As those of you who have been following my little story line know, I'm currently in the "waiting" stage of the journey to get a Cochlear Implant. One of the major things I've been waiting for is approval from the health insurance company for the procedure. I've been calling the insurance company every few days to check whether they have received the details, and if so, whether it has been approved. When I last spoke to them (last week Thursday or Friday), they hadn't received anything yet. I asked my wife Josephine to call for me today; she must be good luck, because apparently the approval came through while she was talking to them on the phone! Now, I can really start to get excited! The first thing I did of course was to call the surgeon's scheduler - darn, got voice mail - left a message, and hopefully I'll hear soon that my surgery is scheduled and the date it's scheduled for. One major wait behind me :)
Not much new to report, but for those who are reading along, I had a couple more tests done today - falling into the "make sure I'm OK to have surgery" category. The first one was a simple poke in the arm at the Doctor's office to draw some blood; they will do some basic blood tests (in addition to the normal ones I have done at my yearly checkup). While I was there, they also gave me an order to get a chest X-Ray done. I like living in a more sparsely populated area of the country, because was able to carry that order a few miles down the road to the hospital and get the X-Ray done with no appointment and about 2 minutes total of waiting. Now, if only the CI clinic were that easy.
Next up: insurance approval for the surgery (hopefully within the next few weeks), final clearance from my doctor to have surgery, review of the CT and MRI scans, and then schedule the surgery. It's starting to feel less like a dream and more like it's actually happening. In my last post, I talked about the waiting that I need to do before I could schedule a CI surgery. Well, here I am a week-and-a-half later, having had another flurry of activity in the past few days. On Wednesday, I went in for both CT and MRI scans of my head. I know that an MR of the head in particular can be stressful, especially if you are claustrophobic, but had one about 15 years ago, so I wasn't stressed about it at all. I arrived at the hospital, changed into a hospital gown and trousers, and removed my watch and wedding ring (no metal allowed). Because of the MRI contrast dye that they would be using, they needed to do a quick blood test to make sure my kidneys were functioning OK and wouldn't have a problem with the contrast dye. They put in an IV line and used that to draw some blood. Then, back to the waiting room to sit with Josephine and my youngest daughter to wait for the CT scan. My daughter was fascinated by, and a bit afraid of, the hospital clothes and the little blue plastic "ouch" in Daddy's arm. After just a short wait, I went in for the CT scan. The CT machine looks like a huge doughnut, and it's really very open - no claustrophobia problems there. The technician explained how the process worked - lie down on this table, the table will move inside the doughnut, the contrast dye will automatically inject, and about a minute later, all done! She explained to me what to expect before I got on the table because I had to remove my glasses and hearing aid for the test, and once I did that, I wouldn't be able to understand any directions. She forgot to ask me though if my teeth were removable, and that made for some funny pantomimes on her part until I understood and said "no." The only "interesting" thing I guess is the funny experiences when the iodine contrast dye is injected. First, the feeling of cold water being poured over my arm. Then, a bit of a warm flush throughout my body; a bit of funny metallic taste in my mouth. Finally (the nurse warned about this so I was expecting it), a feeling like I was, um, moving my bowels. I watched the machinery spin slowly around the doughnut, and before I could think it was done. After that, I went back to the waiting area to wait for my blood test results and then the MRI scan. Before I knew it, I was in the MRI room. Another big doughnut, but this time with a much smaller opening. The process was more or less the same as the CT except:
The MRI took quite a bit longer than the CT scan - I'm guessing it was about 45 minutes. Lots of different noises too - I can only imagine how loud they would be to someone with normal hearing. Nothing really too scary though, just a lot of "lie still and wait." Halfway through (or so), the technician came in to inject the contrast dye - no funny feelings like I got with the CT dye. I just relaxed with my eyes closed while the machine did its thing. After the MRI was done, they removed the IV line, I changed back into my normal clothes, picked up the CDs containing the scans, and I was done. The whole process from start to finish was only 2 and a half hours or so.
Then, on Thursday, I was off to my general doctor for a few things. Ironically, I had scheduled this "new patient" visit long before I started the CI process, but it just so happened to fit right in to the schedule. On this visit, I got one of the two Pneumococcal vaccines that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) strongly recommends for CI candidates and implantees. The Doctor also did an EKG and asked a lot of questions as part of clearing me for surgery. I go back next week to get some blood work done - both as part of my yearly checkup, and as part of the surgery clearance. Fortunately, the EKG and other things the Doctor checked were A-OK, and I'm still on track. It feels good to have that flurry of activity - it makes me feel like things are moving along. Still no word back on the insurance approval for the procedure; that is the one remaining "big thing" that needs to happen before I can call the surgeon's scheduler and actually pick a date for the surgery. It's hard to believe that it's only been three weeks since I went in for the initial CI evaluation - things really are moving quickly. For now, however, it's back to waiting. |
AuthorI'm a husband and father of fivewonderful children (and a relatively new son-in-law). I've been Hard-of-Hearing (HOH) since the age of 3. Archives
February 2016
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