Blow Dryer-less

I woke up this morning feeling compelled to write a post in this blog.  Probably so that I can do some mental processing!

15 days ago, my ear drum in my left ear (non CI ear) ruptured.  Super, super painful.  But worse than the pain is it killed the little hearing I had left.  I don't know if it will come back after my ear drum fully heals or not.  Though that little hearing didn't do much on it's own, combined with my hearing aid and my CI, I was doing so, so well!  But now, my hearing aid is completely useless as there is nothing to amplify.

I realized today that I can no longer hear the blow dryer when I'm drying my hair.  I can feel it.  But I can't hear it.  That was the one thing left I could hear with my natural hearing.  Now that's gone, at least temporarily, but possibly permanently.

Without my hearing aid, the CI alone has made sounds a bit mechanical again.  After two weeks of not balancing it out with my hearing aid, it's finally normalizing in sound.  So in quiet environments, I'm doing almost as well as I was with my hearing aid.

However, enter in sound and it's much harder.  I've thought after getting my left ear implanted for years but the timing was never right.  The last two weeks, I've had the thought of a second implant almost constantly.

My surgeon is no longer practicing in Utah.  I'm not exactly sure what happened to him.  I'm meeting with a different surgeon on May 22 to consult with him about a second implant.  A lot of things would have to line up for it to work out.   My top 3 concerns are balance, cost and yet another surgical procedure.

The journey to sound continues!