Hearing Delight.. BAHA

I really think I quite prefer being deaf in one ear!

I have to admit to you all that I have been having trouble with my BAHA. I didn't want to say because I didn't want to put people off.

But now it's something worth talking about...

Mind the slightly grusome pics!

When the surgeons put my BAHA in 4 years ago it had to go at a really slight angle to find enough bone to adhere to, to transfer the sound.

However it seems that this meant that the skin around the abutment (the peg screwed into the skull) was always wanting to close back over where it used to be. It has been trying hard.

I was lucky. It wasn't like some folk who's skin grows up the side of the screw, rather it would just never heal flush against the sides and would bunch up and get inflamed. It was forever getting scabbed over, or just getting very sore and lumpy. My head was sore at least 1.5weeks out of every 4 and I couldn't touch my skull or brush and wash my hair.

It's really been starting to get me down. Inflammation after inflammation and after 4 years I went back to the ENT to discuss.

Well... He wasn't overly helpful and I thought I was going to leave with a tube of cream for the swelling. But in desperation I explained how these days I don't find it really helps me sound wise, rather that it would over stimulate my mind with all the background noise I would hear making my balance worse. All true.. just wasn't going to bring that up!

He sent me downstairs to see his audiology guy. Who happened to be the expert in vestibular difficulties there and was a BAHA expert!

After a lot of reassurance from them that it's what I wanted, they actually agreed to remove the 2nd part of the device. The part your processor connects to that sits on the screw itself. This was done relatively easily and just left me with the screw in my skull and the skin being able to potentially grow back over the top in time.

This is the hole left behind. The lump on the right is where the skin had been trying to heal over. You can see the titanium screw still in place.

And here is the top of the sound device. Small isn't it! That's on the docs hand!

Obviously the wound needed to be kept clean so that it heals without any infection, and actually I think I'm like a superhero it healed so fast!

Within 24 hours it was closed over and within 2 days the skin had knitted together again! It's done brilliantly since. The hole is now scarred over and I haven't had a sore skull since!

From the moment it was removed, it was as if someone had un-tightened the strings holding my head in a vice! The relief! No word of a lie it was if someone undid a really tight fixing.

Anyhow since then it has been great. I feel better being single sidedly deaf. I know what level the noise will always be, I know that I am what I am and I can't try and change it. That's ok with me!

I'm glad I tried it. I like the BAHA. I think it's a great device.

For me though.. I was told it would help my balance which was why I went there, but It really didn't. Understandably so, because it only sends the noise to your other ear. It can't re-orientate you to hear in both ears again.

It's only real downside as a device is dealing with background noise. Sadly for me, my balance issues are so bad that the over-stimulation in noisy situations is too much and makes me worse. Unfortunately my skin didn't like it, and I couldn't justify the hearing benefits with the amount of discomfort.

BUT it's all a bonus because I got to tell you all about it!!

So just make your choose wisely. If you're not going to wear it for most of each day then maybe consider the removable hearing aids? In hindsight I think I would choose them now because I can wear them when I need them and not when I don't. Of course they have their own issues, they're pretty itchy in the ears, but If I'd have known about the soreness it would have been worth it!

In conclusion. The BAHA is wonderful. It allows you access to situations and confidence with it, that you wouldn't have managed before. It's discreet but also an outwardly visible sign that you have something wrong,and in all honestly sometimes we all wish we had that to make it simpler.

It just has to be right for you. It wasn't for me, now I'm happy again.

Judes x