New titanium parts...

[JERRY2KONE]

Hey guys I just arrived home mid afternoon from the base Hospital. I spent the night there after receiving surgery on my left ear. It all started back in 1964 when I was in a childrens home. I went through a six month period experiencing massive ear aches, and the nurse could not figure out what the problem was. Finally I was sent to the hospital for a check up and found out that there was a piece of cotton rotting in my ear. go figure, right? It got so bad that reconstructive surgery had to be done using bones for other areas for my inner ear, and a new ear drum was installed. Over the years my hearing slowly faded and was down to about 25%.

So yesterday my surgeon did an exploitory sergery and found that there was some replacement bones installed way back when, but the bones were now broken. So considering todays technology he installed a prostetic device in place of the bones. It is a titanium pin mounted with a titanium sleave much like a "chinese finger" onto the bone that attaches to the nerve that transmits signals to the brain. On the opposite end is a titanium plate which sits directly behind the ear drum and vibrates with the drum transmitting the signal to my brain.

Now even with my ear packed full of crap for drainage I can hear better already. It will be a full two months before I am able to realize the full extent of the improvement. The coolest part is that my ear canal was large enough for him to do the whole surgery without cutting into my skull, and I have absolutely no pain what so ever. I still have Percacet just in case. I feel like I have a bionic ear now. Pretty cool stuff, huh? Just wanted to share the good news with you guys.

Good to hear man. Hopefully your ear gets better still. Anyway I too have a few metal parts surgically implanted. My right femur is being held together but a fair whack of Titanium and I also have a metal plate on the right side of my head.

[JERRY2KONE]

Originally Posted by BIG-block

Good to hear man. Hopefully your ear gets better still. Anyway I too have a few metal parts surgically implanted. My right femur is being held together but a fair whack of Titanium and I also have a metal plate on the right side of my head.

WOW from what? Sounds like you had some kind of accident, or is this from battle of some kind?

[pinkpanda3310]

That's good news Jerry! I'm happy for you. My uncle has ungracefully stepped off his motorbike a few times and is now walking around on titanium

Originally Posted by JERRY2KONE

WOW from what? Sounds like you had some kind of accident, or is this from battle of some kind?

Oh crap! I forgot about this thread. Sorry for the late reply Jerry.

Anyway the femur was smashed during a skiing accident. I think that I was on the Widow maker, Spine buster or the Colostomizer run ( watch too much Simpsons). Anyway it was an advanced run and me noob that thought he knew it all. What could go wrong? After tumbling down the hill for about 500 meters I came to a stop and realized that one of my legs wasn't looking so flash. Looked like it had two knee joints. They put a big rod and a few little screws. I was also meant to get the rod taken out but opted not to. Might be a mistake but hopefully not.

The head was a sport injury. My dad wouldn't allow me to play Aussie Rules Football because he thought it was too rough and a game for savages. So I ended up playing soccer instead. Anyway the short of it I got kicked in the head by an opponent and this caused some blood vessels to rupture on my brain. I thought I was OK and put up with the headache. For a few days I had a headache and didn't know what was wrong. I took heaps of Aspirin to try and stop the pain. Had the opposite effect. Aspirin thins out your blood and made the bleeding worse till the pressure inside my skull got so high I passed out. Don't remember too much of anything till after the surgery. I was pretty lucky in the sense that I made it to the hospital with no time to spare. They initially didn't fit any metal to my skull but just replaced the piece of bone they cut out and let it heal no it's own. Well it would have worked if I stayed still like the doctors told me to be. Instead I was moving about and just doing physical things I shouldn't. This cause the piece of my skull that was cut to move and not sit in it's place. The doctors thought I could not be trusted to stay still so they took me back to surgery and attached the piece of bone to the rest of the skull with metal. 12 years on I and other than a scar on the side of my head I have no real consequences from the whole ordeal. Very lucky and I thank the god for that every day.


And just as a side note to all people reading this. If you take a bump to the head and have a headache do NOT take Aspirin or any other drug that thins out your blood. This could be a very bad thing to do and almost cost me my life.

