Silence isn’t Golden

For anyone else reading this who is old enough to remember that song.

But silence isn’t golden – it sucks. 

I know that a lot of us fume about how much time younger people spend on their phones, scrolling on social media, and in general, not communicating with those right in front of them. 

And then there is me, currently.

I will back track (as well as release the slew of written but un-posted entries from pretty much the last month. 

Ok – here goes: I flew back from Miami on the 20th of October. The plane change in Denver was rough and involved from rather nasty rapid depressurization of the plane. My left ear went “pop, OWW…” and it wasn’t helped by an equally careless landing in Oakland. I can forgive Denver – the weather was horrible and we were in a holding pattern for almost an hour. I was just glad to make my connection.

But the end result by the time I got to Oakland (not Phoenix if you now have tunes rambling in your head) I had little hearing left. It didn’t really matter since I was effectively in the back of the plane, along with having a suitcase checked. George met me, said something and headed off. 

I stood there for a while. He finally clued in and asked me  ?what? – I can’t hear you, damage from the flight.

And this mess has continued. I can hear someone IF and only if, their voice is in a reasonable register (men more than women), they face me, they enunciate clearly, and speak at a reasonable speed. The phone? Only if I have it on speaker, the volume cranked all the way up and holding it next to my ear. 

I am now starting EVERY human interface discussion with “I have a severe hearing loss, the docs haven’t figured it out yet. The only way I will understand what you are saying is if you speak clearly and face me while you do it….

This has worked well about 3/4s of the time.  The clerks at Apple scoring the best and, unfortunately, a couple of my family members not….

I am back into the clinic on Wednesday morning, so we will see….