I had another appointment with my consultant surgeon. He tested my balance. Some of the tests were weird. First I had to stand still, close my eyes and put my hands together as though in prayer. I had to stay like that for about 2 minutes. I could feel myself swaying sometimes. Next I had to walk in pigeon toes towards the consultant. I haven’t done this since I was a child at school. we used to pick our teams using this. I couldn’t do it with my shoes on so tried without shoes. Not too bad!!
Last one. I had to face forward towards the consultant, close my eyes and march and clap at the same time, again for about 2minutes. I felt that I was doing really well with this. When I opened my eyes I had turned towards my left. It was so weird!
The last test involved lying down and having cold water put into first my right ear and then my left. The consultant explained that he would be watching my eyes. They would be moving from side to side. He said I might feel as if the room was spinning but it wouldn’t last very long. I had no sensation of my eyes moving whilst I lay there and it wasn’t so bad. This was repeated for my left ear.
Afterwards the consultant told me that in my left ear the balance was quite good and in my right ear I had some damage to my balance but it was still OK.
My right ear had the least hearing and balance so this is the one to receive the cochlear implant. He would recommend me to have this and my husband and I agreed we would like me to go ahead with it as soon as possible.