middle of the night when I’ve been sleeping on one side too long and my ear gets squished. I took some Tylenol rather than the pain meds; I’ll save the prescription stuff for when I’m trying to sleep later. Had some soup when I got home; no problems with jaw pain or taste (these are some of the problems people sometimes experience after CI surgery). All my facial nerves seem to be just fine (another possible risk is nerve damage). I’m tired, but aside from the aforementioned mild pain, I feel reasonably normal. My hair is probably going to drive me nuts, though, since I can’t really tie it it back and keep it out of my face. Luckily I won’t be moving around much.

Ray took the left arm off my glasses so it won’t interfere with the bandage, and I added a neck cord that I normally use to wear my glasses on roller coasters to secure them. However, I have a lifelong habit of sort of scrunching my nose and eyebrow muscles to push my glasses up on my face, and that does hurt a bit, so I need to break myself of that, at least temporarily!

The surgeon did tell Ray that when they tested the electrodes in the implant, one of them didn’t respond; the doctor didn’t know whether that’s an implantation problem or a problem with the implant itself, but he doesn’t think it will affect my overall outcome since there are 16 electrodes. I hope not; easy or not, I’d rather not have to do this again anytime soon!

Taking the rest of the week off work, so I’ll take it easy. But so far, no real problems.

Well, it’s finally almost here. I’ve been looking forward to this for a couple months and now the jitters and second-guessing my decision are finally starting to set in.

I can do this.

(Also, I just realized that I logged in as Ray for the last couple of posts. Oops. It was still me.)

Today was the pre-op phone interview with the nurse. (Good thing I have one working ear and can still use the phone without problems, though I can’t switch ears. It seems a little odd to require that someone who is deaf have a phone conversation before a CI. Several people on CI-related FB groups have complained about this recently.)

Anyway, it was basically a lot of questions about medications I currently take, past surgeries, allergies, problems with anesthesia, and other health issues. She told me which meds I’m allowed to take the day of the surgery and gave me other related instructions, including preparation (the usual stuff about when to stop eating and drinking, that kind of thing), where to go on the day of the surgery, etc.

They still haven’t told me what time the surgery will be yet; I’m hoping in the morning so I won’t have to starve most of the day, but I’ll live even if I do.

Had my pre-op physical yesterday: vital signs, EKG, examination of mouth and ears, listening to heart and lungs, bloodwork. No problems or surprises; I’m cleared for surgery according to the exam notes. Also had the meningitis vaccine, another pre-op requirement.

Only thing left before the surgery is a phone interview with a nurse at the hospital where it’s being done; that’s this coming Monday.