the day before

Got up at 6 a.m. this morning and took a quick peek out my window to see my car was still covered in snow from the previous day. Hoped there wasn't also ice covering the car hidden beneath the snow. I got dressed and piled up all of my stuff next to the door, and made sure I had everything I needed for the trip. Then I went outside to deal with my car.  Yep, ice on the car, kind of thick too. Darn it! Took several pushes of the "Unlock" button on my car remote and finally the stupid car unlocked. Started it up, turned on the defrosters, and got to work. Scraping ice off the car sure is tiring work but I eventually got it (even after trying the de-icer my sister got for me... that just kind of made a bigger mess instead). I eventually packed up all my stuff in the car, cleared up my windshield as best as I could (using the window washing fluid as that had antifreeze stuff in it too), and made my way over to my mom and stepdad's house. Eventually we got all of our stuffs in his car and we hit the road, first swinging by McDonald's for some breakfast.

I ate my breakfast sandwich and hashbrown, got comfortable, and doze off to sleep. Quick refuel stop in Cheyenne, and we kept on going. We finally arrived at Denver and went to Chili's for lunch. Just as we were pulling into Chili's, I got this relay message in my email:

i711.com RelayOperator 1557F
(f) i am a hospital provider my name is lois we have to cancel for appointments in denver for tomorrow uhm as i have not been able to obtain an authorization from wyoming medicaid and we cannot contact your doctor

Ahhh! Wait a minute! Medicare's supposed to be covering the surgery, and from what I had been told, we didn't need a pre-authorization from Medicaid for them to cover the remaining 20% that Medicare didn't cover. What's going on?! So I shot off an email to the CI surgery coordinator so she could help get this figured out. Tried to call the CI center with the relay app on my blackberry with no luck. While we were seated, I did end up getting another message from the same person at the hospital.

i711.com RelayOperator 80774M
(F)
meghan this is lois from swedish medical center in denver. you can disregard my earlier message your surgery is still on. you do not need to call the doctor. lois.

Whew! I calmed down, and ate a bit of my lunch, and we checked out. Stepdad dropped mom and I off at the hospital, and left. Mom and I made our way over the office building where all the different medical offices are since I had a pre-op appointment with Dr. Kelsall first. I checked in, signed some forms (consenting to the surgical procedure, consenting to a student audiologist observing the surgery, that sort of thing). Mom and I sat and flipped through magazines and chatted. Surgery coordinator got me and we talked of what went on during lunch. Turns out Medicaid wanted a paper trail of everything going on, so she had faxed everything over to them. Said everything was still on for tomorrow, no worries. Whew!  Went back to the waiting room, and was eventually called back to Kelsall's office. I waited a bit longer in his office until he showed up. He said my MRI results were still clear, no signs of ossification or blockage, yahoo! Definitely great news there. We chatted a bit about the surgery, he answered a few of my questions and such, and confirmed we're doing Advanced Bionics in the left ear. Then I was sent back to surgery coordinator's room so she could make copies of the paperwork I had filled out earlier to take with me to the hospital. She also wrote down directions so Mom and I could find our way to the pre-admission area.

Finally we left the CI center and walked over to the hospital. I checked in, answered some questions, handed over my insurance cards and such. We were led to the pre-admission area and met with the supervising nurse so she could get my interpreter request taken cared of. More waiting, then shortly after 3 a nice nurse named Pat led us into a small room. We went over my medical history, list of meds I take, allergies, all that stuff. She also drew some blood just to make sure my count was normal. Then we were done! Yay! All set for tomorrow!

We went outside the front of the hospital, about where stepdad dropped us off at. Mom had to call him to let him know we were done and to get us. Got to the hotel for a bit (stepdad got our suite while mom and I were at my appointments), had dinner with stepdad's sister and niece, then back to the hotel. It's been a long day, and I'm tired.

Still not quite sure if I'm nervous yet or not. All I know is it's been a long day so I will probably get to sleep soon enough... Whenever mom and stepdad get back from snack hunting. :) Hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow with the CI surgery! We will spend the night at the hotel tomorrow night, then head home Thursday if I'm up for it.

