Reporting in

[mrissa]

So. Yesterday they started the work on replacing the tub, so I have the noise of drills etc. on the wall behind my desk. The dog is unsettled by the smells and the strange monkeys who are taking away chunks of her house, which she is pretty sure is Not Okay. But she's behaving awfully well, sitting on my lap quietly where she can smell and hear and sometimes see who's doing what.

Yesterday evening I went to my audiologist appointment. Those of you who remember these from the last clinic know that I hate audiologist appointments. They do fun things like sticking a mechanical woodpecker in your ear. Well, this audiologist did additional fun things like putting me in a chair that rotated swiftly in the dark, and under a disco ball, and with shifting red lights. All the stuff the previous audiologist did, and then some. But with a difference.

I got to hear the word, "Interesting," pronounced the way Dr. porphyrin says it when she is too professionally courteous to say, "Jackass." It sounds like the last audiologist screwed up some of the procedures in ways that can make people look steadier than they really are. (Gee, thanks, last audiologist.)

Also, the audiologist said to me, "Did your last clinic give you any kind of diagnosis?" I said, "Communication was not their strong suit. They said it was probably like BPPV. Which is not the most useful thing to hear, 'like' and 'probably.'" He said, "Uh-huh. This is like a Chevrolet! It has wheels! Is it a Ford? Is it a bicycle? Is it a semi? Is it a vacuum cleaner? It has wheels! So it's like a Chevrolet! Probably!"

I like my audiologist.

I'm not just saying that because he thinks that this is probably a type of vestibular problem that their PT can very often provide significant help with.

But he does.

So this is a lot better day than yesterday was, even though I still have to see the doctor for actual diagnosis and discussion of treatment and all that. Even though I will still probably wobble for awhile, and I will still probably fall. It was significantly better than I feared, in results, and the good audiologist helped make me laugh through some of the more awful bits of procedure, and I have a lot of that sense of perspective back. Or rather, a reasonable sense of perspective takes me in a lot better directions than it could have. So. Is good.

Comments

[panjianlien.livejournal.com]

This one sounds like a keeper. And the prospect of PT helping is quite encouraging indeed.

Also, disco ball!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

When he turned on the disco ball, the audiologist said, "And now I'm going to send you back to the Seve...er. Now, looking at your chart, it seems I'm going to send you to the Seventies for the first time you can remember."

[columbina.livejournal.com]

I got to hear the word, "Interesting," pronounced the way Dr. Porphyrin says it when she is too professionally courteous to say, "Jackass."

I'm familiar with that pronunciation. I use it myself at regular intervals.

Glad to hear you got one this time who was more capable. (Damn it, the success rate on medical care should be better than the success rate on the average home contractor! )

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I want our home contractors to have a pretty good success rate, actually.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Well, this audiologist did additional fun things like putting me in a chair that rotated swiftly in the dark, and under a disco ball, and with shifting red lights.

Consecutively or concurrently ?

[ The image that first came to mind was like a Prodigy video. ]

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Some of each.

[the-flea-king.livejournal.com]

This post and news makes my morning.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I got to hear the word, "Interesting," pronounced the way Dr. porphyrin says it when she is too professionally courteous to say, "Jackass."

Excellent.

My former interface programmer held that I could call something or someone "silly" in ways that entirely conveyed the three minutes' swearing I was not in fact doing at that point. I am not sure I want it to be that obvious.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I met a Swedish scientist once who could pronounce, "nice fellow from the press," so that I could clearly hear, "damned ignorant hack." It's a gift some folks have.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Huzzah for a good audiologist!

It's very hard for me, sometimes, to wrap my brain around the fact that medical science still has trouble with stuff. I mean, okay, things like cancer, sure. We can't cure all of those just yet. But reading all your posts about vertigo, the six-year-old kid in my mind keeps whining, "but why can't they just fix her?" And if it's like that for me, I can only imagine what it's like for you.

So huzzah for finding doctors who appear not to have cranial-rectal impaction.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

How lucky you are.

Medical science has all these things it's really good at fixing. And then there are all the other bits.

[redbird]

Yay for the good audiologist, and for the prospect of significant help.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Yay for the usefulness of the audiologist and the hopefulness of a diagnosis! (Boo for the grammar snafu of my last sentence!)

[jenett]

Yay for sensible audiologists.

[fiddledragon]

That must be the same way my rheumatologist says "Hrm" and "Really?"

Yay for good docs!

[careswen.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I shall keep my hopes up for positive outcomes.

If you need any help in the meantime, you know we are happy to provide.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I do know, but thanks for reiterating.

[pameladean]

Oh, yes, all appendages crossed, and a thousand cheers for the snarky funny competent audiologist who actually pays attention and interrupts the standard spiel when necessary.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

He did. He discovered that, "I want you to focus on this," does not map well to, "Count backwards from 200 by 3s," or, "List a country beginning with each letter of the alphabet in order," for mrissas, because I can very easily go on autopilot with that sort of thing, and so he was amending that routine on the fly to ask me a series of random questions: "Name a foreign city beginning with K. What's 12 times 11? List three things that are yellow." etc.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

"I'm not just saying that because he thinks that this is probably a type of vestibular problem that their PT can very often provide significant help with."

Oh, God, Jesus, Mary, Buddha, let it be so! We are seriously low on mrissa over here, and would like to secure the supply.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I think people should be worried about a drop in the mrissa market if the supply goes up. Where, oh where, is Greenspan when you need him?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I like your audiologist, too.

Fingers crossed for the helpfulness of the PT.

[kythiaranos.livejournal.com]

Hooray for audiologists who score on both the humorous and competent axes!

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

This? Makes me very happy. I want you healthy and whole and able to do all the things you want, when ever you want. I want you at more cons where we can talk and giggle and do fun things.

But mostly, I want you to feel like you.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

Good is good!

"Interesting" is a useful professional word. I also find "huh" to come in handy often.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I hope this news pans out as well as it's sounding like it could. And in the interim I am very glad you have doctors who sound like you can trust them.

[laurel]

Oh yay! Sounds like an excellent audiologist. Rock on.

If it turns out the bathtub removal goes well, we may want to hit you up for info on who did it. Now that we've purchased a stove and dishwasher, the next thing on our massive "To Do List" for the house is to have a bathtub removed and replaced and I haven't the foggiest idea how to start that ball rolling (the ads I see all have them installing tubs over an existing one. So not what we want).

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Home Depot.

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

I'm also so glad to hear that you're making strides on getting a better diagnosis for your vertigo. That's important. I'm rooting for you to get well. . . I know what chronic ailments are like, even if I don't know what prolonged vertigo is like!

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

Unfair!

'Interesting' may also mean a multitude of other things.

Just hope you never hear me say 'fantastic' in my Clinic Voice, that's all.

So happy the audiologist is a think-y clinician.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Those are other "interesting"s. Tone is all.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I like your (new) audiologist.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

Add me to the fan club for your new audiologist. (And when I need the next round of audiology, I might ask for the name.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This clinic specializes in balance issues and vertigo only, so you'll have to let me know if that's the kind of audiologist you need when the time comes. I mean, he does hearing tests; he's an audiologist. But it's mainly along the lines of ruling out Meniere's etc.