Saturday, January 22, 2011

Hearing & Hormones

I haven't gotten the chance to look up on this... so here's a quickie:

Does menopause affects hearing levels???

Please do share if you know anything about this :)

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Laugh-A-Minute

Something light for a stressful week.
A man feared his wife wasn't hearing as well as she used to and he thought she might need a hearing aid.

Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family Doctor to discuss the problem.

The Doctor told him there is a simple informal test the husband could perform to give the doctor a better idea about her hearing loss.

"Here's what you do," said the Doctor, "stand about 15 metres away from her, and in a normal conversational speaking tone see if she hears you. If not, go to 10 metres away, then 7 metres , and so on until you get a response."

That evening, the wife is in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he was in the den. He stood about 15 metres away, and in a normal tone he asks, 'Honey, what's for dinner?"

No response.

So the husband moves closer to the kitchen, about 10 metres away from his wife and repeats, "Honey, what's for dinner?"

Still no response. Next he moves into the dining room where he is about 7 metres from his wife and asks, "Honey, what's for dinner?"

Again he gets no response. So, he walks up to the kitchen door, about 3 metres away.
"Honey, what's for dinner?" He hears nothing.

So he walks right up behind her. "Honey, what's for dinner?"

(Wait for it....)

"Ahmed, for the fifth blooming time, CHICKEN!"

:D

thanks to EBI Lockhat of South African National Halaal Authority

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Can You Please Test My 3 Year-Old with AABR?

In my heart, I was like, "WHAT?!"

An aunty innocently asked me to do so recently. It was quite funny, really.

A baby was referred for hearing screening from an external hospital. The baby was brought in wide awake, so I advised the mother to put her to sleep. While waiting, I ushered the other family members who towed along to the lounge area. They were the maternal grandparents and 3 year-old nephew. As we were walking I noticed the boy vocalizing jargons. I began asking the grandmother questions. She reported that he's still not speaking a word yet. I told her she (and the child's working parents!) should be concerned with his speech development. So I went on and on about children development and the appropriate assessments needed. I even advised for a hearing test to be done, but granny wanted to talk it over with the child's parents first, which was fairly expected.

Back to the baby girl. Wow, she was really curious with the place. She looked so obviously sleepy but was still looking around the room. At one time, we thought she had fallen asleep, but she woke up at the slightest touch! The mother decided to take her out of the room and settle her down. As I wanted to leave the testing room, suddenly the granny rushed in carrying her sleeping grandson. She wanted me to test her boy with AABR that instant! I was shocked for a second, then quickly recovered by explaining to the granny that the test is designed for babies. Briefly I told her that her grandson needs to be assessed with a behavioral test, and if that is not successful, then only we test with a diagnostic sleeping test. She looked kind of disappointed with my explanation but accepted it anyways.

The baby later on slept and passed the AABR test. The family went back, happy with the result. Hopefully I'll hear from the granny about her grandson soon!

Funny start for the new year.

Happy 2011 y'all! :)

Happy World Hearing Day!

Being an audiologist, I would drag my husband to do a hearing test whenever he doesn't listen to me. And each time, he proved me wrong w...