This Easter was absolutely wonderful for our family...first my husband was able to enjoy all the delicious food my brother in law cooked because his chemo was pushed off for one week due to his infection and in the hospital for 10 days...so my goodness did he eat..and also...our newest addition was there with us...My niece had a beautiful baby girl (my god daughter) 3 weeks ago...oh what a beauty she is too.
My husband went to the dr. yesterday for round 3 of chemo..She told him that his blood counts are best she has ever seen even counting the first day she met him...AMAZING!! Also had a gain in weight from the 4 weeks ago weigh in..WOO HOO everything that was swollen is completely gone..including his spleen..can t feel anything at all... so this news is for celebrating thats for sure.. He was gone for about 13 hrs yesterday between lab,,dr appointment and also chemo.. poor guy...I put him to bed and he is still there sleeping...He is amazing...no complaints at all except alittle upset stomache.
How is everyones recovery coming along...clare is your testing getting closer..I was past excited for my hearing test..like a little kid on christmas eve LOL... Nickle..how are things coming along with you also... I can assure you that things do get even better as time goes on...I am finding this now myself also...it is has been 2 months... Fantine how are you doing? I hope your Easter was wonderful
Last edited by billcindy1; 04-10-2012 at 04:10 AM.
The following user gives a hug of support to billcindy1: Fantine (04-10-2012)
So glad that things are going well for your husband and that you had a nice Easter. I think you are managing amazingly well with such a difficult situation. Thanks again for your comments and continued support even though you have so many other things to worry about. You are a star!
Yes I am fairly excited about my hearing test but I have done so many online tests that I think I know what the outcome will be - very nearly the same results as with my unoperated ear. This is a fantastic outcome, however, considering I had more than 30% hearing loss (can't remember the exact number, 30-something) in that ear beforehand and my other ear is within the normal range. I might be surprised though, online tests aren't that accurate.
Great hearing results Clare and fantastic results for your husband Cindy....so glad everyone is doing so well!!
I returned to work today - 2 weeks post operation. On the weekend I went to see Annie - I could clearly hear everything and at one stage I had to put cotton wool in my ear to stifle the cheers from the cast parents who were sitting in the row behind me.
I have got my ear wet twice now - the specialist told me it was ok to get it wet 1 week post operation - and so far so good although I am trying not to go overboard with the amount of water entering the ear canal. I have no sign of infection and I can still hear!
I have not tried to venture on to web hearing tests. Maybe I should - but so far I have been patient and I am looking forward to the official test in about 6 weeks. How do I search for this? I know you can't post the link but any hints??
Anyone know when you can lay on the operated ear? I have been trying to avoid it but not sure if I need to.
I had a scare tonight - I could not find my 16 year old dog (Maltese) and noticed the pool gate had blown open in the wind. I found him in the pool (thankfully he made it to the pool step although he was standing covered in very cold water). It took me over 20min to stop the poor thing shaking. If only I 'heard' the splash! It shows you how quickly and silently kids and animals can drown in pools.
I look forward to 'hearing' further good results from you all - lol
Fantine - are you any closer to making a decision about your operation? I am very lucky at the moment in having one ear which is not so badly affected by otosclerosis but, if it gets worse, I think I will go for a second operation.
Clare
Thanks for asking Clare. I really don't expect to make a decision anytime soon. I need to talk to several doctors first, including my surgeon.
--Fantine
Regarding hearing tests on the web, there are a lot of them. Most of them test your ability to understand speech in background noise and will just tell you whether your hearing is probably in the normal range or not. Try searching for "hearing test online". Most of these tests are either by hearing aid manufacturers or by organisations for hard of hearing people. There are several ones which give slightly more interesting results, drawing graphs to show where your hearing probably is on the scale from fantastic to almost deaf.
More sophisticated ones can be found by searching for "audiometer online" or "audiometer download" or "hearing test products". Some of them can be used online and others can be downloaded and installed on your computer. Some of the downloadable ones suggest you should calibrate them by asking a young person with good hearing to do the test. However, you can compare results for both ears even though the overall level of the results might be wrong.
