To sleep, or not to sleep?

I woke up feeling so good yesterday that I was alarmed when I saw my husband staring at me with a look of horror on his face.

“Are you OK??” his lips worded.

I was totally confused. Must be my face – maybe some bruising or further swelling had shown up. I started patting my cheeks and he nodded, indicating I was onto something.

Nope … no swelling … but one of my cheeks felt a bit warm.

I got up and looked in the mirror and burst out laughing. It looked as though I’d been slapped – hard – in my right cheek!

A new side effect of CI surgery? Not quite. Rather, a side effect of what I call Sleeping (Dis)comfort From CI Surgery.

Allow me to share with you.

In a moment of sheer frustration on Saturday night, I’d rolled over onto my side – enough was enough. But – ouch! It hurt! So I decided to prop my hand between my face and the pillow. It gave me just enough leverage to keep my ear from touching anything. Most importantly, it allowed me to sleep on my side. I call this technique the Vegemite Effect. (Named after the ‘rose in every cheek’ part of the jingle – I think only my Australian friends will understand that reference, sorry!)

Last night, again in a moment of sleep-deprived madness, I managed to go one step further and discovered a new (not so) ingenious technique. Are you ready for it? This one’s called: Sleeping On The Edge and involves, quite literally, sleeping on the edge of the pillow so that only the cheek touches its surface and the ear leans off into nothingness. It was fine until I woke up in pain because my cheek had slipped onto the mattress and was now level with my ear. Also, I had to perform this technique with the pillow turned vertically, lest I risk crossing the invisible midpoint into my husband's half of the bed and being booted out accordingly. ;-)

Both techniques helped me sleep, but they weren't perfect. I had to follow up my evening’s sleep with a 3-hour snooze on the recliner instead. Much better. (Heartfelt thanks to my Cochlear Community friends for the advice!) The Recliner Technique does come with a little problem, in my case though, called Sharing With The Cat. (Quite often, my cat superbly wins this contest in a feat that leaves both my legs hanging over one of the armrests, while she victoriously sprawls out on the foot recliner portion and purrs away.) 

Sigh. Maybe I’ll come up with an even better technique tonight! The less sleep I have, the more likely I will come across something (anything!) that works! 

Or maybe I will just pursue the Recliner Technique and practice duelling with the cat. ;-)