Under the knife

I'm back home from the hospital now. Surgery went pretty well, about 6 hours under I think -- longer than the 4.5 hours anticipated because I have more than the usual amount of muscle in the area above the cochlea that the surgeon had to deal with. And no, it is not because I have a fat head! Not a lot of pain but nausea that comes in waves, probably due to all the meds they gave me for pain, antibiotics, stuff to get my insides moving again, etc. My appetite is OK, but I sleep a lot. I've got a pressure bandage on my incisions -- two big gauze pads above and behind my ears held in place by gauze wrapped around my skull. Think WWII aviator helmet or Princes Leia headphones and you will get the idea.  Jill and Jim were here for the week prior so on Sunday we dropped Ike off with Tom and Susan (thanks again, guys!) and then we took the in-laws to the airport. After that we went down to Chandler's Cove to check out a DeFever 46 and a Willard 40. Loved the DeFever, so maybe someday... Ran into Jeff Messemer from Ranger Tugs, who was taking a break from setting up for the boat show later this week to have lunch with his family. It is good to see how well Ranger is doing in this environment.  We got a room at the Courtyard across from Chandler's. Got up at 6 AM and were at UW by 7. Didn't get into the OR until at least 10 AM. Lori spent Monday night at the hotel then picked me up Tuesday and we were on the road to Anacortes by noon.  I go back to UW next Tuesday to see the surgeon for post-op follow-up and then the following Monday back again to see the audiologist to activate the implants for the first time!  Warren