20002000
Tuesday morning dawned bright and cold, and my daughter, Christy, insisted on going with me. We arrived at the radiology department at 8:45, 15 min before my first appointment. We were sent to register first. At least that's what Christy told me. I could not hear the clerk at the desk and could not read her lips. At the registration desk the woman thought I said "cath" scan and spent time looking for my name and making phone calls. Finally sheasked again, and again I said CAT scan. This time she found me.
We arrived back at the radiology desk at 9:00 and were told to sit and wait. We sat and waited. And waited. Finally at 9:45, someone came to get me. A thing for inserting needles was put into my arm, and I was given 3 huge shots of iodine. I was to have pictures taken from two angles, one lying on my back and the other on my stomach. The scan is to determine if your inner ear anatomy is normal. Lying on the back was no problem, but for the other I ended up with a stiff neck. The whole process only took about 25 minutes.
We then walked very rapidly as I was late for the 10:00 Psychology appointment. We arrived and were told to take a seat. Two minutes later we discovered we were in the wrong place and the psychologist was in the audiology department. Up to the 8thfloor we went and at 10:30 I was in a little sound proof room with the psychologist. I have never seen a psychologist before and was somewhat apprehensive, but she put me at ease. If I had not been able to read her lips, she was prepared to type everything for me on a computer. I felt like I was talking to a good friend. An hour later the interview ended. I'm still not sure what the purpose of the interview was, except to make sure that I had the right expectations about the implant.
Coming out of the interview, a woman came over and introduced herself to Christy and me. She was a volunteer at the hospital as well as at the audiology clinic. Doris had her Cochlear Implant done in 1996 and is very satisfied with it. She came to lunch with us and willingly answered any questions I had.
We left Doris about 12:30 to go back to radiology to pick up my films. We had been told to pick them up at the desk. The desk sent us to a pickup room. The pickup room guys could not find them. Finally a woman came in who knew where to look. She went to another room and bought them back to us.
At 1:00 I was back in the audiology room waiting for my appointment with Sharon, the audiologist. Christy, who was getting very bored, decided to go and get the oil changed in her car, and come back later.
I received a thorough hearing evaluation from Sharon. She had me wear a hearing aid in my bad ear during these tests. I haven't heard anything for so many years in that ear, that when she first turned it on, the sound hurt. At the end of the hearing test, Sharon told me I qualified for the surgery. But also said I would have better results if the implant was done in my good ear. I was not prepared to hear that. All this time, I had thought if Iqualified, I would have it done in my bad ear, leaving my good ear to hear with my aid.
Because I was not prepared to hear that, and needed time to think, we cut short the appointment. Sharon suggested that I still see Dr. Levine, so if I did decide to go ahead with the surgery, I would not have to see him again, until the day of surgery.
Having an hour to wait until my appointment with Dr. Levine, I went in search of a diet coke and a table to sit and collect my thoughts. About 3:45 I was back in the waiting room. I checked and found out I had to register again. This time there were no problems, once I informed the woman she needed to face me when she spoke.
Doris came in again and gave me a big hug when she heard I qualified. I did not have time to talk to her about my fears, as I was called in right then to see the Doctor. There I sat and waited for another 45 minutes. A young resident came in and asked questions and checked out my ears, nose and throat. Finally the Doctor arrived. He said my CT scan showed everything was normal. He talked about the success rate of 98% and why the 2% failed. He also told me I should have the better ear done, to lower the risk of being in that 2%, especially since it had been over 30 years since my bad ear had been stimulated. He commented on my lip reading skills, saying that I was an excellent lip reader. I never thought I was until this day, when many people commented on it. But what they don't realize, is that I have to have some sound as well as see the lips to understand. I left feeling good about him, that if I decided to go ahead with the CI, I would be in good hands.
I have not made my decision yet. I have to decide if I dare to risk going totally deaf in order to hear better, or to take a chance and have the bad ear implanted.
NEXT
Back to TABLE of CONTENTS