Wow - that is amazing! Most people are being supportive of my decision but some people (like my fiancee) don't want me to get it done. I keep telling him that he doesn't understand because he can hear just fine. It has to be pretty bad for me if I'm willing to shave part of my head, have a screw sticking out surround by a bald spot and a plastic box attached!!
It's funny what you said about speech reading. I've been e-mailing a woman in Delaware whose son (9 yrs old) got BAHA and she said her son was an excellent lip reader. I never even THOUGHT of learning - though now I realize how much easier my life would be if I could! She also went through all kinds of hell trying to get him some sort of audio system at school. When I was little I was treated no differently and left to struggle through as best I could. It was never an issue, it was just there. I guess that's good though - I adapted fairly well and turned out alright - though a little anti-social and shy. Well, here is a transcript that I found on CNN that might interest you. This woman only had SSD briefly so it's interesting to hear her point of view after she got the BAHA:
Well, place a hand over one ear and listen to the changes in your hearing. Imagine going through life that way. Did you know every year 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with SSD, single-sided deafness. Nancy Bonnett had it, but she's now regained full hearing in both ears and she's here to tell her story.
Good morning to you, Nancy.
NANCY BONNETT, REGAINED HEARING FROM SINGLE-SIDED DEAFNESS: Good morning to you.
GRIFFIN: I was shocked, 60,000 people a year are diagnosed with this. What does it feel like, and how did you get it?
BONNETT: Well, I had no idea of the dramatic changes that would come with the single-sided deafness. I was diagnosed in May of 2002 with an acoustic neuroma, which is actually a benign brain tumor that arises from the hearing nerve, or the acoustic nerve. And as a result, I needed surgery. And due to the size of my tumor, I would lose my hearing in my right ear. My surgeon was fantastic and tried to prepare me for this. But I had no idea the dramatic changes that would occur in all aspects of my life.
GRIFFIN: Changes like?
BONNETT: Well, personally you can see from the tape that I'm the mother of three small children. And I think most would agree that raising three children is difficult enough with two ears. So trying to do that with one ear certainly lends itself to significant fear of when I miss a cry, if they needed something. Professionally, I'm a nurse. I'm a registered nurse, and I work as a clinical nurse specialist. So I do a lot of speaking and a lot of lecturing, which for a single-sided deaf patient is very difficult; because we lose what's referred to as localization, or the ability to know where the sound is coming from.
And socially, I lost all confidence. I didn't want to go to a crowded restaurant or to a party, anywhere where there would be a lot of background noise, because I couldn't filter out the noise and hear the person standing right in front of me.
GRIFFIN: It also makes it difficult to drive, I'm told?
BONNETT: Oh, definitely, definitely.
GRIFFIN: Now you got it from a surgery. Other people have gotten this from viral infections. How did you get over it, or what was the treatment that allowed you this weekend to listen to the fireworks and the symphony playing along, right?
BONNETT: Yes, it was tremendous. Basically I had -- there are options available for single-sided deafness. But the conventional hearing aid does not work for this type of deafness. So I had gone out and researched a new sound processor that I had heard was recently approved by the FDA known as a BAHA, or bone-anchored hearing device. And I think you're seeing a picture of that now. I was able to try a simulator and actually stand in a crowded conference hall which historically had been a poor hearing environment for me, and my husband stood at my bad ear and whispered to me. And I heard every word.
And I said to him, we need to get this. And I was able to find a surgeon within my home state who would implant the device in the health care system that I'm employed in. So everything seemed to work out. And then there was a three-month waiting period. The way it actually works is, a titanium screw is actually implanted into my skull. And I know that sounds weird, but it does work out OK.
GRIFFIN: Sounds painful.
BONNETT: It really was not. And there's a three-month waiting period as the bone then heals around the screw. We call that osteointegration. After the three-month waiting period, the sound processor is attached. And the sound comes in through the sound processor and uses the bone, or the skull, to conduct the sound, as a normal functioning ear would. So I hear slightly differently through my right ear, but the key word there is, I do hear.
GRIFFIN: And your message to people who are suffering through this and probably saying, oh, I just lost that ear, I'm just going to deal with it, is to get...
BONNETT: Oh, there are definitely options. There are options out there, as a patient with personal experience as well as a nurse, I'll tell you that you need to have a strong relationship, a close relationship with your primary medical doctor to discuss the options and to be able to filter through and decide what is the best way for you. For me, the BAHA has opened up doors that I thought were once closed after my surgery.
GRIFFIN: Nancy Bonnet, we thank you for joining us. And hearing us with both ears this morning.
BONNETT: Oh, it's great. Thank you.
GRIFFIN: Take care. We'll be back after this.
Have a good day!
People just don’t f**king get it because we don’t have a ‘deaf voice’ or any of the other telltale signs that bilaterally deaf people have. Maybe we should wear fake hearing aids to make ourselves more credible. 
(By the way, did you know that Rob Lowe has SSD? Take a look next time you see him on TV—when he’s talking to somebody else, that person is always on his left).