Implant number 2 coming up

Firstly, can I take the opportunity to wish readers of the blog a happy new year—albeit a very late one!

I just thought I’d update the blog with a couple of things.

Everything is still going really well with the implant, it feels like I’m hearing more and more— though I think I’ve now reached the limit of what I’ll be able to hear with just the one implant. Christmas was great. I really felt I was able to play a full part in the family celebrations this year. I was even able to hear and enjoy (sort of) the traditional James Bond film! The audio description caused some amusement amongst my wife’s family- “James and his female companion enjoy a post-coital cigarette” was a highlight!

I now have a date for my second cochlear implant, this time on my left side. It will be on Saturday the 1st February sometime in the afternoon. It was originally going to be the 14th of February (very romantic!) but the consultant brought it forward. I’m looking forward to getting the second one done. I’m much less nervous about it, as I know what to expect this time!

Since I last posted, I’ve started volunteering 1 day a week for Sense. I’ve mentioned Sense before—they are the main deaf/blind charity in the UK:  www.sense.org.uk
I’m assisting their technology team—helping with enquiries and writing posts on technology for their blog. I’ll write more about this in the future and share some of my postings.

There’s a thing in my head!

Well, it has taken me a little longer than I’d hoped to feel human enough to update the blog but, as they say, better late than never, and all good things come to those who wait!
So, on Friday morning, my wife and I turned up at Guys hospital for 7 AM as the hospital letter had told us to. The letter had threatened us with a wait that could last until 2 PM before my operation which was indeed an exciting prospect. As it turned out, I was first in! My audiologist had mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago that I was the only one cochlear implant being done that day, so I should expect an early start but we were still a little taken aback to be taken straight through to put on my hospital gown and paper pants!
I then spoke to what felt like every member of medical staff currently in the building as they checked, double checked and triple checked everything. They were extremely efficient and the anaesthetist was particularly reassuring. He’d done his homework, even looking into Norrie’s disease to check whether there was anything he needed to be aware of before putting me under. The checks took about an hour or so, and I was taken down to the theatre about half past 8.
I must admit that during this time I was getting more and more anxious about what was to come. The thing that was worrying me the most was recovery—waking up without being able to see or hear was not something I was looking forward to. While I would still have the hearing aid in my left ear this really wouldn’t help me much. The hospital staff were great, and agreed that Victoria could come down while I had the anaesthetic, and they said they would phone her when I was going into recovery so she could be there when I woke up too. This meant a lot to us, as we were worried about how the staff would communicate with me, when I couldn’t hear or see.

It’s fair to say that recovery was about as much fun as headbutting a wall! Victoria was brought in as soon as I started coming round. I remember feeling very disorientated and that I kept thinking they hadn’t managed to fit the implant. I asked Victoria repeatedly why they hadn’t done it, and she kept telling me that they had. It was a very strange feeling. I was sick several times and because of that, they kept me in recovery for close to 3 hours! Victoria used deaf blind manual signing and the Braille poster to communicate with me while I was confused. Once I had been given some magic medicine and had come round a bit more, she was able to speak into my remaining hearing aid. We had a fantastic nurse who made the whole experience much easier. She really was amazing.
After that I was able to go on to the ward where I was looked after by another amazing nurse called. I was drowsy and kept falling asleep, but other than that I felt okay. In fact I was quite positive that I was fine to get up and walk around and go to the bathroom myself. My nurse insisted that I wasn’t, and sure enough, when I stood up to put on my pyjamas, he was right! I felt very dizzy, which is common with this surgery. My nurse was excellent, always explaining things to me before he did them, and using a clear voice so I could understand.
I had heard all sorts of stories about the gigantic bandage that I would wake up with, but it wasn’t quite what I expected. It was incredibly tight, but not as big as I was expecting. It was the pressure of the bandage that was the only thing that caused me any pain at that point, but ibuprofen took care of that quite well.
The ward sister came and spoke to Victoria while I was asleep and they agreed that it would be much easier all round if Victoria could stay the night to help with communication. Victoria had shown the nurses the Braille poster and they were very impressed and grateful. Even so, I was anxious about being left alone. The ward sister promised to see what she could organise, and sure enough, at 7.30 that evening we were moved to a private room and Victoria was given a bed at the end of mine. They even gave her dinner! They were more than accommodating to my needs.

So there we are, there’s now a thing in my head! Tomorrow I will blog about how the night and going home went.

The eve of the operation

Another really lame title—I’ll try harder in future!

Well, after starting the assessment process with Guys and St Thomas’s hospital back in December last year, the time has finally arrived for me to have my first implant. Normal practice seems to be to implant your worst ear, so that in the unlikely event that something goes wrong, you still have the hearing from your good ear to work with. I’m having my right ear done—which is my worst ear—though to be honest, there isn’t really much in it. Because I’m blind, I’m entitled to be offered bilateral implants (implants in both ears) and, as soon as I’m confidently using the first implant I’ll be asking to go back on the list to have the second ear implanted.

Over the past few weeks, loads of people have been asking a variant of the question “are you nervous?” Well, the answer is not until recently but over the last week or so I’ve suddenly realised that ‘this is it’ and that there is no going back to hearing aids if it doesn’t work out. I’ve also been thinking about the fact that as of Friday, I’ll have a thing in my head… eek!
The thing we are most worried about in terms of the actual operation and the night following it spent in hospital, is the communication issue. As I’m only having one implant at this stage, I will still be able to use my other hearing aid—though, on its own, this won’t be much help to me, especially with the unfamiliar voices of the hospital staff. We raised this with the nurse at the pre -op appointment. Slight pause and nervous look followed… Clearly they hadn’t thought of this… My wife, Victoria, being a kind-hearted soul, decided to put the poor woman out of her misery and made a couple of suggestions, all of which were pounced upon like a drowning man grabbing a life raft! Victoria suggested that we could create a poster that would have certain likely phrases on them, such as ‘are you in pain?’ ‘do you need the toilet’ etc. Below these we would stick a braille label, which the medical staff could put my finger on so I would know what they were trying to say. Victoria has made the posters so I’ll attach a picture of this sheet to this blog post. The pre-op nurse also suggested that they might want Victoria to stay with me, right up until they put me to sleep and also to be in recovery when I wake up. Then if needs be, she can use deaf/blind manual to communicate with me. They was also talk of the hospital staff asking Victoria to stay in the hospital overnight which, while very reassuring for me would probably be very uncomfortable for her! We very much hope that this will happen. It has started to be the thing that we are most nervous about.
I have to arrive at the hospital for 7 am tomorrow morning so I can have the privilege of sitting around while they sort themselves out! No idea what time my actual operation will be, though my audiologist mentioned a few weeks ago that they weren’t doing any other implants that day, so hopefully I’ll go in to theatre sooner rather than later. I’m hoping to be back home on Saturday afternoon so I’ll report back then (or at least when after I’ve checked the football scores).

Bye for now. 