The One A Year Later

Today it will have been one year since I had my first operation, to put on halo #2. Wow.
FYI, I got my hearing back four days into traction 😅 - I can't even begin to describe what a relief it is to be able to hear with ease and have a normal conversation where I don't have to, basically, 'fake it till I make it'.

That's the biggest thing the halo gave back to me but it's actually only one of many. See, my soft palette is no longer resting against the back of my throat so my voice has lost its nasal tone, I can swallow easier, I no longer experience pain from the trapped nerve in my right arm and I can taste without having to swallow first.\
As a result I'm a lot more energetic because I don't have to constantly be on the alert, constantly anticipating, God forbid; conversation and interaction with other people (!!) 😏

Let's see, I kept a diary of sorts whilst I was in hospital and looking back, the day that I FINALLY popped my ears was April 27th 2014 #BIGDAY - I can remember it really clearly. I was (of course) lying in the bed, strung up to the frame when it happened. When I decided to 'give it a go' ...it was small and painless - just one tiny pop, similar to the sound a faulty radio makes when being turned on. I remember thinking later that something more should of happened, 'was that it? After months of being separated from everybody else THAT was the 'breakthrough'?!'

Anyway, I couldn't believe it. So I turned to my mum who was sitting next to the bed and asked her to say something to me. I think she said, 'what? What is it?', and upon hearing her voice, properly hearing her voice for the first time in six months, I promptly burst into tears.
Of course my mum freaked out. She told me later that she thought my hearing had completely vanished (it had already, moderately, improved - just a tiny bit) and through floods of tears I blubbed, 'no, no - it's back, it's finally back...I just *hic* popped my ears!!'
I think my mum actually screamed before bursting into tears herself. You see, the thing is I (we) had gone into this whole thing of halo #2 with no guarantee that anything would improve, so you can probably imagine the relief and pure, utter ecstasy we felt that it had all been worth it. That we had made the right call.
I remember, straight after I got it back we listened to the song that had sorta become our anthem, through all the tricky times - 'I won't give up' by Jason Mraz and then my mum played me 'happy' by Pharell Williams. Whenever I hear that song now, I am transported back to that small corner of Sky Ward, Great Ormond Street Hospital.

I spent six months in halo #2 (it went on April 23rd and came off on November 11th) as opposed to three months like halo #1 - they did everything differntly. They fixed the screws lower (6 vertebrae lower) down my spine and after three months would loosen the bars of the halo roughly a centimetre at a time so yeah, it took a looonngg time before they removed the actual brace. It was tough. The halo was slightly different from the time before in that the jacket was lined with sheepskin - fine in the winter but I had to wear it through all of summer. I celebrated my 17th birthday in halo #2 and actually braved school(!!!) - I was going into lower sixth and didn't want to miss out any more than I already had (i.e. pretty much my entire high school education). That was really hard. It wasn't until I broke out of the halo that I realised how self conscious I had felt. Everyone at my school is incredible - they treated me just like everyone else. I truly don't know how they did it, but I love them for it..💞

So yeah. Things are good at the moment. I've been told that the hearing in my right ear is now 'normal' (whatever 'normal' is - I'm a sociology and psychology student now 🙌🏼) and I literally moved into adult medical services just a few weeks ago - it's different but I can already see that prof. Drake is going to really help me.
Life is good *touchwood*.
Let's hope it stays that way...
😇

Ciao!
EH
xxx