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My life has returned, or at least my ability to live my life again! The last few weeks have been busy with mappings for my speech processor and doing listening exercises to regain a sense of hearing using my new cochlear implant. And I'm doing most of the things I used to do in my roles as wife and mother. The grin on my face when I have a great conversation with someone or get a joke that I would have previously missed is clear evidence to all of how much I'm "coming out the cave" I've been in for the last six months.
After being activated for about 2 weeks, my audiologist who had spoken with the surgeon suggested that I should go ahead and get the second ear implanted as soon as possible, since I'm looking at returning to Africa next June, and will need time for mappings on the new ear and to coordinate both implants. I had been resigned to doing only one ear at this time, even though our mission's medical plan had approved the financing for both implants. But when the audiologist pointed out that the longer I wait to stimulate the non-implanted ear, the longer and harder will be the rehabilitation on that side, and perhaps it will have less potential as time goes on. So, after confirming with the mission that I could do the second ear, we gave the go-ahead to the hospital schedulers.
It took nearly two weeks before we heard back with a definite date, and then they were asking if we could be ready for surgery in one week. Unfortunately, the date they wanted for surgery was the same day that Tom had booked a flight to Florida to help his parents move, but we went ahead and agreed to the surgery date, not knowing if there'd be another opportunity to get it in before the end of the year. Then we set about rearranging some things, and asking my mom if she could come back from Florida, as she had offered, to help me with recovery.
So, Wednesday morning this week, November 12th, I had my left ear implanted in the same way as my right ear was done two months ago. I'm now recovering again, with some pain in that ear and at the incision, and a dull headache when I let the pain meds go low. I'm sleeping more than normal and hungry, too. I think that the body's healing process requires more nutrition, but I certainly don't want to add more pounds while I'm vainly regretting the new patch of shaved hair on my poor tortured head. This time, however, I have the working speech processor that allows me to hear so I'm not in complete silence when it's on. It was fun to see the same nurses in pre-op, too, comment that I seemed much happier than before. They could tell that I was doing well with my first implant, as it was showing in my personality and my facial expression.
One of the things I've accomplished since having the gift of hearing again is renewing my driver's license by myself. I drove down to the office, filled out the paperwork, answered all questions and testing without ever explaining my hearing impairment, and walked out of the office in under 15 minutes, temporary permit in hand. I was so pleased with my progress and hopeful of other things I can do now. I must admit to a moment's hesitation when I hear the phone ring, and checking the caller i.d. to see if it's someone I know and a voice I might understand, but even that should improve with time and practice. So, I keep doing my homework and expecting great results.
