As I write this, I am at home recovering from yesterday's cochlear implant surgery. When I think about my reasons for deciding to get a cochlear implant, one major reason is a A Spoonful of Sugar.
Long ago, when I was a child, one of my biggest pleasures was to lie on the floor, with the words to songs in front of me. Listening carefully with the headphones, I could follow the songs. If I close my eyes, I swear I can still hear Julie Andrews singing "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down..." Or Dick Van Dyke singing "Chim, chim cheree...chim chim cheroo." Both songs were from the movie Mary Poppins.
My hope is that an implant will allow me to hear voices. I want to be able to hear voices so that combined with lipreading, my ability to communicate will improve. I have sign language interpreters at work, but still miss so much even with interpreters. If the implant works, hopefully it will help to cut down on how much I miss.
If I am able to hear with an implant, and if I can hear music, one of the first things I am going to do is get a music-playing device and listen to A Spoonful of Sugar, with the words in front of me so I can follow along.
As for after the surgery, I am doing fine. Some minor vertigo, balance is a bit off, but I'm pretty able to function independently. Some minor pain, and I don't really need the pain medicine anymore. In fact I did not really need the pain medicine at all, but I used it to make myself more comfortable. No nausea..I was really lucky about that. Going without food a long time (no eating after midnight, and surgery was at 12:30 pm) helped in avoiding the nausea. This vertigo is annoying, but I have experienced far worse vertigo before when I had an ear infection.
I probably can go back to work on Monday or Tuesday but I am thinking of staying out til Thursday to give myself more recovery time and a bit of a vacation...after all, I just had surgery and don't I deserve a little reward? :)
Saturday, February 09, 2008
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16 comments:
congrats on a successful sugery; so glad it went well and you have no negative side effects
so glad your surgery went well; and it's amazing you are feeling so good so quickly.
Human
You will have the best of both worlds and have a full life... Do tell us how things go.
Congratulations! Best to you and your recovery. I hope you will blog more about it, too.
Glad the surgery went smoothly and hope that the recovery will be good.
I will never understand music.. it is just static to me... but a lot of people have expressed to me how much they miss music once they lost their hearing.
I hope you can recognize words again. Chances are excellent since you already had speech comprehension in the past.
Rest up girl, and stay home that extra day!
And just maybe, I'll be able to introduce you to some John Denver music! :)
Congrats, I do not blame you one bit. If I didn't have to travel so far back and forth for the mapping, etc. I would consider it myself. It doesn't make any sense to me to have the operation if I am just going to get killed in a traffic jam!
I understand completely how you feel, and I wish you good luck and a speedy rehab!
Lantana
Jamie,
You have balls. I am so looking forward to following you in this new chapter. As you know there are many yahoo support groups available to answer your questions...CIHEAR is an adult group that I am sure you are familiar with...Abbie has provided her mapping experience with captions, http://contradica.blogspot.com/2008/01/captioned-cochlear-implant-activation.html I suggest you watch it to note the very specific questions her audiologist asks her to maximize the mapping experience - not all audiologists are created equally, so make sure you are informed about the mapping procedure. One day at a time, take care of yourself. Jodi
Congratulations to you and best wishes on your journey for the real work begins after activation.
DT
Get lots of sleep and heal well! I'll never forget that smile on my daughter's face when she was first activated and heard our voices -- strange and startling as that sound must have been: hope you have the same wonderful sense of discovery.
I look forward to reading about the ups and downs and send lots of wishes for only the ups.
I tried to post yesterday and it did not appear so I will try again.
Congrats on surgery. The next few days I hope you get a lot of rest. The third day is the worst. I had my surgery in July 2007.
One of my reasons was music as well. It has been the greatest sound. I walk around with my ipod everywhere I go. My song was "Oh Child." I played it over and over in my head for so many years. I was able to listen to music around a three weeks after surgery, it took a lot of work to get it to sound comfortable. I hope you find the love of music again.
Valerie
I'm glad to see that you came through the surgery with flying colors! Day three through five was my WORST of all the days!
Keep us updated!
Jamie, Glad to hear you're doing well. My two CI surgeries were very different from one another in terms of after effects, but it took me a solid week to feel well enough to get back on schedule after both. Do take it easy for a few days. Where did you have it done? Please let me know if I can answer any questions for you or help you in anyway.
The best thing I did after my first was to get to a speech pathologist who worked on auditory therapy with me weekly. She also was able to offer good input when it came to my mappings as she tested me on words and helped me identify which letter sounds I wasn't hearing well. I took that info back to the audie when we fine-tuned our maps.
Looking forward to reading more about your experience in the coming months.
congrats on a safe and successful surgery. wasn't so bad, was it? i recovered within a few days. betcha you can't wait til activation day and see what it's all about!!
"A Spoonful of Sugar" will probably not sound the same right away but give it a few more months and more mappings and it might resemble what you heard before as a child.
Congrats on your recent surgery.
Keep us posted how it goes :)
gwlj
Hey Girl! So you finally took the leap... congratulations! Nothing to lose, and more than you can possibly imagine to gain! I felt like a weeble wobble for two weeks too, then it went away. I'm preparing for my 2nd implant now... the first one gives me 85 percent.. I want the rest now! Hugs Janet J.
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