Thanks for the info on the hearing tests. I may try one.....
Its great you could go swimming. I nearly went in without thinking the other night when the dog fell in the pool. It was only later I thought about it. I think sometimes it is easy to forget the things you are not supposed to do - such as sneeze, cough, not get water in your ear when you are showering etc. In the early stages it is easier but you just seem to get more complacent as time goes by.
The surgeon said that I could do everything again after 4 weeks so I am blowing my nose, going swimming, showering normally etc...
I don't know how you can look after a dog as well as having kids. Looking after kids is enough work. I had a friend when I lived in the UK who had 2 daughters and a dog. She had the dog before they had kids and it made things a lot more complicated for them. They had a cot permanently in the living room, for instance, because you can't put a baby on the floor with a dog around.
I am addicted to the online hearing tests. I did the one which gives you a nice table of results again last night and the results from both ears were even closer to each other. It is weird that it seems to be so close, I hope that the sound that should be going in one ear is not somehow being transferred to the other. It could be possible, my headphones are quite cheap.
We might go to a music school open day tomorrow. My eldest son is learning the harp (his choice) and my youngest son is getting to the age where he might start to learn something. He seems quite keen on the electric guitar at the moment but that may change. My daughter is still too young to learn an instrument.
Irony of ironies: I had a bad cold the very day that my second ear stapedectomy was scheduled. I had already cancelled it, but I suspect that the surgeon would have refused to operate on me once he saw how congested I was and how much I was sneezing. Sounds like somebody just didn't want me to have this surgery!
It is hard to believe that today is my 8 week mark from my surgery...It seems like I have been like this forever...you forget how things were sometimes I guess. I am still having the sensitivity with my new ear...not complaining at all...so I am putting in the cotton ball at times when it is to much...I can t even think about blow drying my hair at all without it...just to darn loud...and I am happy to type that... I still have the tv way to low my husband is saying but I know that in time things will mellow out for me..but if not..I will be more then happy to deal with this...It is so funny that things I couldn t hear before I am hearing now...like my dog breathing so loud...she is a pug and my goodess can she be loud at times LOL...
Clare be very careful with the blowing of your nose..remember gentle blowing...I can remember reading on here someone that blew their nose to hard and the piston shifted...I do blow my nose but do it very gentle like my surgeon had said...
I go back in one year for another follow up of audio to see where my ear is then and my other one from last year too... It is sometimes unbelievable that I have two ears that my doctor has fixed for me to hear again...in my eyes he is a miracle worker... I am so grateful to have it and love laying in bed at night just listening to everything. I can t wait until we start camping and I can lay in my bed there and listen to the peepers and bugs in the woods...it will be so wonderful... I used to go to bed on my good ear so everything was silent so it will be different thats for sure...sometimes I wake up to rumbling and think my goodness what the heck is that...and I realize it is my hubby snoring HA HA...love it...
My hubby had his third round of chemo this past Monday and he is still feeling really good.. Nausea only first couple of days and it didn t bother his appetite at all... He jumped on the scale and I got another couple of pounds on him since Monday...I am very proud of myself... I have told everyone if there is one thing I know how to do..that is gain weight..It happens way to easy for me anyway...I can put on 5 pounds over a weekend without even trying..UGH...
Everyone have a wonderful weekend...!!!! Anyone have any books they are reading. I love to read myself...Waiting for the next book from the sookie stackhouse series to be released in May...can t wait...
Cindy - glad your husband is feeling well and putting on weight. I don't really have time to read books at the moment. I do Russian and Swiss German language courses and I spend any spare time doing the homework for those two courses. However, when we lived in Oxford, UK, I joined a book group and that was great fun. It also encouraged me to read books which I otherwise would not have thought of reading, for example, I even read a book by Hilary Clinton which was very long and difficult to read especially as I don't know much about American politics.
