One Week Post Op

Things were going relatively well, I took my steri strips off my incision, emailed a picture to Dr. Seidman (this would be my post op check up so I wouldn't have to drive back down for 3 hours to see him for five minutes), and was able to wash my hair! I stood in the shower til the water ran cold....nothing like smelling vegetable oil everytime you move your head for a week.

During this first week after the implant, I had to really adjust to being even more HoH. Ironic, the situation was to me. Fortunately, I was able to implant my right ear vs my left (they had virtually the same amount of hearing loss but for some reason my left ear is my "dominant ear". I understand phone conversations better with it vs my right ear.). I talked to Dr. Seidman on the phone, he made sure I was doing well and went over the surgical details with me. I still can't get over how nice of a person he is! My Envoy rep, Julie, also stayed in contact, making sure everything was going okay.
Aside from being tired, I felt pretty good. My neck pain got much better after about two days and the ear pain was definately manageable with Tylenol with Codeine on occasion.
I was just a little weirded out by some clicking and popping I was hearing in my implanted ear, but I was assured that it was normal, and it was mostly due to swelling and inflammation of the inner ear. Watching TV was out of the question now. Either I had to have the volume at 75 or higher (out of 1-100 setting) and blast my poor husband and dogs out of the room (and I still couldn't really appreciate what was being said) or use caption, which distracted my hubby terribly. I just opted to not watch TV. The town library was going to become intimately acquainted with me! Sleep was ok, just had to be careful not to roll onto my right side. There was a problem with sleeping on my left side though. My right ear was up to the room which meant I couldn't hear anything! Not the alarm clock, not the phone, not the dogs whining to let me know if they needed out. So, Mom, your fears would be justly founded if I stayed in a hotel by myself now! Fortunately, I didn't have to get up at any specific time as I wasn't back to work yet.

I had been told by another Esteem recipient that one of her first thoughts after surgery and she couldn't hear anything out of her implanted ear was "What did I just do?!" I can appreciate that sentiment, but it actually didn't affect me as badly as I thought it would. But, when one ear is suddenly out of commission, it does make you realize just how much you rely on both ears to hear, regardless of how well you hear (or don't hear)! "What?" and "huh?" became my answer to everything. If I drove and had a passenger, forget conversation. I also wanted to avoid social gatherings since sound was limited even more now. But I knew in just about 2 months I'd be on the road to better hearing so this was just a small price to pay.