thinking of baha

[jb11258]

Hi everyone, I am new to this site. I had my surgery 4 yrs ago, and am thinking about baha. Aside from the obvious haering issues, me biggest problem is not knowing where sounds come from. It makes me crazy. Want to know if anyone had baha, and if it helped that. I am trying to figure out if it is worth it. Also I am from N.Y. and flew to House clinic in L.A. to have my surgery. My results were pretty good. I know this surgery is not as bad as the AN surgery so dont know whether or not to fly again to surgeon that I really liked and had great crudentials or just find sergeon in my area.I would really appreciate and info.  thanks  Judy

[Sam Rush]

Baha surgery is relatively minor, done under local anesthesia, and you go home the same day. Check w/ House clinic for a referral in your state.  A lot of people on this site have BAHA's and no-one to my knowledge regrets it.

[jb11258]

I see you had your surgery by Brackman. I did also. Where do you live and who did your baha surgery. I feel comfortable with brackman and the hospital .I have never had anything done before the AN so maybe I am a bit scared going somewhere else. Maybe thats alittle silly.   thanks  judy  Also did the baha help you find where sounds are coming from?

[Sam Rush]

I live in Clovis Calif, and Dr. Brackmann did my BAHA surgery.  They used me as a teaching case and had a bunch of other Dr's watching and videotaping. Very interesting, I was awake.

[leapyrtwins]

Judy -

the BAHA is fantastic!  I've had my Divino for just over a year now and love it - definitely beats being SSD 

To find a doctor in your area who performs BAHA implants, go to the Cochlears American website  http://www.cochlearamericas.com  and look under "Find a Clinic". 

There are many posts on the forum about BAHAs - many of them are mine  - to find them just put "BAHA" in the search box at the top lefthand corner of your screen.

And please don't hesitate to ask us anything - we're here to help and don't mind questions.

Best,

Jan

[wendysig]

Judy,

I am also in NYC.  I had my BAHA surgery in January and could not be much happier -- it has changed my life after being SSD for a few  months.  As others have said, it is a minor procedure and having it done locally makes sense.  My doc is wonderful and I highly recommend him.  His contact information follows:

http://www.entandallergy.com/physicians/choe_wt.html

In my opinion, you could not make a better choice.  As far as localizing sound, BAHA helps a little but does not entirely solve the problem. I can tell when sound is coming from behind me and from directly in front of me as a rule, but not right from left.  I  guess that's just one of the benefits we lost when we lost our stereo hearing.

Wendy

[Keri]

Hi Judy,
I'm going to get a BAHA as well (hopefully around January). I've read a lot from Jan and many others on the hearing issues section. There's a lot about BAHA's. Keep us posted.
Keri

[Joef]

me biggest problem is not knowing where sounds come from. It makes me crazy.

BAHA is great... but... IMHO , does NOT help with localing sounds...

[jb11258]

I go for a consult tomorrow about the baha. Any certain questiona you think I should ask?  thanks  Judy

[Sefra22]

Be sure to ask if the surgeon is going to use local or general anesthesia. I assumed local, and I was wrong,not a big deal, but I wish I had known BEFORE I got into my hospital gown

Lisa

[leapyrtwins]

Judy -

I can't think of any specific questions, but I'm assuming you'll get to try the demo - so make sure that's part of the consultation.

As for local vs general anesthesia, it's a good question.  Rest assured that if the answer is local it's not a big deal.  I had local and I survived - I actually found it very cool - and a little surreal - being awake during the procedure

Jan