It’s kind of amusing how self-righteous and arrogant people can be when they’re empowered by and swathed in the anonymity of the internet and doggedly determined to remain metaphorically tone-deaf to the facts being presented to them – a deeply ironic point given that this is a forum for the hearing impaired.
I had signed off some weeks ago in light of the tiresome display of by a select few to persevere with their stunningly rude and presumptuous projection of their own issues and experiences, people who were seemingly incapable of processing the simple point that an entirely different perspective was at hand. They just had to be right in view of the seemingly and ‘intellectually profound’ argument that they’d been ‘deaf’ for a longer period of time and therefore knew, via some form of magical osmosis, that the issues at hand were a matter of my stubbornness and lack of experience rather than the technical issues I suspected. Not once, but on a number of occasions, I patiently and politely reiterated the aspects that made it clear, at least to me, that the problems had nothing to do with perception and all to do with technology, but no, the resident savants and self-appointed sages simply wouldn’t hear of it. Welcome to the typical internet forum, where posts frequently act as a form of Rorscharch test that elicit responses far more reflective of each authors inner psyche than anything that remotely resembles an appropriate answer.
So since then I’ve simply deleted all the email notifications giving me a heads up on the continued activity for the thread I started, even some of the more charming ones that gave me a clue in the headers on the content of the posts, such as the exemplary sample of self-righteous indignation that referred to my apparent ‘rudeness’ for calling into question the pompous and arrogant behavior of one particular individual who outrageously insisted I was intransigent and unwilling to accept my ‘limitations’ and the ‘new experience’ of being able to ‘hear again’. Then there was the other pearl of wisdom from the individual – another from the ‘you’re wrong – I’m right brigade’ – who insisted that Costco doesn’t employ audiologists, just fitters. Funny, I still have the individual’s card at hand which states quite clearly that he’s an audiologist – I’ll have to let Costco know that he’s a fraud according to the forum’s resident sleuth.
Never mind through all this that I repeated over and over that one side of my hearing sounded perfectly fine while the other was giving me distinct problems that had nothing to do with normal aural perceptions. No, apparently I suffer from some form of split personality where the aids are concerned, the beaming and grateful side calmly accepting the new world of sound presented to the left, while the malevolent and stubborn alter ego railed against the imaginary scratchy and over-loud sounds emanating from the right.
For some real perspective on the matter, note that I finally took the hearing aids into the alternative Costco 13 miles away a week ago (having had to delay the process for some time due to traveling interstate for surgery and recovery – my wife had to drive me to the Costco because I was still on prescription painkillers) and found that the right hearing aid had indeed been incorrectly set up in a way that accounted for all the issues I mentioned, right down to the static I was hearing, which apparently was a result of too much boost at the lower frequencies, the area where I didn’t really need help. So no more rustling from my hair, no annoying static, no excessive noise when my daughter speaks to me – the two hearing aids are now perfectly in tune. Hallelujah, I’ve been cured, the two personalities have shaken hands and become one!
Most forums have their fair share of soapbox blowhards, resident pontificators, and jack-booting individuals marching up and down and jealously guarding their little sanctuaries, hailing their familiars, and running the rule over any newbies daring to venture in and raise their heads for scrutiny. You would think a forum devoted to issues of health would be largely free of this general malaise but clearly this one’s not, judging from some of the acerbic, rude and self-serving attitudes of some who were either incapable of heeding what was being said, or simply didn’t care with regard to simply wanting/needing to be heard. Had I heeded the stentorian tones of the ‘get over yourself and accept what you’re hearing as normal’ brigade not only would I have been stuck with faulty aids but I would have undoubtedly done further damage to the hearing in my right ear – I stopped using the aids until I could get them checked out eventually for the specific reason that I was getting a constant ringing in my right ear after prolonged use of the hearing aids – I rarely suffer from tinnitus, but the excessive volume on the right was clearly setting it off, and despite the subsequent correction I’m still dealing with it constantly and have been left wondering if the hearing aid did permanent damage.
For those of you who actually took heed of what I wrote and offered appropriate advice, my thanks. It certainly helped put my mind at ease over the fact that my suspicions were right and pointed me in the right direction as far as seeking alternative help with the hearing aids. The individual I dealt with at the second Costco was light years removed from my initial experiences on any number of levels, not least in common courtesy but also in terms of his level of professionalism, attention to detail, and the simple fact that he actually listened to what I had to say and provided a pile of information and literature that the other Costco employee had failed to pass on. He also suggested a number of follow-up visits to gradually fine tune the aids, which was in keeping with what I’d initially expected after perusing this forum but had been told was totally unnecessary by the first audiologist.
A final aspect which may or may not serve as a pointer to how the first guy screwed up is that the individual who I saw at the other Costco took me through a process of testing my hearing through the actual hearing aids, something that was never done at the first Costco – the audiologist there set them according to the results from my initial hearing test.
In summary, I was so taken aback at the vast difference in approach by the second individual that I kept shaking my head in disbelief at the vast improvement in manner and approach, and when he asked me why eventually I explained my experiences at the other establishment. His response? To apologize for the lackadaisical approach meted out at the first Costco and to suggest that I consider writing in a complaint.
Again, my thanks to those that did offer genuine help and insight.
No argument there, I was just letting the cynical old grouch in me have a moment.