A Recap of my CI Surgery and Recovery

My surgery was on 16 March 2009 at 10:45am at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. It was an outpatient procedure. The surgery itself took about 2-3 hours, but I was at the hospital most of the day. I had to arrive 2 hours early and was monitored about 3 hours after surgery to make sure there were no serious complications. Unfortunately, the pain meds made me very queasy and we stayed at the hospital a little longer than expected post surgery.

During the surgery itself, the Dr made an incision about the length of my ear behind my left ear and removed almost no hair at all. In fact, he did an AMAZING job (see pics below)! Next - and sorry if this sounds gory! - he had to "drill" a well in my skull so that the implant sits as flush to the surface as my skull as possible. He also made a small hole in my skull so that he could thread the electrode into my ear canal and into my cochlear. After the implant was in place, they ran a few diagnostic tests to make sure it worked, he stitched me up and then I was off to heal.

I was sent home with a egg-shaped, jock-strap looking device attached to my head. After 2 days, I was allowed to remove it and take a shower! Here are a few pics from surgery day:



Doctor Art: It's this ear! (Actually it is a requirement that Drs. initial ear prior to surgery).








Egg-shaped, Jock-Strap Device with Smiley Faces. And me hiding because I looked awful!









Close up of the incision just two days post surgery -I was so happy with the results! Overall not too bad considering I had my head drilled into!



















Although the surgery was great, my recovery took a lot longer than anticipated. I actually had very little pain (didn't take a single Rx pain pill), but I had a lot of trouble clearing the anesthesia from my system. So I was extremely fatigued and had no energy or appetite, and basically bedridden for about 10 days. Then about the same day I thought it was turning around, I caught some sort of virus bug and had a fever, headache, cough and sore throat for another full week! Originally I expected to need only about a week to feel well enough to return to work. In reality, it ended up being 3 weeks! I finally returned to work on April 6th.

The worst part about post- surgery time was the lost of the remaining hearing I had in my left ear. The hearing loss in my right ear also progressed over the few weeks. After surgery, I lost my ability to lip read and couldn't hear almost any noise what so ever. Effectively I became completely trapped in my head for the very first time! Before surgery I could hear just enough to help out a lot with lip reading and could hear some sounds. After the only thing I could hear was myself talking IF I had my hearing aid on in my right ear. I had a REALLY hard time emotionally the last few weeks and had been avoiding all forms of socialization. I just wanted to cry being around everyone else and not understanding even a single word being said! I was deaf for such a short amount of time that my "brain" never realized that I was in fact deaf - I still weirdly think of myself as being able to hear!

Needless to say I was very excited about my activation, but also a little scared as well. I was so eager to rejoin my "life" and looking forward to doing the very simple things I took for granted as a hearing person (like being able to make phone calls and listen to my IPod)! Scared because I know my hearing will never be what it used to and I'm not sure how long it will take to overcome 30 years of hearing normally and to fully accept that what will become "normal" is not what "normal" ever was.