...AND THE NEXT

Slept fine til 6am – woke up feeling mucus in my throat and while coughing to clear it I had a slight nosebleed. Sitting forward to grab a tissue to catch it, I notice the pressure bandage had came off! Called the nurse – both came replaced the bandage, drips, took my BP/Temperature etc. This time the bandage didn’t cover my right ear so I was able to put in my hearing aid in the non-implanted ear. I had the oxygen mask back on again because of the nose bleed and went back to sleep.

Woke up at 7:30am to see Ray smiling at me, asking how the day went yesterday I told him about NFH (who wasn’t on duty thankfully) the bum-flashing episode and the annoying eye grit. My eye felt so much better – a little dry but better than yesterday. Breakfast was being served and I was delighted that I was allowed to get my tray! While eating I was struck by a pain in my left jaw, just under the implant area. And was conscious that the left half my tongue was numb, as if I had just been to the dentist, I couldn’t taste a thing on the left side! Texting a few CI’ees I asked if this was normal, I got reassurances that it was...

Dr Viani stopped by with the Ward Doctor, remarked that the operation yesterday was a success, they switched on the implant in-situ and it worked ‘really well, thumbs up all around!’ She mentioned the eye problem – I gave her the update, saying the grit was gone. She reassured me that the eye specialist will have a look later, adding that it didn’t happen in her theatre as both my eyes had been well covered during the operation. She ordered xrays and instructed the ward doctor to remove the pressure bandage if all is well

I went for an X-ray and came back with impressive pictures of the implant coiling thru my head and springing into the cochlear. Took a few picture of the x-rays with my phone, not sure how they will look on the PC yet! Before I could get the bandage off I was wheeled down to the Othamantist to get my eye checked out. There was some scrape to the eyeball noted but since the offending grit had gone – just keep putting antibiotic cream etc for 3 more days. When the bandage came off, I was eager to see my scar! Kept taking photos with phone, using webcam to shoot a video as I couldn’t see it in the mirror! It was really clean – no bloody or gore, very neat incision with 6 nylon stitches holding it closed, running along the ear fold almost parallel to my lobe, you can’t see it unless I pull the ear lobe back. My entire ear felt numb to touch.

Ray came up at 4pm to have a look at the scar. Mum and Théa came in with Aunt Rita, Théa was delighted to see her ‘normal mammy with no scary stuff’ she brought in a book for me to read to her in-between all the conversations going on and shared a mountain of grapes with Théa. After they all left, my friend Aidan popped in with a DVD region-code-breaker for my laptop which was stubbornly refusing to allow me to watch Region 1 DVDs that Susie had given me. We had a good natter about poker – discussing all the upcoming games, the book Derek Kelly gave me, update gossip on poker players we knew etc. Susie came in 10 minutes after Aidan left, we caught up from where we left off last week– I was giving her the low down on the recent Deaf Poker Deepstack Festival and she was telling me about how they almost drowned in sangria and rain in Edinburgh last weekend at Niamh’s hen party! I was on a high today after the miserable experience yesterday!

NFH wasn’t on duty today thankfully, instead we had this lovely 60-year-old warm motherly Ward Sister coming in all friendly chit-chat with everyone: ‘How is your eye now? Ah good, good! Is your lunch okay pet? Wasn’t that lasagne nice? The porter will be here for you in a moment, love, to bring you to X-ray... ’ She was a ray of sunshine, skipping into the ward with a warm smile on her face, making everyone feel special. Then stopping by all the beds saying good-night individually to all the patients before she left for the night.
I watched 5 episodes of House (series 1 DVD) back-to-back before falling into a restless sleep, kept waking up every 2-3 hours with mad dreams involving NFH, curtain-less beds and leaking bedpans!