For once a good - personal - story about the NHS. After years of resisting, I finally went to collect my new hearing aids from our local hospital, the Kent and Canterbury. I grew up with my mother having severe hearing loss and never wanted that for myself. Anyway I assumed I would just collect them, maybe a few minutes to fit them and off I'd go.
But no, the lovely woman I saw, Penny, said first she'd "get me comfortable" with the hearing aids, then she's do lots of adjustments and fine tune them. I told her about my fears about having the hearing aids, glasses and cannula all over my ears and she said if I couldn't get used to this then there were things they could do to make it easier but to try first for a few weeks. Then she added a tinnitus mask into the mix to help distract from the hideous sound Ive been getting pretty continuously. Then gave me a battery operated "sound ball" which I can put under my pillow at night, again to mask the high pitched hissing I get which is worse in the quiet of the night.
Then she told me I can come back any time with any problems, and that there's a walk in clinic every friday morning where they will mend the hearing aids if they break down while you wait. And a battery outpost for new ones at my own surgery. Crikey! Such a good service in such hard times for the NHS. I asked her about funding and service cuts - she wouldn't tell me much but did say they are all under tremendous strain. And yet they are giving such a good service.
Before I left I asked her name again and she pointed to her badge with a laugh - and right enough there it was, Penny Lane. I said I reckoned she must have been teased all her life for that. When I left she told me I have a lovely smile. So I went away smiling even more.
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O2Trees
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What a charming tale and what a nice encounter you have had Jean.almost like a visit back to the past to another more ideal world which almost puts us into the realm of science fantasy.Well done for you and a big thank you to Penny Lane.
How lovely to hear good things and wonderful service from the NHS. I have tinnitus too so it’s good to know l could get help with that too. I will need hearing aids one day.
What's your tinnitus sound like? There seem to be so many different sounds you can hear. I co-existed with mine quite peaceable til a few weeks ago when it ramped up to a constant mega-high-pitched whine.
Pete doesn’t have tinnitus though O2 and mine was caused by amitryptalene. I do feel for those that have higher pitched sounds and l just get on with mine. It has affected my hearing though and it’s strange to think l will never know silence again. It’s ok though. Xxxx
"it’s strange to think l will never know silence again" . . . ohhh! I never thought of it like that, that's so sad. I have had the tank filling thing - a kind of whoosh - but not loud at all. Anyway I'm getting used to the high pitched thing - I think the brain adapts. xxx
Riceman's, run by Hugo Fenwick, closed in 2003 to make way for the Whitefriars shopping development. And later when the building was finished, Fenwicks opened there. I arrived in Kent in 2001 but never went to Riceman's - just googled it - so thanks for a bit of history HL.
Over the last 60 years my late wife and I have been hospitalised quite a few times - Sunderland,Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Huddersfield, London ,Glasgow and Ayr and have always been well cared for. But in the last few years we’ve found that most nurses have been more helpful and more concerned treating us as individuals and not just patients.Earlier this year I went to my l local hospital for an oxygen test - they found out I didn’t need it yet but the nurse commented on my well worn wheel chair - said she would order a new one for me which was delivered 3days later.
You wouldn’t have got this extra mile in the old days
O2Trees, I am glad I am not the only one recieving great help from the NHS, I was beginning to think I was the only one being loked after.
As for names, my palative care nurse has a realy interesting nickname (probably), she refuses to tell the story of how it came about. My imagination runs wild, maybe that is part of her treatment for keeping he bedbound motivated
Hi 02trees, that's good news for a change and sounds like a much better system than in the past, well done NHS. Hope I never need this service as the batteries look so small I would never be able to put them in myself.
They are very fiddly Katie and only last about 7 days. I dropped one yesterday and spent ages looking for it. I have a big pack of them so Im ok for a while. Hope you're doing ok.
Wonderful! It's amazing how the majority of the NHS staff are able to put us at ease and be so patient and put us at ease though they are under so much stress in this time of cutbacks
I get that high pitched hiss 24/7 and it is worse at night very distracting and if I'm listening to someone talk all other noises distract me......what causes this I've been told it was from being around alot of loud factory noise without ear protection but also it was due to high blood pressure
Sorry you have this too Sjf. I stood near speakers with loud music at many gigs in my 20s so that probably laid the groundwork for it. I have below average blood pressure so not that for me. Thanks for replying with your experience.
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