The other week I had a patient who came in quite sure that her hearing aids that weren’t working properly and that this was due to my lack of attention to her hearing aids. After extensive testing and troubleshooting, it was determined that the hearing aids were working properly. I ran additional hearing test measures and we discovered that there like was a change in her speech understanding which was affected by recent changes in cognition and working memory. I asked her about it and she admitted to feeling it was increasingly difficult to make sense of speech. She told me she was concerned as tears rolled down her face.
We both paused and continued to discuss what this means and how to move forward. Moments like these can feel scary. They can feel confusing and it can also feel like your body and other people are betraying you. I can tell you that if I had not been curious, if I had been defensive, or if I had taken offense to accusations that I wasn’t tending to her hearing aids properly…we may not have gotten to the point of discovering and discussing changes in her memory that were taking place.
I want to use this story as a moment to remind myself as well as you all to simply be kind. Be kind. Everyone is going through an internal battle you can’t see. Sometimes this manifests as unusual aggression or anger towards you when it really has NOTHING to do with you. I chose to be curious instead of defensive, and the outcome was both eye-opening and one I did not expect. I am sending so much love to all those who are silently hurting. You are not alone.
