ONE – SSHL has improved my quality of sleep by keeping the world nice and quiet. Just put my good ear in the pillow and the noisy neighbors, barking dogs, and traffic noise instantly fade. Last summer I was on a camping trip with several people who said they didn’t sleep well from all the unusual noises in the woods. I had one of the most lovely nights of rest. In fact, I have a photo… believe it or not, this IS a well rested, very happy Dana.
View photos from Chris’s BAHA implant surgery and recovery.
View a video of a BAHA implant surgery with a doctor’s explanation of the procedure throughout.
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!
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. Read the rest of this entry »
A few days earlier I had left Brazil in a rush after notifying folks that I’d been diagnosed with Sudden Deafness. It was time to provide an update to the masses. The list of people was long and diverse and I struggled with my approach. I tried to provide as much information as possible without getting lost in the details of my medical condition, or grumbling excessively about all of the frustrating and terrifying moments. I wanted to believe that a doctor would give me the fix I needed to recover at least some of my hearing and balance. I sent the following email update on July 3, 2007: Read the rest of this entry »
I continued to stay in email contact with the ENT who diagnosed me in Salvador, Brazil. She was an enormous source of support during the first week back in the US when I was ferociously arguing with front desk staff who had no idea what sudden deafness was or the urgency of the situation. Repeatedly I encountered front desk staff who rudely offered the next available appointment in 3 weeks.
“No, you don’t understand, this is an emergency condition and I need to start treatment immediately or I may loose my hearing permanently. May I speak with a medical doctor?” I’d beg.
“Sorry, miss, but you’re not an established patient. Our next available appointment is in three weeks.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Brazilian ENT, it turns out, had studied at a top American medical institution – Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD – and spoke perfect English. She listened to my description of waking up dizzy with white noise in one ear. After she looked in my ears, and asked a series of questions to which I only could give normal-usual answers, she concluded, “I think you have Sudden Deafness.”
“Deaf?” I asked. “What do you mean?” I thought for a moment that maybe this word was lost in translation. Surely she didn’t mean I would be permanently deaf and dizzy. Her English, however, was flawless.
Fog was lifting over Salvador and dispersed sunbeams warmed the room and aroused me from sleep. It was the summer of 2007, and had just participated in a fantastic 3-week student study abroad trip in the Amazon. After the program ended, I put together a website and updated a large network of friends and family and let them know that I was staying on in Brazil to do intensive Portuguese training. On June 28, I had been staying with a host family in Salvador, Brazil for just over two weeks.
When I got out of bed to pee, I was totally disoriented. I held the walls for stability and made my way to the bathroom. Like every other morning, my host mom was busy preparing breakfast. I made my way down the hall to the kitchen with my hands firmly on each wall. I felt really strange – something was clearly wrong. I then realized that there was a white noise (like a TV with no recepetion) in my left ear.
Life with Sudden Sensorial Hearing Loss (SSHL) 