Post BAHA surgery issues...THIS BITES!

[jaylogs]

Hi Jan!! Yes, I guess it's been a while since an update, hasn't it?  Thanks for asking, and reminding me to do this!  Anyways, so to recap my story here, I had BAHA surgery on Feb 25th, the site wouldn't heal, in fact it kind of split into a big 50 cent sized gaping wound.  So they took out the abutment (left the post in of course) and it just wasn't healing.  So I went to a Wound center, the doctor there has his own plastic surgery clinic, so he made some rather long cuts here and there on my scalp and covered the surgery site and got it all on the road to healing.  So as I sit today, the side where I had my BAHA implant is all totally numb, has some strange lumps here and there. I'm going to have a lot of nice scars on my head for life, even worse than my AN scar.  Another side effect to all this is while I originally had lost a good portion of my hearing, in the last couple of weeks my tinnitus has gone really loud and now I have a fullness in that ear and I am hearing even less than before. I am talking a dramatic loss.  So I don't know what's going on. I haven't gone back to my ENT doc yet to find out what we're gonna do about getting the abutment put back in, but my original gotcha date was at the end of May and I am going to hold off until end of June, as me and my wife are going to Hawaii June 20th for a week.  I don't want to deal with head wounds during that trip, for sure! So there you have it. For a while there I was feeling really run down, but in the last week my energy level has gone up dramatically, so that's good. Thanks again for all the support and thank you Jan for checking on me! I hope you are doing well!
Jay

[leapyrtwins]

Damn, Jay.  The best part of this update seems to be your upcoming trip to Hawaii.

I was hopeful that everything would be going great in the BAHA department by now.  Sorry to hear you're still having issues.

Keeping my fingers crossed that things get better.

Should I have Lori send more chocolate?

Jan

[jaylogs]

Ha! Ya know, you never can have enough chocolate, right? Well, I've been pretty well supplied with that lately so you and Lori can eat in it my memory!   But as the old saying goes, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger...so by the time I get all done with this I should be close to Superman status, right?
Jay

[leapyrtwins]

Jay -

it's great to see that you are keeping your positive attitude.  Good for you! 

As for the chocolate, I've been indulging in it a little too much lately    and ignoring my own attempts to get back to running.  I've been out a few times in the past 2 weeks, but I just can't get myself to stick to a regular routine.  But now that the chocolate Easter bunny is history, I'll hopefully find the kick in the butt I need.

Hang in there, Superman. 

Jan

[loose screws (tightened)]

Hey there

I dropped in to check and see if anyone from my circle of ANers is still posting and then I read you new nightmare. Bummer man, I thought you came out so good and now things seem to have turned for the worse.

Here's wishing you the best. Keep your head up.

Mike

[MandaPanda]

Jay,

Thank you for all your kind and encouraging words to this newbie!  You are Superman!  So glad you get to go to Hawaii!  You need the R&R!  Hoping that you are healing nicely!  Hoping to go to our local ANA meeting on May 21st...the subject is BAHA.  Curious about it all...

Hope you have a fantastic day, Sir!

Amanda

[tweety]

Jay, Sorry about your setbacks with the BAHA. You are a very positive individual and I know that you will too rise above this crisis.  Enjoy your time in Hawaii and when you return you can venture down this BAHA road again.  Take care. Learn the HULA.   ALOHA .  Tweety (Nancy)

[jaylogs]

Wow Mike!! It's been a long time!!  How's things with you? Yeah, this was a strange hiccup because we always thing the AN surgery being THE big deal (and rightly so!) but these so called "simple" procedures can get away from you.  And nancy and amanda, thanks for all the positive words, they always are very welcome! I am doing pretty good now, the scars are still tender but healing well.  I'm still kinda wondering how getting the abutment put back in and how well that will heal.  But no use in worrying about something you can't control.  Anyways, thanks again y'all for the encouragement!! I'll keep you updated as July 5th gets here!
Jay

PS

[james e]

Any good educated guess about what caused the healing problems? Have you ever had similar issues?

[jaylogs]

From what the ENT doc who did the procedure told me, this happens from time to time.  There's little fat under the skin on the scalp and they hollow it out even more so for a BAHA, so if the scalp moves around a lot and the skin doesn't heal right, it just keeps splitting open, which is basically what happened with mine. No, I didn't have any issues like this, even with my AN surgery. That healed nicely.  So go figure why it did it this time, other than all the things I listed...

[Tamster]

How are you Jay? I keep thinking about you and all you've been through and hoping for good news.
July 5th is not so far away now. I'll be checking back to find out how you are.

T

[jaylogs]

Tammy, my surgery pal!! Long time no see!! I'm doing ok so far....the left side of my scalp has been dead since my plastic surgery to get things closed up, but in the last couple of weeks it's definitely awakening. And I am glad it was dead because it hurts!  I really hope they can put the abutment back in at their office, as opposed to going into surgery again.  So we'll see how it goes.  How are you doing? Take care and I'll update when I can!!
Jay

[ombrerose4]

Glad to hear you are healing. They probably won't want to do the procedure in the office because they bill it as a hospital outpatient procedure to get more money. The codes for office procedures are different and will pay less to the dr. Unfortunately, it's all about the money:(

[leapyrtwins]

Might not be the money.

My doc wouldn't even remove the screw from my BAHA site in his office - a very simple procedure that required only local anesthesia and a small screw driver.  Took about 5 minutes once I was prepped.  His reasoning was that it wasn't a sterile environment.

As I recall, he didn't get paid much.

Jan

[jaylogs]

So, I went and saw the ENT...we are gonna do another procedure in the surgery center to put the abutment back in.  He said it won't be as involved as the first time, so we got it set up for July 22.  Woohoo...I say this sarcastically because I just really don't wanna go through all this again. But I keep telling myself that this will all be worth it in the end.  So, the waiting begins...again.  Oh,as an aside, I went through the boxes that they have given me and discovered that that I have TWO processors, did everyone get two? Anyways, so that's it...take care all!
Jay