I have had single-sided deafness my whole life. It is complete, meaning there is no chance of improving things with hearing aids, cochlear implants, or any other technology going into that side. The only possible treatment has been to try to “move” the sound over to my good ear. Up until not long ago, that was something that could be done through a “relay” device where you wear two hearing aids and the one on the bad side relays the information over to your good side. Then, they realized that your skull is designed to conduct sound. (This is a pretty amazing feature of your skull.) From this came the first “bone-anchored” devices, which were literally titanium screws that were screwed into your cranium, sticking out through your skin. A receiver was mounted on the screw, and the sound travelled through the receiver, into the screw, into your skull, and was then carried over to your good ear. At age 47, with three young sons, I was finally desperate enough to try this. But when I met with the audiology team a few months ago, they told me that there had been another advance in the technology. Now, rather than drilling a screw into your cranium, they could slip a transducer right under your skin. This would sit against your skull and pass sounds along by vibration. Attached to the transducer, by magnet through your skin, would be a sound processor. And this system, they said, would provide 360 degree hearing to the single-sided deaf.

So, I’m going to try it. I go in to get the transducer implanted on July 31st. It takes about 6 weeks to heal and settle, and then I will go back to get the sound processor calibrated and delivered. It feels like such a wild thing to do that I would like to occasionally post about it here and share my experiences with anyone who is interested. Not only do I expect to go through some really major learning curves, with all the attendant anxiety and fatigue that might come with it, but I also am very interested in how this new capacity to hear on all sides will affect my overall cognition, if at all. After 25+ years working in special education teaching, policymaking, and leadership, I am also eager to document this next phase of my personal disability journey. Follow along for occasional, likely irregular notes during the lead up and aftermath of this procedure.

Matt