I visited my surgeon today. Essentially, he poked around in my ear and took out much of the packing in it. It hurt like hell, but I’m moving along. I’ll be seeing him again on April 1.
Day by day, I’m feeling better; day by day, I’ll get some hearing back.
Yesterday (Friday), I missed half of school to visit my surgeon. It was a quick visit, and a very positive one. He removed some inner packing in my ear, gave me a prescription for some ear drops, and took my questions. He said it looks good in there and that I’m likely on my way to a good recovery. I’ll see him again in two weeks.
Oh, I can take traditional showers again!
I’ve been trying to heal, but it’s been hard.
The day of my surgery was Wednesday, February 27th. I took Thursday and Friday off from school, but went back in on Monday and Tuesday. But, those days killed me. Walking around the school and being active made me exhausted and restarted the leakage from my ear. So, I stayed home this last Wednesday, February 5th. Going back to school on Thursday (today) started my leakage and exhaustion again.
I’m in a quandary. To stay home and waste time or go to school and get hurt?
I believe I’ll go to school and severely modify my behavior to reduce wear and tear. We shall see.
Tomorrow, however, I have an appointment with my surgeon to remove my stitches and see how I’m healing. I’ll post more tomorrow.
According to my calendar, it’s been four days since I’ve had my ear surgery. Although I didn’t anticipate that I’d need to, I took both Thursday and Friday off from school. I wouldn’t have been much of a productive student anyway; this experience has taken me for a ride.
As of now, I’m not feeling too well. I cannot balance well, I have zero ability to hear out of my right ear, I’ve lost my ability to taste much of anything, and I cannot concentrate. The first two symptoms, I imagine, are from the nature of the surgery itself. I believe the last two are side-effects from the anesthetics I was on during the procedure.
My entire body feels odd – thrown off course. As I tried to go to sleep two nights ago, I could not shut off my brain. Thoughts, or rather, fragments of thoughts, kept flying through. It’s terrifying to lose control like that, and I certainly hope these feelings wear off soon. I miss my body and my mind.
It’s unfortunate that the timing of this procedure and my lack of preparedness has thrown my New Year’s Resolution Experiment off course. To catch everyone up, I resolved to make twelve monthly resolutions rather than one large yearly resolution. February’s goal was to treat my body better, which I did. I was on a good course and I plan to continue it once I’m allowed to exercise physically again.
Coincidentally, it’s supposed to take me about a month to heal from my operation. I’ve decided to dedicate March to healing. I’m going to be absolutely religious about doing everything I can to help my body heal. This means continuing in a more healthy lifestyle, but unfortunately, taking it easy when it comes to physical activity.
March is shaping up to be a huge month for me. I’ll be healing from my surgery, I have a DJ event lined up, and I’m expecting news from my colleges soon. As always, I’ll keep you posted.
As is tradition on my blog, I type this post in the back seat of a car. I just left the hospital a little while ago, 6 PM.
I woke up this morning at 4:30 AM to get ready to go to the hospital. As I showered, I felt a mix of excitement and terror, mostly terror. Not allowed to eat, my biggest problem in the morning was hunger, but I got over it.
I arrived at the hospital at 6 AM, checked in, and went to a waiting room. I didn’t end up going in for my procedure until around 8 AM. It was five hours long! The hospital staff were remarkable friendly and professional. A comedic side note, I love the new trend that’s observable everywhere, a pain scale from 0-10.
My next memories are a blur of unconscious actions like dealing with hospital staff, adjusting myself, and relieving my nausea – somehow.
I have a hilariously massive bandage on my head right now, covering my right ear. I have to go back to the hospital in a week to get the stitches behind my ear removed. I’ll also be heading back a few weeks later for a follow-up, at which point my hearing will be accessed again. I shouldn’t notice an improvement in hearing until after I’ve healed. In addition, while I’m healing, I can’t partake in any physical activity whatsoever.
The no physical activity aspect is a massive bummer to me because I’m taking Phys Ed (Gym) right now. In lieu of physical activity, I’ll have to write a two-page paper for every day missed. Great! Those will add up.
But – that’s not what I’m going worry about right now. As I should, I’m just going to rest up. I’ve decided to take tomorrow off from school, too, for good measure.
As always, I’ll keep you posted.
I’m taking the day off from school tomorrow to go for an “elective” surgery. That is to say, it isn’t necessary or life-threatening. I’m choosing to do it, for good reason, after waiting for years.
Every person has characteristics that define his or her childhood. One’s location, parents, and consumed media establishes the “brand” of his or her adolescent years. These factors determine whether the childhood was wonderful, miserable, or somewhere in between.
What defined my childhood, and somewhat defines me to this day, is my right perforated eardrum. It’s exactly what it sounds like: I have a hole in my eardrum caused by constant ear infections as a child. Throughout my entire life, as long as I can remember, I have had significant hearing loss in that ear. To add insult to injury, I’ve had to wear earplugs while bathing, every day, as long as I’ve been able to bathe myself.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, or even complaining. I’ve completely adapted to it and it’s just part of the daily routine, like going to the bathroom.
And the hearing loss? I’ve managed to deal with it throughout my almost-finished high school career. Over the last few days, I’ve told people about what I’m doing, and they were shocked to learn that I have hearing loss at all. I’ve worked very hard to conceal it.
I’ve literally waited my whole life for what is going to happen tomorrow. There is a good chance that I’ll be able to reclaim a slightly more “normal” lifestyle by getting a good deal of my hearing back.
I’m excited, hopeful, and terrified.