It turned out that I wouldn't be the first patient implanted by Dr. Seidman, I'd be the second. Somehow there was a miscommunication about when I'd be put on the surgical schedule but Envoy and Dr. Seidman's office were great about getting me squeezed into the schedule right away. I ended up with a date just 6 days after my original date of Aug. 18th. I prayed for the lucky person who got to be number one, and hoped that Dr. Seidman would work out any kinks he had on this one! Among everything that I had to do to get ready for the surgery was get the money I owed up front to Envoy, schedule a CT scan of my head (pre op planning of middle ear structure/space) and send it to Henry Ford and Envoy, get down to Henry Ford for a pre op meeting with Dr. Seidman, and also figure out what the heck I was going to do about a return to work date (turns out that my ortho surgeon wasn't ready to release me without restrictions any time soon anyway, and that really helped with the ear surgery recovery planning). In the span of 18 days I was able to get all this done before surgery. In the meantime, I was placed with a new rep, Julie. She was just as wonderful as Doug.
On the Wednesday before surgery I had my CT scan done. This had to be overnighted to Henry Ford and Envoy. On Friday I had to drive down to West Bloomfield to meet with Dr. Seidman in his office at the hospital. First impression of this guy....he's ah-mazing! He's so friendly and knows his stuff. He told me about the Esteem implant he just did the day before and how well it went and feels I will be very happy with it. His surgical time was about 5 hours and he expected mine to be about that long too. He went over things for surgery, such as I'd have a catheter in my bladder since it is a long procedure but it would be removed in recovery, probably before I was aware. He'd have to shave my hair behind my ear to put in the device. He showed me how much and let me tell ya, it's way too much in my opinion (which he said all his female patients tell him that for his mastoid surgeries, which are similar in incisional placements) but to him it's probably not enough, he's a stickler for avoiding infection. He showed me a diagram of the Esteem device in a person's head and how it was attached to the ossicles (ear bones) and how sound was conducted once turned on. He explained that there would be a possibility of ear and scalp numbness of the operative side and maybe a taste disturbance, but it should only last 6 months. He also explained the chance for facial paralysis, which was rare. He answered all my questions and gave me as much time as I needed. What the nicest thing about this was that a colleague of his gave up his usual Wednesday slot for me so Dr. Seidman could get my surgery done sooner vs later so I could return to work as close to activation time as possible. Once the surgery is done, you have to wait approximately 8 weeks before the device can be activated, which means you hear absolutely nothing out of the implanted ear until it's turned on. My mother in law and I got up to leave and one of the office staff came in to talk to me for a minute after Dr. Seidman left. She told me that he was one of the best and that if she or her husband or child needed surgery by an ENT, Dr. Seidman was the guy to go to. I felt a lot better after meeting with Dr. Seidman, and having her say that helped even more.
At this point, just 5 days left til surgery.
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