Lucky Dorito

I recently had a conversation with a female patient about hearing loss. I was doing as all health care providers do at times – trying to speak to her with my mask covering my lips. She reminded me, “You do remember I have some hearing loss, don’t you?”

“Why yes – now I do!”

Duh. It’s a chronic habit that I try to break myself of all the time.

She is an incredibly articulate woman whom I enjoy speaking with at every opportunity so I sure don’t want to make it impossible for her to have a conversation with me. She went on to explain that hearing loss is not just a matter of hearing everything at a decreased volume, as if someone turned the volume down on the television, but more a distortion of the sounds. Different tones of voice might still be loud and clear while others are garbled-sounding. For her, being outside at a ballgame or at a party with lots of conversations going on around her are very different than those same things would be for me. She can only make out bits and pieces of conversations unless the person is standing right next to her.

I got to thinking about our conversation later that day when I was getting groceries at Wal-Mart. Have you ever really paid any attention to all the noise that goes on around us, especially in a busy store? As people pass, you hear a snippet of their conversation. A man on his cell phone, quickly asking what it was he was supposed to be picking up. A small child begging her mom for something. Teenagers snickering and laughing with each other. A husband and wife comparing prices. A baby screaming (that one I heard loud and clear). Once I started noticing them, I struggled to tune them out – which is what I must usually do since I had never noticed before.

When I approached the check out line, there was a young couple in front of me – possibly just high school age. He was saying, “Why would you want to do that?”

She said, “Just because…” shrugging her shoulders.

He said, “That’s no reason.”

She said, “Well, it’s my hair. I can do what I want to with it.’

He said, “Yeah but…. why would you WANT to?”

She said, “I don’t know.”

He said, “But you’re beautiful like it is.”

Awwww.

She turned to look directly at him. He smiled at her and she must have been able to see that he meant it. I think she might have melted slightly.

It was precious.

I felt momentarily guilty for eavesdropping on such a sweet moment. But then again…. it warmed my heart. I needed that.

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