I took a shower today. Everyone around me is very thankful to be rid of the smell for it had been my first shower in a week. It has been six days since my ear surgery and I could tell I felt better today by my increasing annoyance at my mother.
My ear surgery was mainly to put in a prosthetic ear bone to replace a damaged one. It's titanium. So now my Uncle Pablo thinks we have so much in common because his wedding ring is titanium. Let's just hope my hearing works better than his marriage.
The true stories of a girl who became obsessed with them.
Showing posts with label ear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ear. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2010
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
If you throw up there, it means you're having fun
Why am I sitting here with my contacts in when they're really dry and bothering me when I really should be taking them out? Because I want to damage my vision in some weird masochistic way. Or because I'm too lazy to get up.
The carnival is coming to my town soon. I've been waiting since it left last year. For the past two years I went with my sister and her friend. It was fun but last year they asked me why I didn't go with my friends. Good question. So I decided then that next year I would go with my friends and we could all throw up together. Honestly, I didn't know if my friends even liked carnival rides. Some people don't. Personally, I find going round and round on machines operated by creepy people to be a source of enjoyment. Anyways, I figured one of 'em would go. 'Cept now my parents won't let me go on the rides because of my ear thing. And the worst part is, I was texting my friend today and she agrees with them! It has been a month people (or will be). Everyone thinks they're a doctor. Too many doctor shows on TV if you ask me (she says sarcastically because she has the TV schedules to Grey's Anatomy, House, Mystery Diagnosis, Untold Stories of the ER, and Scrubs bookmarked on her computer).
First no community marching band and now no carnival. Is it too late to take back the ear surgery?
Whatever. I don't have any money anyway.
I better go take my contacts out. I'm gonna need my vision if I'm gonna be half deaf for the next six months.
The carnival is coming to my town soon. I've been waiting since it left last year. For the past two years I went with my sister and her friend. It was fun but last year they asked me why I didn't go with my friends. Good question. So I decided then that next year I would go with my friends and we could all throw up together. Honestly, I didn't know if my friends even liked carnival rides. Some people don't. Personally, I find going round and round on machines operated by creepy people to be a source of enjoyment. Anyways, I figured one of 'em would go. 'Cept now my parents won't let me go on the rides because of my ear thing. And the worst part is, I was texting my friend today and she agrees with them! It has been a month people (or will be). Everyone thinks they're a doctor. Too many doctor shows on TV if you ask me (she says sarcastically because she has the TV schedules to Grey's Anatomy, House, Mystery Diagnosis, Untold Stories of the ER, and Scrubs bookmarked on her computer).
First no community marching band and now no carnival. Is it too late to take back the ear surgery?
Whatever. I don't have any money anyway.
I better go take my contacts out. I'm gonna need my vision if I'm gonna be half deaf for the next six months.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
What's the big deal?
The reason for my ear surgery was because I had a cholesteatoma. That's just a fancy way of saying there was debris, like dead skin, built up in my middle ear. Naturally, when I was first diagnosed in January, I started searching the Internet for information. My usual website, WebMd, was kind of a let down (nerdy-me admits to reading articles on there for fun). There wasn't a lot of information on cholesteatomas. And as I searched the world wide web it seemed to me like there wasn't much info on the web at all. That is until I found the Yahoo! group.
Yahoo! groups is a great feature and apparently they have everything from like Dukin Donuts group (called Dunkin' Coffee Table) -"A place for coffee lovers to converge" to the Cholesteatoma group. This was a great source of information. Not only did it have links to many informative websites, but there were also discussions going on and I could read about people's personal experiences.
As I would read these though, it seemed to me like people were way too into this cholesteatoma thing. There were two kinds of people I noticed right way. One, the people who either had really bad doctors or really bad luck. These people had like ten surgeries, each one lasting like five hours, with overnight hospital visits. Seems a bit extreme to me. The surgeon who did my surgery, can do it in like 45 minutes. My surgery, where he also had to build me a new eardrum and repair a whole in my semicircular canal still only took 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Then there are the people who are like way too dramatic. "Oh my god! I have to have surgery! But I have two children!" Chill out. You have some dead skin in your ear, not cancer.
This Yahoo! group is an active group a with almost 1800 members. I think it's great for information to learn about what others went through, but I just think that some people take it too seriously. For months now I have wanted to post there and ask "What's the big deal" But I realized that might be kind of rude and I can't trust my teenager judgment so I didn't.
However, recently, one member decided to make a blog and dedicate it entirely to her long, sad cholesteatoma experience. Really? Can you write a whole blog on that? I read it yesterday. She's already writing about her fifth surgery out of eight and her blog is only a few weeks old. Plus, the title, I Am Surviving Cholesteatoma. Well, I sure hope so! I would think you have a better chance of not surviving the flu.
I understand it freaks some people out because it's happening to their four year old, or they don't want to lose their hearing, or have surgery. But it's not that bad. It's a nuisance, yes. I admit that I hate that I still can't touch or lay on the right side of my face. And it is really annoying only to be able to hear out of one ear, but it is only temporary. And for the people who's hearing loss from the cholesteatomas is permanent they can get a hearing aid. As for the surgery, it's practically an outpatient procedure. I'll give it to the four year olds.
Perhaps, I have exaggerated a bit. Most people use the group for the same reason I do. It's just the obsessive, freaking out, dramatic people who bug me. Someone needs to tell them to chill out.
Anyway, I just wanted to rant about it.
