The BIG Day!

Hey guys,

I'm pretty dizzy writing this to y'all but I will try to catch you guys up.

We left on June 11th for Dallas to go to my pre-op appointment. Mom and I were surprised and excited to find out that instead of waiting 4 weeks to get activated, they wanted to go ahead and get me activated in 2 weeks, which is now about a week away. June 29th is activation day!!

For the rest of the 11th and most of the 12th, I had alone time with my mom and we went shopping and saw Snow White and the Huntsmen. I had a blast! My Dad, Tara, Memaw and Pepaw came on the 12th and we had some fun shopping and eating dinner with them. I have the most amazing family ever.

The next morning was the big day! I was very nervous and I could tell everyone else was too. The surgery was delayed about 2 hours so it was a very nerve racking long wait for all of us. Then the nurse finally called me back to prepare me for surgery.

Then I started feeling pretty loopy starting right here....

The last thing I remember is them giving me a big shot of something and moving to the operating room bed and them straping me down. Then I woke up in a room and all I could say was that my ears were ringing like crazy and they gave me medicine about three times before they said I was okay to move to another room. They gave me apple juice and graham crackers and I was happy with that because I was hungry. I was excited to see my Dad and Tara come around the corner looking for me. I was very happy to finally be out and to see my family.

Then the next thing I know the doctor comes in and checks on me and says that I was ready to go and that they put on my cochlear implant on in the operating room and he said it worked! I asked him about the ringing and if it was normal, and he said it's very normal and he said that it will probally last until activation day if not longer. He said that i'm used to hearing something so my ears are confused and are trying to hear.

I"m going to skip some things now because i'm very dizzy and my head is starting to hurt. I will give more things in detail in another post. In short words, i'm doing okay. I get sick to my stomach because of the dizziness and the ringing in my ears. The ringing feels like a music box has been opened in my ears and it won't stop. Yesterday, I felt car sick in the car but Mom says it's because of the ringing in my ears. I still don't feel comfortable driving. I sleep a lot but starting today i'm trying to stay up and fight the dizziness and ringing, it's hard but I can do it. I have caught myself trying to find my hearing aid and I have to remind myself that it's gone. It hasn't really hit me yet because it feels like i'm just sick. Tomorrow, I return to the real world and we will see how it goes.

1 WEEK

It's just about one week until my surgery for the CI. I am feeling the nervousness for sure, I am eating everything in sight haha! :( I am excited for the process to finally be here though. I am not nervous at all about the surgery itself, i'm more nervous about after and re-learning everything, but I am excited to hear new sounds that i've never heard before. There have been some misunderstandings and questions that I would like to clarify for you guys.

• I will NOT magically be able to hear as soon as the surgery is over. After surgery, I will be completely deaf with absolutely NO hearing for 4 weeks.
• Once it is activated (4 weeks later when everything is healed), I will be able to "hear" something. It won't be the same as what I hear now. It's going to be completely brand new to me. At first, it is going to sound a little computer like or like alvin and the chipmunks or something, I won't know. It's different for everyone. I will go back to Dallas every couple of weeks for them to tune it to a different "channel" every time and "map" it out until it is perfect. The time frame is different for everyone, but it can take up to a year until I am hearing perfectly.
• With that said, just because I can "hear" doesn't mean I will be able to "understand" what I am hearing. My ear will kind of be like a baby, and it is having to re-learn every sound that I am hearing because it is going to sound different. When they turn it on, I won't be able to understand everything like I can now.
• The first few months will be a roller coaster of emotions for me and everyone around me because i'm trying to match what voices go to what face, what sounds belong to what, and I will be hearing new sounds that i've never heard before. A guy told my mom that his mother (who got a CI a few years ago) broke down in tears when she found out that she was hearing a locust. She said that it was a beautiful sound, annoying, but beautiful. I've never heard that sound before either, so i'm excited for this new adventure.
• I have to be prepared for noise overload when I first get it turned on. A guy that has CI's told me that he could only handle two hours of having it on at a time because he had to process everything that he was hearing.
• My Memaw mentioned to me today about me never being able to hear a cooing baby and I am SO excited because I have a new baby cousin coming in December and I will be able to hear him/her coo.

If y'all have anymore questions, feel free to contact me. I really don't mind talking about it! Thank y'all again for the amazing support and the prayers. You guys are awesome! <3