Audiologists

Hey all,

I want to continue my thoughts on audiologists today.

I mentioned yesterday that there have only been two in my life that I have actually respected. I would like to tell the stories of how I came to respect each of these audiologists.

The first one, S., was one of the audiologists that worked in the hospital based clinic in the town where I grew up. She was Deaf herself and very stubborn. There were 4 audiologists there at that time, at least that is all I can remember. I was bounced between them because I was a horrible child. I would bite them, hit them, kick them, and eventually it got to the point that S. was the only audiologist who would work with me.

I was 7 or 8 and it was time for my yearly hearing test. My mother brought me, all prepared for a huge fight complete with kicking, screaming, and biting, but this year I had a different tactic in mind. Both S. and my mother were surprised by how calm I was. They brought me into the booth, S. stuck some head phones on me, and then when out to start the test. I heard the beeps but I refused to respond. They put me through the entire range of hearing tests but I just sat there. They knew I could hear at least some of it and S. arranged for my mother to come back again the next night to try again.

The following day a similar scene played out. I sat there through the beeps, the “Say the word baseball”, “Say the word sailboat”, “Say the word ice cream”. I never once responded. S. was ready for a fight. She wasn’t going to back down or hand me off, I think she saw me as a challenge. S. instructed my mom to come back the next evening. Again, the same thing happened.

This continued for 15 consecutive business days. The 15th attempt rolled around and I think they decided to get one of the other audiologists to stick around and help out. The other audiologist did the testing and S. came into the booth with me. She tried to coax and bribe me into responded. I gave her what she wanted and I responded, but not always to the first sound I heard. Whenever I would get annoyed by her bribing and coaxing I would kick her, hit her, pull her hair, whatever seemed easiest. The audiologist charted these responses and that audiogram is quite funny looking. It kind of looks like a bold of lightning going across the graph.

The 16th day came around and it was back to just being S. and I. Again, I sat there. Finally on day 17 I realised S. wasn’t going to give up on me and I responded to the beeps and did the test. After that day S. never had a problem with me again. I dealt with her, and only her. I respected her for sticking it out with me.

The second audiologist, E., is the one I am currently seeing. Much like S., it took E. some time to earn my respect and trust. It certainly wasn’t as big of a production as it was when I was 7 or 8, but it certainly took just as long.

I remember the first little while with E. I thought she was a bit patronizing and condescending and she is young too which scared me a little bit. E. got her share of tests from me too, although they were not in the form of hitting, biting, kicking, or screaming. Instead I played stupid. I acted like I didn’t know how to read an audiogram, how to put in an earmold, how to change the batteries, and so on. She continuously gave me all the right answers. Quickly I had nothing against her, other than the fact that she is an audiologist.

The day that E. diagnosed that my hearing had dropped drastically was the first time I started to respect her. I was so impressed with the way she handled everything and how calm she was as she explained my hearing had dropped close to 30 dB. I don’t think there was anything she could have done differently in that situation. From there she started to earn my trust. I don’t think there was one concrete moment when I started to trust her though. It is something that has developed over the past several months.

She has earned my respect and trust not only as a person but as an audiologist. She accepts that I use Sign, and that the Deaf community is part of my life. She sees the importance it holds for me now and has never once tried to talk down to me because of it. She also respects me, and lets me choose how I want to handle my hearing loss. I know she would rather me wear my hearing aids all day everyday, but she knows it isn’t going to happen, so she doesn’t bother me about it. It’s the little things like that which make the difference.

What I am getting at here is that it is fairly simple for an audiologist to respect their patients and their wishes as long as it isn’t doing them harm. I say that with caution because I know many audiologists feel that ASL and the Deaf community are doing me harm. The fact is, I am an adult. It is up to me to make my own decisions regarding communication, and my life. Having an audiologist that respects that and even goes as far as understanding that makes a world of difference for me. Why can’t more audiologists see that? It’s my life, not theirs, I am going to live it how I want and they might as well support me in those choices to the best of their ability.

Jenny