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What?

I have been asking students to repeat themselves an awful lot. It is embarrassing for me to have them say something three or four times, and I think it’s embarrassing for them. Are they all just mumblers, or is there something else going on? A couple weeks ago, I had three incidents in one day. I decided right then that I would have my hearing checked.

My appointment with the doctor was yesterday. It was terrible timing. Midterm grades were due. I should have checked the calendar a little more carefully. Things worked out okay… I took some grading with me for while I waited. But still… it was a little stressful.

The doctor checked first for wax. No problem there. Then he checked for fluid buildup in my inner ear. He did a series of tests with a tuning fork. After striking it, he put it against my skull in various locations. I almost told him about my weird friend Lauren who has some weird thing with bone induction hearing, but not knowing the details very well, I thought I’d better hold back.

The doctor thought there was nothing physically blocking my hearing, but he recommended going to an ENT doctor to be sure. He also gave me the name of an audiologist so I could do a hearing test. On the one hand, I want to know if something is wrong because I’m tired of all the repeating, but on the other hand, I don’t want to know, because what if I have to do something about it?

I only got sleepy once.

6 Comments

  1. Beth

    Embrace the Dadness!

    (And I see that lime green is the color of the year, eh?)

    • Brad

      The color of the quarter. Gel pens run out of ink fast. I may not even keep the green. It’s a little hard to see. On the last test I handed back, some of the kids didn’t see questions I had marked wrong.

  2. Lauren

    Yeah, get it checked out. Even if you find out that you need to do something about it, you still have the option of not doing something about it – so there’s your freedom. 🙂

  3. Peggy

    What?
    He’s on 2nd.
    Who’s on 2nd?
    He’s on 1st.

    (now I have to look up ‘bone induction hearing’.)

    • Lauren

      It’ll be tomorrow’s post. 🙂 (From me.)

  4. Carol

    I, too, have found myself cupping a hand to the back of an ear after a student has spoken or asked a question, then adding a “Pardon?” or “Come again?” more often than I would prefer. Considering how small our classes are this year, it can’t be that all the bodies in it soak up the sound, so I’m going with “kids don’t open their mouths when they speak”. I’m getting this idea from trying to understand the words of music videos when I’m on the treadmill at the gym and the speaker for my ear buds isn’t working. Lip reading just doesn’t cut it any more when the lips aren’t moving all that much from one grunt to the next.

    Translation: you’re probably fine, Brad – it’s them. Or, it’s me. After all, I am MUCH older than you…

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