Surgery tomorrow!

I'll e-mail doctor. Its not near the magnet. Its where the ear hook is. Maybe if I take them off and let my ears rest, but I'm enjoying the sounds.
 
contradica said:
I'm wondering is it normal to experience

a. Headaches
b. Shooting pains in ear
c. Ear feeling heavy
d. Your voice reverberating in the side that you got implanted

I am hoping that it is since I never experienced it this before.
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I have no idea if that is "normal" but from what I have seen and heard from others...I wouldn't say that is normal. I highly suggest you get in contact with your doctor and go from there.

FYI - I did not experience any of the symptoms you mentioned. Just the typical slight soreness and inability to sleep on my implanted side for a month or two.
 
vallee said:
Another question - I am reading a lot about people implanting one ear at a time. Are most doctors thinking that is the best? My reason for waiting so long was fighting my insurance company to get them to pay for the second one.
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Bilateral implantation has only just recently become more mainstream, because for a long time they were not sure whether there were clear benefits in doing so. However, with the growing number of studies showing definite benefits it is becoming more common. Also in the US, I believe a lot of insurers would rather not pay for two, so doctors knowing this work mainly with one to begin with, knowing that this is more likely to be approved more readily.
 
vallee said:
I'll e-mail doctor. Its not near the magnet. Its where the ear hook is. Maybe if I take them off and let my ears rest, but I'm enjoying the sounds.
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Okay. I'd guess that perhaps the incision hasn't quite completely healed up and the ear hook is rubbing against it? I was told to rub sorbolene cream daily over the incision site from about 3 weeks to help promote healing and to prevent any chaffing against the speech processor.

Definitely check with your doctor though.
 
R2D2 said:
Hi I'm back and as fresh as a daisy after my epic 10 hour sleep! I do have a little tinnitus but not too bad - not like first time around.

In regard to your other questions yes, all of the things you mentioned are normal for the first 2 weeks and is all part of the ear healing up. I remember the shooting pains worried me a lot but they went. I didn't notice the voices reverberating though. I'll have to pay attention to that one to see if I can pick that up!
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Whoa 10 hours! No wonder you are as fresh as a daisy :) What kind of musical instrument does your tinnitus sound like? Did they do the same thing as last time as far as closing the incision? I am so glad you came on and told me that. My moaning and groaning is starting now. I was doing so well!! I'm not getting the shooting pains all the time. I'll just get one pain here and there from time to time. As for my voice, let me see if I can describe this accurately. If I talk above a certain decibel, I feel it little bit on the left side of my mouth/throat. More strangely, my hearing in my right ear with the hearing aid has gotten better. I'm contributing this to the fact that my head is silent now and I can hear better out of my right. I'm so wacky weird here.
 
Hi Contradica,

My tinnitus in the newly implanted ear sounds like an occasional high pitched crescendo. My first ear did the crescendo thing too but only for 1 day and then resumed normal play after that. I have a good feeling that once my newly implanted ear heals, that I won't be getting much tinnitus.

Yes, they put the disolvable stitches in and then covered it up with steristrips. I have to go to my local doctor (who is at the top of my street) in a week to get it checked and put new strips on. The doctor didn't take much hair off this time either, which I was pleased about.

Yes, I do remember last time that I actually felt worse around day 3 or day 4 with a big improvement after that. Maybe you are at that stage? The shooting pains lasted about 2-3 weeks for me but like you, it only really happened from time to time. The doctor at the hospital said that it was all part of the healing process and he turned out to be right.

It doesn't surprise me that the hearing in the other ear gets better - I think that it's because your brain is making it work harder due to only having one input. The same thing happened to my other ear when my better ear suddenly lost the hearing. It's amazing how the body adapts to changes.

I'm sleeping some of the time on my implanted side, as I found last time that I actually felt better when I did this!
 
hey guys. I'm back from the hospital. my surgery was a bit complicated and had to stay over night for observation. I was bleeding internally from my ear into my lungs so I couldn't breath and my oxygen level was pretty low. The doc send me back to the surgery room again to patch the internal bleeding and I feel much better after the second time in the OR.
Anyway. I'm back home and doing well.

I feel my tinnitus is a bit worse after implantation and there's a bit of numbness on the tip of my tongue. Other than that I'm feeling alright. No shooting pain up the ear yet.
 
Wow, glad you are okay Kalboy! Sorry you had to have two surgeries but glad that everything seems to be fine now and you are home. Take it easy and get lots of rest. Last night, I went to bed at the same time as my 4 year old daughter!

I have the numbness around the tongue as well, that will take a few months to go unfortunately.

Which brand of implant do you have?
 
vallee said:
I had the headaches and shooting pain. I was able to e-mail my doctor anytime day or night with questions. He e-mailed me back within an hour.

I had tinnutis in both ears after surgery. I heard 50's big band music - the same song 24 hours a day. The other side was just noise. Once they activated me it stopped.

