WHAT WAS IT LIKE – HOW DID IT FEEL – WOULD I DO IT AGAIN?

We have reached the part this blog is to be about.

Over the next few days and weeks I will tell my story as it is.

• The operation time.
• Hospital recovery.
• Standard advice for the early days.
• Advice gleaned from my experience.
• Settling in and problems along the way.
• The switch on day.
• The changes that follow and improvements that happen.
• How I use it and how it changes me.
• Perhaps some scary stories.

The story is about my unique experience of a Cochlear Implant and no one else’s. Everyone will have a different one to tell and this will be mine. I have worked in the National Health Service for more than forty years in Operating Theatres so I know about hospitals but this is a view from the other side of the sheets.

  

I looked for this kind of personal story for a long time in order to find someone like me that I could relate to and try to foresee how it might affect me. There were too many different experiences to be a perfect match so it is my intention to show my variation of what can happen. This is what the information booklets mention but not in great detail, there are too many ifs and buts to include everything. So this is an opportunity to expand on some of those comments as they were relevant to me. There are no criticisms, just true facts and some situations that were not thought of in advance. Some featured unexpectedly more bizarre than the mass produced general information leaflet suggested they would. I hope to show how good it can be and how much better it could be, with some advanced warning and preparation on the part of the CI patient before admission. The hospital actions will always remain a mystery to the patient who can only sit and wait to be included. Perhaps someone out there will identify with me and get some answers they are searching for.

I will put forward my suggestions for handy things to do that may make life a little easier if you are going to make this journey yourself one day!

I am now the recipient of a new Cochlear Nucleus 6 implant system. Implants are only compatible with the same company’s products for as long as they manufacture them. Thinking well in advance about what suits your own lifestyle is important and any new developments that might be introduced in the future you might want to wait for and connect to at a later date. The competition is very strong and user service is high on the manufactures list of priorities. They know they must be reliable or they won’t get put in consistently year after year. It is important to choose one with a long track record in research, development and usage but as the implants are not all like for like the choices are not easy to make.  The external processor may be changed for something more modern but it can only work with the original model that was implanted. It is important to see and handle the devices when making that choice for the best understanding of how they work and what works with them. The hospital will narrow down the choices for you as they will be buying them but none are perfect for everybody so a little variation is a good thing.

Whilst I wait for the new implant to settle in and be switched on in a few weeks time I must get used to remembering that I have a metal object in my head. Then when it starts to work I will be on the alert for things that may damage it or me. The procedure is irreversible, my ear cannot be returned to its previous state to try again with any guarantees that it will work next time. I will say more about that as I wait to be switched on next month and something of how some of those hazards are dealt with by people and places I might want to visit. Later we will see the reality in action.

DAY SURGERY – NOT LIKELY!

The leaflets and the hospital consistently say this operation can be done as day-surgery. I have worked too long in hospitals in the UK to believe that is the probable outcome though in some countries that work to a different system it is. I would suggest the first precaution is to have a contingency plan for when things don’t go according to plan. In my case it was because of the distance to travel to get to an early admission time of 7.30 am. The rail strike was announced for that day (and later called off but could I be sure that would happen?) secondly I did not want to leave home at 5am and start my day stressed even before my blood pressure was taken. A hotel booked near to the hospital meant a short walk arriving fresh and relaxed with somewhere my wife could stay and wait with tv and internet connections if things took longer than expected. She could easily return at short notice. The same was arranged for the next night so that on leaving the hospital it would be only a short walk without luggage. Dizziness and unsteadiness was a likely complication afterwards for going home on public transport.

My previous blog tells of what happened on the day we set out early for a leisurely trip to London.

I left you all when I was trying to get back to sleep at 2am after the fire alarm went off!

A NEW 'EARA' BEGINS?

After another four hours of trying to sleep and ending up watching the sun come up I gave in and got up to get ready. I had last eaten at 9.30pm the previous evening because nothing was to be had after midnight for the morning operating session. It was a very good three course Italian meal we had. Sips of water only were allowed at 7am to take with my regular daily medications before going to the hospital for admission at 7.30am. On arrival, after that short and pleasant sunny walk up the road, I was advised that the order of the operating list would be decided at the 8.15am team meeting but the doctors would see me before then to do the usual health checks and questions. There was also one other cochlear implant procedure to be done. My name was at the top of the admissions board and written in red. Later when I asked about this I discovered that it was because when they started writing the names on the board that morning they couldn’t find a black marker pen! So there was no sinister motive after all. But at least my name was there first. Ho, ho!

Time came and went but I didn’t. A review of the order had put me second and the morning dragged on with telephone calls to and fro asking for the latest news of the delay. It was then five hours since I last had fluids and so I was given a jug of iced water and told not to have any after 12noon! I knew what that meant, I was now first for the afternoon with two hours of fluid fasting and by then seventeen hours without food. The first CI operation had been more difficult than expected. Patients can only accept what is said to them they are not privy to the personal information regarding another person’s surgery. The waiting has to be accepted. After such a long procedure the operating team had stopped for lunch and thank goodness for that. I didn’t want a surgeon fuelled only by coffee with shaky hands.

2pm became 3pm and we seemed to be heading for a cancellation after running out of time.Then it was my turn and I walked hand in hand with the nurse down to the operating theatre, at least she seemed happy.

There was no way I would be going out tonight. Day surgery it wasn’t going to be!