Feb 2007 -- Trying a BAHA

Since Belle isn't a good candidate for the atresia surgery [which attempts to repair ear canals and middle ear hearing bones] we decided to begin looking into another option. Since Belle was born without the middle ear hearing bones (and only a small ear canal) your regular type hearing aid that amplifies sound wouldn't work for her. However, a Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) would. So we met with a local doctor who comes highly recommended and works frequently with BAHA patients.

Belle had her first experience hearing on her right side when the audiologist put the BAHA on her. Her left ear was full of cotton and we whispered on her right and she grinned from ear to ear. She loved it! She thinks it's really cool to be able to hear on both sides and she thinks the headband that pushes it tightly up against the bone behind her ear is pretty cool too. The doctor's office was kind enough to loan us a tester BAHA so she could get a good try.

She wore the loaner for several weeks until the spots on her scalp that haven't healed (see other page for more details on that) got in the way and we had to stop wearing it for a while.

When asked Belle said she liked the headband and BAHA. However, when we explained that to get even better sound, they could implant something in her head that the hearing aid would snap into (instead of using the headband) she disliked that idea strongly. After having two surgeries scheduled for a 4 month time period, we also don't really like the idea of another surgery. So we asked to just get the BAHA headband, but there seems to be a loop-hole in our insurance that they will pay for it as part of a surgery, but not if we just want the device. So we are still figuring that out (there might be other ways to get it paid without surgery).