Zoe asked me to write in English too. This was unavoidable I think :-). I am going to post in two languages, though the English versions may appear a bit later and may be shorter. Feel free to point out any errors.
Here is a translation of my post from Saturday, February 17th.
I arrive early, about 7.30 am. I get a card for opening the doors and an ID with my name fastened to my hand, similar to the one they give to the newborn infants. I share the room with W. She is 34 years old, has some useful hearing in one ear, the other is to be implanted today. The nurse tells us to unpack, change into pajamas and wait. The rooms looks just like a hotel but for the devices like oxygen valves and a rack for IV drips. We are unpacking and talking. Suddenly the nurse enters and tells us to hurry up, wear pajamas, jewellery and glasses off, and go to the operation ward right now. *Aaaa!*
Fortunately this leaves me only a few minutes to panic, during the waiting at the entrance to the operation ward and then on a table, while they are connecting me to various devices. The anesthesiologist lets me to go to sleep with my glasses on, for which I am grateful because I feel more confident. I can’t very well lipread without them.
I wake up about 11.40 am from some dream in a room I don’t know, all painted blue, covered in blue sheets with clouds and rainbows. Check: head bandaged, some cable fastened to my hand — it seems like it is all over. The nurse comes, yes, it is all right. Pain. They give me an injection at once. I get these painkiller injections for the next twenty four hours — quite a nice high, although I don’t know what it was. After fifteen minutes they have me walk to my room where I am told to get some sleep. Then I can get up and haunt the centre walking around with my head bandaged, the mess of hair above and the drainage tube filling slowly with blood.
The supper is difficult because my jaw aches with every bite and I have to eat a fresh good roll. This pain goes away slowly, I can eat almost normally a few days after the surgery. I have taste disturbances though — I still feel tastes with the right half of my tongue only. They say this is normal after this operation and should pass. I hope so.
W. is afraid. When she woke up from anaesthesia, she didn’t hear anything with her second, better ear for a while and she panicked. Now, a day or two after the surgery, she feels that she hears a bit worse than before. Everyone is consoling her and persuasing that it is impossible, that nothing was done to this ear, inventing impromptu theories why it may be worse at the moment. She gets Encorton. I get the antibiotics only.
On Tuesday, a day after the operation, they move us to the so-called hotel part of the centre. Only the buttons for calling the nurse remind us there that this is still a hospital. On Wednesday our drains are removed and on Thursday we go home. K., a man of our age, who had a surgery on Monday too, has his drain removed on Thursday and is to go home on Friday. These 4–5 days of stay in the hospital are standard here.
W. and I received the Nucleus Freedom devices of Cochlear, and K. is supposed to have Pulsar of Med-El. I don’t know why this choice has been made — we were not asked — but I think it was good. I like what I read about my implant.
I have a stitch behind my ear which looks like someone was trying to cut it off. I have an area of my head shaved. Seems a lot, but the remaining hair cover it quite well.
I go home on Thursday. I am to take off my bandage and rinse the stitch twice a day with salicylic spirit. Avoid physical strain for 14 days, avoid water in the ear for 30 days (I am going to wash my hair somehow), eat antibiotics for 5 days. Stitches removal in a week, on February 22nd. Then they tell me the switch-on day. It is usually about a month after the surgery.
They were all very professional and nice in the centre. I got the painkillers when I asked.
I sleep well the first night at home, no painkillers. Saturday, 6th day after the surgery: my veins still ache a bit after an IV drip. I can move my head normally without feeling pain.
It’s very important what you are doing with this blog. People all around the world can now be deeply informed about this new kind of technology that seems to be able to change somebody’s life as far as I understood and as far as I wish you and everybody. Well done!
Thanks, but I am by far not the first one to write about it :-) Every experience is unique, though. My motivations to start writing this blog were: 1. I wanted to keep track of all what happens and my progress for myself, one forgets things so quickly; 2. I wanted to write in Polish to share my experiences (it is true that there is not so much information and implantees’ stories in Polish that can be found on the net as there are in English); 3. My friends ask me how it is going and this is a place I can direct them to (hence the English version too).