The Second Cochlear Implant

Hi again everyone. I know you’ve been waiting with baited breath for my follow-up blog about my second implant. So, not being one to disappoint my adoring public, here goes!

As I’ve said before, I had my second surgery on my left ear in early February 2014… on a Saturday (Jeremy Hunt, please take note, that looks like a 24 7 NHS from where I’m sitting). The surgery went really well—so well in fact that the consultant let me leave on the Saturday night. One issue we were worried about before surgery, was how I’d hear for the 24 hours or so when I had the bandage round my head, as we thought the magnet wouldn’t be strong enough to attach my right implant to my head. Fortunately, I seem to have either a really strong magnet or a really thin head and, although it wasn’t very secure, it stayed on… meaning that within an hour of waking up, I was able to listen to 5Live to check the football scores… priorities eh? In the interest of adding some ‘colour’ and ‘period detail’ to this blog, I’ve googled and can tell you that my team lost 2-0 to West Ham!

So, I then had the 3 week or so wait to be switched on. We thought that as, prior to getting implanted, my left side was my better side; I’d adapt quite well to the implant and be able to hear at least as well, if not better, with that one than with the one on my right. Twas not to be! Even after a number of trips to the hospital for mapping where various settings were fiddled with, I still don’t hear as well on my left as on my right. The sound seems to be slightly echoey. To get it in to context though, it’s still a million times better than how I was hearing with my hearing aid on that side, so a huge result for me.

The reasoning behind giving blind people 2 implants is to help with direction of sound. This has certainly helped me in terms of locating the direction of sounds and, although maybe not quite as successful as my first implant, I definitely don’t regret having 2!

The Long Awaited Next Post!

Well, they say that good things come to those who wait, and, you’ve certainly been patient! When I said I’d update the blog back in January 2014, I didn’t expect to leave it for 18 months before re-commencing. The description of the blog states in large, friendly letters that it is a deafblind man’s journey with a cochlear implant… or something like that anyway. Well, if this blog is a journey, then it’s one with a sizable delay. It’s kind of like I let Southern Trains run my blog for me isn’t it?

“We apologise for the delay to the next blog, the reason for this is general laziness on the part of its author. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and normal service will now be resumed.”

To be serious for a moment, that is part of the reason. When I left the story, I was about to go under the knife for my second Cochlear Implant.  Despite the silence following this post, the blade didn’t slip and I’m still hear, now the proud wearer of 2 Advanced Bionics Cochlear Implants… and very swish they are to! I’ll be honest, another part of the reason for stopping writing was just that I was so busy hearing new things and enjoying life, that I didn’t really have the time or inclination to sit down and right about it! One of the things that made me begin blogging was as some kind of way of getting what was happening to me clear in my own head and I think that, subconsciously I felt I’d reached that point. There was also my usual lack of self-confidence kicking in and making me think that no-one would be interested in the ramblings of an overweight deafblind man living near London and writing terrible gags about under-performing train companies.

Now, though, you lucky people, you’ll be pleased to hear that I’m back, kind of like Michael Gove, just when you think I’ve vanished without trace, I pop up with a smug grin on my face and stab a colleague in the back. (For balance, I’ll insert a labour party joke in to a future blog to show that this blog is politically neutral).

I decided to pick up my pen again as it were because the more I’ve thought about it (and been nagged by my wife) I think the story wasn’t really finished. It’s also fair to say that, despite having and loving my implants for 2 years or so now, there are still many difficulties and frustrations that I want to explore/get off my chest/moan about! The final reason is that, I am quite enjoying this—it’s very cathartic. There aren’t many opportunities for someone to talk about themselves uninterrupted and I fully intend to seize the moment!

To bring the story up-to-date then, my second surgery for my left Cochlear Implant went well—although the experience with implant number 2 wasn’t as smooth as with implant number 1 which is something I’ll write about in a future post. I mentioned before that I was volunteering for Sense and I am now fortunate enough to be working part-time for them, again, more to follow on this.

Well, I think that’ll do it for my come-back post but don’t forget to follow me on my new twitter feed that I’ve set up for the blog (aren’t I the professional?) @DeafBlindBlog2.

Now I’ve started, I’m in it for the long haul, strap yourselves in and join me.