Cochlear Implant Surgery Video

I just watched a cochlear implant surgery video on YouTube. You might think I'm crazy, since my son's second implant surgery is only five days away. This just seems natural to me. My mother was a nursing instructor when I was growing up. I used to look up anything and everything in the manuals she had lying around the house. Majoring in Biology later in college, I've seen a few more textbooks and have myself done a fair share of dissections (my lab partner was the local PETA chapter President, so I did ALL of our dissections). While the sight of blood still makes me a little weak in the knees, it almost makes me feel better to have visually watched a video like this again. Knocking my son out with general anesthesia bothers me more than the actual surgery.

Not for those with weak stomachs, but here's a link to the video. The video is quite technical, not too graphic, with the physician talking through each step of the surgery. I believe the implant in this video is the same one that my boys already have over their right ears. Big Kid's original internal processor had a slightly different configuration of the processor, with deeper drilling into the skull to embed it in place. The internal part and surgical process have changed enough that I could hardly see any scarring on T-Man's head post surgery, or feel the internal processor under his skin now.

Before each of the surgeries people have asked me questions like, "Will they drill into your son's head?" "Is it brain surgery?" "Where does the implant wire go?" I'd just don't like talking about the actual surgery with other people. I'd rather have someone watch a video, whether an animated video describing what an implant does or a video of an actual surgery. Maybe after the surgery is done I'll be less squeamish when talking about it, probably not.

May God guide the hands of all those involved in my son's upcoming surgery. May he heal well, and someday hear with his left ear. We are thankful for the technology which give our sons access to sound.