Oh, it turns out my dad won't make it. He was going to drive up from New Mexico, but he ran into some road closures in Raton (due to snow) and had to turn around. Darn it! The weather sure has been pretty nutty lately.

Nice start to my week...

Before taking off for work, I checked my emails real quick at home. I saw that I had an i711.com relay message..
I m reminding you megan of your appointment and the pre admit clinic at swedish please arrive at the information desk in the lobby of the hospital at 12:45 bring your insurance card photo id and a method of payment if you have a copay for the surgery also we ask that you bring a list of your medications and dosages


Wait, what? .... My pre-admit appointment's supposed to be at 3:00 p.m. March 20th. UUuhhh, I checked my blue book which I wrote down all of my cochlear implant related schedules, questions and notes. Original pre-admissions appointment was scheduled for March 13 at 1 p.m.  Um, wait a minute! That appointment should have been rescheduled!

So I drove to work, as I needed to get to work. Then I pulled open the relay message email again, and started an i711.com relay call to the hospital. Got the info desk and they connected me to the Pre-admit area. Found out that my reschedule appointment was never set in the first place, and that I was expected to be seen TOMORROW. Oohh boy! I quickly shot off an email to the CI surgery scheduler person, and also stayed on the line with the pre-admit desk. I told them that the surgeon's office said she had rescheduled my pre-admit appointment to March 20th in the afternoon, and Pre-admit said that was not in their computer at all. I told them I was coming from out of state for the surgery on the 21st, so I wanted the pre-admit for March 20th. They were able to schedule me in for March 20 at 3 p.m. for pre-admissions. Wow. This is quite the start of my week, ha. She also asked if I wanted to have an interpreter available for the appointments. I thought on this, and told her I can usually get by with my hearing aid and lip reading. She said I would probably be fine for the pre-admit appointment, but for the 2 hours before surgery I might want to have one handy as there'd be different medical staff personnel coming to talk to me and such. Ok, fine, go ahead and line up an interpreter for then. She asked if I would want an interpreter available for my parents too, so I had to tell her my parents were hearing, not deaf. Ok. Then I had her tell me the full instructions for the pre-admit appointment (I wasn't sure if my emailed message had gotten cut off or if that was it). Ok, need my insurance cards, ID, list of meds and doses, and form of payment if there's a co-payment. Got it.

Ended that call with everything all cleared up, and shot off another email to the CI surgery scheduler person and told her of my phone call with pre-admit, that I got everything taken cared of. I should be good to go now. Whew.  My boss is out of the building this week, so this was what I needed to start off my week with.  Now that I have the appointments confusion taken cared of, now I can focus on my work. Hard to believe next week I'll be back in Denver, for pre-op and pre-admissions on the 20th and surgery on the 21st. Still not feeling nervous or anything yet, just ready to go I guess.

The Follow-up Appointment

Yesterday, my mom, step-dad and I headed out at about 12:30, hitting the interstate to get to Denver for an appointment today. For most of the morning, we debated about whether or not we should make the trip, with the winter weather going on. But for the most part, the trip down wasn't too bad. Around Cheyenne it was a bit crazy, but once we hit Colorado, roads were clear! We finally arrived in Denver and found the hotel we had reservations at. It was a nice suite, with 2 bedrooms, and a small kitchen area. The hotel has partnered with the hospital and provide discounts to patients and family staying there, so that was what we did. It was a nice set up, and close to the hospital for my appointments. We did hit up Ikea, and got quite a few fun toys/stuffs for the kiddos. Even got my own little wooden train set as well, I was practically like a little kid last night. Dinner at Dave and Buster's, then back to the hotel for the night after fueling up the car.

This morning, mom got me up bright and early at 7:15, 7:30ish. Oh man, too early! I went to bed around midnightish or so, and it took me a while to get to sleep. So I definitely didn't quite get enough sleep. But oh well, we had to get a move on. Packed up all our stuff, checked out of the hotel, and found the hospital. Since we knew where the hospital was, we drove around a bit and found a small restaurant to have breakfast at. The food was good. Then we went to the hospital. Got there early enough, but oh well.

