"He doesn't listen to a thing I say"

This week's PBL case is about a 6 year old (James), whose parents have brought him into your practice. He has been complaining of earaches (and has a whole lists of triggers associated with it) and how he has been quite disruptive in class. It is as if this week's case is taken from the earlier chapters of my life. What happened to John? He has gone deaf.

Oddly enough, until now, I haven't really looked into why my hearing, or lack of, is the way it is. For some reason, I have become complacent about it. The PBL group asked me a number of questions about what it was like, how it happened, and such things. I really didn't have much to tell them. Honestly, it never occured to me that I should know more about it.

My hearing impairment was caused by, what doctors think, scarlet fever. I know that I had horrible fevers when I was a kid. They were so bad that my parents often had to resort to placing me in a tub of ice and ice water. Hence why I hate showering/bathing in cold water. I remember how my Grade 1 teacher, Mrs. Stradecki, (read: a total bitch) was absolutely awful in how she treated me. I was ostracised from the class and became a social outcaste (which lasted for most of my grade schooling years), a child who wanted nothing more to fit in and not have to worry about (at the time it was) a stupid machine in his ear. Only if she had attended the lecture on developmental problems in school aged children that I had today. I am glad to know that doctors are being trained in properly examining and not placing judgement on cases like these.

Now, I have never used my hearing impairment as a disability. My parents made sure that I was constantly reminded of the normalcy of my upbringing. Sure there were things that I had trouble getting used to, such as talking/listening on the phone. However, these were things that I was able to overcome. It has been a long time since I've had to overcome anything new. Meaning, that being accepted to medical school was the first time that I really had to honestly examine any shortcomings I had with my impairment. The only thing that I can think of it how I will be able to use a conventional stethescope. The answer is that I won't be able to use one. I am still looking into what sort of stethescopes are available for people with hearing aids. From what I have seen thus far, there are not many out there and the prices for these things are almost 5 times more than the conventional (Litman Cardiology 3) stethescope. To make matters more interesting, University of Queensland's School of Medicine has never had an hearing impaired student. Don't I feel even more special? :)

This week will be a good one - it will be a week where I will (hopefully) be able to look at myself from the position of what has happened (in the physiological/pathological sense) and and from the position of being a hearing impaired person. Whoa...that's deep.