Hello,
It's been a month or so since my last post so I thought I should update it. There is a special reason for doing so anyway.
It was a year ago this weekend that I was diagnosed with additional significant hearing loss. I had been having balance issues and gone through a battery of tests, including a brain MRI, before I went to an ENT who administered a hearing test. He was the one who said I would probably lose the rest of my hearing anywhere between months or a few years, and suggested I look into cochlear implants. When I walked out of his office that day, and for about a week afterwards, I was okay with his diagnosis -taking the attitude that it was just another bump in the road. But then it hit me: I could lose the rest of my hearing! Life had been fine wearing hearing aids for 32 years and now that was all going to change. To deal with this new anxiety I actually had to start taking Xanax, but after a couple of months I started worrying about it's addictivness and went cold turkey on it. Eventually of course I came to grips with this new stage of my life and with a big assist from my wife had the cochear implant done. I'm thinking I will have some kind of 1 year party either for the surgery date or activation date, or both! (Who doesn't like to party?)I will include a blog entry for those later in the fall.
In the meantime, I look back now and can't beleive the stress I went through. I suppose this is normal but I still wish I had not subjected myself to all the worrying and yes, crying. The implant has been a tremendous blessing.
In the coming months, I will try to recap some of the important dates and events that led up to my implantation. What a difference a year makes!
Take care,
Dan