Nickle -how are things going for you? Is your hearing still improving? Has your dog recovered from his adventure in the pool?
Fantine - how are you doing?
My son tried playing the electric guitar at weekend but the teacher said it would be better to wait until he was 8 or 9 before starting lessons. There was also a children's rock/pop band who we saw. They played quite loudly and I could hear it very loud in my left ear. I was a bit worried about it but, as it was only for about half an hour there was probably no damage done. My kids enjoyed it, I think they are really impressed when they see older children doing cool stuff.
I just had my hearing test. The results for my left ear are in the normal range for most frequencies but tail off for some very high frequencies which the surgeon said he basically only tests to see if there is any damage to the inner ear. My hearing in that ear has gone from 40% social hearing loss (calculated on the important frequencies) before the operation to 4% social hearing loss now. My right ear is still at 1% social hearing loss.
I am very happy with this result and so is the surgeon. He wants to see me again in 1 year and says I can do everything as normal except scuba diving, which I never wanted to do anyway!
Hi all,
Great news on your results Clare!!!
My hearing is still good. My doctor certainly is more conservative than most. I have been able to get my ear wet since day 7, do housework etc. I have sneezed 2x within 2 weeks and seem to have retained my hearing. I don't seem to have as sensitive hearing as others are reporting. I went to my friends birthday at a club on Saturday and had to leave because it was so loud. I didn't think of that being a problem but thought it was best I didn't stay too long - I didn't want to do any damage. All still seems fine. I don't have any issues with the hair dryer being too loud though.
Does anyone know when you can lay on the operated ear?
This is the 3rd time I have tried to post a response. My computer decided to log off both other times after I had written detailed responses - very annoying. I ended up giving up - sorry for the delay in responding.
Nickle
Hope your computer is behaving better, it must have been really annoying to type lots of stuff then be logged off.
I'm not sure when you can lay on your operated ear, I vaguely remember a post where someone said something about 3 weeks. In any case, I'm sure you are fine to do that now.
I know that if I even tried to lay on the operated ear I would get awful pressure...I have no problem now...I would also get the pulsing when I did it. I can remember waking up during the night because of this...I never did it on my own but seemed to when I was already asleep. I believe it was around 5-6 weeks when it wasn t a problem for me anymore.
Hi, everyone
I'm new to the forum. It's encouraging to hear everyone's positive spirit and good results. I had my stapedectomy 3 weeks ago. I couldn't hear much initially because of the packing in the ear which was removed 1 week ago. I could hear very loudly after the packing was removed which I was sooooo happy about. But in the last few days everything seems to be not as loud, and has a muffle quality to it and less echo than before. I am really scared that my hearing is going down, though I could still hear most things I couldn't hear before the operation. Recently I had a lot of burping and everytime I burp I could feel the operated ear shut down and open again, is this normal? my surgeon said burping won't do any damage to the ear. Has anyone felt the same?? I have similar feeling in my ear when I yawn too.
Glad to hear that everything sounded loud for you after the operation. After I had my packing removed, traffic sounded really loud but it just sounds normal now. I notice when I am driving the car that my ears often "pop" then things sound better. I don't know why it just happens in the car but it is getting less. The difference after my ears have popped is definately more in my operated ear than my other ear though. However, I am happy with my results and so is the surgeon. I think that the popping thing will continue to get less with time.
Hi, Clare
Thanks for your reply and sharing your experience. Sounds actually don't sound louder after my ear pop or actually it makes a squeaking sound rather than pop and whenever I yawn or belch only the operated ear get the squeaking sound. I am hoping that it's the normal recovery phase. But it's good to know that from your experience the initial loudness settles down and that's normal. I am so afraid that my hearing is going downhill again only after few days of "loudness". My next follow up appointment is in 3 weeks which would be 6 weeks after the operation. Is this when you had the first hearing test? I am so anxious about what the result would be.
