Still getting better!

Hello everyone,

I feel all of your well wishes all the way over here in Sheboygan, Wisconsin! I am slowly getting better. The nausea is starting to go away. My parents have been amazing. My dad has probably taken five trips to the store already for my favorite foods, medicines and 7-UP. It is funny to have people take care of me, I feel like a little kid again, ha. My parents and my brother David have all said they noticed I can hear better already. I had to explain that it is not working yet without the speech processor.

I will write more tomorrow about the actual day of surgery when I am feeling a little better to think about that long day :). It has been fun being in Wisconsin, I get the latest news on Favre's reinstatement to the Packers. It is breaking news here and interupts most stations, you would think he was the governor! I am very excited to see him put on number 4 again! I didn't get a chance to get over to the Johnsonville Brat Day's parade yesterday. Thank goodness, that too made breaking news on CNN with the erratic drunk driver driving in the crowd injuring four people. Lots of action here!

I thought this was a little cute, on Friday my childhood friend Jennie came over to the house to take off my big whooping bandage (I will post photos tomorrow) and the first thing my mom said was where is that thing that Scotty has? I was laughing and had to explain that comes later when I get "hooked" up. My friend Jennie who is a registered nurse said my stitches looked good and asked if my doctor was a plastic surgeon, so that was good to hear. Thanks for helping out Jen.

That is all for now, we are watching the end of the PGA tour (I am starting to understand it) and we are ordering Faye's pizza tonight, my favorite! Signing off until tomorrow, thanks again for your support!

Every hour gets better

Hello family and friends,

Thank you for all of your support, I feel so loved. This will be short, hopefully in a few days I will be able to report more. I am at my parent's house in Sheboygan. I am slowly recovering. I have been doing a lot of sleeping while I am here. I have been feeling dizzy, light headed and nauseous, like I do when I am motion sick. So, I am ready for that to go away. The best cure for that is sleep. My parents have been great and I am glad they were with me in Rochester. I will write more about about the day of surgery when I am more alert. Thanks again for all of your support, thoughts and prayers. I am so lucky to have all of your support. Kristine

In Rochester!

Hello everyone,

I arrived in Rochester at 5:00. Thank you Jessica for giving me a ride! You calmed me down a bit. My parents arrived at the same time, it was good to see them! We went out to dinner down the street from the hotel at Micheal's. I am getting anxious for tomorrow. Dinner was good, but I think I was focused on making the phone call to find out my surgery time.

When we got back to the room, my dad started calling the surgery line and I told him that it is not 8:15 yet. He said, they are not that good. I said we are at Mayo, they are good. Sure enough, we had to wait two minutes until 8:15. Then, we called again and found out I need to report at 9:00 am tomorrow morning.

I am hanging in there, it is good to have the support of my parents. I just asked them how they think I am doing. My mom thinks I am doing fabulous. My dad thinks I am doing fair. I am excited to get this over with :). Thank you for all your support, it has been amazing. I am really fortunate to have you all in my life. I will try to report tomorrow. I think we are planning to head back on Friday. Thanks again!

Cochlear Implant Convention?

Hello family and friends,

I just made it back from my trip to Canada. My friend Andie and her new husband did a wonderful job planning the whole weekend. Thanks for a wonderful time! Ottawa is a beautiful city. Their wedding was absolutely gorgeous and so much fun.

Initially, I thought this would be a great trip to get my mind off of my upcoming surgery. Well, it seemed like over half of the people at the wedding who had a hearing loss, had a cochlear implant! This was really great and refreshing to see. What better way to prepare myself for the implant than hang out with successful implant users over the course of five days! I was able to get a lot of stories of others' experiences, numerous questions answered, observe many amazing individuals using an implant and overwhelming support with my upcoming surgery.

The big day is coming up soon! I cannot believe it is actually this week. I think when I arrive in Rochester on Wednesday it will hit me that it is happening.

Today, my brother asked me some specific questions, so I thought I would share the same information with you as well. On Wednesday night after 8:15 p.m., I will call to find out when my surgery is scheduled on Thursday. One important thing I had to be sure not to take aspirin or Ibuprofen ten days prior surgery. I have been putting stickers all over my meds and in my wallet reminding me not to take any! So far so good!

My surgery will be performed by Dr. Neff. It will be approximately 2 - 3 hours. I will be at Saint Marys Hospital on the Mayo Campus. Prior to surgery they will be shaving about 4 inches behind my right ear. It will be interesting to see part of my head shaved! After surgery, I will be put into a recovery room to be monitored. I will be released from recovery room depending on the time and how I am recovering. I may or may not stay overnight. So, my parents may be able to drive me back to my hometown as early as Thursday if the surgery is early in the day. My brother Scotty said he slept a lot the weeks after his surgery. Then again, he loves to sleep, ha.

I may get more specific information on what to expect in the mail this week. I tend to get a mailing a couple of days before my Mayo appointments. If I do, I will send information your way!

Also, I added some photos of my recent visit to Ottawa, Canada...

