Recovery From Going Bilateral...

I have been awful about updating my blog but I'm a busy bilateral bee. I got my stitches taken out on Saint Patty’s Day at some gosh awful time of 7:45 in the morning. The doctor said everything looks great. As I mentioned in my other post that when I was in the recovery room, the doctor said something about a hole in my head but I was a little preoccupied with organizing a manhunt for my Blackberry to care about a little hole in my head. I was concerned about it later on.

As I was getting the stitches ripped out of my head, the subject of the hole happened to come up. The area where the surgeon wanted to create a bed to put my implant in was thin and in doing so small part of the Dura Mater which is the covering of the brain had a hole in it and some cerebrospinal fluid leaked out. The surgeon had to patch that up. It is a similar to when they implant a baby because their skull is thin and pliable. First, I was a little freaked out because I was envisioning this implant sitting right on top of my brain but it is actually sitting on mostly skull except for a small portion of Dura Mater. That makes me feel a little better. I had to ask if I had to take any extra caution in activities and he told me to use common sense - right.

After the question and answer session with my surgeon, I preceded right back home to take a much needed shower. I admit that with this surgery, I was not as strict with the doctor’s orders as I was the last time. Day three, I decided to throw caution to the wind and slather the incision up with Neosporin and hire a cheap shampoo girl (Mom) to wash my hair. Afterwards, I dried the incision thoroughly with Hydrogen Peroxide and applied a layer of Neosporin. I guess I should put a half hearted disclaimer here: If this influences you to blatantly disregard your doctor’s orders, I am or this blog in no way shape or form responsible for your actions.

Now with the legalities out of the way, I wanted to create a post specifically to compare and contrast my left ear which was my first implant and my right ear which is the newest addition to magnetville. I revisited my surgery posts for my left ear. A wave of nostalgia came over me but I'm over it already. :)

Here goes.

Recovery room:

LEFT: When I woke up in the recovery room, I was in a good amount of pain. I felt as if my head got ran over by a Mack truck. The nurses were quick to shoot my IV up with some pain relievers. God bless them. It took a little while to come around from the anesthesia. I was under for three and half hours because my doctor had some issues getting the last electrode in but finally got the bugger in.

RIGHT: This time, I woke up with very little pain. I was able to wake up quicker since my surgery was only two and half hours. I was up and around within a half hour. The surgeon had no problem getting all the electrodes and the only issue were the leaking brain juice.

Sleeping:

LEFT: I parked my big ol’ butt on a recliner for a week. There was no way, no how I could lie down. When I tried to lay flat in my bed, I experienced the sensation of a spinning vortex. So the recliner it was for me.

RIGHT: The first night, I slept on an incline but by morning, I was sleeping flat on my back on a pillow and have continued to do so.

Pain pills:

LEFT: I was given the generic form of Vicodin that I was instructed to take two every four hours as needed. Well, I needed the whole damn bottle because I felt as if I got into a car accident with the aches and pains. I was a pill popping freak with this surgery.

RIGHT: This time around, I got the good stuff - Percoset which did the trick beautifully. Strictly for pain management - one in the morning and one at night for five days then I switched over to Tylenol gelcaps. One bad side effect of Percoset is constipation so try to increase your daily intake of fiber while popping the perks. :) Words of wisdom.

Metallic Taste Disturbance:

LEFT: I didn't get this side effect the first time and anytime I read that someone suffered from it, my reaction was always the same - dude, that sucks.

RIGHT: What goes around, comes around and it rolled around on day four, I went to take a sip of coffee that I had slumberly prepared that morning and as it coated my taste buds, a distinct copper flavor was detected in the right hemisphere of my tongue. Much to my dismay, I went on a coffee hiatus. It took about a week and a half for that to go away and for that next week and half, I found out what the headless horseman felt like but I lost four pounds. :)

Day of Doom: Day Three

LEFT: When day three rolled around, I was feeling pretty crappy.

RIGHT: When day three rolled around, I was feeling so good that I went back to work on day four which I will now admit was a very stupid move because I was so drained just sitting there. I resumed my right to recovery at home on day five with all the Food Network I could watch.

