Friday, December 31, 2010

2010 Wrap Up

It's been another crazy year, so here's the breakdown as it stands in its' final moments:
 

The Tumor 
The surgery in May and recovery has gone incredibly well. I basically felt fully recovered by mid-Summer, which is pretty amazing for having the surgery a few months prior. The follow up MRI showed that my brain had ‘expanded back into place’ and that there was no tumor left at the operated site, which was very good news.

The facial nerve weakness, that I experienced directly after the surgery fully recovered, as expected. 

My balance has returned to a better state than it was pre-surgery – it’s not back to ‘normal’ and probably won’t ever be, but it’s pretty good. Sometime around August, I managed to ride my bike around the block without wiping out, which seemed to impress everyone, including my docs, who labeled me as ‘brave’ for the effort. I have a skateboard in my sights for next summer… someone needs to teach the boys how to skate, right?

The Eyeballs
It was realized pretty quickly that my eyes were going to need some additional tweaking even after the cataract surgeries. The surgeries were successful, in that they were able to remove the cataract (protein in the natural lens of the eye) and replace it with an artificial lens (IOL). But, unfortunately, after the surgeries, I developed some residual clouding in both of the eyes, which was light sensitivity and focusing issues. My doctor told me that it was going to be a work-in-progress to get things looking good again, but ‘we’d get there eventually.’ 

At this point, I’m about 95% there, which is awesome, because this time last year I was basically housebound because of my inability to see clearly.

I had two separate laser treatments (simple, five minute jobbers) that successfully zapped and scattered the residual protein haze, giving me clear vision once again. I don’t have 20/20, but it’s not too far off. I currently need to wear reading glasses for the computer and reading, but distance is pretty sharp and seems to still be improving.

I’ll go back to see the doc in a few months for a check-in. If my vision hasn’t improved to my liking, he will simply set me up with a pair of glasses. I’ve been wearing glasses since kindergarten, so the idea of having to wear them again isn’t a big deal at all.
 

The Robot Ear
The ABI continues to be interesting. As I’ve said, I really didn’t know what to expect from this thing, so as I continue to wear it, I seem to keep getting more and more surprising results. 

While I can’t hear speech directly with it, it’s proven to be very helpful when combined with lip-reading. I’ve had a couple of conversations with Jennifer where I was able to follow what she was saying without her using sign language.
 

I did have one isolated incident during the summer where I clearly heard my son yell:
 

“Hi, Grandma!” 
at my mother in law, who was walking down the street. It was pretty amazing and took me by complete surprise. Unfortunately, nothing that clear has come through since.
 

I am getting pretty good results with hearing surround sounds though. When I say that I ‘hear’ sound, it’s a very different type of sound than natural hearing. It’s a much simpler and limited range of sound. 

A lot of the sound, sounds the same, if I’m in a noisy environment, it just becomes static. But now that my brain is starting to be able to recognize different pitches and volume changes, I’m able to differentiate the source of the sound.
 

I can hear doors opening and closing, toilets flushing, water running, people talking, beeping alerts in my car, and recently been able to hear ambulance sirens and horns. They tell me that it could continue to change and improve for up to five years, so I’m just really at the early stages of what this thing might be able to do for me.
 

Overall, I enjoy wearing it, it's worth having. There are times when it gets really noisy and it’s not really helping me and I think ‘Man, this thing sucks.’ But, when that happens, I usually turn off for a minute and realize how difficult it is without it. 

It’s literally (a lot) better than nothing.
 

The End (for now)
I have about two hours left of 2010, so this truly is, an end of the year wrap-up. As I had hoped, with some knowledge and some guesswork, the year did manage to get better as it progressed. It wasn’t easy, but as usual, the tremendous support from my wife and sons, family, doctors, therapist, friends and colleagues, the combination has been a huge factor for  a successful year.
 

Thank you all and cheers big ears!