Nice Audiogram, Doctors check and more…

I’ve been meaning to write an update sooner but I wanted to get the appointment with the ENT done before making this update in order to give you the full picture of what has happened so far. And don’t worry everything is fantastic.

 

Meeting with local doctor

I started out with a visit to my local doctor the 9th of February. He examined my ear and ear canal and was amazed by the result, the ear canal looked clean and almost fully healed he said. I also needed him to make a pre-appointment with the ENT at Gentofte hospital, who Dr. Roberson had recommended to carry out a more detailed examine of my ear and to clean the ear canal if necessary. But as it would properly take a month or two before this ENT would have time to see me, it was recommended that I would find an independent local ENT.

 

New mold

In the beginning of March the custom mold that Dr. Roberson did before I went home, wouldn’t fit anymore. The ear canal and outer ear had slightly changes shape altogether. And now the mold did hurt when I put it on. Luckily Dr. Roberson and his staff had thought of everything and in the bag I got to take home from there office I found material to make another mold. I got my wife to help me and after seeing the video on how to make a mold on www.atresiarepair.com – we accomplished to make a new mold that fits much better. It was quite hard to make a mold that goes behind the ear, so we went for a mush smaller mold that only takes care for the canal.

Elevation of the ear

The upper ear is well positioned and most of the puffiness and swelling is now gone. But the lower pole just above the ear tip is still tucked into the thick. I did massage the area and lightly bend the ear back and forth doing recovery up until now as the plastic surgeon asked me to do. But it keeps stuck in there… That was not the result I was hoping for and I expect to have a chat with the doctor how did this part for my surgery to hear if he can help me with this last part. As I see it this is the last thing I really need to get right before I can truly say I’m satisfied with the result. On the other hand I’m overall extremely satisfied no dough.

Taking care of the ear canal

Since I got back home I’ve been using some antibacterial drops before putting on the mold at night and I have only experienced small drainage from the canal, there are small spots about 30mm into the canal that still need to heal up fully. I’ve been showering with a cotton ball with Vaseline on it inside the canal to keep it dry up until the 7th of March. Its nice to shower normally again and I just dry out the canal after shower with a clean cotton ball, just to be sure. I’ve been trying different headsets and found that there is really much difference in shapes to fit in the ear canal. And in just a month my ear canal has changes shape so some headphone-buds won’t fit anymore. The ones that fit the best were those with a silicone head that forms easily to the canal shape.

 

Meeting with local ENT

My local doctor was right the first time slot for the ENT at Gentofte hospital is the 16th of April. Therefor I contacted a local ENT instead just to get a fair check of the ear canal and to be sure everything was okay. He was very impressed and thought the work of Dr. Roberson was amazing. He examined the canal and was very pleased with the shape and how clean it was. He was so amazed that he insisted that we did an audiogram to see the progression.

 

Early audiogram

First off his conditions for making an audio test/ audiogram was by far optimal. So the test is just an indication and a full and correct audiogram should not be done before the end of April as then it will be about 4 month from my surgery.

The audiogram reviled what I also feel, that my hearing has improved a lot. I went from around 70-80dB to 0-10dB. The ENT was like me very impressed and we agreed that it’s like a miracle… He spoke very highly of the procedure and assured me that I made the right choice by getting the surgery. He even said that I my case the ear canal reconstruction was the only and the right procedure for me from his point of view. It meant the world to me that I finally found a local ENT that approved my decision, simply fantastic experience. I will post a picture of the audiogram as soon as possible.

 

Hearing and experiences

Overall improved hearing, its so amazing that my hearing keeps improving, nuances in music and speech gets more clear, especially higher notes definition has improved a lot. I have also had a sense of bass frequencies but they are also much clearer now than before. My sense of direction in noise ha improved almost to perfection. I keep putting myself in situations on purpose that I before my surgery was unable to handle. Now I can sit in any chair at a meeting and still hear everybody even while turning my head away an only having to use my right ear. It’s such a joy and I often catch myself smiling because it makes me so happy. Also in bigger crowds with lost of talking I would have been lost before, but now I manage much better, it’s still on of the few situations where my head gets really tired, but I can go longer an longer in noisier environments now than the first weeks after surgery.

My self-esteem has gotten a boost, I’m not constantly thinking of how to stand in a crowd to be able to hear everyone and not having to turn around if someone where to speak to me from the right. I’m quite amazed how much energy I did spend on this earlier… my quality of life has improved tremendously and that was one of the goals when I started off with my journey of Atresia Repair, was to boost med self confidence and my quality of life and it truly has.

 

Music in Stereo !

Listening and playing music is still a big joy to me. It’s so fantastic to hear music in true stereo. The nuances in audio are amazing and I hear new things in musical pieces that I have known to a long time. I had some very great headphone that’s become my new best friend, they are so great at serving fantastic sound to my two ears.

Playing music is still a bit hard, my guitar sound has changed for me, and I’m still trying to figure out if its for the better or if I need to changes it to make it more like I was before… It’s a great challenge and I’m looing forward spending a lot of hours tuning in my new perception of how my own sound is and should sound in my own stereo world.

 

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