Before The ‘Switch on’!

Its hard to believe time went fast, its only been a month since my surgery.

Let me back up and discuss the post-operation period a bit.  When I went for my follow up appointment a week after surgery, I questioned if I was healing as expected. I was caught off guard by an uncomfortable period in my recovery, and I was baffled that my discomfort was growing worse, not in a painful way but really itching. Warm salty water has helped a lot to ease the itches.

Several days following my operation,  my cochlear implant optimism really started to wane. Up until that point, I had made it through not being able to taste food for Days 1 and 2. I was fatigued, certainly, but I gave myself permission to sleep as needed in my friend’s comfortable bed. In a way, my recovery was becoming a mini-vacation, with wine and views of the countryside being replaced by panadols and Austar. This whole surgery thing wasn’t so bad! Before booking flights for surgery, I was told I shouldn’t fly due to the pressure but I had to ask the specialist before surgery and she said I could. On the day going home, as the plane took off and hover in air, there was no pressure nor any blockage in my cochlear side (right) and I felt normal, no sickness or anything. During the next few weeks I got back to my normal routine of day to day life.

The last week before activation, my taste bud has came back and I could taste the foods, thankfully. For other CI recipients it took them 6 months, 1 year and 2 years to get their taste bud back, I guess I was lucky that it only took me 3 weeks. I love food I could not go without tasting them for that long.

I’m struggling to find an appropriate ending to this post, so I leave you with this image of a happy little Cynthia who I believe at the time, was before mother found out I was deaf.