So today at work I thought about billyvance[laugh]

[d_squared431 0]

You guessed it, i had to call a female patient who is more than hard of hearing. Here is the story...

an elderly patient called and left a message she wants pain medication for her arthritis. The patient is already on two strong pain medications and I have to make sure she is taking her med's correctly and if not go over directions. Normally this would be a2-5minute conversation with a normal patient.

Her husband answers the phone and i said "Hello, this is Deedy calling from(dr's name) office may I speak with (patients name.)" The husband said "Barbara who..." yes, he can't hear shit either. I kid you not I yelled my name 5 times and the office I was calling from and he said "let me get my wife, I can't hear you and don't know what you want." The patient gets on the phone and I know I have to talk loud so I repeat who I am and where I am calling from. She says, "Trudy, who? I dont know no trudy." At this point am screaming who I am and she finally understands me. My coworkers are dying laughing because I am now saying word by word in a full scream. I was on the phone for 35 minutes with the wife passing the phone to her husband and then him passing it back to her because nether one could hear jack shit. I was spelling the medication one of the medications (tramadol) and the husband kept spelling gabapentin back to me. I finally was able to get the patient to understand after 45 minutes. Thank goodness it was during the lunch hour and no one was in the office besides staff members.


So anyone who has parents, aunts, uncles brothers/sisters or a billyvance....

Buy them that phone that has auto text and the service that goes with it so medical offices can correspond with them a little easier.

TPM Sister#130ONTIG#1
I love vodka.I love vodka cause it rhymes with Tuaca~LisaH
You having a clean thought is like billyvance having a clean post.iluvtofly

[DFWAJG 4]

I was in the ENT's office, long ago, when I heard the doctor telling his patient "YOU NEED HEARING AIDS!" "But I can hear you just fine," she said puzzled. "THAT'S BECAUSE I'M YELLING AT YOU!" "Oh, no," she said, "You wouldn't do that!" The whole waiting room was dying of laughter.

[ECVZZ 0]

You have touched the tip of the iceberg Deedy. For someone with a severe hearing deficit (not yet profound) there is only so much that can be done. Sometimes they do hear you; the trouble may be that they can't understand you. Just depends on their particular type of hearing loss.

I understand that while it is a PITA trying to communicate in your situation, the person on the other end of the line deals with this every day- at the bank, the grocery store, hardware store,
pharmacy. Everywhere. And if hearing aids aren't getting the job done, imagine just for a minute what these folks are struggling with daily just to make sure they maintain the necessities of life.

For the most part, I can hear something, I just can't always make out exactly what. I learned long ago not to say "I can't hear you," as that only makes most folks yell. I make sure to tell them "I'm sorry, I can't understand you." Yelling usually serves to piss me off, then the message is irrelevant; we're done.

I understand your frustration...trust me, I really do. I even see the humor in it sometimes, but deaf culture is quite complex. It goes far beyond the minor frustrations most non hearing-impaired individuals will ever notice- to the point where many in the Deaf community actually isolate themselves from the hearing world because they are so tired of dealing with the communication gap. It really is a mess.

I'm sorry for the rant, and hope it didn't come across as being directed at you as it most certainly wasn't. Sounds like you handled the situation as best you could, and had a positive outcome. I applaud you for your patience. Even with the speech to text you mentioned there are problems though. The programs are complex, and depending on the software, may not work for those trying to use it.

Thank you for your patience with those folks Deedy, I'm sure they appreciated it, even though it was frustrating for you. You did good.

Best Regards,
Greg

G. Jones

"I've never been quarantined. But the more I look around, the more I think it might not be a bad idea."

[BillyVance 34]

I feel your pain! I've been on the other end of it before.

It's why I have a video phone with video relay service. And before that, I had internet based text relay service. And before that, I had the old obsolete TTYs where you had to take the handset off the phone and place it over the receiver of the TTY and the calls took 4 or 5 times as long as if you were talking via voice.

Needless to say, I have my doctor and his staff's email addresses. Works good most of the time (when they're in the office anyhow).

The people you're dealing with are in denial. They don't think they're really that hard of hearing. I'm guessing they suffer from late-deafness. They may also not be aware of technology that can help them. There are phone devices that allow for Voice Carry-Over where they can speak for themselves, but read what the other person (you for instance) is telling them via a relay operator, who types what you say so they can read. And you still hear their own voices.

They need to contact a vocational rehab center in their area or if they are retired, the v.r. center can refer them to the appropriate dept geared to handle them.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[pontiacgtp00 0]

Tramadol withdrawal is worse than heroin withdrawal, I've been through both. Hopefully it becomes a scheduled substance soon, the stuff is more dangerous than the pharmaceutical companies want anyone to believe.