Looking back, I feel for Michael - Tuesday must have been a VERY long day. We reported in at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC for short; Bethesda for us old timers) at 0615. I would say the smartest decision we made was spending Monday night in Bethesda MD instead of making that drive around the Beltway in the morning ... that and booking Mike a hotel room for Tuesday night.
So far all is good, the staff at Walter Reed is very professional, polite and helpful. Pre Op is a two step process, check in, change into a gown, pee in a cup and wait (all the while thinking fondly on your morning cup of coffee that you didn't get....sigh). Step two is where it gets interesting: wander down the hall with your escort in your extremely fashionable hospital gown, slipper socks, scrub pants and robe to the actual pre-op area. At this point I was feeling a bit nervous, so the first words out of my mouth to Michael once the door swung open was "Hey, do you remember the movie Coma?" Not sure why really, except the curtains were being suspended by this plastic tubing on the runners, and it just looked like those tubes the bodies were suspended by in the movie. Anyway, gives you a glimpse of my food and caffeine deprived mindset at that time.
Yet again, I can not say enough about the doctors, nurses and aides.....this is a theme you will see running through this post. They were phenomenal. At this point they confirm what surgery I am having, ask history questions and start my IV. This is when I start to blubber a bit, going into surgery is no small thing and knowing that these fine doctors are drilling into your head is even more daunting. Props go out to the Anesthesia Nurse, she was sweet and funny and really got my into the right mindset before wheeling me off. Remember this nurse, I believe she is responsible for the spectacular photo in the next posting. The last thing I remember at the point is a kiss from Michael. It was about 0930.
Cut to Michael, he spent the day in the surgery waiting room drinking coffee and watching Germany trounce Brazil, and me, well I laid around and kept him waiting and waiting and waiting. I was in for two procedures a labyrinthectomy and removal of he offending schwanomma and then the cochlear implant installation. It was supposed to take five hours. Seven hours later they wheel me into post op and Michael gets the report.
My condition has always been special: first having an acoustic neuroma detected at the ripe old age of 36 is unusual, then to have such a small one cause complete deafness by being so appropriately (maybe that should be inappropriately) placed made it even more so. Then there is the fact that it is an "intralabyrinthe schwanomma" , NOT on the acoustic nerve, wow, even more interesting (so they say). Now, to top it all off, the doctors crack my head open and dig down to my inner ear to find it completely ossified. WOW, they were not expecting that and it definitely took longer to clean everything out.
The Cochlear Implant installation was textbook and went beautifully (according to both my ENT and the Audiologist). In an email I got from the Audiologist today, he said that my "auditory nerve response in the OR was gorgeous." Of course, that is not a predictor of end results when they turn on my implant, but it isn't a bad thing either. Means the nerve is still awake and responding after 8 years of lazing about doing nothing.
Post Op Recovery room, everything was wonderful: Michael and the nurse were doing their best to get me to rejoin the cognizant world. I was thinking there might have been rainbows and unicorns, everything was FINE, just FINE, then those lovely meds started wearing off and BAM! Wow, was I sore and in some pretty serious pain. A couple of Tylenol 3s and an IV push of something fantastic and life was much more bearable. Ready for the bed ride to my hospital room for the night.
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