[JERRY2KONE]

WOW sorry to hear about your life or death ordeal. That was awful. At least you made it through, but I would be willing to bet that it will cause you more issues as you get into your twilight years. Your head injury warning is a good one, and we all learned something from Natasha (Leum Neason's former wife) who was subjected to a fall while skiing and did not think it was a big deal until she began to suffer from a headache and suddenly passed out. She was promounced dead a few hours later. Brain injuries routinely get overlooked, and end up costing someone their life. Glad to hear that you have moved on and seem to be doing well since that day. Peronally I have never gotten passed the bunny hill. I tried doing the downhill run one time, and spent about an hour getting up and falling down every couple of feet. Just could not get it. I can rollerskate all day long and waterski for hours, but the snow and skies just does not compute for me. I wish I could get the hang of it. Our youngest son loves to snowboard and wants me to join him, but at 51 I want to have both of my hips in place for the next 20+ years. Getting old sucks, but I do whatever I can to avoid injury.

[rabosi]

Pretty cool that you'll probably be able to hear better than you can remember. Good luck with the "bionic" ear. Wonder how the cotton got there in the first palce.

[reno911]

Cool story Jerry, I am glad to "hear" that you are hearing much better. Got to love our technology though, they have something for just about everything now.

[BrianG]

Better, stronger, faster; the 6 million dollar man! lol

Seriously, that's cool to hear (no pun intended). Although, when I saw the thread title, I just assumed you got new R/C titanium parts.

[reno911]

Originally Posted by BrianG

Better, stronger, faster; the 6 million dollar man! lol

Seriously, that's cool to hear (no pun intended). Although, when I saw the thread title, I just assumed you got new R/C titanium parts.

Touche, I thought he was talking RC as well.

[JERRY2KONE]

Sorry about that. I knew it would get your attention that way. I always try to think of a good title that will gain attention. When I look for new posts its always the tricky titles that gain my attention first. If the title sucks I rarely bother to open them. Just too much to read some days.

Anyway thanks for the praise guys. I thought it would make for an interesting read. I know I was amazed when the doctor told me what he could do in order to improve my hearing without using a hearing aid. I figured it was worth a shot considering my age. When he came in to see me yesterday and he did a tuning fork test even he was impressed with the results. He told me if my hearing was improved that much with all of the packing in my ear that it should be much better once everything heals up. He left some kind of liquid type of packing inside the inner ear that will take about three months for my body to desolve and consume, at which point the healing should be 100% completed, and then the final testing will be done. Of course he is disappointed that I will no longer be here in Seoul, Korea. We should be relocated in Prague within a few weeks(we hope). Usual Gov services dragging feet with red tape, procedure, and medical clearance type junk. Wish us luck.

[snellemin]

That is just awesome man. At least your will be able to hear in stereo again. Just amazing what can be all done now in the medical field.

[TexasSP]

Maybe you will get HD radio with those as well!

Congrats on the surgery and glad it went well. Amazing what can be done these days.

[JERRY2KONE]

One can only hope. The only thing coming out of it right now is a trickle of blood. The outer packing was removed yesterday, but there is still packing inside the ear canal, and liquid packing in the inner ear. So it is kind of anoying for the moment. The funny thing is that I now have some Titanium "bling bling" but no one can see it. ha ha ha ha. I am hopeful for any level of improvement, and am actually expecting a huge differnance from what it was. Hopefully not just wishful thinking on my part. We shall see. Yea the technology they come up with these days is very cool even for the simplest things. Life is good. The wife is at work, and the kids just left for school. Home alone, yeaaaaa...

[florianz]

hey, good news. I hope it will heal all well, all the best for you. Myself, I had some titanium in my right leg, a so called "marrow nail, medullary nail, intramedullary nail". after 1,5 yrs it got removed (quite painful), and finally I have put it into my truggy, to improve the stiffness (poor quality of the chassis):



further I have some more nails and plates made of titanium in my left pelvis. but they will stay in there. cool stuff.

al