Dizziness:

LEFT: The only time that I experienced dizziness was when I laid down and I tried very hard not to do that!

RIGHT: Nothing at all :)

Fullness:

LEFT: I remember getting the cotton ball feeling with this ear for about two weeks.

RIGHT: The only time I experience the sensation of fullness is when I bend over.

Jaw pain:

LEFT: My jaw was tender but I could eat a hamburger without cringing in pain.

RIGHT: This time around was ouch. the jaw tenderness was bumped up a couple of notches. I couldn't yawn without flinching. Since opening my jaw anymore than an inch caused me to wince in pain, food preparation was a fiasco. Everything had to be in extra small bites.

Swelling:

LEFT: It was the fattest ear that I have ever seen in my life.

RIGHT: If I had any swelling, I couldn't tell and neither could anyone else. By the third day, curiosity got the best of me because I wanted to see whether the magnet from my processor could find the implant. It had no problem attaching itself.

Numbness:

LEFT: The top of my ear felt as if it had been anesthetized for three months. It took about three months for me to get feeling back into my ear. I could not sleep on for three weeks. In fact, the day of my activation was the day I was able to sleep on it.

RIGHT: Considering that I am two and half weeks post surgery, it is still numb but I can sleep on it now!

Tinnitus:

LEFT: Before the surgery, I had a major case of tinnitus that sounded like a train going around my head. After the surgery, I woke up to complete quiet. It was so pleasant to have that turned off. :) I did experience short episodes of tinnitus but after activation, it was gone.

RIGHT: I had some minor tinnitus before the surgery. After the surgery, it was like a different album was playing. Now, I don't hear much of anything except on occasions. I expect it to be less than noticeable when I get turned on.

Nose blowing.

LEFT: I don't even want to recount the anguish I went through when I just attempted to blow my nose with this surgery. I was truly paralyzed in pain.

RIGHT: Considering the painful experience I had with the left ear, I didn't want to take any chances. I decided to follow doctors orders on this and wait the two weeks before I attempt to blow my nose. The result was snot and a slight ear pop. :)

Neck stiffness:

LEFT: My neck was a little stiff but not near as stiff as the right ear.

RIGHT: My neck was stiff for about two weeks until I could move my neck side to side with no problems.

Bruising:

LEFT: I looked like I got kicked in the side of the face by a mule. It wasn't pretty.

RIGHT: I think I had a slight discoloration on my temple. Other then that, I looked good.

Tiredness

LEFT: I was popping so many pills that knocked me out that I was having cat naps every two hours.

RIGHT: I was tired but not to the state of nap time. :)

Driving:

LEFT: I didn't dare to drive until the sixth day. I cherished the fact that I had a driver license.

RIGHT: I was driving by day three despite the stiffness I had in my neck.

In conclusion, my right ear surgery and recovery went much smoother then the first one. It was so drastically different. Here I am two and half weeks post surgery and I am back to work full time. I went back to the gym doing light work outs. My incision is healing quite nicely. It really has been a super simple recovery. My activation is a week from today - April 2nd at 2pm.

The only gripe I have about this surgery is finding out that I am not as thick headed as I thought I was.

Order the Charity Book "I Don't Believe My Ears" Today!

The charity book project, I Don’t Believe My Ears, is finally completed after several months of assembling it together. Val Blakely from Cochlear Kids and Rachel Chaikof from Cochlear Implant Online would very much like to thank all these contributors who submitted wonderful and humorous stories:

Me :) at Chronicles of a Bionic Woman
Amy Kwilinski at CochlearImplant.net and Auditory Verbal Parents
Ann Lovell
Beverly Spenser
Diane Beltrami
Jodi Cutler Del Dottore at An American Mom in Tuscany
Kara Hendrick
Kim Larsen at The ASL-Cochlear Implant Community
Kimberly Pendley at Can you hear me?
Leaf Leafler at Say What?
Leslie Hine at The Hine Family Est. 1996
Liz Hupp
Melissa Chaikof at Auditory Verbal Parents and Cochlear Implant Online
Melissa Krilosky at Our Journey to the Hearing World
Samantha Trueblood
Val Blakely at Cochlear Kids
Vicki

All proceeds will go to Deafness Research Foundation, a non-profit organization 501(c)(3) that works to fund research to help those living with hearing loss and balance disorders, and on programs to raise awareness of potential causes to protect those at risk.

