Upcoming Ear Surgery

[Pedersen]

Hugs and don't listen to metal for the first few days :P
Glad you're ok.

Cutenoob

One good thing about web browsing: unless you're on 4chan, it's extremely low stress

I'm laying in bed, having just woken up for a bit, and deciding to wait on my next dose of vicodin before sleeping again. Using my phone for browsing means I don't even have to get out from under the covers. Modern technology is fantastic!

So, I got the hospital on time, and the doctor was about 45 minutes late. The last thing I remember clearly is laying down on the operating table, and finding out that one of the OR nurses was from Chile. I practiced my Spanish very briefly, and found out that I need lots more vocabulary. At least she smiled when I told her "no entiendo" (I don't understand).

After that, during waking up, I apparently was not a good patient. Some sort of reaction to the anesthetic, and I was thrashing around. I don't know if I hurt anyone or not, but I hope I didn't. They were all such good people, and I would hate to find out I hurt any of them, even though I was not in control of myself.

I think I'll ask what the anesthetic used was, so I can tell future anesthetologists about my reaction to it.

So, the. upshot to everything is that the doctor found and removed, as he told my wife, a rather large cholesteatoma. I don't know what else (if anything) had to be removed, and don't know if there are any long side effects (one possible side effect would have been the need to visit a specialist ever six to twelve months for professional ear cleaning). I'm going to go see him come Monday, and find out.

At least the worst is over now. Depending on the outcome, I might get to do this again in a year. I hope not, but we will see.

[Rapscallion]

Good to see you're back. I've just realised that with it being on your ear, it's likely that when you turn over in bed you'll damn well feel this. Any problems in that regard?

Rapscallion

[Pedersen]

So far, no problems. I'm so afraid to turn over that I wake up in the exact same position I fell asleep in. Only bad part is that ilm not sleeping a full night tonight. Came home, slept four hours, woke up. Just repeated.

Hopefully, that doesn't slow me down recovery wise.

Related, though: I'm not going anywhere I don't have to. I felt every damned bump in the road on the way home. It's like there was a direct connection between the road and the ear. Not fun at all.

My only new thing is this: why does my body choose now as the time to get a wicked case the hiccups? Gah!

[cinema guy]

Glad it went ok. My wrist surgery was last week, so I know just what you are going through.

[Broomjockey]

Glad you're doing okay, man. Swift recovery. That's an order!

[Plaidman]

See, told ya it be fine. Glad your doing better

[XCashier]

Glad you're doing better. Sounds like you're following doctor's orders, so a good recovery looks to be in the future. Definitely ask him about the anesthetic.

Get well soon!

[Pedersen]

Glad it went ok. My wrist surgery was last week, so I know just what you are going through.

Surgeries can make you feel so much better in the long term. But damn do they suck in the short term. Looking forward so very much to reaching a decent state in the next couple days. You know, one where I'm not calling the bottle of Vicodin my best friend.

How's your recovery going? Well, aside from finding out that, if a nearby construction site needs some rebar that they should visit you? (And please know I do mean that to try to make you laugh, and very much no offense)

Glad you're doing okay, man. Swift recovery. That's an order!

/me checks out your avatar. Aren't you a god? Can I borrow your sarcophagus for a few hours?

See, told ya it be fine. Glad your doing better

It's much easier to believe everything will be okay when it's someone else going under. I've done the same. Reading the list of possible side effects on the consent form, it's like looking at seriously scary shit. Bitter taste. nerve damage, stroke, death. Yeah, that's just what I want to read before heading into the operating room.

It's necessary, but scary as hell. Glad to have that part in the past.

Get well soon!

Thank you much. It feels good to have gotten it done, even if it does hurt a bit.

[Evil Queen]

Think of it this way; everyone has to be nice to you because you just had surgery!

Now go watch Repo! The Genetic Opera.

[cinema guy]

How's your recovery going?

Pretty good. I'm not taking painkillers every 4 hours like clockwork now. Too much movement is still painfull, and I can feel metal moving inside my arm sometimes. But definitely improving.

Well, aside from finding out that, if a nearby construction site needs some rebar that they should visit you? (And please know I do mean that to try to make you laugh, and very much no offense)

[Pedersen]

So, I visited the doctor yesterday, and found out the good and the bad of what all was done, and found out the long term consequences of this. The good stuff: The wrap-around-the-head bandage was removed, and everything looks exactly as it should. On Friday, I'll get the stitches out. The bad stuff?

I had a cholesteatoma. These can be very nasty little buggers that, if left untreated, do very nasty things to you.

In my case, he described it as a very large cholesteatoma that was removed. One of the permanent after-effects is that this one had started to go through the back of the ear area and into the brain cavity. There is a hole there, though it is extremely rare for a hole like this to cause problems later (these are his words, not mine).

I have another permanent effect of this surgery: When doing this sort of work, the choice has to be made during surgery to leave the back wall of the auditory canal up or down. If it is left up, then the body is pretty well normal. If it is left down, then I get to go back every six months for a cleaning. Basically, the auditory canal has an opening in the back of it that requires a specialist to take care of it and ensure that nothing comes back in the future.

Yep, I'm one of the lucky people whose canal wall was left down. I get to go for these visits.

The worst part of all of this is that I've known for a long time that I needed to go back (read: years). I went to visit a doctor years ago, but his staff so turned me off that I never went back (add in that I didn't actually see him, but rather his Physician's Assistant, and I was totally annoyed). I then never did the follow through that I needed to, so as to make sure that I was going to be safe. Instead, I convinced myself that I didn't need to do anything, that it would be okay. I let this sit there and get worse before I finally realized what I had done. The only good thing is that I finally went before the damage became genuinely severe. As it is, it's only annoying.

The consequences are my own damned fault, and I know it. At least some of this pain is totally deserved.

It still sucks. Maybe I'll at least be able to be a warning for others about what not to do.

[Evil Queen]

How's your hearing?

[Pedersen]

How's your hearing?

That's actually hard to say. Right now, it doesn't seem any worse than before, but I'm not certain since my right ear has a wad of cotton stuffed in it. I could be compensating for the cotton mentally, and therefore saying it's not worse when it really is, or vice versa.

I do know that the doctor has said that my hearing is extremely unlikely to improve over this. If it changes at all, it's likely to get worse.

I do know that it's gotten different, though. You know how, when you talk, you hear your own voice, but it sounds different from the way other people hear you?(if not, record your voice on the computer, and listen to it, you'll swear that's not you).

The tone of my voice has changed in my head. What I hear sounds different than what I heard before. It shouldn't be totally unexpected, since the acoustics behind my ear have changed. I don't expect that to ever be back to the way it was.

I also know that my sense of taste has changed somewhat. Sodas used to be great and wonderful. Now they're not so sweet. I hope that changes back, and soon. I would really hate to have to learn what foods taste good and what ones don't anymore.

[Der Cute]

Isn't the self-hearing the resonation in the ear? Now that you've had the blockage removed, I'd think it would be ear-sier for you to hear yourself speak.

Cutenoob
PS your ear's now a maintenance issue, right? yearly doc visits to check up on your hole.

[Broomjockey]

Isn't the self-hearing the resonation in the ear? Now that you've had the blockage removed, I'd think it would be ear-sier for you to hear yourself speak.

The sound of your voice to yourself is an amalgam of hearing the reflected soundwaves from out in the world, but also them travelling through your sinuses and skull to your ear. If you change something about those acoustics, you are going to sound different. It isn't a matter of it being "easier" to hear yourself. You. Sound. Different.

But give it a couple weeks, you'll be so used to it you'll not even think of it, until you do and you're surprised it's been so long since you thought of it, Ped.