Hearing Aid Rant

[Opsa]

The nice thing about hearing aids is that you can take them out sometimes.

Yes, it's even pretty easy to switch them off in place, but at the moment I'm trying to persevere through thick and thin.  I may resort to stuffing his mouth with chocolate. 

Perhaps this is the evolutionary reason for hearing loss; it makes grandparents fonder of small children.

Less likely to strangle them, anyway.

Can you adjust the volume settings? (...on the hearing aid, not the kid. I tried adjusting the volume on my kid, once. Didn't work. Especially since she's my kid and therefore naturally loud.)

[Sibling DavidH]

No, unless I take it back to the clinic, where they can do it in software.  It's supposed to adjust itself automatically, but maybe the designer didn't have kids.

I, too, have found that kids are not adjustable for volume.  They are either flat out, or asleep.

[Opsa]

It's a good thing they are so doggoned cute.

[Sibling DavidH]

I thought I had really got used to my new electric ears and that nothing would bother me now.  Then yesterday we went to Capn B's school to collect the little fellow, and suddenly zillions of little kids were rushing around screeching.  Aaagh!  Agony!

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

See?  Sometimes loosing one's hearing can be ... a blessing.

Good thing your new ears have an "off" switch, yes?

[Sibling DavidH]

I'm now nearly through the 12 sets of batteries they gave me, so I wondered how much bureaucracy would be involved in getting new ones.  There was as good as none: I walked up to the counter of the 'drop-in clinic', a woman looked at my log-book, gave me a new lot and made a note in the book.  Wendy was waiting in the 20-minute free drop-off parking and I was back in about 4 minutes.

You won't hear me moaning about the NHS.

[Opsa]

Nice!

I often wonder about the NHS. I wish we had it, here. Some people complain about the bureaucracy, but it doesn't sound any worse than what we pay for at a huge expense in the States.

[Griffin NoName]

The trouble with the NHS is that it is patchy. When properly run, yes, fantastic. But stuff like having to wait up to four weeks to find out if one has cancer is a nightmare when one knows it takes 0 to week privately...... I've never understood why they don't do one-stop clinics for stuff like that, it takes next to no time to read a scan and write the short report they do; I'm sure it would actually be more efficient for them too.

[pieces o nine]

You won't hear me moaning about the NHS.

Especially if we don't got no hearing aid batteries!   

[Sibling DavidH]

^