Survived!

I’m back home now (it’s 2:30 pm) and feeling surprisingly good. The operation took about an hour and 40 minutes. I have no dizziness at all, and only mild soreness and a bit of tinnitus. Amazing. The whole thing went very smoothly. Now I’m officially bilateral — and I’m going to take a nap.

(11:30pm): My surgeon, Dr. Roberson, told me that things went very well in the OR. He said the electrodes went in perfectly, and that the device is flush with the surface of my skull. It took him just 43 minutes to get it in there, which probably accounts for why I feel so little hangover from the anesthesia. (I guess the total time of an hour and 40 minutes comes from setup and bandaging; I’m not quite sure how much time I actually spent under anesthesia.)

The area around my right ear feels sore, but Vicodin takes care of it. I’m having occasional ringing sounds in the ear — clearly the nerves in there are very surprised. But apart from that, and the vivid purple bandage on my head, I hardly feel like I’ve even had surgery. The incision is less than an inch long and it’s so close to the back of the ear that Dr. Roberson didn’t even shave off any hair. When the bandage comes off the incision won’t even be visible.

I’m walking around making phone calls (the bandage on my left side is so thin that my left implant sticks to me right through it.) No dizziness, no stomach upset; I’m eating my way through the fridge. My dad and my friend Judith brought in omelettes from Savor (a restaurant on 24th Street) and we watched “Little Miss Sunshine” afterward.

It’s so much easier this time, it’s amazing. Wow. It’s over. What a relief.

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