Go order one today and help create a difference for today’s generation and the future generation of deaf people and have some good laughs!

Officially Bilateral!!!

Today is day four of my recovery from my second cochlear implant and you will never guess where I am - I’m sitting at my desk at work, sipping on a cup of copper flavored coffee skillfully prepared by the professional coffee artisan across the street. I’m visually picturing you – my loyal readers – jaws dropping right about now.

But I am not kidding you.

I have been totally unenthusiastic about going bilateral even though I have a swarm of bilateral buddies swearing up and down that two is better then one. I would just nod in agreement just to hush them up. When I had my first cochlear implant surgery, I felt a sense of urgency to get it done. It was either to remain deaf or given the possibility to hear and I chose the latter. I had a rocky recovery with my first cochlear implant surgery and I was hesitant going through the whole ordeal again though I know the benefits far outweigh a few days of feeling as if I got ran over by a train. With that in the back of my mind, I had no immediate desire to go freely jumping on the bilateral bandwagon. But then you read studies like these:

Bilateral cochlear implants: A case when 2 are definitely superior to 1


Adult Bilateral Study PDF

And ponder if it is really worth it? But then, what did I have to lose? So I finally got a surgery date of March 9th and insurance approval for going bilateral a week before going under the knife.

On Monday, I had to report to a different building then my first surgery. It was a happy building - lots of shiny stuff that caught my eye. The sage green aesthetic calmed the most neurotic of patients. I had to be there around 9:30 and I was a little late, of course, but they still took me in anyway. They slapped the identification bracelets on me and made me get undressed. They let me keep my skivvies on because last time they demanded them off which is a bit embarrassing. :)

Just like last time, I gave the nurse one chance to get the IV in. I start practicing my lamaze breathing and pop she got it in on the first try. She decided to put the IV in my arm as opposed to my hands which has some thin veins. I had a horrific experiences where a nurse tried six times to put an IV in my hand. I ended up passing out and was put on oxygen. Hence the reason I have a rule in place, one shot and that it is.



Then the gas man with this unbearable accent came strolling in my little curtained in area. I get nauseous with anesthesia so I asked him to put some extra anti-nausea stuff in with my cocktail. However, I had such a hard time understanding him. He was Indian with a heavy British accent that had no desire to move his lips to enunciate. He just gave up with me and carried on talking to my friend as if they were a bunch of little old ladies about smart phones. After he left, I bawled out of sheer frustration. My favorite bilateral bionic babe, Jennifer managed to get my tears down to a mild drip just in time for my surgeon came in. He recapped the procedure as he marked my ear lobe with a teeny tiny X.

Shave some hair. Slice the ear open. Drill a well. Drill a hole. Slip the implant in there. Boot it up. Stitch me up and ship me home.

Super simple stuff – really.

Just before noon, they got smart and sent a native English speaking member of the anesthesiologist team this time to wheel me back to the OR. They were so kind to let my implant come along for the ride. It was similar to playing bumper cars on the way there. The chairs that they use don’t exactly go around curves well. With some narrow hit and misses, I hopped up on the table.

Then the gas mask came out. The last time they used the mask, I actually tried to rip it out because I felt as if I were making a mistake getting the implant. Silly me. This time, I felt at peace and drifted off.

The surgeon got all 16 electrodes in and stitched up by 2:30. I was told that the area where he wanted to place the implant was a little thin and that there was a hole already there (scratching head) but he spackled it. I will find out more about that hole that was in my head when I see him on March 17th to have the stitches removed. I woke up in recovery around four o’clock and it was worlds apart how I woke up the first time. I felt dopey as all hell. With the first surgery, I felt like a mack truck ran over my head and a bit dizzy. With this surgery, I didn’t feel any pain, pressure, dizziness or taste of metal. I hardly noticed the traditional turban but I was able to wear the cochlear implant over it.

