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!

[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]

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."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

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

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Snerk. I like your audiologist.

I'm also very very pleased that there are prospects for actual diagnosis and possible treatment. Yay!!

[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.

[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.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

And, objective evidence for the proposition that the Dr. actually looked at your chart!

[columbina.livejournal.com]

Oh, agreed, but doctors and other medical personnel should have an even better one! Although it frustrates me to try to go through six worthless plumbers to find the one who actually knows what he's doing and doesn't cheat you, it's not life-threatening (unless it involves a leaky gas line maybe). If I play the same roulette with doctors it could be very bad. This is a matter I've given a fair bit of fretting to of late, since I'm reaching an age where I actually should pay some attention to my medical care, and yet I have no way of knowing or evaluating the doctors I have available to me for, shall we call it, quality of service.

[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!)

[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.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That's interesting, Bryn. I hope nobody takes this wrong, but I associate that kind of attitude with men. Many women either have menstrual discomfort that medical science can't "just fix" or else know other women who do; it's almost always men who say, "Can't you go to the doctor over that?"

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. I don't think I'd have that reaction to that specific example, maybe because on a subconscious level I view cramps etc. as one of the potential side effects of being female, whereas your vertigo isn't normative in any way. But I think if I ran into a woman whose quality of life was actively reduced by menstrual problems even if she took Midol or other drug of choice, then I'd probably have a bit of the six-year-old "dammit, that isn't fair, we should have a pill that fixes it" reaction. (Apparently my inner six-year-old swears.)

But anyway, god knows I have enough "typical male" tendencies that one more wouldn't surprise me. I'm cook meat and watch a lot of action movies; my husband bakes and likes the romantic comedies. Etc.

[jenett]

Yay for sensible audiologists.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Strangely, I've not only known women with menstrual discomforts that medical science can't "just fix", but have *known* that I did, since, well, before ibuprofen. I find it's women who tend towards suggesting doctors (in my experience they see doctors far, far more often than men in general, so doctors are more a "normal" thing).

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, yes; clearly not every man goes into Engineer Mode when faced with a bad case of cramps.

But I think there are also fairly big cultural taboos against men telling other men to see doctors unless there's, y'know, the end of a bone puncturing skin. Whereas telling women to Just Go Fix It Dammit is, sadly, not something young men are taught not to do as a general cultural thing. So the ones who don't figure it out on their own as you did have to have it beaten into them.

[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.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i grew up with a deep abiding belief that things, in general, not just medical things, are fixable.

on the good side, this means that i am absolutely kick ass at fixing things.

on the bad side, it means that i am now having to learn how to deal with the unfixable, and i am not liking it much.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

While I wish you less of the bad side, I think they are equal in why I find it easy to talk to you.