I had two follow-up appointments at my ENT's office this past week. The first one was on Monday with the nurse and the second one was with the doctor on Friday. Rather than bore you with all the details, I'll just tell you about the main issues.
My hair keeps getting stuck in the scabbing and the tissue as the incision heals. Every time I visit the ENT office they have to pull the hairs out one by one and that is a little painful. At the time of my first visit on Monday my incision still had some scabbing, which was not what they want, so that was removed also. There was a conflict between the hospital and the ENT clinic on how to care for the wound. The discharge nurse's written instructions were to clean the wound 3 times a day with a wash of half hydrogen peroxide and half water and then apply a prescribed ointment. The ENT staff said the wash dries out the wound, causing it to scab, which hinders the healing process.
On Monday I was put back on antibiotics because my wound was still red and they wanted to ward off an infection. Part of what hindered my healing, besides the "wash", were my glasses. If I wore my contacts I needed my reading glasses on to read. If my contacts were out then I wore my regular glasses. I tried positioning them so the stem wouldn't rub against my incision, but no matter how I tried to finagle it, they always slipped back to where they naturally want to sit. I tried putting gauze over my incision, but my glasses would eventually push it away. It's been sore, especially on days where the scabbing was removed.
By the time I saw the doctor on Friday, the incision looked a lot better. But, I had fluid behind my ear canal so I will be going back once again (and hopefully for the last time) on Dec. 12.
The good news is that none of these small details will affect my activation. I am set for 2:00 on Tuesday, less than 48 hours from now. I'm getting more excited the more I think about it. I'm tired of hearing out of only one ear. It's exhausting!
Next blog entry will be post-activation and will be the most exciting one yet. Check back soon for that update.
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