Recovering...

Franz K

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I just had my CI surgery yesterday morning at 7:30 AM, performed at Hopkins. It was an intense experience, to say the least. All along, I had been planning on implanting my better hearing ear, the left ear, because my doctor had cited risks to my vestibular system (I have good balance function in my right ear, poor function in the left ear). On Saturday night my doctor emailed me with a revised risk assessment on my vestibular system (5-7% risk of significant to severe damage, as opposed to 10-20%), and after 36 hours of soul-searching, I decided to get my right ear implanted with the Advanced Bionics device. I'm still able to tune my guitar and talk on the phone with my left ear, and I didn't want to give that up.
Almost 36 hours after surgery, the pain has diminished considerably, though Percocet is certainly helping. I had a lot of pain yesterday, which is to be expected. No vomiting, nausea, or metallic taste, which I'm happy about. Strangely enough, it's my left ear that's ringing like crazy, not my right... sympathy pains? I've never heard anything useful out of my right ear before... and I'm very excited about it. Instead of ringing, I've been getting a lot of what I'd call vibrotactile pulsing-- not really sound but more the feeling of sound.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed about vestibular issues. I've been quite dizzy since yesterday, though my doc tells me this is normal, and may get worse before it gets better. How many of you experienced dizziness after your surgery? If I make it to the one-month mark without a permanent drop in vestibular function, I should be all right.
Overall, I'm pretty optimistic. I saw a terrible movie last night, "Babel," but it's worth watching just because a significant part of it is about Japanese Deaf characters, and it's interesting to see the difference between Japanese Sign and ASL.
I'm keeping a blog, and I will be posting pictures to it soon. When I do that, I'll attach a link so those interested can check it out. I'm getting activated on May 21st.
 
Franz,

Glad the surgery went well!!! Hope you have a speedy recovery. Keep us posted on your Activation.

Franz, I am going to be choosing what implant I want later this month, what were the reasons you chose the AB device? I know what you mean about Babel, that scene in the Disco was intense. I felt sorry for the people sitting next to me because the sound caused my HAs to feedback.

I could relate to that scene because it showed what the silence a deaf person experiences is like. I am just getting used to the fact that when I turn my HAs off there is not much sound.
 
I'm glad to hear it went well and I hope your dizziness goes away soon. You'll have to tell us all about your hook up on May 21. I get hooked up tommorrow! :hyper:
 
Yayyyyy!!! I can't wait to hear about your activation stories!!! (You too, deafskeptic!!!)
 
Glad the surgery went well, Franz!

DeafSkeptic, I can't wait to hear your hook-up story!!!
 
Glad your surgery went well Franz! :) Yes, I did experience dizziness right up until activation (3 weeks post surgery). I was fine after that. It didn't stop me from walking around but I just had to make sure that when crossing the road I didn't turn my head too fast.
 
WONDERFUL! Glad everything went well. Hope the dizziness goes away quickly. I'm happy for you. Hugs, Suzi
 
Thanks for your support

Hi all, I'm starting to feel better already, though still quite dizzy (even that's improving). That's just going to take time. I've also posted pics on my blog:
unstruck-sound.blogspot.com

I've already gotten through the whole first season of "The Wire" in three days (I live in Baltimore). Not much good for anything else right now. Feeling pretty optimistic about everything. My activation date is only 11 days away, which seems really soon, considering how tender my ear is.

Someone asked why I chose AB. I just feel that the AB sound-processing strategies for speech and music will do better for me. It was never a very difficult decision. I like the way the Harmony looks (it's even sexy), I like the rechargeable batteries, and I like the independent power sources for each electrode. I suspect that they're already working on the technology to take this past 120 spectral bands. If you check out the following link, they're talking about expanding from monopolar/bipolar coupling to multipolar coupling.
http://www.bionicear.com/Consumer/Living/Products/HiRes_90k_Implant/index.cfm?langid=1
Based on what I've heard about Cochlear, Nucleus works really well for people too. Hopefully AB will work well for me. The jury is still out.
 
Hi all, I'm starting to feel better already, though still quite dizzy (even that's improving). That's just going to take time. I've also posted pics on my blog:
The Inner Ear

I've already gotten through the whole first season of "The Wire" in three days (I live in Baltimore). Not much good for anything else right now. Feeling pretty optimistic about everything. My activation date is only 11 days away, which seems really soon, considering how tender my ear is.

Someone asked why I chose AB. I just feel that the AB sound-processing strategies for speech and music will do better for me. It was never a very difficult decision. I like the way the Harmony looks (it's even sexy), I like the rechargeable batteries, and I like the independent power sources for each electrode. I suspect that they're already working on the technology to take this past 120 spectral bands. If you check out the following link, they're talking about expanding from monopolar/bipolar coupling to multipolar coupling.
BionicEar.com - Harmony Cochlear Implant by Advanced Bionics
Based on what I've heard about Cochlear, Nucleus works really well for people too. Hopefully AB will work well for me. The jury is still out.

just making your blog link clickable :)
 
Cool! I am looking forward to reading more about your CI journey as you get switched on and beyond. It sounds like you really love your music.
 
I've always loved listening to music and I hope that the CI will help you hear music. Right now the music I hear sounds a bit statiky. :( Hopefully, that'll improve.
 
Deafskeptic, we know the golden rule with the CIs is to give it time. I'm telling myself this already, though I don't know how well I'll do with this in practice. This is why I decided to take the risk and do my right ear, so I can still enjoy music longer. I'm curious how it ends up ultimately working with the Med-El, since I've heard they've got some pretty interesting approaches to sound processing.
 
I've always loved listening to music and I hope that the CI will help you hear music. Right now the music I hear sounds a bit statiky. :( Hopefully, that'll improve.

deafskeptic:

It will improve...with time! I love the way music sounds, it's so beautiful!! :)
 
Sending you all the positive thoughs and vibes that I can muster. Music is such an important part of my life now, since getting my CI. I use my mp3 player daily and am finding new music all the time. I sure hope you are able to enjoy it just as much!!!!
 
Franz you have a very interesting site and thanks for sharing pic's with us. I'm glad you did well with your surgery. If I may ask why did you have some vestibular problems that caused the Dr. to switch sides. Just curious as I'm in the begining faze of CI assement and I have Menieres disease in both ears. I've had it 23 yrs. and its burning out they say so I dont want to re-activate it so I'm just curious on your statis.Cudos on your choice of CI she is a cutie compared to some.
 
Franz you have a very interesting site and thanks for sharing pic's with us. I'm glad you did well with your surgery. If I may ask why did you have some vestibular problems that caused the Dr. to switch sides. Just curious as I'm in the begining faze of CI assement and I have Menieres disease in both ears. I've had it 23 yrs. and its burning out they say so I dont want to re-activate it so I'm just curious on your statis.

You might want to ask for a balance test while you are being evaluated. My surgeon does it as standard on everyone whereas others do it just for high risk clients, where there is a concern that there could be a balance issue after implantation. I'm going for another balance test tomorrow in the process of going bilateral.
 
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