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.
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.
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.
Hopefully, that'll improve.