Three Weeks after Surgery

Three weeks ago I had surgery to implant a cochlear device in my head.  It was an Advanced Bionics HiRes 90K implant with a Helix electrode array.  If everything goes ok I will have that little computer in my head forever.  It has a 10 year warranty.  After doing a fair amount of research I am convinced this is the best CI available today.  Although it has only 16 physical electrodes, they can be made to fire 128 virtual electrodes.

In one week I will be activated.  That is when the real work of rehabilitation of my brain will begin.  For many years my brain has been unable to “hear” frequencies at 1500 Hz and above, so I need to train my brain recognize speech with high frequency sounds; like sh, s, ch and so forth.  I have been collecting rehab resources for several weeks now, so I will be ready to dive in when I get my processor and accompanying software.

Prior to my surgery I read what others experienced after surgery, so I was ready for anything.  Among the risks I was aware of were:

. Paralyzed facial nerve

. Loss of taste for a few days

. Numb tongue

. Dizziness or vertigo

. Ringing or freight train noise

. Pain in my ear or neck

. Chest pain just after surgery

. CSF leak just after surgery (escape of the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord)

. Trigeminal neuralgia (severe facial pain)

. Nausea from anesthesia

Among others.  None of these things happened to me.  What I did experience was:

. I felt woozy a few days after surgery due to the anesthesia.  I thought this would wear off quicker.  Expectations too high.

. Implanted ear felt plugged up.  The surgeon put some material in my ear to protect my eardrum due to swelling of my ear.  I still have that plugged up sensation and look forward to having it removed.  Not really a big deal though.

. Immediately after surgery my ear felt like it was folded down and kept that way with a head band aid.  It really wasn’t; I even had my surgeon check it.  It felt that way as a result of the incision behind my ear.  That started to go away once my head band aid was removed the morning after my surgery.

. Rather than pain, I felt a dull throb for a few days.  It did interfere with my sleep a couple of nights so I took a pain pill or two.  No pain pills were necessary during the day.  I guess I took a total of 3 pain pills.

. Four days after surgery I noticed a bit of blood on my pillow case.  We called the doctor’s office and he requested I come in for a visit.  A nurse applied a suture strip on my incision and sent me home.  I experienced no bleeding after that.

Basically that’s it.  I consider myself lucky, but the surgeon’s skill was the real reason nothing went wrong.  I look forward to getting my hearing back in my left ear.  It’s frustrating hearing with only one ear.