I felt better when I moved from pain killers to just motrin. I also found some food made the pain worst. If I ate anything that had a lot of chewing then the pain and others got worst.

Another question - I am reading a lot about people implanting one ear at a time. Are most doctors thinking that is the best? My reason for waiting so long was fighting my insurance company to get them to pay for the second one.
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Oh geez, Big Band Music, oh that would have driven me crazy. When I just had the surgery, I had horrible tinnitus in my left ear that was soo crazy loud. When I woke up from surgery, I heard quiet, pure silence in the first time since I was 12.

I have been avoiding any type of chewy food since my surgery. It has been strawberries, oatmeal, pasta and soup for me.

My doctor presented me with doing both ears at once. He was leaning more towards my better ear rather then then my worst ear which is what I picked.

Did you have both ears done at the same time or separately?
 
kalboy said:
hey guys. I'm back from the hospital. my surgery was a bit complicated and had to stay over night for observation. I was bleeding internally from my ear into my lungs so I couldn't breath and my oxygen level was pretty low. The doc send me back to the surgery room again to patch the internal bleeding and I feel much better after the second time in the OR.
Anyway. I'm back home and doing well.

I feel my tinnitus is a bit worse after implantation and there's a bit of numbness on the tip of my tongue. Other than that I'm feeling alright. No shooting pain up the ear yet.
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Oh dear kalboy, that does not sound like a good experience. I'm glad to hear that you are home safe and sound now. I'm sorry it took two rounds at the OR though.. yikes..

I didn't experience any tongue numbing on my end, just heavy ears :)
 
R2D2 said:
Wow, glad you are okay Kalboy! Sorry you had to have two surgeries but glad that everything seems to be fine now and you are home. Take it easy and get lots of rest. Last night, I went to bed at the same time as my 4 year old daughter!

I have the numbness around the tongue as well, that will take a few months to go unfortunately.

Which brand of implant do you have?
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Hey R2D2. I have the new advanced bionics implant. What about you?
 
contradica said:
Oh dear kalboy, that does not sound like a good experience. I'm glad to hear that you are home safe and sound now. I'm sorry it took two rounds at the OR though.. yikes..

I didn't experience any tongue numbing on my end, just heavy ears :)
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thanks Abbie. Hope your ear pain go away soon. =)
 
I had both at once. My doctor is amazing. If I had two more ears I would have him do it too. My surgery was at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. I have Advanced Bionics. I hate to say it but the main reason I picked it was the rechargable batteries. After 28 years of buying batteries, I wanted not to buy batteries. Also my insurance will pay 90% of the cost of batteries now.

My major problem was dizziness and band music. I still have some. Doctor said about 6 months. I also can't wait in a straight line. I walk all over the place. Bilateral is hard to get back from. Oh the music stopped as soon as I was activated, but it drove me crazy. I could not sleep.

My right ear had around 0% word recognition and now I can listen to an ipod and understand 60% or more. It gets better daily. One thing I have been doing is letting my children in my class read words outloud. It helps with recognition. I turn use one ci at a time to understand. But because my left ear is so much better than the right, I picked up better than before the surgery. I understand a lot.

How do you feel today?
 
That's a great improvement in word recognition Vallee. I was at 0% prior to the CI as well and 9 months after activation I was getting 85-92% in quiet conditions. However, this fell to 20% in very noisy conditions, which was partly why I decided to go bilateral, also the hearing aid ear was sounding very hollow and distorted, and not really contributing to my overall speech comprehension. So rather than let the ear waste away I just want to keep using it.

I'm mindful also of technological dependence, so if something happened with one of my CIs, then I have the other one to keep me going until I rectify the problem.

I'm not sure I could have gone bilateral at once though! First time around I was dizzy for 3 weeks. This time I'm not and people have already commented about how much better I look this time around after surgery. I think it would have been much harder for me to go bilateral back then.
 
I feel my tinnitus is a bit worse after implantation and there's a bit of numbness on the tip of my tongue. Other than that I'm feeling alright. No shooting pain up the ear yet.
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[/QUOTE]

I do have expenience of a bit of numbness on the tip of my tongue and otherwise it gone now after 2 weeks and I feel great!
 
R2D2 and Kalboy, Glad you are doing well after your surgeries.
 
I do have expenience of a bit of numbness on the tip of my tongue and otherwise it gone now after 2 weeks and I feel great![/QUOTE]

I can't believe its been two weeks for you already!! How does your incision look?
 
R2D2, where have you been? How you feeling? I would like an update :)

I'm feeling pretty good today, I'm off the pain pills and today I took only one tylenol. YAY! Tomorrow I get the stitches taken out, I can't wait to wash my hair. The only thing I am moaning about is the fullness feeling in the ear. It feels like there is cotton balls stuck in there. That is annoying.
 
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