So I went back to see my audiologist today and we discussed the options. I decided against the BAHA, both because I don't want surgery, nor do i plan to use the hearing aid all the time AND because he said insurance is not paying for the entire procedure and costs in our part of the country and as a result doctors are reluctant to operate, etc. so it is a hassle.
We debated back and forth between a normal hearing aid and the Transear. I decided to go with the regular hearing aid first because it is less than half the cost of the Transear. I can use it for 6 weeks. If I don't like it we will order the Transear and I can turn in the regular hearing aid for a refund. There won't be extra audiology expenses because I will have paid for them with the first aid.
He said fitting me should be easy as I have a very straight ear canal.
Finally: Just as an aside, he has a SSD patient and one thing he tried with her with very good results is a hearing aid in her GOOD ear that was optimized so that it funnels sound in from where you point your ear...it basically maximizes the hearing in the good ear and cuts out the extraneous background noises that can be so confusing for SSD people. She preferred this in noisy environments over the hearing aid in her deaf ear which just overloaded her good ear. She wore the aid in her good ear to a wedding and said it was fantastically helpful in the reception.
Interesting. I like this guy. He is very creative.
I get my aid on November 10th so I will let you know how it goes.
