Pickles by Brian Crane for May 02, 2019

touché, Nelson

That problem with tinnitus does ring a bell with a lot of people. Seriously though while humor does pop up in many places it is a very, very good idea to instill in children the idea of not making fun of people who are different in any which way – they’re different from other people too and would have their feelings hurt. It’s an easily teachable moment.

First time in a long time I’ve seen Opal even think about Earl’s feelings!

Bad hearing or Earl does not like clams. Clams might be Gun Powder for Earl !

Just remember, Nelson…what goes around comes around!

Know that hearing damage like brain damage is permanent. It is not like a muscle that is stronger after you strain it.

When did she start caring about his FEELINGS..??

Medicare Plus allows $500 every two years for hearings aids; which start at $3000 each!

Oh, gawd. My sister and I go through this ALL the time. Try communicating when one of you says “Read” and the other one thinks you said “Breed.” Communication is rough enough without deteriorating hearing. . .

I buy my hearing aides through EBay from England. The same hearing aids that cost over $3000 here are $350 there. They have single payer. When I was in Sweden with my mom, she had to go to the emergency room. We asked for a bill, explaining that we were Americans. Their answer was that they had no system for making out a bill and no one who would know how to work that system if it existed. Americans are paying more for health care than any other modern company because we aren’t just paying for health care, we are supporting an entire insurance industry with money that could be going into actual patient care.

I used to have horrible tinnitus. I mentioned it to one of the doctors in the practice; he took a small syringe and blew air into my ear. Voila! He said I had dust behind the eardrum. If it happened again, I should get Hubby to BLOW in my ear. Nothing sexy, just act as if he was trying to shoot my brains out the other side.

A patient called to ask for a referral to an ENT; I told her this, and suggested she try it. No harm done if it didn’t work, and we’d still send her to a specialist if necessary. She called back two days later, thrilled to bits that it had cleared up the problem.

I only put them in when I think I want to hear what’s being said never was interested in hearing my zipper go up and down love being in my own world if anything important comes up I just ask my wife

I should go for a herring test? What?

I have auditory discrimination problems that cannot be fixed with hearing aids. If someone speaks clearly ( not loudly ) and distinctly, I have no problem understanding what they say.

So many people garble their words and speak so rapidly as to be unintelligible that I can’t understand half of what they say. Others feel they have to shout – which only exacerbates my problem since loud sounds tend to blur my understanding.

Because my wife, her family, and the neighbors speak a machine-gun Spanish dialect typical of the Ecuadoran coast, I often have difficulty hearing clearly or misunderstand what is said. This has caused some embarrassing and often times funny incidents at my expense.

Better watch Opal, loss of hearing happens to the best of us? Eh? What’d ya say?

Sign language classes should be included as part of Medicare.

Since when did Opal start worrying about Earl’s feelings?

“Mr Green. They’re saying all kinds of bad things about you!”

“I don’t care since I’m not hearing it.”

I have to say that some of the best laughs my husband and I get are the utterly bizarre things my poor hearing gets me. F’r instance, the airline that was touting their superior in-air cuisine and service. I swear they said they’d match the perfect ferret to your meal (of course, it was “claret”.) But the idea of ferrets being deployed all over an airplane was hysterical.

what?