Within a half hour, I was up and using the lavatory all by myself. I was drinking water and questioning on the ETA of my applesauce. They decided to inject some pretty potent pain medication in my IV which made everything wrong seem right in the world. They kicked me out of the hospital around five o’clock.


When we got home, I walked into Walgreens and drop my prescription off. After that, I plopped on the couch and got the royal treatment for the rest of the night. I mean - homemade spaghetti and meatballs with warm apple pie! You can’t go wrong with that! With my first one, I had no problem eating but I did have a problem with sleeping. I slept in a recliner to keep my head elevated but with this ear, I slept flat on my back.





The next day, the sadistic piece of gauze that was wrapped around my head a few hundred times came off. I was pleasantly surprised. I think my tears worked on my surgeon because he did not shave off nearly as much hair as he did before. Notice my picture of my first ear incision compared to my second ear.



Another pleasant surprise was that I got the good happy pills this time and not the generic version of Vicodin. I got some pretty white round pills of Oxycodone. With my last surgery, I was popping the two Vicodin every for hours. I take maybe one every 8 hours.

Yesterday was the dreaded day three of the recovery process. It is usually the day that most people feel really crappy. With my first ear, I felt horrible from day three to five but I felt disgustingly good. I have virtually no swelling whereas the last time my ear needed liposuction. It was gross. I woke up and started cleaning. I went for a drive and did a little grocery shopping. Just out of curiosity last night, I decided to dangle my magnet and see if it would attach itself and sure enough, it attached. That oughta tell you how much swelling I have. This recovery process is just so hard on me... :)

And today, I woke up with a slight metallic disturbance amidst my taste buds. This is new but it is not uncommon. I didn't have this with my first implant. It is pretty annoying and I find that really sugary substances like grapefruit and apples - do not taste good. Other then that, I'm feeling peachy...

Activation is on April 2nd!

Bilateral Surgery Date...

I know it has been a while since I have brought good tidings to my blog. I have been poked, prodded and even had a sheep thrown at me as means to inquire into my whereabouts. The sheep did me in. But first, I like to take the time to thank the highly anticipated gazillion snowflakes that I will have to shovel and then risk life and limb to drive to work tomorrow for the time to sit and down and update this blog.

The breaking news that I have is that in a week on March 9th, I'm going bilateral. That's right folks, I am going under the drill again and getting my right ear implanted.

The countdown begins now.

Music Video Featuring Sign Language

Every morning before I begin to assemble myself, I read Perez Hilton as well as CNN news. I happened to notice that the Perez posted a video by an Aussie pop singer named Sia who uses Sign Language in her latest video, "Soon We'll Be Found". I fell in love with the song, the video, the psychedelic utopia of trippy colors and decided to caption it.

If you cannot view the video, click here.

Why did she choose to sign in her video?

"Sia decided to sign as well as sing the song, in honor of the language and those who use it to communicate. “I've always been obsessed with the beauty of sign language,” Sia explains. “To ignorant hearing me, the movement and expression appears as a dance -- a beautiful, emotive dance. But the real beauty is the communication hidden within these perfect shapes.”"

But I can't tell what the hell is being said after 3:30 seconds. I think it is vocalizations with her repeating "I know we're lost but soon we'll be found". So if anyone with better ears then mine, not an impossible feat might I add :) could take a listen to the video and figure it out for me, that would be absolutely superb :)

Update on the MRI Mix Up

Last year is now a form of the yesterday.

This year is now a form of tomorrow.

And with this new tomorrow, delivers answers that yesterday couldn’t provide.

Deep, right?

:)

Seriously, with the new year, comes new answers. The short version is that I do have Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome (EVAS) as confirmed by the CT Scan. If you have absolutely no idea what I am talking about, a nimble little summarization of my last post:

None of the medical quacks I have seen in the past have managed to figure out exactly WHY I am the way I am - deaf and the only one in the family too.

