Lucky I Guess

I have noticed that many people get quite a bit of hair shaved when they have cochlear implant surgery. I figured maybe it depended what area of the country or which hospital, that different hospitals might do different things. But I've recently seen three different people in the blogosphere who had CI surgery at Johns Hopkins, just like Laynie, but who had tons of hair shaved for their surgery.

This picture of Laynie is from three days after the surgery. By the way, I deliberately chose a picture that was a little blurry on the incision area, so the squeamish will not be grossed out. You're welcome. But here's what you should attend to: hardly any hair is shaved! It was the same with her first surgery. They buzz a small area (it's not shaved smooth) and slick the rest of the hair away from the surgical site with waxy stuff, which is a pain in the neck to wash out but infinitely superior to having a third of her hair shaved. This is the reason Laynie was able to go to school the day after her surgery without anyone knowing where on her body she had had surgery. I wonder why some people have a lot of hair shaved and some don't. I suppose it depends on the surgeon. Laynie is just lucky, I guess.

Just for fun, here are some more pictures from after the surgery.

Laynie accidentally wore her processor into the OR, and the nurses had to think fast about where to put it. Cool how the coil is up against the metal lid, right?

This is Laynie's bed after surgery.

This is mine. I did end up scrounging up a pillow.

Here is the chart I made for Laynie. She did not miss a dose of her antibiotics.