Tonight, Garry didn’t seem to need extra medication for pain. Even though I finally got a better prescription for him waiting at the pharmacy, I think he is over the really difficult part and is healing. I can hardly wait for him to start itching.
He was able to take a real shower today and wash his hair and everything. Carefully, but a whole shower, top to bottom. I suspect that made him feel a lot better. I know he is feeling better because he is whining about not being allowed to exercise. The more he complains, the better he feels.
He is still kind of dizzy. That’s because of the upset to his inner ear, so his balance is off. It will come back, but until it does he has to be careful and avoid stairs and such.
Overall, I think he’s doing pretty well. I also think that the reason he could hear the Bluetooth is that he was wearing powered headphones. Power is power. It was not the “official” power of the “official” headset, but it still had a couple of strong batteries in it. I’m betting if he weren’t wearing the headphones, there would be nothing from the Bluetooth … but he isn’t taking the headset off, so it’s a moot point. Glad I bought a decent set of headphones of my own!
So, he is complaining, I am doing my best to make him feel better, and I think all is about as well as it can be at this point in the process. The complaining is definitely a sign of improvement.
I expect increased complaints as he feels better.
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Categories: #Health, Cochlear implant, Hearing
HEARING, IMPLANTS — AND WHAT’S THAT SOUND? – Marilyn Armstrong 
UPDATE: WEEK 2 – ACTIVATED COCHLEAR IMPLANT – Garry Armstrong 
FIRST DAY: ACTIVATING THE COCHLEAR IMPLANT – Garry Armstrong 
IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN – CEE’S SHARE YOUR WORLD – Marilyn Armstrong 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Appreciate the update. Complaints are good, complain away, Garry! wooot!
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This is exactly the same as we experienced over the weekend with our family members who have been in bad health, ops, treatment over the last months. For everyone complaining loudly and insistently, we are thankful, glad and joyful.
Don’t know if I missed (some) post(s) re Garry but I’m sure glad to read that he is doing reasonably well – may his convalescence continue in a good way. And may you have the patience too, to wait, understand, encourage or telling him to shut up…. 😉
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He hasn’t been posting, hasn’t been responding to email (and he has a LOT of emails) because all he wants to do is watch baseball. So — that’s what he’s doing. Watching LOTS of baseball games. We have the MLB package, so he can watch any game in the country — except the Red Sox, which are our home team — due to MLB’s weird blackout system.
But he really IS doing fine. He hasn’t started itching yet. I think that will be next week. He is getting restless and he has to be REALLY careful about NOT exercising or lifting or overdoing anything, which means I get to be the annoying nag and he gets to gripe at me. That’s the way this sort of thing works. He bitches at me. I nag him a little more and then he watches another game. God bless our American pastime. I have no idea how I’d survive without it.
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I’ll be hoping the complaints increase each day, but keep that headset on. 🙂
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Yes, he is complaining with greater urgency each day. He is getting a bit restless. All good, but we have three more weeks to go and it’s going to be a LONG three weeks!
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Really good news!!!! And I can testify that at the END it doesn’t seem like it was all that long or all that bad (even if it was). ❤
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I know. He just hasn’t really done much surgery, but I think he’s doing really well. Nice clean incision, no oozing or scabs. And I have a feeling I’m going to be working on him to NOT EXERCISE really soon. He’s looking restless and he feels like he should be doing something physical. Except this time, he can’t. My job is remind him so he can tell me HE ALREADY KNOWS.
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It’s a medcially proven fact that whining and bitching and making rude faces is part of the healing process. It can be hell on the person being the recipient of the whining and bitching and rude faces, but it does help.
Let me know when I can uncross my fingers. I keep cramping up.
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I know. I have been the patient way too many times. Until they start complaining, they aren’t getting better. Now that he IS complaining, the next step is … ITCHING.
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👏
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This is all good news, Marilyn! Hopefully that “much better” day will come soon.
