I guess the first thing I have to do is warn you.....
I put a picture, at the bottom of the page, of my actual surgery...
If you don't want to see it.... don't scroll down to the very bottom.
First I must say that
I never felt nervous or scared about the procedure. As the
weeks became days before and then hours - I kept thinking,
ok now I will feel nervous, but it never happened. I stayed
happy and calm. When I saw my Dr. show up in the surgery
holding room, I smiled really big and became excited about
the surgery. After my family left, and the nurses were
wheeling me down the hall towards the operating room, I
cried some tears of happiness and emotion for my new life
that was beginning now. The Friday before
monday's surgery, the Dr's office called to reschedule the
time from 7a.m. to 1p.m. - luckily it was on the same day.
The rescheduling
caused a myriad of problems starting with travel plans. Many
of my family members were planning to make the trip to San
Antonio and flights had to be cancelled and hotels switched
as also the hospital had changed too. When I arrived at the
hospital - there was no sign-language interpreter - BUT I
had brought my best friend, and she interpreted as best she
could for 24 hours solid! I'm not kidding, admissions,
pre-op, surgical holding, recovery, post-op and all night
long (every hour on the hour some one walked in that door to
talk to me, check my blood pressure, refill my IV - you name
it) I am not a super
lip-reader, I've lived all my life using ASL or signed
English. Dr. Krueger was my surgeon and he did fingerspell
to me some things - I was proud of him. My parents had to
pay $60 for a private room, but it was worth it because my
friend spent the whole night. The surgery was about an hour
late and after recovery I was in my room about 7:00 p.m.
I was surprised it
was so late already. I didn't have pain but I was nauseous.
I took pain meds but they promptly came back up and later,
around 1a.m. a nice nurse came in and gave me an injection
for that and some pain medicine in the shot too. Dr. Wesley Krueger - San
Antonio, Texas The nurse called the
next day to check on me - and she said everything I told her
was normal - the sore neck, the numb surgery site, the
swelling, the buzzing in my head, the dizziness. My parents came over
and took be out to lunch for BBQ and I began to feel back to
normal. I'm smiling because my brother
didn't climb into my This is 2 days after the surgery.
No stitches - just tape. My dad and me before the
surgery. Mom and me right after I got to
my hospital room. My brother surprised
me! I was released from
the hospital and at my parent's house by 1p.m. I didn't feel
too awfully bad, just weak and sleepy. My mom cooked
wonderful food for me and they both took good care of me
after the surgery. The next day I took off the 'wrestling'
headwrap and was impressed by the tape instead of stitches I
received. My neck was swollen and sore. There was a lot of
glue in my hair from the sticky bandages - which is still
there - almost a week and a few shampoos later.....anyway
the next night I went home to my house and slept almost all
night. It was great medicine to just be in my bed, with my
dog to sleep and sleep! I washed my hair all except for the
shaved part and I was surprized that my haircut covers it
almost completely. I had let it grow to be almost one length
on top and when it comes down over it - it looks
fine....until the wind blows.....smile. This is day 8 after the surgery
and the tape was removed. My haircut completely hides the
surgery site.
May 1, 2000
hospital bed with his shoes on - like he
promised.
Magnified 10X - this is a picture of my
inner ear,
and Dr. Krueger inserting the Electrode.