Today marks a month until my second cochlear implant surgery. I have been trying to prepare for this as best as I can. Any surgery can be scary. I've been through this before, but it has been five years. The only thing that comes to mind that I am not looking forward to is the possible nausea. I have an appointment at Mayo Clinic on Friday to meet with the surgeon and audiologist. I plan to find out what can be done to reduce the nausea. I think the anesthesia may have caused some of the nausea because I was very nauseous after my upper jaw surgery as well. On the other hand, I have a few friends who were able to walk out of the recovery room like it was no big deal. I am hoping for that!
To prepare myself, I have been reading, Listening Closely: A Journey to Bilateral Hearing by Arelene Romoff. I recommend this book for anyone trying to decide if they should pursue a second implant. It has been interesting to read about her experiences and how much easier life is for her in noisy situations with two ears. Also, music sounds more fuller. She now hears in stereo and has said she hears certain instruments from one side and different ones on the other side. One thing I am really looking forward to if this works, is being able to sit any where and not always making sure everyone is on my right side. It's getting to the point that I am turning my whole body to get my ear facing the speaker's mouth when in listening in a lot background noise.
Another thing I did to prepare myself was attending a Cochlear Implant Social Group. I attended for the first time yesterday. I was a little nervous because I did not know anyone. When I first walked into the room, most of the people were probably 55 - 85 years old, so that was a little interesting for me. I decided to stay and see how it went. I am glad I did because shortly after I sat down, two younger women who are deaf joined the group. Most of the group lost their hearing from old age and shared stories about how much it has changed their life. Some seemed like it still was a struggle to hear, but I think it can be difficult to train your brain after hearing for most of your life. It's not like putting on a hearing aid and things will automatically be louder.
We each took turns introducing ourselves. The two women who were deaf shared with the group the cultural perspective of why the Deaf Community does not support the cochlear implant. It was an interesting discussion. They seemed to have similar concerns that I had when I first was implanted of losing my signing culture or not feeling like they would belong to the community anymore. I have been very fortunate to have accepting and understanding friends in the community who respect that I have a cochlear implant. I still divide my time between my friends who sign and friends who do not. I feel blessed to be able to interact with both groups.
Lastly, my dear friend Alicia shared this You Tube video (with subtitles) with me recently and I thought it gave a good description of how a cochlear implant works, sounds like and a woman's honest perspective of having a cochlear implant. I can relate to a lot of what she has to say, but I cannot dance to save my life!
One more thing, I probably should explain the picture. I recently had an x-ray done at the ENT. I thought it was pretty neat to see the cochlear implant in my head along with my crown, ha.
Thanks for reading!
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