Fast forward to twenty-four years later, my cochlear implant surgeon discovers that I have an Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct on the CT scan or MRI film. Uncertain which one he had used to diagnose EVAS but I was happier than a pig in poop that I had an answer. In my eyes or ears, depending on what orifice you want to use, it was the golden grail of my deafness. My surgeon kept the CT scan films because that is what he is going as a guide to implant my other ear and sends me home with the MRI films.

Seven hours later around eight o'clock at night, I was sitting in my favorite chair with my dog asleep at my heels dreaming of the freshly baked carob chip cookies and peanut butter barkcuits, I just happen to be nosing around in the envelope containing the MRI films and discovered that most of the films don’t belong to me.

In my appalled state, my findings immediately tainted the doctor’s diagnosis because I was unsure what films he used – the CT scans or the MRI films. My dog woke up at this point.

Before my eyes glazed over in premenstrual madness, I could see that the information on the MRI films gave me the name of the facility, the patients name, date of birth and the date the tests were done. Very convenient. The date matched the date that I had my tests done. So, the radiology facility that I had the tests done at had given me the wrong MRI films!.

I've been quite the busy little bionic bee trying to get to the bottom of this but because of the holidays, it has been a slow crawl. Note to you all, just in the case where you feel the desire to go snooping around around your medical files, do it during normal business hours. It will save you much grief. But with just a couple of emails, I could confirm that my surgeon used the CT scan films to determine that I have EVAS. Whew! To alleviate any doubt, I had them double check to verify that all my CT scans belong to me.

This brings me to shifting my focus on the facility where I had my CT scan and MRI done. I shall return the MRI films that do NOT belong to me but I just want the radiology facility to provide me with a copy of my MRI films which they are giving me a little issue. I’m in duel mode right now for that. I want them to reread my films because this mix up has created a little thundercloud of doubt about the authenticity of the MRI report.

In the grand scheme of whole medical screw up, it was most likely a very honest mistake that I ended up with someone elses MRI films. It happens and no one got hurt, thankfully. Logically, I would have liked SOMEONE to have caught this instead of me discovering it over a year and half later.

But back to the fact that I have an answer which is all I ever wanted. My mother always had it in the back of her mind that maybe it was the antibiotics she took when she was pregnant with me when she had pneumonia. Ototoxicity is a real issue, so it was plausible. My father always had it in the back of his mind that maybe the piece of meat I swiped off the counter that caused E. coli that could have caused it. I had a high fever with that, so that could have killed my hearing. I always wondered which one of my many childhood illnesses that I had could have caused it. I mean I was anemic, I had blood transfusions, I had my tonsils ripped out along with my adenoids. I was a sniveling mess of a child with a very lengthy hearing history.

It is a huge relief to know it was something that I was born with and it was inevitable that I would become profoundly deaf. It was all me and it was meant to be.

Finally, an Answer to Why I'm Deaf or a Total Medical Screw Up!?

I took a trip out to University of Pennsylvania Hospital today with my CT Scan and MRI results in tow to start the process to have my right ear implanted. My right ear was a candidate last year but I still have to go through the whole process again minus all the tests. I don't have to redo the CT Scan, MRI or the balance tests. I don't need to have any audiological testing done because it's not as though my ears have gotten better :) In fact, my right ear, the one I wear a hearing aid in has finally gone kaput. I might as well should put it to good use! I am still a candidate and I don't have a surgery date yet because there is an issue with my oh-so-wonderful-union-backed-health-insurance canceling the contract with the hospital and they want to assure they get approval so I am not stuck with a hundred twenty-thousand dollar bill. And quite frankly, I want assurance that I am not going to get stuck with a hundred twenty-thousand dollar bill too. But that is another blog entirely.

When I saw the doctor, he came in and sat on the chair. He leaned back and crossed his legs, interlocked his fingers and rested them gingerly on his lap while he gave me the best present that I could have asked for: the answer to the age-old question of why I am deaf since no one seems to know why I have a hearing loss since I am the only one on both sides of the family that is deaf.

"Abbie, you have what is called Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct." He says.

"En-larged Ves-ti-bul-ar Aq-ue-duct." I repeated after him, syllable by syllable.

