I saw my surgeon last month. He agreed I was a candidate for a second cochlear implant, this time in my right ear. I am scheduled for cochlear implantation surgery on the 29th of this month.
Since I was implanted in my left ear a year and three months ago, I have noticed I have become more sensitive to changes in the barometric changes of wind pressure. It affects balance on my right side and I don't feel as steady. When this happens, I adapt. I don't wear high heels, and I don't put myself in precarious situations which demand I concentrate on my balance. Walking on a balance beam is definitely not an option - I was horrible in gymnastics because of balance issues, so I am definitely NOT a gymnast. I am not using my elliptical machine. What I am doing, in preparation for surgery, is using the stairs at work and not the elevator. I have a railing to hold on to.
Those marble stairs in my office building are absolutely unforgiving. It is, however, a great cardiovascular workout. So even though I leave for work in the dark, and come home in the dark, I still must exercise. I still use the stairs.
It's funny. I wore a single body aid with a cord and a button ear mold in my left ear for 22 years. The summer I was to start my junior year in college, I needed new hearing aids. My audiologist told my parents that there were behind the ear hearing aids available for my hearing loss. She also suggested that I try wearing a behind the ear hearing aid in my right ear. I had never done that. Well, my parents purchased two behind the ear hearing aids and surprisingly, I adapted very quickly to a hearing aid in my right ear. From that point on, I hated it when one of my hearing aids needed repair and there was no loaner available. I would miss hearing in both ears and complain about what I refer to as "single-sided deafness."
I wore behind the ear hearing aids until November 2010, when I was activated in my left ear post-cochlear implantation. My audiologist told me to put away my hearing aids, she wanted me to learn to hear with only the cochlear implant sound processor for six months. That was one of the hardest things I have ever done, put away the hearing aids. Well, my hearing aids, being eight years old, died not long after that. I had three days of listening with the hearing aid after six months, and when I heard again with the hearing aid and the cochlear implant sound processor, it felt pretty unbalanced. I told my CI audiologist that I had a little taste of what hearing with two cochlear implants could be like. I told her I wanted a second cochlear implant as soon as possible.
As my hearing aids were eight years old, I didn't see much point in investing in another hearing aid when I had tested within the limits of the audiometer and got little benefit from a hearing aid. I have been functioning with just one cochlear implant.
In November, 2011, my CI audiologist evaluated me for a second CI implant and I met all the candidacy requirements and scheduled an appointment with my surgeon. The process was a lot quicker this time. I just needed a current audiogram for my right ear. That was done. As I had a CAT scan done in August 2010 for both ears, I didn't need that again. I also received a pneumonovax vaccine in August 2010. That vaccine is good for ten years.
My younger sister will once again be with me during surgery. We are spending the night at a local hotel the night before surgery, as I live two hours away and we didn't want to be stuck in traffic on the interstate the morning of surgery. The surgery will be done on an outpatient basis and we will return to the hotel after surgery and spend the night at the hotel again. Then in the morning post-surgery, my younger sister will drive me home and then she will drive herself home.
As I have learned to hear with a cochlear implant and lived with it for a year and three months, I am impatient to hear more. I am hungry for more sound. My new cochlear implant veteran friends who wear two cochlear implants tell me hearing with two "bionic" ears is just awesome.
I am really curious to find out if my brain has adapted to the cochlear implant. Will voices again sound like people talking underwater after activation day when I have my right ear activated? Or will my brain recognize sounds and voices right away?
I am a lot more excited this time around. I definitely want what I call "surround sound!"
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