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Here is an update. I went to the school for the deaf this afternoon. It is an adult vocational training school. They teach woodworking, sewing, cooking, auto mechanics and hairstyling. They gathered all their students in a big multi-purpose room and asked me to talk to them for a few minutes about my BAHA and also how proud I am to wear it and that I am not ashamed. Many of them do not want to wear hearing aids because they thing it is a stigma. Those that have hearing aids have all behind the ear devices. The audiologist interpreted for me in sign language. It kind of freaked them out that you had to have your skull drilled, but I told them it sounded worse than it was, and that there was no real pain. They asked many questions. Thehy wanted to know if they could die from having someone drill a hole in their head. I explained that it did not go through to the brain. They wanted to know if they could play sports with it. They wanted to know if they were born with bilateral profound deafness if a BAHA would work. I told them it would not. I had so many people touching my head and touching my processor, I could not wait to get back and wash my hair and clean my processor! I gave the administrator the website for Cochlear. They of course wanted to know the cost of the procedure and the processor. I did tell them that some facilities and doctors will give a discount for cash paying patients and that maybe Cochlear could point them in the right direction and help them out in some way. They have no neurotolgists here and very few ENTs. I was so glad to do this, but also sad, because it is doubtful that any of them will ever be able to get this technology. In a way, it was unfair, but it also gives them hope that maybe someday in the future, there will be new technology for them. Very interesting experience.
~Dale
