Baha..hahaha part 1
Hello again! :)
As promised it's time for a blog following the surgery last week to insert the Abutment (screw/peg) to hold in place and conduct the noise from the sound processer for my hearing aid into something to hear!!!
So... I opted to have it done under local ..... all well and good until you break that cardinal rule and google it!!! That wasn't my finest moment.. and as a nurse I should know this, yet I think I thought that made me exempt!! Apparently not! Aaahhhh!!
Im going to bullet point the surgery to make it shorter to read and try and expand after on the things you might find helpful (skip past if you don't want to know! It's not that gory... picture right at the bottom, not that gory.
1) Lie flat on my back head turned toward good side (left for me)
2) They shaved a good section around the area they plan to work. (left me the hair above so it would cover)
3) They checked the CT (old one, post Brain surg) for skull depth, (need 2mm+) and draw on me where they're going in
4) They covered me over with drapes. So you can see out and breathe. Not too claustrophobic.
5) They cleaned me (can feel this.. just wet)
6) They put a needle through my skin on my head to see how deep that is. (no anaesthetic.. not painful at all)
7) They injected local into the area where they are working (this just feels tight like pressure)
8) They tested the area with their scalpels (couldn't feel it at all)
9) They cauterised (burnt) the skin to create a skin flap crescent shaped under the centre of which they put the screw
10) They did their thing!!!! Which involved a lot of pushing and drilling and scraping. You can hear it all. But no pain
11) They replaced and sewed up the flap (non-disolvable stiches)
12) They put a bung in the screw head to fill it and underneath they put a an active dressing and some foam
13) RECOVERY... You can lie head straight on the pillow as it's off to one side. Had quite a headache but no site pain. A fair bit dizzy... but that could just be Morris being shaken??
14) 5 Days later: Dressings changed (couldn't get it wet or wash hair or anything) New plug applied.. smaller. (still keep area dry) I hadn't leant on that side of my head at all in the past days. I do think that helped healing.
15) 10 days later: I''ll get my stitches out and hopefully the dressings off...
16) 8 weeks later: BAHA fitted!!!! TO BE CONTINUED.......
So there you go! Sounds simple yeah? Well I guess it was.. and it was pain free but there's an awful lot of pushing and grinding and you can hear it all. When they started drilling it really set Morris off, just being vibrated makes my eyes go funny and I got some double vision again and couldn't see... so I shut my eyes!! It doesn't last long. When they were sewing me up was the only time it started to hurt. Not the stitches but deep inside my head It felt like. As if they were pushing right on it. They re-did the anaesthetic and it was all good!
Recovery was easy. Yes I had a shocking headache, but then that's one of my symptoms when Morris gets agitated.It wasn't wound pain. Equally I'd already been on a tube that day which didn't help and I guess I was a bit stressed too. None of these make for a morris free day!! I got drugs for the pain in recovery and had to eat, drink and pee get my take home meds and go. I was in recovery a fair while as of course you are classed as a "high fall risk" due to the location of surgery, so they need to make sure you're stable (hahahah!!!!)
​Getting home was probably the worst. I was going back to a hotel, and I'm glad I was because I wouldn't have managed a taxi or a train home. (2hrs) So it was three stops on the tube. I chose this over a car because I just couldn't take all the visual stimulus moving around me I was pretty dizzy. So tube it was.... It was hard work! Everyone moved out of my way and I think I probably looked shocking.. with blood in my hair and dark circles round my eyes. I pulled my hair over the site so you couldn't actually see anything. Apparently I did make some random comments on the train but I blame my meds!!!! ;)
The days immediately post op... I've been mostly sore with a Morris headache but also site pain which is sharp and very positional. My skull has remained numb like the anaesthetic not the way it was before and only now at day 7 is it starting to change back. There's been a lot of tingling. I've been feeling pretty sick and I think it just goes back to early brain surgery days when your brain just can't cope with too many things. It's healing, and trying to hear AND balance. Too much!! So i've rested and slept, rested and slept, and eaten pain killers like smarties!!! More because pain is so tiring than because the pain is unbearable. The dressing change was easy and the surgeon was pleased so all good!!
So all in all.. BAHA... yeah I'm happy so far. If I'm honest I will wait and see how long this pain, fatigue and dizziness last. I had just about got myself into a life balance with how to manage the capacity my brain has. This seems to have tipped it all and I imagine it's just a post op thing. Ill keep you posted at part 2! I am going back to work monday, A week and half later so I'll let you know how that is too!
So I'm bionic now! :) If I listen carefully I reckon I can hear your thoughts!!! BEWARE!!
