Tuesday 12 January 2010

Happy (Belated!) New Year

Apologies for the abysmal lack of updates recently. It is now just over 6 weeks since my operation and nearly 3 weeks since activation so thought I would post a quick summary of all that's been going on.

On the weekend of my surgery I was lucky enough to be placed in private care by the NHS, which meant I had a lovely little en-suite room all to myself. It's true what they say, a little comfort really does go a long way and it did mean I was able to play with the settings on the electric bed without getting any strange looks :P My surgeon's name printed on the door was Professor G.O'Donaghue... now I'm not at all religious but I thought that was pretty interesting!

This is what was running through my head the night before the operation:

"It's funny - I've been getting myself worked up about this all week, but now that I'm here I feel completely at ease. I think it's because I've gone through every possible scenario by now, and I finally feel confident that I'm doing the right thing. The worst that could happen is that it doesn't work, and do you know what? Even if it doesn't work, it's better than spending my whole life wondering "what if...?"."


I have to say I was surprisingly calm! That is, until the time came to be wheeled down to theatre which is always bound to induce a slight panic even in the most carefree of people :|

So, the operation went smoothly with no complications and my surgeon seemed to be happy with the actual positioning of the implant and electrode array. I'm not gonna lie... the pain was pretty bad once the anesthetic wore off (imagine the world's worst hangover with the added extra of having a tube shoved down your throat for 2 hours the night before!), but nothing that couldn't be numbed by a request for more drugs... and I did ask for a lot! :|

Once I got home all I wanted to do was sleep, my energy levels were quite low and I was a bit off balance for a while... but the worst part was definitely not being able to wash my hair for 5 whole days!! :P Apart from that the recovery period was fine and I was soon back to my normal self, with the exception of one small (okay... big!) nosebleed 13 days after surgery which did set my alarm bells ringing but is apparently quite normal and nothing to worry about. All I had to do now was get through the next few weeks of absolute silence and wait for the big 'switch-on'.........

*to be continued*