#1 group photo with the beautiful bride and groom (myself, Scot, Sally, Jamie, Andie, Alicia, Sarah, Xavier)

#2 changing of the guards ceremony

#3 400 year old Parliament Building

One Week from Tomorrow!

Hi everyone,

I hope this finds you well. I am starting to get a little excited, nervous and freaked out a little bit, ha. I think this is all normal. It is a good thing that I have a ton of stuff to keep me occupied before the actual day. I will be going to Canada tomorrow until Sunday night, then I have my last three days of teaching summer school along with working on my last graduate class. So, I think next Thursday will be here before I know it.

My dear childhood friend Jessica will be driving me to Mayo on Wednesday (thanks so much!), then I will meet my parents at the hotel. After the surgery, I plan to go home to Sheboygan, Wisconsin with my parents to recover for the week. If any of you are in town, feel free to stop by. I don't think the recovery will be that bad. It will definitely be better than everything I went through for months after my jaw surgery.

I greatly appreciate all of the support, thoughts and prayers; especially my loving family who mean the world to me. I posted their photos above, you know how much I love photos!

Photo #1 My brother Scotty (who was implanted six years ago) and my sister-in-law along with my favorite little kids in the world...Ava, Ethan & Emma

Photo # 2 My parents and my brother David who all seemed to love the color blue that day, ha.

Two More Weeks! The countdown begins!

It just occurred to me that I will have my surgery in exactly two weeks! I have been so busy with work, grad school and life that it hasn't hit me that it is coming up so quickly.

Once in a while when I am driving in my car, I turn off the left hearing aid of my better ear to see if I can understand the radio. It is amazing how very little I can hear on that side. It is all garble and very dull. I guess I am just checking to see if the hearing magically came back, ha.

Next Wednesday, I leave for Rochester, New York, it's funny to be hitting both Rochesters within a week of each other, ha. I will be joining friends to drive across the border to Ottawa, Canada for my friend Andie's wedding. I am curious to see my friend Scot who was just implanted on May 31st. I plan to get all the information I can from him about the surgery, recovery and hook-up!

I want to say thank you all for your support. I appreciate all the e-mails and messages of well wishes. Also, a special thank you to my teaching team along with my audiologist, Claudia and supervisor Paula for the surprise package full of goodies! What a great team to work with!

I attached photos of them (you know how much I LOVE pictures!).

Photo #1: Taken at our last Statewide Deaf and Hard of Hearing Track and Field Day. From the top left, Amy V. Luanne (transliterator), Terri, Amy, Chris (all sign language interpreters), Holli, Kristin. From bottom left, Wendy, Tiffany, Myself, Sharon, Amy E. Nancy

Photo #2: Taken three years ago at Claudia's lake home, she is the one in the red sunglasses

Photo #3: My supervisor Paula :)

What is a Cochlear Implant?

Some of you have asked for more information on what a cochlear implant is, I probably should have started with this post so you all knew what I was referring to this whole time :). First, I will explain how a person hears normally (refer to labeled ear diagram above, you can click on any picture to enlarge it):

• Sound waves enter the ear canal and travel to the eardrum
• The sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate, then it sends the three smallest bones in the body (Hammer, Anvil, Stirrip) into motion
• The motion is converted into electric impulses by the tiny hair cells (thousands) found in the cochlea
• The electric impulses are sent to the hearing nerve to the brain, where they are perceived as sound for the listener
  

For my ears, everything is working except for the hair cells within the cochlea. I have a sensorineural hearing loss which means the source of my hearing loss is within the inner ear (cochlea). I have abnormal hair cells, they are weak or not there at all. Most definitely the case for my high frequency sounds which I have always had difficulty hearing.

A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that gives a person with a hearing loss a sense of sound (see implant above). The individual has to be profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. Where hearing aids only amplify sounds, cochlear implants directly stimulate any functioning auditory nerves with electrical impulses within the cochlea. My audiologist Claudia, explained it the best for me...cochlear implants are to contact lenses as hearing aids are to glasses. It goes directly to the source of sound or sight.

How a cochlear implant works (see numbered ear diagram above):

1. Sounds are captured by the sound processor (see above) which is worn on the outside of the body. It looks like a hearing aid with a magnet attached to connect to the internal implant. (So, if I were to get too close to a refrigerator, my implant could go flying on the fridge :), this has happened to my brother a couple of times, I will train myself to not get too close to a fridge, ha).

2. The sound processor synthesizes the sounds into digital information then sent to the internal implant through the magnet.

3. The internal implant changes the digital information into electrical signals. Then, they are sent to the electrode (looks like a wire, see photo above) that is inside of the cochlea.

4. Signals from the electrode bypass the damaged hair cells to stimulate the hearing nerve, which allows the brain to receive sound.

That's it, that is how I will be able to hear! Simple enough huh? Ha, yeah right! I will be implanted with the Nucleus Freedom by Cochlear (www.cochlear.com).

If you want more specific information, the following websites are helpful:

www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/coch.asp
www.fda.gov/cdrh/cochlear/index.html