Yahoo! groups is a great feature and apparently they have everything from like Dukin Donuts group (called Dunkin' Coffee Table) -"A place for coffee lovers to converge" to the Cholesteatoma group. This was a great source of information. Not only did it have links to many informative websites, but there were also discussions going on and I could read about people's personal experiences.
As I would read these though, it seemed to me like people were way too into this cholesteatoma thing. There were two kinds of people I noticed right way. One, the people who either had really bad doctors or really bad luck. These people had like ten surgeries, each one lasting like five hours, with overnight hospital visits. Seems a bit extreme to me. The surgeon who did my surgery, can do it in like 45 minutes. My surgery, where he also had to build me a new eardrum and repair a whole in my semicircular canal still only took 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Then there are the people who are like way too dramatic. "Oh my god! I have to have surgery! But I have two children!" Chill out. You have some dead skin in your ear, not cancer.
This Yahoo! group is an active group a with almost 1800 members. I think it's great for information to learn about what others went through, but I just think that some people take it too seriously. For months now I have wanted to post there and ask "What's the big deal" But I realized that might be kind of rude and I can't trust my teenager judgment so I didn't.
However, recently, one member decided to make a blog and dedicate it entirely to her long, sad cholesteatoma experience. Really? Can you write a whole blog on that? I read it yesterday. She's already writing about her fifth surgery out of eight and her blog is only a few weeks old. Plus, the title, I Am Surviving Cholesteatoma. Well, I sure hope so! I would think you have a better chance of not surviving the flu.
I understand it freaks some people out because it's happening to their four year old, or they don't want to lose their hearing, or have surgery. But it's not that bad. It's a nuisance, yes. I admit that I hate that I still can't touch or lay on the right side of my face. And it is really annoying only to be able to hear out of one ear, but it is only temporary. And for the people who's hearing loss from the cholesteatomas is permanent they can get a hearing aid. As for the surgery, it's practically an outpatient procedure. I'll give it to the four year olds.
Perhaps, I have exaggerated a bit. Most people use the group for the same reason I do. It's just the obsessive, freaking out, dramatic people who bug me. Someone needs to tell them to chill out.
Anyway, I just wanted to rant about it.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Play it by ear
Well, I feel kind of detached from reality now and I am ready to jump back in and not a minute too soon. You know it's bad when I'm sick of TV. The reason- last week I had ear surgery.
About this surgery, well, I didn't think it would be a big deal. The ear doctor told me he only operates on Thursdays and that way his patients can go back to work/school on the following Monday. I figure, great, a few days to chill and then back to normal. Even in the pre-op room the resident was like, "What are you doing this weekend?" Um, I can do stuff this weekend, so soon after surgery? It sounded good to me.
When they woke me up after my 45-minute-turned-2 1/2 hours surgery my first thought was I have to throw up. At that point I was still in the operating room- I bet they would have had fun cleaning that up. I managed to wait, throw up twice, then sleep in the recovery area for the next three hours. I felt bad because my parents didn't get to see me while I was sleeping there and it may have been a little my fault seeing as I stayed up until 1 the night before and had to get up at 6:30.
The next few days consisted of me throwing up every time I tried eating something and being so dizzy I had to have someone walk me to the bathroom whenever I had to go. In this lovely time, I also did not shower. By the time (Wednesday) I had figured out a way to wash my hair without getting water in or behind (where they cut me open) my ear, I wasn't even sure it was hair anymore- just a big pile of greasiness. And when I finally was able to eat, I had difficulties because I couldn't open my mouth all the way or chew on the right side, seeing as that side of my face was all swollen and bruised.
So, no Doc, I did not do anything that weekend. I also think that had I had school I would not have gone back on Monday, unless of course they wanted me to fall down three flights of stairs. I know this whole post has sounded like a list of complaints but cut me some slack because they did cut my head open for cryin out loud. And the best part? I have to have another ear surgery in six months. yay.
About this surgery, well, I didn't think it would be a big deal. The ear doctor told me he only operates on Thursdays and that way his patients can go back to work/school on the following Monday. I figure, great, a few days to chill and then back to normal. Even in the pre-op room the resident was like, "What are you doing this weekend?" Um, I can do stuff this weekend, so soon after surgery? It sounded good to me.
When they woke me up after my 45-minute-turned-2 1/2 hours surgery my first thought was I have to throw up. At that point I was still in the operating room- I bet they would have had fun cleaning that up. I managed to wait, throw up twice, then sleep in the recovery area for the next three hours. I felt bad because my parents didn't get to see me while I was sleeping there and it may have been a little my fault seeing as I stayed up until 1 the night before and had to get up at 6:30.
The next few days consisted of me throwing up every time I tried eating something and being so dizzy I had to have someone walk me to the bathroom whenever I had to go. In this lovely time, I also did not shower. By the time (Wednesday) I had figured out a way to wash my hair without getting water in or behind (where they cut me open) my ear, I wasn't even sure it was hair anymore- just a big pile of greasiness. And when I finally was able to eat, I had difficulties because I couldn't open my mouth all the way or chew on the right side, seeing as that side of my face was all swollen and bruised.
So, no Doc, I did not do anything that weekend. I also think that had I had school I would not have gone back on Monday, unless of course they wanted me to fall down three flights of stairs. I know this whole post has sounded like a list of complaints but cut me some slack because they did cut my head open for cryin out loud. And the best part? I have to have another ear surgery in six months. yay.
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