Mom and I went into the implant center to wait while stepdad went to get his car washed. Finally the audiologist came and got us, and we went into her office. Talked about the implants and how they worked, I got to see the demos of the Harmony and Neptune processors which was neat, got some questions answered, talked of expectations and such. Even talked of what the MAPping scheduling would be like as well. The graduate student took me to a sound booth for a quick hearing test, then it was back to the waiting room to wait for my appointment with the surgeon.

The office was running a bit behind. Someone came and got me, and Mom and I went into the surgeon's office and waiting quite a bit for him. We talked for quite a bit about this and that, and the surgeon showed up. He talked of what the surgery would be like, described the incision he'd use (small incision behind the ear and up and back a bit, so it's not all completely right behind the ear). Said surgery would last about an hour, hour and half. We also talked more of the CAT scan results, mom was questioning the ossification bit. Both the surgeon and the audiologist said that sometimes the CAT scan would be clear, but the surgeon would still end up finding ossification during surgery. So he decided he wanted an MRI done so we could get a better, clearer picture and actually know what we're dealing with.

Once we were done with him, we were taken to the surgery scheduler's office. She arranged to have the MRI done with the hospital (after calling 2 other imaging centers) for this afternoon! Got all that worked out, then off to another office to actually order the processors! We ended up calling Advanced Bionics for a little assistance with the order form, as I kept debating back and forth with myself "should I get this, or that?" I eventually did figure out everything. I didn't even know what size cables to get, so the phone call helped.  One Neptune (with ruby red caps for every color option possible, black cables for the Universal Head Piece, and white cables for the Aquamic), and one Harmony, dark sienna with the techno color caps... 4 Powercel Plus batteries for the Harmony. Audie suggested the Plus batteries, as she has a feeling I'm going to need a lot of power. Makes sense. The ordering process is quite the process, so many different options to pick from!

Finally we were done, and headed next door to the hospital and found the radiology center. I checked in, got a wrist band, and waited even more (and emptied out my pockets, stuffing the pocket in my coat which I left with mom and stepdad). Mom and stepdad did take off a bit to check on the car. While they were MIA, I was called back. Radiologist tech got an IV in my left arm (he couldn't find a vein in the right arm, which I wasn't all that surprised about, I can be a hard stick). Then into the MRI room, where I removed my hearing aid and glasses and laid down on the table. He stuck the cage on over my head, and into the machine I went. I did my best to stay as still as possible, and even took a short little snooze. Then I was briefly taken out of the machine so the tech could inject the contrast dye, then put back in for more scanning. Then tada, done! Removed the IV bit, and sent me back to the waiting room. We left and hit the road from there. It was about 3 when we left.

Did a stop in Loveland, had a late lunch/early dinner at the Cracker Barrel. Oh good catfish! Ooo! Did a little shopping there, then hit the Outlet Malls for a bit more shopping (step-dad loves taking advantage of clearance sales if he can!). Got more candy at Harry and David's (so basically I spent about $30 on candy today!), then back on the road to home.

Today was such an incredibly long day, and I'm glad to be back home. Now we can prepare for the next step, surgery!

March 20, pre-op with the surgeon, and pre-admissions at the hospital.
March 21, check in at the hospital at about 10, 10:30 in the morning, surgery at noon. Outpatient surgery, so I should be released after a few hours. I'm thinking we'll spend the night at a hotel just so I can recover a bit before hitting the road home.

April 3, activation in the morning, post-op with the surgeon in the early afternoon.
Then towards the end of April, more MAPping with the audiologist when she makes her trip up to Wyoming, then we'd go back down to Denver around June for further MAPing, and another audie visit to Wyoming around October. That's kind of the plan we're hoping to go with.

Audie says she can program both processors, adding the lower programs onto one processor, then more programs with more volume on the other, so that way when I max out on the one processor, I can then use the other processor until I see her again. The way I figure, I'll probably start off with the Neptune first, that way I don't have anything on my ear for a while longer, give it more time to heal, then switch to the Harmony and go from there. I'm not really worried about using the T-mic right away. Audie doesn't even think I'll hear anything at activation, that it'll be a slow "wake-up" period for my left ear, which is understandable. I'm not even expecting to hear anything right there and then. It's going to take time, possibly even up to 2 years before I'll start making sense of speech, which is to be expected since I haven't heard anything out of the left ear for so long. But I'm determined to put in the work and get the implant working for the left ear. I plan to use audiobooks as part of my auditory rehab... a friend of mine (who has also been my interpreter all throughout my schooling years) is also going to help me with auditory rehab as well, and I'm just going to work at it!

