Friday, February 13, 2009

Huh???


Dennis and I both had doctor appointments yesterday, scheduled back-to-back so that one of us could always be with our two insane endearing children. While waiting for Dennis, a man who appeared to be sixty-ish sat down next to us. He took note of Nolan's hearing aids, pointed to his own, and said,

"I just got these."

I told him Nolan has had his for over a year and is a seasoned pro. That's when the confusing dialogue started, that made my brain want to explode:

"So, does he have a frequency loss or a volume loss?"

OK, I've gotten many strange questions with regard to Nolan's hearing loss, but this one probably takes the cake.

"Both. He can't hear soft sounds and he doesn't hear normally across any of the frequencies used for speech."

Undaunted, the man tried to clarify,

"Yes. But is it a frequency loss or a volume loss?"

ARGHHH!!!

I actually thought about drawing out an audiogram, but quickly realized a man claiming to be from Pennsyltucky probably wouldn't understand it. I finally just said,

"It's a pretty mild loss. His hearing aids help him a lot."

Then I gathered up our coats to escape leave. As I did, the man exclaimed,

"Well, I have a frequency loss!"

Sigh...

3 comments:

PolyglotMom said...

And to think at first, you thought maybe he'd really understand too! Pennsyltucky? That's a new one! I would have been escaping too!

Herding Grasshoppers said...

(Giggling to myself.)

I was visiting at a friend's house yesterday. Her FIL lives in the south and had told her he got hearing aids. She asked him what kind, and wrote it down.

So she asked me, "What kind of Hearing Aids are 'BTE'?"

I think he thought that was the manufacturer.

*sigh*

Unknown said...

His audiologist should be shot for not explaining it clear enough for him to understand. Wow.