Implanted with Osia Bone Conduction transducer today. I anticipate being activated 30 days from now. Sort of an Early & Delayed Christmas Present.
Don’t you love the new fashion statement?
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How are you feeling?
I am not familiar with your system but if it’s like a CI we can compare.
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Yesterday I felt some pain, about 2-3 on the 0-10 scale, with the 3 coming as the Hydrocodone wore off.
My entire day yesterday was devoted to the implant. We got up at 6 AM left the hose at 9AM and checked in at 9:30AM the finally took us back to a prep room at 10:30 and I changed into a gown and they started my IV Line.
At 12:30 PM they came and walked me back to surgery, which was a first for me. I’m labeled a fall risk du to my inner ear issue. I experience sudden bouts of dizziness and vertigo with no warning at times. In fact I just had one standing in the kitchen and had to go sit down.
They got me on the table, started the O2 and IV line and the next thing I knew an angel in scrubs was calling gently to me that it was time to wake up when I had gained my senses, I asked what the time was and she told me it was 3:00 and I had been in recovery for an hour.
My wife said she had talked to the surgeon, and the surgery took about 1 1/2 hours. She forgot to ask him about the placement of the coil, but we will find out soon enough if he was able to accommodate my request. I had requested that the coil be placed in-line with my ear so that my collection of Stetson hats could still be worn.
You mentioned you weren’t familiar wit a bone conduction hearing aid, but you have a CI. The Bone conduction processor attaches to my skull magnetically and passes the sound signals through a coil to the implant. The implant is similar to yours, except instead of sending out several discrete signals to an electrode threaded down my cochlea, the signal goes to a piezoelectric crystal that is mechanically coupled to a titanium screw that is threaded into a hole the surgeon bored in my head just behind my left ear.
When sound comes into my system and is converted to an electrical signal, the screw vibrates my skull so that the ear on the right side of my head (the functional ear) can pick up the vibrations and convert them into signals my brain understands as sound.
The end result is that I will hear sound through both ears, but the sound in my left ear is so attenuated, that my brain will process the sound coming in n the right. I’m still holding out hope that my brain might somehow associate these weaker signals in the left with the much louder signals in the right and relearn how to hear.
Okay, I know that’s a pipe dream, but a guy can hope. always possible the hearing in the left could deteriorate further and be lost altogether, but it’s stated stable since 1995 when it switched off, so I’m betting it won’t.
Sorry this turned into one f those TLDR threads, but I’m stoked about this. I’ve been trying to get a CI for two years and a CROS for ten years before that, but the money was never there.
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Thanks for the explanation, very helpful
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I am guessing you didn’t do a CI because of a nerve issue.
Our implants are not that far off different, different processing the final sounds.
When will the implant be activated?
I’m sorry to take so long in responding. The pain killer has clouded my mind to the point that I forgot this posting. I’m off the pain killer now and my mind has pretty much cleared.
I didn’t get a CI because Medicare would not approve it. My SSD is about a 60% loss, and my speech comprehension is only about 40%. Medicare wouldn’t approve a CI unless your speech comprehension is 30% or below. But, oddly enough, they will approve bone conduction hearing aids for me and they will pay 80% of the cost and my AARP United Healthcare will pick up the tab for the rest.
It’s probably for the best, no one is sure why I lost my hearing, the only thing for certain is nothing appears wrong on the MRI, CT Scan and X-Rays. They also don’t know if I have nerve damage, so it’s quite possible (probable in my mind) that the CI implant wouldn’t have worked at all.
I spoke with the surgeon last Tuesday, and he expects to remove the sutures on the 27th. Then activation should be two weeks later.
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Thanks for the update.
The numbers you mentioned for Medicare do not seem right from my understanding but don’t worry about it, I could be wrong.
I can see taking pain meds from that picture. The bone conduction implant must be very different from CI.
Please keep us posted on how you are doing
I’ve probably got the comprehension percentages wrong, I just know they said I didn’t qualify. Trying to figure out Medicare makes my head ache.
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I hear ya.
It is not just Medicare, it’s the entire medical system.
I wish you good luck with your implant.
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The doctor removed the stitches yesterday and I’m now scheduled for activation on January 9.
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good evening, I am the mother of a 9 year old Italian boy who will have this operation in the USA: did you have a lot of pain? Do you have grown hair over the scar? How do you feel with Osia now? Thank you
I believe you are wanting @TexOkie to share his experience with you.
He has the Osia implant. I am bilateral CI.
I’m not very familiar with forums. If anyone has done this surgery and wants to tell me how they are with Osia it would give me comfort. I can’t find anyone in Italy. Thank you
There are not many people with Osia on this forum that I am aware of.
@TexOkie and @jeffrey are the only ones I can think of now. Both have been very helpful when asked
I have the Osia on my right side only. I love it! The surgery is relatively easy; most people–all? come home the same. My recovery was relatively pain free–I mean, it was very easy. I had neck pain for two days, and that’s typical. This is because the surgeons have to hold the patient’s head over to side to perform the implant.
there’s an entire forum dedicated to Baha aid where Osia comes up a lot–I’ll try to chase down the address. Tons of kids have had this.Many parents post videos of the moment when their child’s Osia is activated and frankly it’s extremely moving to see the parents burst into tears when their child suddenly hears their voices clear as a bell. The reaction from parents on that forum has been almost entirely positive, and most say their kids love the Osia.
I have medium length hair and most people don’t see the Osia at all. No one has ever asked about it. and anyway, who cares?
wait, here’s the forum:
ah, shoot: it’s called Cochlear Osia Support Group.
don’t be freaked out by the pictures of sewn up wounds taken two days after surgery. It’s not nearly as bad as it looks and the swelling and all the rest goes down soon enough. One of the GREAT things about BAHAs and the Osia is that it’s NON-invasive, in the sense that the surgery only involves the outer skin and bone of the skull. again, this is relatively easy compared to what ENT surgeons normally do.
So yes, I HIGHLY endorse getting the Osia. I was a very early adopter–the first person my surgeon implanted with the Osia. My audi thought it would be good and she was right! Most folks seem to prefer the Osia to the older style Baha that use a ‘stump’ protruding from the skull. These last are prone to infections.
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