Here's a close up:
After
So this is the second time I've had this surgery. The first being ten years ago. It took me this long to do it again because of recovery time. The recovery is awful.
There was a 1-2% chance I would have complications:
- Loss of hearing completely
- Loss of facial control on my left side
- Permanent vertigo
- Permanent ringing
- Loss of sense of taste on left side
I did have a complication and I lost my sense of taste on the left side of my tongue. It's a weird feeling but I am getting used to it. Potentially I will get it back. The nerve wasn't damaged completely, it was just pulled.
I guess I traded the ability to hear with the ability to taste. I'm okay with that but a little bummed - I do love to cook, this will make cooking challenging.
So far I can't hear completely, I have dissolvable packing in my ear. I have stitches behind my ear (this is how they go in) that itch.
So those are the nuts and bolts to it. I want to talk about my stay in the hospital.
I was in observation for a day and a half - middle ear surgery is considered a major surgery and pretty much renders a person helpless for a little while. The vertigo is so bad, just turning my head was awful. Not to mention the pain and the nausea.
In observation, they check your vitals more frequently. I also think the nurse to patient ratios might be smaller.
All I could do was lie on my back or right side. I didn't want to eat; wasn't hungry. I was allowed morphine every 2.5 hours and looked forward to it because then I could sleep for a while.
I have a real appreciation for being in such an awful condition and having to rely on complete strangers to help. The nurses and nursing assistants were really amazing people. I sent them candy and a card after I left.
Observation "rooms" do not have four walls, they have 3 walls and a curtain. So in observation you can hear much of what is going on around you. I was lucky, the swelling was bad enough, I could lie on my good ear and not hear anything.
EXCEPT for the super rude visitors of the person next to me. WOW. On one hand, I understand that when we go to visit people in a hospital, we are not thinking about anyone but the person we are visiting. In fact, we are usually very worried about the person so really aren't thinking about anything else.
However, the people next to me were so loud I couldn't sleep even with the morphine and lying on my good ear.
It was SO AWFUL. It was challenging for me to push the button to call the nurse - that's how invalid I was. I considered throwing my water cup at them...which by the way was totally an irrational morphine induced idea. If put into practice, I probably would have thrown the cup on myself. I couldn't even see where they were (and they weren't even in the room with me).
I didn't want to complain because I was afraid the nurses would label me as a complainer - another irrational morphine induced idea. That stuff is potent.
Finally, a nursing assistant came in and I told him I was having trouble sleeping because it was too loud. That was like instant gratification because he went over there and all I could hear was a firm tone in his voice and then SILENCE. I'll probably never forget that moment as long as I live; I was asleep within seconds after it.
Anyway, from now on - and I encourage everyone else too - to be especially mindful of other patients when visiting people in the hospital. I think it's easy to forget when worrying about one person.
My recovery has been a blur. I stayed with my folks for 3 nights and then came home. Honestly I barely remember staying with them even. I slept almost all of the time. One thing that sucks about being single is not having help when you really really need it. Yet another reason to find a partner in this life.
I haven't been able to drive but the vertigo has almost gone away so I might try today or tomorrow. I am going to go for a walk and see how I handle that first. The general restriction for driving was 10 days and it has been 7. So I may not be ready yet.
I am very sick of soup and pizza. I also can't go to the gym for another couple of weeks. My restrictions are as follows:
- No cardio 3 weeks
- No weight lifting 3 weeks
- No lifting above 10 lbs 3 weeks
- No chiropractor 30 days
- No bending/leaning over 3 weeks
- No flying 30 days
- No driving 10 days
- No ibuprofen because it makes bleeding easier
- No water in my ear 30 days
I am pretty much unable to do anything - no horseback riding - because of bouncing.
So I've been making candy:
I'll be sending it off to a bunch of people randomly. I think it's funny - so Suzy Homemaker of me. I can understand why people do crafts when they can't do anything else. I might start knitting too.