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He’s better. Not ALL THE WAY better, but he’s getting there. He’ll be a lot better in another week. It has only been four days since the surgery 🙂
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The first complete shower after a surgery is incredible. One feels renewed, hair is CLEAN (I hate having my hair ‘dirty’ — even a day without washing it makes me feel grungy). The last surgery I endured (the knee one) , I went to the hair dresser and had her almost shave my head. I said “I’m having surgery and I don’t want to deal with dirty hair.” I got a lot of weird looks, but it sure helped. I truly feel the shower is the first solid step on the road to recovery…and I hope Mr. Garry doesn’t gripe too much, but at least you know he’s feeling better and the mend/end will come soon. I’m very happy for both of you! This is going to be great! 😀
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The last time, it was when they FINALLY let me brush my teeth. My mouth felt like someone had been washing their feet there. The shower had to wait until I could stand up and not fall down, but at least they cleaned me up in the interim. I should have cut my hair before I went in. That was a real mistake. The hair got into EVERYTHING. Bandages, food, incision. It was a mess. I intended to have it cut, but I had pneumonia right before I went in and there was no time to do it. I waited too long.
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I know the complaining can be a bother, Marilyn, but it’s all good news.
Leslie
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I consider the complaining to mean he’s feeling better. When he just sits around feeling miserable, THAT’S when I really worry.
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Indeed…
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Keep up the good work, both.
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He’s getting better. And there will be a big leap when he goes from feeling a “little bit” better to suddenly feeling a LOT better. A few more days and one morning, he will wake up and realize that the worst really IS over.
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having bad stuff going on in your head really is horrible, so roll on the ‘a lot better’.
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Healing from an operation always takes time and there are no rules and regulations. You cannot write them on a list, the body makes its own list. Every little signal is now the sign of recovery, even if they are not blue tooth.
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He really IS getting better. It has only been five days, so I think he’s doing really well. I’m not sure he’d agree, but one day — soon — he’s going to wake up and everything will be MUCH better. That’s the way it always happened to me. You feel a little better, and then a little bit better than that … but ONE morning, you wake up and you realize it’s MUCH better.
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Showers are so restorative. And you are right in recognizing cranky as a sign of progress. I used to call it the positive jello sign. Walk into a patients room and be greeted by them throwing their jello at you–time to go home. Best wishes for continued healing and patience for all!
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He is doing better than he realizes. The complaining — to me — means he feels well enough to bitch at me. In another week, he’ll feel good enough that I have to slow him down. I’m actually MORE worried about that.
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Good to hear that Garry is doing well. I know from experience that a nice shower after a hospital stay goes a long way to making the patient feel better (as does being in one’s own bed). Hopefully, the dizziness will pass soon enough. I’ve had vertigo and it’s no picnic. Give Garry a hug from me.
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The vertigo is worst when he first gets ups, either from sleep or sitting for a while. I try to make sure he doesn’t fall and hurt himself. Our homes have an awful lot of sharp edges!
I think the shower helped, too. He’s going to hate the itching.
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Well that is great news. I guess he will have to put up with the inconvenience of interference because he still needs to be able to listen to TV etc now and as you say he is not going to stop using his headphones but hopefully it won’t be for long.
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Ironically, he won’t be able to use “normal” headphones when he is wearing the new apparatus. For reasons I don’t entirely understand, they can’t “hear” that frequency, though they CAN hear Bluetooth (and we know that for sure). But when he takes all that gear OFF, he’ll still have that left ear, so he will be able to the headsets without any of the new gear. Some writer on the Washington Post wrote about this the other day, that even with the implant, you are still deaf. Once you take off the equipment, you have no hearing. Deaf remains deaf.
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Too bad medicine hasn’t found a way to install “Bluetooth” directly into the brain, thereby bypassing all the complicated surgery gear, and, maybe even speeding recovery time. And if they did that in “stereo”…, it would be way too cool! Glad you’re feeling better Garr.
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Well, Garry really does have it installed. In his head if not his brain.
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To be really successful this stuff has to fool the whole body. In his head and not his brain is just another band-aid, IMO.
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So still at the mercy of technology.
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