I presumed to steam roll him with questions. With the recent advancement of MRI technology, it has made it much easier to diagnosis this. A CT Scan can appear normal but with an MRI you can actually see the enlarged duct and sac. He explained to me that I was born with it. Most children that are born with this don't lose their hearing until three or four years old since this is when the Vestibular Aqueduct reaches its normal adult size. Figures, I would have something enlarged in my ears. My ass is enlarged. My chest is enlarged. So why not my something in my ears! The second I left, I was determined to become a self proclaimed expert via the way of the Blackberry of this Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome. And everything that I have read so far, fits perfectly. From the reason I feel as if I have fluid in my ears after I get my head jarred to the sudden deafness to the progressive hearing loss and how the one side worse than the other. It fits. This will be a separate blog too. I know, I know, what is the point of this blog you ask? Just hold on to your candy canes, I'm getting there.

My answer to my deafness has long be undetermined but I finally have an answer or so I thought.
 
Since I was stuck in traffic for a greater part of the day, I spent much of my time on my blackberry reading about this Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome. This shouldn't surprise you because when I get interested something, I research it to the death. But anyway, I finally got home from finishing up some Christmas shopping. I decided in all my professional incapacity to take a look at my MRI results. I never took a look at them before so I figured why the heck not!

I cracked open the huge Manila envelope and as I removed the MRI sheets as if they were made of glass. There was a ton of them! I carefully pick one up and hold one up to the light and started to admire each of the images on the film. I couldn't help but think they look like a very boring black and white Andy Warhol painting. They were arranged four across and five down: 20 images total on a single sheet of film. Like this:



I had no idea what I was looking at but I just so happened to take notice of a name at the upper right corner of each tile - a Wayne Something. Note: I changed the name to respect this person privacy.

First I thought it was the name of the person who performed the test or the name of the radiologists but I read further: Pat.: Wayne Something born in 1952.

Ok. That means patient.
 
I picked up another sheet of film. Wayne Something.
 
I picked up another one and sure enough, Wayne Something again!
 
And another one, Wayne Something.

I'm sensing a pattern here.

Yet another sheet, WAYNE SOMETHING

Picked up another sheet and saw a familiar name, MINE!

All in all, a total of four sheets belong to me.
 
All twenty other sheets belonged to Wayne Something born in 1952!
 
Ok.  I thought maybe the hospital might have incidentally given me back someone else films but I checked out the date that Wayne Something born in 1952 had his MRI done. It matched the same date that I had mine done. 

I’m attempting to think logically here because I am so frigging furious and I am pms'ing and all the dark chocolate in the world isn't calming me down. The answer that my entire family and I have all been waiting for was just handed to me on a silver platter and NOW, the possibility that the diagnosis was based on WaynE Something born in 1952 films and not my four friggen MRI films.

DO I LOOK LIKE A FIFTY YEAR OLD MAN TO ANY OF YOU?!

No, I didn't think so either. My so-called logical thinking has lead me to conclude that when I went to pick up my MRI films, they gave me Wayne's films and I never had a full set of MRI films to begin with.
 
What is really upsetting me is what if the doctor based his diagnosis of having Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome on HIS sheets and over looked the name?

That means I am back to square one without an answer to why I am deaf.

The hell I'm going back to square one without a fight. First thing tomorrow morning, I'm calling the MRI place, calmly, and tell them what happened and politely request (demand) that I get my full copy of my MRI results.  I am sincerely hoping that they still have a copy of my MRI films because this is dating as back to early 2007. I will request the radiologist to measure the size of my vestibular aqueducts to see whether the doctor diagnosis is correct.

I practically screamed my friends ear off on the phone tonight reciting this entire SCREW UP to her and I decided it was time to give her a word in edgewise because I puffed out all the oxygen in my lungs. First thing she does, is her worst impression of Barry White singing,

"Happy Holidays!"

Stay tuned folks and have a great holiday! :)

MRIs and Cochlear Implants

Let's talk MRIs.



