The funniest thing about having brain surgery

...is waking up the morning after and having your wife tell you:

JV: Oh, by the way, you’re some sort of Twitter Celebrity now.
DM: Huh?
JV: Yeah, that comedian that Dave knows, from Best Week Ever, found your blog and tweeted about you. All these people are leaving you messages on Twitter.
DM: Wow…that’s awesome.

After some Internet re-con, I was able to piece together that a couple of comedians came across my blog and posted some very thoughtful messages on their website and Twitter streams regarding my upcoming surgery. 

Those two gentlemen are: Paul Scheer and Todd Barry.

From Paul Scheer’s website:
Dan McGorry’s very funny, thoughtful, and amazing blog about one man’s struggle with his Brain Tumor.  Send him good wishes as he’s getting major surgery today.

Todd Barry on Twitter:
Do me a favor. Send some nice thoughts to @dfxm326. He's getting brain surgery today.
 
And they did. I received about twenty notes between Twitter, e-mail and this blog from complete strangers from around the world, wishing me good luck and sending good thoughts for the surgery. It was pretty amazing.

I’m familiar with Paul Scheer from his very funny appearances on VH1’s Best Week Ever series that ran a few years ago. He was also brought to my attention when he taped a couple of the episodes while wearing a “Poop” t-shirt, which was designed by a good friend of ours, Dave Bowles — giving Dave some national exposure, which allowed him to sell a few extra t-shirts. Apparently, Paul likes to do nice things for people.

While I’m not as familiar with Todd Barry, the Internet and Rickey Gervais, both have some very good things to say about him and his work. His Twitter stream is very funny as is his website - check out the Receipt Museum, in particular.

So, check these guys out. Go see them perform, buy their CDs and watch their shows. Help me return their kindness. And thank you again Paul and Todd.

Twitter: 
@paulscheer
@toddbarry

Robot Ear

I will meet with an audiologist in about four weeks to activate my ABI and have him patiently run through several different combinations of electrode pairs that will stimulate my brainstem, hopefully allowing to restore some 'sound awareness.'
 
I have no idea what the results will be. The sounds will be nothing like 'normal hearing' but it will be something. The results are described as being pretty primitive - horns honking, doors closing, etc. From what I understand there is quite a learning curve which can improve over years of use. I am currently profoundly deaf, which means that I have absolutely no hearing in either ears, so anything is better than nothing.

The positive news is, the surgeons were both very pleased with the placement of the device and when they stimulated it before closing me up. It tested quite well with 18 of the 21 electrodes functioning. So, we'll just have to wait and see what things sound like when they boot this thing up.