six weeks later

This past Thursday marked the six week anniversary of my ear surgery. I haven’t written about my recovery in a while, so for those who are interested in my progress, here you go.

My hearing in the left ear has continued to slowly get better. I’m definitely in the “gradual slow progress” stage of my recovery now. But this past week, I hit a new milestone: I was able to hold a phone conversation with the phone up to my left ear instead of my right. And the person I was talking to has a fairly strong accent, so the fact I understood almost every word was a good sign.

Now for the bad: I still have ringing, though sometimes it’s quiet enough I don’t think about it. And I still have very loud autophony – way worse than before surgery. My voice is uncomfortably loud, chewing crunchy foods is super noisy, and I sometimes have a hard time sleeping due to hearing my pulse in that ear.

The doctor did say it would take months for everything to come together right, so I’m still holding out hope. But I don’t feel like my autophony has improved in the past month, and that’s pretty discouraging. It’s still difficult to carry on a conversation in a crowded place.

My balance has been just fine, and I’ve been driving a lot. I’ve gone to the rec center twice (only) in the past six weeks, but haven’t done anything that would cause “strain”. And riding the exercise bike at the lowest level is pretty darn boring.

As a result of my very limited exercise for six weeks, I’ve gained back the weight I lost after surgery. And I’m in terrible physical condition right now. I start breathing heavily after going up just two flights of stairs. It may be tough to get back even to the so-so shape I was in a few months ago, but I can’t wait to start.

I continue to shower with a greasy (Vaseline-covered) cotton ball in my left ear, to keep the water out. I can’t wait for that to end, but it won’t be until late January, after the tube in my eardrum comes out and the hole heals up. My incision scar is still sensitive in parts, but numb in others.

My left ear still sticks out more than my right, and may do so forever at this point. I’m looking forward to getting my hair cut, because I haven’t had a trim for almost two months at this point, and I’m pretty scruffy around the edges. I’m a little nervous about the barber being gentle enough to not hurt the sensitive parts of the side of my head, but it should be OK if I warn them about it.

Supposedly now that my six week “limited activity” period is over, I can go back a normal routine, including:

  • sexual activity
  • bending at the waist
  • lifting more than 10 pounds

But rather than dreaming up some scenario to do all those at once, I think it’s probably best to ease back into normal life gradually.

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Wanna see all the posts about my ears, so you can read the details play-by-play from the beginning of my journey with superior semicircular canal dehiscence syndrome? If so, click here (it’s show you all the ear-related posts in reverse order): http://toddbradley.com/?cat=6

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Categorized as Ears

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