Six years in a nutshell

Before Raymond’s surgery next week, I’d like to tell you in a nutshell why Raymond is going for the cochlear implant.

Raymond was born premature and as a result, he became deaf. At the age of 13, the tubes or something in his ear started to “work” so he progressed to the hard of hearing level. The first sound he heard was the train. This happened just before Christmas that year. Raymond wore hearing aid since then but still continued his education at the deaf institution until graduation. He worked as a roofer for all of his working career, promoting at different levels and eventually became the foreman. He worked as a roofer for 25 years. Raymond was able to communicate very well with the public, was able to converse on the telephone, etc.

On October 23, 2001, Raymond had a workplace accident. He was working at a building out of town and these buildings had their own ladders attached to the exterior wall. These ladders were the old models, heavy thick metal, not like the light aluminum they are made of today. He was doing the final check of the roof before leaving and he proceeded to go down the ladder. The bolts of the ladder that was attached to the building wall pulled from the wall and he went down to the second roof with the ladder landing on top of him. Today, he still has no memory of this “fall”. The drop is 12 feet but he did not drop down, but went along with the ladder diagonally to the other side of the second roof. According to WCB inspector, this fall was equivalent to 40 feet. Raymond was VERY lucky to be alive as 99% of these kinds of accidents, most are killed. To make a long story short, it was and still is a long recovery from this accident and he will never go back to workforce. I will not explain further about his health as this blog will be based on his cochlear implant journey only.

As a result of this fall, Raymond suffered a head trauma. At the time of the accident, the doctor mentioned to me that brains takes time to heal, so it is really hard to predicate what the future brings. Time will tell, and time told us that Raymond has suffered hearing loss, short-term memory loss and muscles in the brain are very weak. This has brought on a series of health problems. He looks good on the outside, but the inside is not good. Many people don’t realize this.

Raymond, for the past few years, has lost a lot of his hearing. He has difficulty to listen on the phone, misses out some conversations, and sometimes we have to repeat what we have said to him. Two years ago, it was recommended for him to see a specialist to research his hearing loss. It came to the point that it will never improve as it is damaged, so it was suggested that he have the cochlear implant (CI) surgery.

During the course of next two years, he has met with the surgeon in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and he has determined that hearing lost is a very complex subject to research and spoke about the CI and provided him some information. After much discussion, research and some thoughts about it, it was soon decided that he would proceed with this, but first he had to see if he was a qualified candidate for the surgery. He went through a series of tests and had a very, very informative session with the speech pathologist and the head audiologist of the Nova Scotia Cochlear Implant Team of the Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Centres. His name was officially placed on the waiting list in March 2007, but has to have the final “Yes or No” from the surgeon at a later date.

The first test he did was the “balance test” in March 2007, which he passed successfully. Next was the CT Scan of his ears/head. Lastly, just of September 28, 2007, he had his final visit with his CI surgeon for the final “Yes or No” to have the surgery or not. The answer is yes and it was determined that the CI will be on his left ear. Surgery date set for November 14th in Halifax.

November 13th, we went to Halifax Victoria General Hospital for the pre-admission testing, such as EKG, oxygen test, blood work, series of questions, etc. Just before the testing took place, we were informed that the surgery was cancelled as the doctor had unexpected family emergency and had to fly back home to England. Surgery was postponed to December 12th.

Raymond is very positive about this surgery, nervous, yes, but excited at the same time. Myself, the writer of this blog and his wife, is very nervous about the surgery itself, however, I am very positive that it will be successful.

This is all of 6 years in a nutshell – 2001 to 2007. Raymond just figured this out the other day and it is quite the coincidence that he regained his hearing in 1971 just before Christmas. And 36 years later, 2007, it is just before Christmas he is having the cochlear implant :)

Next is his surgery....December 12th at 7:30 a.m.