DICK HARRISON'S JOURNAL

Friday, June 15, 2018 – GOOD NEWS – BAD NEWS

    Here's the good news for me! Three days following my surgery I feel entirely normal. I've had zero - nada - none of the potential side effects listed in the Post-Op instructions I was given when I left the Surgery Center.

    From the minute I was in the car on the way home, I felt my recovery had begun. Hour-by-hour it has continued. I've slept soundly, eaten well and needed not a single one of the pain or nausea meds provided in advance. Not even a single aspirin.

    I feel as strong right now as the day before my operation.

    If you're my age, you probably remember the Charles Atlas Dynamic Tension ads that appeared in the pulp magazines in those days. I'm not quite ready to take on the bully on the beach that embarrassed the 97-pound weakling in front of his best gal. But at 87           I'm at the Y six-days-a-week for an hour of enjoyable exercise. In the pool three days for Deep Water Aerobics and a Silver Sneakers workout on alternate days, along with a couple dozen other elders.

    We've had one participant, age 102. I could probably take him on.
    It's after 7 pm. I've strolled from home to the beautiful lake at the end of our street after listening to part of a webinar on my PC. (Oh boy! Was it dull - the kind of content that makes the Off button on my ComPilotII so attractive.)

    I've had a nice visit with George,

a pretty golden tabby, one of the two official house cats here at the very small Assisted Living Facility I call home. He sometimes helps me type on the computer. Most of the typos are mine.

    I've reread parts of Arlene Romoff's excellent book, Listening Closely - A Journey to Bilateral Hearing. It's about her experiences from hearing loss to Cochlear Implant for a single ear to a second Bilateral Implant.

    What it confirms for me is what I've been told by each of the professionals mentioned above, that every recipient will have a personal odyssey to better hearing - a trip I have just started.

    Here's the bad news: The Post-Op says 1 - 2 weeks Time Off - up to six weeks if dizzy. I'm not - but have been accused of that. I'm still four days away from one week and itching to get moving.

    But there is good news as I read a little farther down the instructions, "The more quickly you work back into normal routines, the more quickly you will feel better ad energy will return."

     Can you tell I'm getting a trifle bored already?