My BAHA Rant

Micah's bone-conduction hearing aids are relatively simple devices. There is a rolling dial that adjusts the volume (amount of vibration conducted into his skull), a very tiny switch that adjusts to accomodate for a noisier background or to accomodate an FM system, but usually the tiny switch should be left on "1" . If it gets switched to the "E" setting for use with an FM system and no FM is connected to the BAHA, you feel no vibrations transmitted when you speak.

None of this is rocket science. I cannot program a VCR, but I can manage two BAHAs.

So today Micah gets off the bus with his hearing aids in the ZipLoc bag because it's raining and the bus driver and aide understand that the BAHAs do not get wet. Period. This is good.

But Micah loves his BAHAs - he now will shriek that he wants "helps you hear" put on immediately when he gets inside or into the car if the BAHAs are off. He is absolutely insistent, and this is also good. So today I transferred him from the school bus into my car, the minute that I buckled in, he wanted his BAHAs on. So I pulled out the ZipLoc bag and dialed the volume up from "O" to "2" and felt no vibration from one of the BAHAs when I was talking to Micah. Steve said that one of the batteries was a little iffy that morning, in the middle of the green zone, so I just assumed that it was time to replace it when we got back home. One was better than none, and it would just need to be taken off when we got out of the car to go get Thea from school because it was still raining.

There have been a few times when he's come home from school with one or the other BAHAs tiny switch on "E" which means that he's not getting anything from that BAHA; I've written several notes to remind staff that the switches should also be rechecked after naps when the volume is being dialed up. Not rocket science.

Today's snafu is difficult to pinpoint who is at fault since the bus staff could've taken it off or the school staff, but the whole idea that no one seems to be checking the tiny switch starting to annoy me. Why make a small child work that much harder to hear when all it takes is a little diligence to check out the equipment?