Would I recommend the BAHA? – Part 2

It’s been two and a half years since my original post about BAHA, and I’m thrilled that it has garnered so much conversation. Getting a BAHA is a large (and expensive!) commitment that comes with expectations, and folks seem eager to weight all of this as much as possible before committing to the surgery and a lifetime with a peg-head.

I still think it comes with minor hassles (occasional ooziness at the implant site, getting cold faster than the rest of my head in the winter and aching a bit, and changing my hairline). I discussed these in my original April 2010 post.

Important Update

I have to make an important update to the second part of my post, though, where I discussed what I thought was a design flaw: in my experience, the BAHA only picked up sound in one direction (to the side), and didn’t pick up sound in front of me, often where I needed it the most. I stopped wearing my BAHA for the most part early-on, and since, I’ve adapted fairly well to having one ear. As a result, it has been ages since I’ve seen an audiologist.

I visited an audiologist this summer to discuss alternatives to Devino, the device I have, and discovered that one of my two microphones has been broken this entire time!! I feel rather silly – it makes much more sense to have a broken microphone than for the company to design a useless product, but since I didn’t know what to expect from the device, and since I had just spent thousands of dollars on this thing and don’t remember doing anything stupid with it (like jumping into a pool), I expected it to function just fine. And so it never occur to me. An important lesson – these devices are very delicate, and according to the audiologist, you should expect to get repairs every year or two.

BAHA Repairs

BAHA has a mail-in repair center. Each repair costs a flat fee – something like $800-900. I’m not sure if this is the same for all customers depending on insurance and what not. The company stops supporting repairs on devices after a few years; so the Devino model that I have will stop receiving support soon. It doesn’t add up for me to repair my device now, but the next time I switch jobs, I might consider trying out a new device to help with the transition. What is cool about having a BAHA is that hearing technology is constantly improving, so you can expect some improvement from your devices throughout your life.

Daily Life with BAHA

It is still my experience that I do not use my BAHA 95% of the time. I work in a quiet office, and my friends and colleagues are not phased when I ask to switch seats at a table, cup my good ear to listen, or ask them to repeat themselves occasionally.

HOWEVER, I will say, it is nice to have BAHA as a backup the remaining 5% of time – particularly when I meet new people, or enter situations where I have less control over when were I sit (conferences and large meetings). Even my gimpy 1-microphone BAHA helps in these situations. I imagine that anyone who works with customers/clients, or kids would find the (fully functional) BAHA helpful much more often than 5% of the time; without a hearing device, other people will struggle to get your attention, and you will have difficulty figuring out the direction that sound is coming from.

In my original post, I felt rather disappointed in the BAHA. It didn’t perform as I expected because (a) I apparently broke a microphone on day 2, (b) it was not a replacement for my good ear, and (c) there are some minor hassles associated with having a metal peg in your head.  On a scale where 0=not recommend and 10=recommend, I was feeling a 4 or 5 in 2010. Today, I feel 6 to 7 about recommending the BAHA. As long as you think of it like a walker or wheel chair, and not a set of brand new legs, and you keep up the maintenance, I think you’ll do just fine with it. If you think you won’t need it often enough to justify, you will be much richer and less likely to have fashionable hats!

Would I recommend the BAHA?

Would I recommend the BAHA? This is a question I struggle with because my personal experiences with the device are mixed. I find that 90+ percent of the time I am able (and prefer) to go without my BAHA hearing aid at work and in social settings, and I never use my BAHA at home.  There are some minor hassles with having a BAHA, and I’m not sure if they are worth it for me.

My BAHA implant surgery

I had a bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) implanted in 2008, 10 months after suddenly loosing hearing in my left ear. I’ve had the BAHA for over two years now, and though there is a lot I can say about it, I will save that for another post. This post is about the implant surgery.

I was a good candidate for surgery because I’d lost virtually all capacity to hear in my left ear from SSHL, I am young, and I have great hearing in my right ear. The implant is essentially a snap – one side of the snap is installed in the skull behind the bad ear, and one side is mounted to the back of the hearing aid. Once the BAHA piece in your skull is sufficiently healed (approx 3 months), you can snap the hearing aid to your head, and through bone conduction, hear sound from the deaf side of your head in your good ear. What an amazing technology!

Results from Steroid Treatment, MRI, and Hearing Test

It had been two months since I’d been diagnosed with Sudden Deafness in Brazil and it was time to update friends and family. I sent the following email and MRI images:

This month I finished a steroid treatment, had an MRI of my brain, and took a follow-up hearing test. The good news is that I don’t have a tumor or anything funky growing on my noodle. Also, my balance is recovering. I am on my bike gain, jogging, and driving – activities I couldn’t have imagined a few weeks ago. It feels REALLY great to move again and be able to shed a few of these pounds that I’ve accumulated!

The not-so-good news is that my hearing decreased from a “severe hearing loss” to a “profound hearing loss” on the left side.