The Diary of Paul James

Date 8/10/1998

Today is the day I have my second bone anchored hearing aid fitted. I feel quite excited and also a bit a numb I have kept the thought out of my mind as much as possible over the last 3 months while waiting for the titanium implant to heal. The operation itself was less concerning than having a tooth out at the dentist. The fact is if you were to give me the choice, between having a hole drilled in my head or having a tooth out under a local anesthetic I would go for the hole in the head!

But now is the time to find out. The most interesting thoughts that have been going though my mind over the last 13 weeks will be to know if I will be able to hear in stereo or will it just be a louder mono. I go in with the attitude of knowing that it will sound awful the moment it is switched on. My experience of the first BAHA of ten years ago was a very tinny sound with no direction. This sound improved over time so I am expecting this to be the same.

I have had the insert fitted and ready to be turned on for the first time. This is the big moment! Oh yes it most certainly works it seems loud as I expected. Just like 10 years ago as soon as they turn it on everybody just sits there looking at you, when what you need is someone to talk to you. When you are sitting in a quiet room you don't really get any true feeling of what it is like, you need to go out some where in the street or better still some where that is familiar to you. After a short time it seemed to me that this was going to make a very big difference to my hearing much more than I had first thought. As I was waiting to see the speech therapist it gave me time to sit and take in some of the sounds. My wife was with me so I could talk to somebody, which was a comfort to me. There I was sitting in a waiting room which was very quiet, I could hear a fan type of sound, at first I thought it was a dehumidifier that was by a wall, it turned out to be an air conditioning fan in the ceiling. At this stage I started to wonder if I could hear in stereo because I could not locate where the sound of the fan was coming from. There was so much going though my head at this stage that I did not know what I was to expect. My first taste of stereo came as I walked out of the room after seeing the speech therapist, as I turned around, still talking, I could here a difference in the quality of sound between the new side and the more familiar side. The difference was the distortion on the new side; it was a stereo type of distortion between the new and old aids that stood out to me. The next step was to make our way home, this gave me the chance to walk out side and take in some of the sounds. I found that I was very quickly getting used to hearing with my new hearing aids, and this time it was much quicker than when I had the first one. I am so very conscious of the new hearing aid being there, yet I hardly notice the old one at all. It was a dull dry day with a bit of a breeze, walking to the car was quite a satisfying feeling however I was still unsure of the out come.

There have been some questions of the practicalities of wearing two hearing aids in my mind ever since I agreed to have the second aid fitted. Will it restrict my movement? Will I be able to slouch on the sofa? Will I be able to lie down in bed and talk with my wife? And many more such things that people take for granted. When I first accepted the opportunity of going bilateral my idea was to use just the one aid at a time. I was keen to find out if the distortion that I kept telling people about, was the hearing aid or the stud. The first hearing aid I had 10 years ago was sent back something like four times because I thought it was not working properly, as I was experiencing distortion. I later accepted the finding that it was a case of time more than a distortion issue. I feel that it is just a case of letting time take its course for the full integration of the stud with the bone. It can take up to three years to fully integrate and achieve the full quality of hearing.

The other main issue I feel strongly about is getting used to wearing the new hearing aid. You must keep using it all the time. I found the first time round every time I swapped back to wearing an old air ducting hearing aid it set me back. It is far better to keep using to new hearing aid now if I need to take one out it is the older one that I remove.

23/10/1998

I have now had the new hearing aid for 10 days, and I am finding the sound to be quite normal as if I have been wearing them both for 10 years. I must say that I am surprised how quickly I am getting used to it. I have spent quite some time listening to CD's, its so much better to hear what I consider to be stereo, yes I am sure it is stereo, maybe it is not so decisive as the normal hear but I can hear the pan effect from speaker to speaker. Also the quality is so much better and balanced.

I am finding the physical aspect more of a challenge than the hearing. Wearing one aid allows you to lean your head to one side and slouch into the sofa, but you don't get the same freedom with two. I am also finding habits of old preventing me from making the most out of having two aids, such has, sitting on the same side of people as before.

I am also finding some strange happenings, such as feeling a bit deaf on the old side. This must be something to do with the new side picking up the sounds louder than the old side. However it feels quite strange for the old side to be missing out. I am sure that it is just a case of getting used to it, and possibly a indication of what I have been missing out on.

I went for a walk in the park today and discovered that if I shut my eyes and tried to locate where the sounds where coming from I would point some 180 degrees the wrong way. This I am sure is because the microphones are facing more to the back than the front. I was also pointing to where the sound seemed loudest, it's like stereo in reverse if you know what I mean.

28/11/1998

I have just moved to a new factory unit so I have had little time to keep up to date with the diary, however the improvement has being continuos. There is a sense of the new side been better quality than the old side.

It has been some time since I added to this page, so there is a lot of catching up to do. I have been pre -occupied with my company, which we have re-located and this has taken a lot of my time and energy. Any way back to my Baha, I have really got used to it now and wonder how I coped with out it before. I feel so much more balanced. I catch people out who are used to me standing on their right so that I could hear them better. My wife has more problems getting used to the changes than I have which has surprised me.

Now I have had time to settle down and get used to the sound, I find that adjusting the tone control is a difficult process, in as much as that you need to be patient. Although this is a very small adjustment, it is down to personal preference and takes several days to know if this new setting is right. This is because when you first use the BAHA you get used to that setting, even if the sound is poor. There seems to be a difference in the quality of sound from one side to the other, it seems that there is just a tiny bit of distortion on the old side that shows itself when I am watching T.V. at home. At first I thought this might be my glasses touching the BAHA, but it's not. I am still trying to find why this is happening, I suspect that it might be the tone setting.