BAHA - Day 03

Spent another very quiet day today, still feeling a bit kicked about but still haven't needed to take any painkillers which is good. In the second half of the day I started to feel a bit of a change in that the operation site is not quite so sore and doesn't hurt as much in response to certain facial muscle movements which is nice. Managed to sleep pretty well last night too which was good so I started today in a better place than yesterday.

Curiosity is starting to set in a bit and I started a little tentative exploration of the dressing and operation area with my fingertips. The area around the operation currently feels strangely numb and is a bit swollen but nothing dramatic, I guess that's pretty understandable given what has been done. I find it alarming to contemplate that the sound processor might be fitted in just 4-5 days time, I can't help but think that it would be very uncomfortable having things fiddled about with at this stage but I'll just go with the flow.

I made a discovery this evening which I found very very exciting. If you look at the photo below I believe the arrowed cap covers the titanium implant itself and I believe it is in contact with the implant.

With this in mind I VERY gently brushed the tip of my finger against the surface of the cap, hardly touching it, and I could hear it! I could hear it really quite clearly and I think the touch of my finger was being transferred to the implant, into the bone the implant is sited in and from there through the bone to activate my inner ear and via the auditory nerve to the brain to be interpreted as sound.

This was very exciting for me. As a comparison I brushed my finger against the outer pinna of my ear and could hear nothing whatsoever but I know that if I do the same on the right side I can. I may be wrong about this but I'm pretty sure that this little experiment indicates that a vibration, for that is what sound is, can now be "heard" by my inner ear on the left side which is extraordinary, I've never heard anything much in my left ear since childhood!

I just really hope I'm right, if I am I think this might just work brilliantly, I'm going to be more nervous when I try this for real with the processor fitted than I think I have ever been.

If anyone is interested here is a short video illustrating BAHA surgery, I think I made the right decision to watch it after the operation rather than before.