Kara Maclean, Audiologist in Saint John New Brunswick came across this wonderfully written article in The Globe and Mail, by Sharon Gerger. It was published September 10th 2013. Enjoy!<\/p>\n
I have an abundance of old things and many of them are loved and important to me. I have the Bible my grandmother was given as a new bride, my mother\u2019s wedding band and some old coins in an antique jewellery box.<\/p>\n
None of them are as loved as my dear old husband. I don\u2019t tell him that nearly often enough. I don\u2019t bother any more as I am sure he wouldn\u2019t hear me anyway.<\/p>\n
We have a great marriage and I think it all boils down to great miscommunication. If I didn\u2019t hear him tell me he loves me it\u2019s because my hearing is bad, not because he didn\u2019t say it. I\u2019m sticking with that theory and so is he.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there is a benefit to the hearing loss that comes with aging. We are a great source of amusement for each other and our kids. It\u2019s not only that we can\u2019t hear; it\u2019s that we sometimes hear things that weren\u2019t actually said.<\/p>\n
Last Christmas I had an idea for gifts my husband and I would love. He was soaking in the hot tub in the yard so I headed out to have a conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I hate scrubbing floors and you hate vacuuming, so let\u2019s buy each other those little robot things that vacuum and scrub for Christmas. I researched and they have names, Scooba and Roomba.\u201d<\/p>\n
His face lit up and said: \u201cThat\u2019s a great idea! But I thought you didn\u2019t like scuba diving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHuh\u201d said I.<\/p>\n
\u201cScuba diving,\u201d he yelled, \u201cI thought you didn\u2019t like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
I reached down and flicked off the jets in the hot tub. \u201cWhat do you think I said, Jim?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat we should go to Aruba and scuba dive for Christmas?\u201d<\/p>\n
I called my husband to dinner the other night and he replied, \u201cI\u2019m coming, you old witch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Naturally I was holding his soup bowl in a threatening manner when he arrived in the kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d said he.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepeat what you just said to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m coming, just one more pitch.\u2019 I was watching the ball game, couldn\u2019t you hear it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHear it? The neighbours called and asked me to get you to hold the TV up to the window. Seeing as how they had to hear the game, they figured they might as well watch it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho called you? The Reyburns?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe neighbours,\u201d I shrieked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did they want?\u201d<\/p>\n
In an effort to improve my health and his, I\u2019ve started walking with my husband. I chose the Huron Natural Area for our first venture out into the wilds. I attached the telephoto lens to my camera and off we went. I spotted a fawn in the forest, and I stopped and pointed the camera and whispered, \u201cSee the fawn?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat? Did you say something?\u201d he shouted, as the fawn, his parents and every living thing within a 40-kilometre radius jumped in fright then ran and hid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what animals are like on the planet you come from,\u201d I seethed, \u201cbut here on Earth they don\u2019t like to be yelled at!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re trying to take a picture of an elephant?\u201d<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t bother taking the camera along any more.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s probably also a good thing that I can\u2019t always hear my kids, and they, of course, are amazing at not hearing me. Yesterday, for the hundredth time, I asked my youngest son to clean his room. I may have screamed the request.<\/p>\n
His response: \u201cGeez, Mom, a little cranky since you quit smoking?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Kevin, I\u2019m not cranky because I quit smoking, I\u2019m cranky because you left a dinner plate on the floor in there and the leftovers grew and grew and came to life and now it wants my car keys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yesterday, I had to go to the doctor for my annual check-up. I tried as best I could to imagine I was on a beach somewhere, trying to get some sun on my knees and to the tops of my feet. Due to the comfy stirrups I had to imagine the beach was covered in the shells of some vile crustaceans.<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m a big girl, nearly six feet tall and fluffy, so I was a little uncomfortable when the doctor came in and I saw he was just shy of five feet tall and weighed as much as my left thigh. He explained what he was going to do and that I should relax. I laid back and squinted at the ceiling light until I couldn\u2019t see the water stains surrounding it.<\/p>\n
The next thing I heard was very muffled, \u201cyounemfrlax.\u201d I looked up and didn\u2019t see him. I surmised what terrible fate must have befallen him and panicked. Should I just get up, get dressed and get out of there, pretending I didn\u2019t notice that my underwear appeared to be talking as I passed the nurse\u2019s desk?<\/p>\n
Suddenly, he reappeared right where I\u2019d last seen him and instructed me again to relax. I did, and ordered my imagination to calm down, too.<\/p>\n
As soon as I am done writing this, I am calling one of those hearing-aid places. I won\u2019t wear them all the time, as that would suck some joy from my life, but it can\u2019t hurt to hear what doctors and other outsiders are saying to me once in a while.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kara Maclean, Audiologist in Saint John New Brunswick came across this wonderfully written article in The Globe and Mail, by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-fr"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceofhearing.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceofhearing.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceofhearing.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceofhearing.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceofhearing.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scienceofhearing.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceofhearing.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceofhearing.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceofhearing.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceofhearing.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}