Here I am in the third year of college. I had just found out the company that makes my product was back on the market. I had to make a decision if I was ready to have another surgery or not. I took some time to think about it because I know that it's a hard decision for me to make. I didn't know if I wanted to go through surgery again. It made me nervous about the pain that I would have to suffer after. But in the end, I knew it would be worth it for me to go through surgery. It was for me to understand my family and future co-workers, bosses, etc. I wanted to be able to communicate. I don't like to rely on pen and paper a lot. It's not my style. Some people prefer pen and paper. I can't tolerate it because I'm not patient, I admit that.
We went through insurance, got them to approve of the surgery. Then we had to meet with the surgeon to see if he approved of the fact that I needed surgery to fix the problem. He said "yes, go ahead and have the surgery". The cochlear implant was labeled as "faulty". It had to be because of how little it was functioning. Next step was figuring out the best date to have the surgery. This was back in the fall semester. When we tried to schedule it for during spring break, they said that we had to wait until after January 1st. I guess because it was a new year and they needed to start a new calendar after that. We scheduled the surgery after my winter break was over. It was scheduled for April 3rd.
The next step was to figure out accommodations. We needed to figure out who needed to drive me there and back, where to sleep, and who would take care of me during the week. That wasn't too hard to figure out - my dad drove me to the clinic for the pre-op appointment and we stayed overnight at the guest center that was located on location of the hospital. My mom was to take care of me for the rest of the week.
The day of the pre-op appointment, my dad and I had shown up early. We had a lot of time to kill so we ate at Burger King.
We walked to the hospital from Burger King, figured out where the guest center was, and walked back to the clinic. We sat around for quite some time. It was pretty boring. We finally went in to see the surgeon, who took care of my first two surgeries, to see if I was ready for surgery the following morning. He pulled out earwax (ew) but said I was ready for surgery. He mentioned I had to show up to the hospital at 6 a.m. (early!) and the surgery was set for 7 a.m.
We walked back to the hospital to check in the housing area where we were going to spend the night. We struggled with the keys because we had no idea there was a small piece of paper with directions on how to open the door. There were three keys - one opened the front door, one allowed us to use the elevator, and one to the room. That was something we hadn't experienced. The room was an old hospital room so it was roomy and had enough space for both my dad and me to sleep. He slept on the couch because he figured it'd be better that I sleep in the bed - more sleep, the better. After checking in, we went to Santa Monica to see my brother and his girlfriend. We stopped at the pier.
After my dad and I visited the pier, we went to pick up my brother from his work. I loved his work because the environment was very chill and nice to be in. We went to a Mexican restaurant where I definitely practiced talking with them without my cochlear implant on. The restaurant was so loud, there was no point for met to have it on because I definitely could not hear the three of them. It was okay though because the food was delicious and they helped me with conversations. :-)
Dad and I went back to the hospital. Slept. Got up at 5:45, walked over to the check-in area. Got asked questions about my background. Had to change into the hospital gown and slipper socks - it was really cold! The nurse never showed up where I was waiting so when I showed up to the OR for surgery, the surgeon was mad that I didn't have my IV in yet and apparently, we were late. But the surgery went on, they gave me anesthesia, I knocked out pretty quick. It was around 2 hours. Dad told me the surgeon reported that all went well. Here is a link with all the information that involves the surgery - please don't try to read this if you get queasy or nervous with the thought of opening the skin behind the ear - there are some pictures on this website which can be graphic. Please do not look if you get sick at the sight of blood or the sight of something being cut open - http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/857242-overview
Once I got out, I dozed in and out all day. I was barely awake, and when I was, I could barely talk. My throat was dry from the anesthesia. I had a bandage on my left side of my head to prevent me from hitting it while it was still tender. Dad drove me back to my mom's house and I was definitely more awake once I got there.
So that's what happened with my surgery. Nothing to worry about! The next post will be about recovery - pretty short.
No comments:
Post a Comment