I have worn a "traditional" single bone conduction hearing implant all my life (conductor on the left side of the head), the one with a headband. I attended a main-stream school and eventually graduated from university.

I first became aware of Baha in its infant years in the late 1990s, but declined to pursue it due to the early reports of high rejection rates.

During 2007, after complaining about the persistent pain the headband was inflicting on me, I started enquiring about the Baha after encouragement from a work colleague and research done by two other colleagues. (I am indebted to Dan le Roux, Anjeanette Tait and the late Dr Rob Harrison). At an appointment my wife and I had with Anjeanette Tait (audiologist with my company), we met up with Tamara Turton who told us all about the Baha and allowed me to test the “kiddies’ version” for a period of time.

After doing more research/investigation – a family effort, I decided at the end of 2007 to proceed with having the Baha implants on both sides – i.e. bilateral implants. We commenced with the first operation in February 2008 (right side – two stage implant process). The implant went well, however, due to difficulty with anaesthesia – having a small mouth and narrow throat, it was decided that the next operation would be a combined one on both sides – the completion of the right side i.e. the second of the two stage process as well as to do a single phase operation on the left side. After the mandatory four month recovery period for the first implant, we commenced with the second operation in May 2008 in what I can only describe as a testing experience for my doctor and his team.

In June 2008, I had my first switch on of the Baha.

WOW, what an experience! The first thing I asked was “what’s that noise?”, only to be told it was the air con. My eyes were so wide open to the new sounds and noises that I had never heard – what a truly life-changing experience.

My family then surprised me. They had bought me an adaptor for my new Baha to connect to my mobile phone and an iPod. Tamara had her iPod with her, so we connected and she played some music – WOW. I had never heard music like that ever – it was truly MAGIC. I got home and Christopher, my youngest son, then connected his iPod for me and put on Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen – which I have always considered the greatest song and piece of music ever. Well well, my mind and head were blown away – I had never heard such pure joy ever – six and a half minutes of true wonder. That weekend I went to the theatre to see “We will rock you – a tribute to Queen”. Music is such a pleasure to now listen to.

The next three months was quite testing on my head. New sounds, new noises, new experiences… In addition I now had a higher degree of directional hearing and that took some getting used to.

In August 2008, I got the second Baha. Another WOW experience!

The next three months were quite exhausting on my head. I was tired each day due to the brain having to work so hard. Both inner ears were now working full steam. The thing that was taking its toll on me was the amount of input the brain had to endure; sounds coming from all directions, like hearing glasses tinkling on the other side of the restaurant, to hearing conversations taking place far away; all things I had never experienced before. What I had also now realised was, how much I had not heard in work-place meetings and how much I had relied on lip reading all my life. It was like information overload. This started getting better by late October.

Acquiring the Baha has been a real life-changing experience which I am glad I did. I have even been complemented for looking good with my hair being free and no longer having the band pushing it down.

I still have some way to go to get fully used to all the new sounds, noises and experiences. The mental filtering of noises and sounds is a taking longer than I anticipated.

One of the positive outcomes already has been the comments from friends, family and colleagues about the improvement in my speech. This is great feedback and shows that improved hearing definitely has an impact on the quality of one’s speech. Apparently, I am told, my singing has also improved from the monotonous drone it used to be, although this is up for debate.

This is, in short, my life changing story. I hope that it will help others that are considering acquiring the Baha and hope that other Baha wearers will share their stories.