I went to visit a new hearing aid patient today for her first week checkup. As I pulled up, her care giver was outside and so we walked in together. The first thing I noticed was when I called out to Hilde(my patient) she answered me back from a few rooms away. Before, she could never have heard me from, but now with her new Phonak Nios, which are very small behind-the-ear hearing aids with the remarkable Sound Recover, she can! Heck before the Phonak Nios she couldn’t even hear the door bell, even when she was in the same room as the chime. Even though I already had a good idea, I asked her how she was doing with her new hearing aids. She replied, “Wonderful! I love them and I can hear so much better.” Her caregiver spoke up excitedly and said, “she has been doing so well with her new hearing aids it is amazing.” Her caregiver said that now she has to watch what she says because Hilde can hear everything!

The Phonak Nios hearing aids are usually marketed for pediatric use, but they can be fit on adults. What I like about the Nios is that, since Hilde has memory issues,, the Nios hearing aids have some great features which can help her. For instance, the battery has a lock on it so it won’t fall out and they are small and lightweight with retention wires that can keep the hearing aids in place so she won’t lose them.

I have to say that It really makes my day to take this lovely 88 years young lady from not wanting the hearing aids at all to being so very happy and elated about hearing again. You should have been there to see the glow she had on. Maybe she will let me snap a picture and I will post it here. It is priceless!

I know this really doesn’t relate to hearing loss but the day I had yesterday was unbelievable. The day started off with a nice Florida down pour followed by high humidity. I went to deliver a hearing aid to a super lady in Hudson. She was happy to see me because she only can hear out of one ear and she couldn’t wait to be able to hear out of both ears again. She was telling me that her phone had stopped working and she could not communicate with the outside world. Since she had a phone from FTRI of Florida, I helped her install it. Now she can hear people and even hear them on the phone. She is great.

Then I started off to a retirement home in Pasco County where we have a hearing clinic.I was running a little late because of trying to install the phone per my previous patient’s last-minute request. When I finally made it, I parked my car and noticed that once again it was getting ready to to rain pretty soon and, of coarse, I was without my umbrella.

All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of yellow. I turned my head to see what it was and could not believe what I saw. It was a massive yellow backhoe that had just fallen off this flatbed trailer. I quickly got out of my car and saw a man wedged under the backhoe. I ran over to see if he was okay and upon reaching him I saw that he had had blood gushing out of the top of his head. I asked him “are you okay?” and he said “yes”. Now, I have to say that this man was of large stature, probably weighing 300 pounds. Needless to say, I couldn’t not pull him out of his precarious position. Luckily, though, he was able to squirm out himself. Thank God!

In the meantime, I had called 911 and they said the ambulance was on the way. And wouldn’t you know, just about that time the heavens suddenly opened up and there we stood in the middle of a Florida afternoon downpour. Funny thing was that instead of this guy being thankful that he alive, he was complaining that it was raining. That is when I knew that he was fine.

Finally the ambulance arrived, the EMTs said he was okay, and so I went on to my hearing clinic. After the clinic I got into my car and began driving away when I saw the man from the bulldozer sitting by his semi. I stopped to see how he was doing and he said, “the EMTs wanted me to go to the hospital to get stitches but I don’t want to.” I told him that I wouldn’t mess around with a head wound. His reply was ” Well, I guess I got nothing else to do”. With that he went on his merry way. What a day!