Almost time!

It's almost time to get the cochlear implant! Wow, only a month away. Really?  And this coming Friday I'll be in Denver. Discussing the surgery and such with the surgeon, getting some questions answered. And I'll also be informing the center of which implant device I want to get (Advanced Bionics). The audiologist said she would have demos on hand so I can look at them and get a feel for the devices. I'm actually pretty excited for Friday! Then I'll be back in Denver a month from now for pre-op and pre-admissions, then surgery on the 21st. Just wow. It's finally happening! I've been researching cochlear implants for about 10 years, and trying to get one for so long. Just hard to believe it's all becoming a reality.

CI Schedule changes

So... Turns out the surgeon won't be in office the last week of March (when my original post-op and activation appointment would be). So.... it was either move the activation appointment up to March 23, or move the surgery date to the next week, March 21st with activation/post op on April 3. Well, my boss was getting some time off in March too, taking off when I was back in at work and that sort of thing. After she made some phone calls and such, the end result was us switching our weeks off from work. So now my new cochlear implant schedule looks like this:

Pre Op: 3/20/12 @ 1:30 pm
Pre Admit: 3/20/12 @ 3:00 pm
Surgery: 3/21/12 @ 12:00 pm (check in at 10:30 am)
Post Op: 4/3/12 @ 1:30 pm
Activation: 4/3/12 @ 9:00 am

Yesterday afternoon was a bit crazy for myself, and for my boss, figuring out how to deal with the schedule changes and such. Just got the confirmation from the CI center this afternoon. Now just need to get the other boss to make the changes to my requested time off in the system, and I'll be good to go.

Getting closer

It's slowly getting closer and closer to March! Lately I've just been quite eager for the CI dates to get closer and closer. I keep hitting up the Advanced Bionics website and scoping out their color and accessory options, trying to decide which color and accessories I'd want, that sort of thing. Even pulled out the Advanced Bionics info packet I received from AB quite some time ago about the Harmony device. Even have a notebook that I'm using just strictly for the cochlear implant, where I keep track of questions I want to ask, notes of colors/accessories I want,

The follow up with the CI surgeon is Feb. 24th (where we talk of the surgery and that sort of thing), and I'll also be informing the center of which implant device I want to get. The audie said she'd have demos for me to look at/play with, so I can get a feel for them. If I do get 2 processors, I'm sure I'll want a Harmony, and a Neptune. I mean, who doesn't want a Neptune? It's a pretty neat device, and it'll definitely come in handy when I'm around little kids in wet settings. I have nephews that love water guns and splashing in the water. My Naida hearing aid barely handled a tiny itty bitty splash last summer (really, I swear, a couple of small drops of water on the hearing aid and the next day it was acting funny until I ran it through the Dry n Store!). I would even be more willing to get into a swimming pool with a Neptune and go swimming. I've never liked the fact that I've had to take off my hearing aids and put them away before getting wet, especially when swimming with friends and family (not being able to hear has stopped me from willingly getting into a pool for the most part, I want to hear what's going on around me!).

Pre-op and pre-admissions is set for March 13, surgery for March 14, and activation and post-op March 29th. I've been researching cochlear implants, and even working at getting one for about 10 years now. I'm glad it's finally going to happen!  I've even already gotten the pneumovax vaccine last week, just to get it out of the way. I'm getting excited about this!

Got some tentative dates for the CI

Got an email from the surgery/appointments coordinator at the CI Center with the tentative dates for CI surgery.

Follow up appointment- 2/24/12 @ 10:45
Pre Op- 3/13/12 @ 11:30
Pre admissions- 3/13/12 @ 1:00
Surgery- 3/14/12 @ 7:30 (Check in would be at 6:00 am)
Post Op- 3/29/12 @ 10:45 am
Activation- 3/29/12 @ 8:30 am
 
Am seriously hoping I can stick to these dates, but of course have to double-check and such, make sure they work out.