Ladies and gentlemen;
Intermission is nearly over, please wander back to your seats. Hopefully the restroom lines were not too long.
House lights will dim shortly and we will be ready to raise the curtain on Act II of our play (in several acts).
Fortunately, our protagonist who slept through most of the first Act, will be fully awake and anticipatory as Act II begins. Intermission has been an interesting time for him. Incision site has healed very well. There have been a few other , albeit, minor affects and a few questions about them.
There has been intermittent dizziness. No nausea. But unsettling.
There has been “popping” in the ear like going up or down in elevation. Mild off and on headaches. However, have not had to use anything stronger than Tylenol and Ibuprofen any time post op !!
So far, there doesn’t seem to be any effect good or bad regarding my Tinnitus. (ringing in ear). About the same.
KUMC is great about providing all medical records and in reading the results of CT scans done during the surgery a couple of thing stood out. For instance, the radiologist noted that there was fluid and/or debris in the inner operative ear. Debris..? How does one get debris in the inner ear ..and what KIND of debris? What if anything does that mean for my CI? There will be questions.
He also noted that my upper right sinus cavity is pretty shot and chronically inflamed. [Every CT or MRI I have had leading up to this has noted the inflammation in that sinus.] Nobody but the radiologists have mentioned it. More questions.
While you are getting settled, let me mention one other really interesting post op factoid. I presumed that a portion of my scalp would be shaved to allow Dr Staecker to place the permanent components in my skull prior to threading the electrodes into the cochlea. Well lo and behold the only incision I have is right behind by right ear. Runs the full length of the ear. Apparently what happened is that he laid the whole ear aside and implanted the hardware up under the skin and then laid the ear back and reattached it with sutures and super glue. Fascinating. More Questions. AND as was noted in my earlier post, I am getting a video of the surgical procedure so I’ll actually see exactly what he did.
Ok, ready for Act II. Leave tomorrow for Kansas City and “turn on” is scheduled for Thurs – Halloween.
He’s Alive !
Debris in the inner ear. That is a “question”.
Praying for you and the team involved in the turn on and training in Act 2.
A side note related to sinus issues. I used to have sinus infections 2 to 3 times a year. I finally went to a local ENT who had horrible bedside manners and rubbed many of his colleagues the wrong way … but he did an MRI and CAT and said that given the malformed entrance to my sinus cavity I had probably had a sinus infection most of my life and the antibiotic treatments had done nothing but make the bugs more resistant to the antibiotics. He did a delicate surgical procedure over 10 years ago to open up the passage and I have had 1 sinus infection since then. The ENT that did the surgery has moved out of Boise so when I had that “first sinus infection in years” another ENT had me start using Neil Med sinus rinse on a daily basis to rinse out junk and help keep tissue inflammation and swelling at bay and have not had another sinus infection now for about 5 years.