When I went to Chicago for the ALDA convention, I met several people that didn't want to get a cochlear implant because they need an MRI every six months. I will admit when I first started researching cochlear implants, MRIs was not a major concern of mine. I just read the I can have a MRI done if the magnet was removed. Fine. Great! That is all I needed to know but now I realize how much it means to others that suffer from other illnesses where they require MRIs.

Why would a person need to get one? MRIs provide better contrast in soft tissue, which helps to distinguish between normal and diseased tissue. MRIs do not show bones like a CAT scan or X-Ray. Brain tumors, strokes, multiple sclerosis and Neurofibromatosis, type 2 (NF2), are diagnosed by an MRI. Which means anything metal - paper clips, pens, keys, jewelry, scissors, underwire in your bra, belts, glasses and any other small objects can be pulled out of pockets and off the body or out of the body can become dangerous projectiles hurdling at the opening of the tube at incredibly high speeds.

Joy. Its a good thing that they make you remove anything metal.

Could you imagine if someone left a tongue piercing in and they turned the MRI machine on? Ouch.

Anyway, I did me a little research on MRIs. The magnet in an MRI system is rated using a unit of measure known as a Tesla and they are grouped into three fields.

Low-Field = Under .2 Tesla

Mid-Field = .2 to 0.6 Tesla

High-Field = 1.0 to 1.5 Tesla

What is the difference between low-field and high-field? The high-field setup has superior image quality AND has a higher rate of detecting tumor remnants. This abstract that I found supports that statement. The next generation of MRIs are circulating around at the strength of 3.0 Tesla.

Sounds like the higher the Tesla - the better the detection rate. I would imagine it would be like going from a two mega pixel camera to a ten mega pixel camera.

Now both Advanced Bionics, HiResolution Bionic Ear System's HiRes 90K implant and Cochlear Americas, Nucleus Freedom is MRI Safe up to 1.5 Tesla with the internal magnet removed.

I took a look at Med-El's website and discovered in bold letters, MRI Safe - Without Magnet Removal. Leaping lizards, no faking! They don't require the internal magnet to be removed. In fact, it is designed where the magnet can't be removed at all.

That cool!

But then I read the fine print:

In the US, PULSARCI100 and SONATATI100 are currently approved for use at a scanner strength of 0.2 Tesla.

Oh. That means recipients of a Med-El device can only use MRI's rated at low-field strength of 0.2 Tesla where they could be sacrificing image quality that could lead to a potential misdiagnoses.

What if one with a Med-EL device wants a high-field MRI that has a better image quality and higher rate of detection? Does that mean the entire implant has to be removed because they don't have a removable magnet?

Yikes.

This is a link to an article that talks about the latest MRI machines that are rated 3.0 Tesla which can demagnetize an implant. It also discusses how there is permanent damage to devices with non-removable magnets such as Med-El's PULSARCI100 and SONATATI100.

However, I'm privileged to know someone in my harem of cochlear implant users that had an MRI done and had the internal magnet removed and what he had to say really calmed my nerves if I ever had to get one.

First of all, it seems to be kind of a rare event. My surgeon has performed over 550 implant surgeries and has never had to do this procedure (taking the internal magnets out, then reinserting new magnets). In fact, of the 700+ Midwest Ear Institute patients, I believe I am the first to have an MRI. To get an MRI, the internal magnets need to be removed from the implant, then you get in the tube, then back to the OR to have new, sterile magnets and stitched up. The thought of having the internal magnets taken out probably bothers some people but it shouldn't - it was not a big deal at all. In fact, they asked if I wanted to be sedated and I said no - so they just did a local and it was fine. There is a little pain...but very little, and easily handled with OTC pain relievers. In fact, I haven't needed any today at all. I was going to write a great, detailed account of this but it is such a non-event that there is little to write. Kind of like getting some stitches in your head - that's it. The most irritating thing is being inside the MRI tube - at least you can't hear it though, because you are completely deaf while inside.

I wouldn't go get an MRI for fun, but if it is suggested that you need one, please do not hesitate to do it. An MRI is an incredible piece of technology and can be a difference maker in terms of diagnosing certain things.

And that is all he said folks!