I Can Hear!!!

This morning I had my ear appointment with Dr. Fucci. He took out the stitches in my arm (the first photo) and cleared out my ear of gauze and junk (second and third photos) so I can hear perfectly!

I didn't want to look at my arm while he removed the stitches, but there were 5 stitches. You can see a close-up of my arm in the last picture. Yummy! Just kidding...it's just a little bit pink and swollen. I am using A & D ointment to help it heal better, hopefully.

As Dr. Fucci was pulling stuff out of my ear, it was somewhat painful. My ear still feels tender since the appointment. He placed a tuning fork on my head and asked me where I heard the sound coming from. It was clearly coming from the front part of my ear...it was so loud it hurt. I remember that before I had the surgery, it was louder in the back. Yeah, I'm hearing normally now!

The doctor asked me what I remembered of the surgery, and I told him about how I heard people talking, and then the shaving of my head, and finally more talking again. At that point in surgery, I thought I was about to have a hearing test, but before I knew it, I was in recovery. Dr. Fucci told me I did a great job with my hearing test during the surgery. He also told me that I acted like a "quiet drunk" because I was silent throughout the surgery and only spoke when I was asked to. He said he gets a lot of patients who are very chatty and ask about everything that's going on during the surgery. They would ask what he was doing now, over and over again. It's nice to know that I'm not an obnoxious patient.

I asked him if I could get my ear wet and travel by plane, and he told me I could do whatever I want! I can dunk my head in water and be fine! I also asked him if he took photos or a video of the surgery, and he didn't. He said Pathology has my bone, so I have nothing to show for this surgery, other than the scar that will be on my arm. He did show me what my bone would look like and said that the ligament that is usually around it is comparable to a trampoline, but my ligament was more like concrete (immovable). So, it's actually the ligament that is calcified, not the bone.

After the appointment, I called Cara and used my "new" ear. My ear felt a little sensitive, or the phone was too loud, so I didn't keep using that ear. But, it clearly works well! Jason whispered in my ear, and I heard it! Yeah! It's a big day today...I finally can hear normally!

When I got to work, I realized I had to have a picture with my working ear and my bummed-up arm together...so that explains the "tough girl" pose.