Let him who has ears hear

Well today our little treasure got her hearing aid! And boy did she have a strange look on her face when it was first turned on! She jolted her head, and blinked her eyes, and looked all around (honestly, you'd think she'd got a set of glasses or something), not quite knowing what was going on. Every time I spoke she turned to me. Every time Pa spoke she turned to him.

Ahh.. here we were in the wonderment of it all, revelling in the fact that my little Treasure would now be hearing directional sound for the first time, and probably a clearer sound at that: given that she's had a couple of ear infections and her last two hearing tests showed that the fluid build meant she had a hearing loss - even in her good ear. But now, now she was hearing clearly. A crisp, clear, beautiful sound so awesome her little eyes glazed and became as wide as ever. And this revellry was so awesome that Pa & I started to tear up - when Pa asked if he could try it.

"Sure" said the audiologist. So Dad put it on, and soon as we spoke, he veritably jumped. "Oh MY" he exclaimed. And immediately I felt the tears well up within my soul, for surely my dad was now hearing the lost sounds of years forgotten, that stereo sound that he as musician has craved all his life to hear, my beautiful vocal dulcet tones.... when he further exclaimed "That's terribly distorted!" zrrrp...

The volume response was turned up so loud it sounded like a shzz shzz guitar that even Jimi Hendrix would be ashamed of! Revellry deflated. No wonder Bethany had a glazed look, it would've sounded like life on LSD or something!

Anyway - so it was wonderful and incredibly helpful that Pa was there. No one else could tell the true sound quality, as we all have full hearing. But no, each time they took it away into a room elsewhere, to hook it up to a computer to change the sensitivity & settings, and then brought it back for Dad to try on. Each time he'd tell them it was better but it needed further adjustment. They take it away again, and so on, until it was just perfect. Thank you Pa. If you weren't there Bethany would have been subjected to audible agony that we wouldn't have know about, because she'd be still sitting there with that glazed look, wondering what the hell was she listening to!

Actually, just quietly, I think it has inspired Dad to now explore a BAHA, (Bone Anchored Hearing Aid) or a BCHA (Bone Conduction Hearing Aid) for himself. Because, once they finally got all the settings right - he was quite impressed with how life sounded!





Now you're probably wondering why the hearing aid appears to be on her good ear... right? Well the aid above her ear is mostly a microphone & a counter balance. The mic picks up the sound, sends it down the wire (hidden in her head band) through to the vibrator on the other side. The vibrator sits securely under the head band, just behind her little ear. So it causes a sound vibration on her cochlear, which stimulates the auditory nerves and enables her to hear from that side. Wonderful really.