Quick Update

Good morning!

First of all, I'd like to clarify that I am NOT having second thoughts at all. :) It was just scary to see 3 "failures" all in ONE night. What are the odds?!

But there have been more wonderful stories (like the bloggers on the world wide web and the people from HearingJourney). The bad stories tend to stick to your mind more because you think, "That could happen to me... yikes." I don't want to be a statistic of CI "failure." There are a lot of scary side effects if you think about it (If you haven't gotten the CI, STOP thinking about it now!! *smile*) I know the surgeon has a face nerve monitor but it still worries me, even though my surgeon is Jay Rubenstein and has done a TON of CI surgeries.

In fact, my sweet and eager grandma did some research when I told her I was getting the CI surgery. She said, "If you get Jay Rubenstein, that's really really good!" Then she gave me a list of his credentials, which were, well, "really really good!" I have no idea how she found out who was the "best" CI surgeon in her opinion, but I wound up getting him! So I immediately recognized his name when I found out he was going to be the surgeon. That IS some reassurance at least. And it helps to have my questions answered and to meet the team, so I think I'll definitely do that on my pre-op day (Day after TOMORROW!!)

I finally remembered what I wanted to buy from the store- yarn! I plan to make use of the one day I'll be in bed to crotchet something. But if given the chance, I'll probably sit outside and talk to my mom and stepdad since I don't get to see them much, especially since I live at school over summer. :( I AM sad about that, but I wanted to stay in Seattle. I didn't feel like it was going to be much fun if I stayed in my hometown when my mom and stepdad will both be working a lot. However, I WILL be going to California with them and all the 7 kids!!! (My mom got remarried this past December and he has 6 kids. 4 are adopted and 2 are kids from his past marriage. One is autistic and one is "slow." They're great kids but it can be CRAZY with ALL of them! But as for "blood-related siblings" I only have one, my wonderful sister Tori who is 4 years and 7 months younger than me.)

That is something I've been thinking about too, by the way! The kids might not all understand or know that I'm getting surgery, and hopefully the stitches will be as small as Tom's!! (Size of his surgeon's thumbnail. Hopefully his surgeon wasn't a BIG person!! Haha)

So when I do see them again (they live with their real mother the majority of the time), I wonder if I'll calmly say, "Hey, do you guys think magnets will stick to your head?" They'll of course try and say "No!" I'll then put a magnet on my head and poof! It sticks! :P The younger ones will really get a kick out of that, and the oldest boy who is 14, probably will too! They probably won't believe it until they try for themselves!

Also, Tom, you don't have a blog, so I can't reach you! I was wondering what you meant awhile ago when you suggested I put my journey on HearingJourney. I couldn't find any specific place to put all this in! It seems like there's just areas for questions, etc, not a whole long blog!

Oddly, when I put on my hearing aid today, everything seemed TOO quiet. It made me nervous, so I changed the battery while thinking, "If the surgery works then I'll never have to buy batteries again, just pull them out of the charger!!! Yay!!" (I have spent SO much money on batteries for my hearing aid over the years.) But even after the battery was changed, it sounded too quiet. I can hear the keyboard making sounds every time I type something and the now-familiar white sound of traffic but somehow I have an odd feeling that it's quieter than it normally is. I feel a bit disturbed by this but I'm hoping it's just in my head or that my hearing aid just needs to be cleaned or repaired. And at least I can still hear many subtle sounds. Maybe I just need to give my nerves time to respond?

Well, I'm off to my dad's work to pick up my IPOD!!!! Whee! Hope you all have a great day.