Hearing things…eh?

This is one of those short but silly jaunts into the problem that many of us face.. disturbances in hearing.  Now some of us come by it naturally because of age, some of us by stupidity, such as sticking our heads in the giant speakers at concerts, some due to medical problems.  But all of us will experience at one time or another the frustration of not hearing things like they were said and creating an interesting predicament because of it.

Here are some examples of things that I’ve had the misfortune (or fortune) of misinterpreting. 

A doctor I worked with was discussing an order for a patient with the floor nurse.  As I came around the corner to the station, I thought that it was very progressive of the doc to order a six pack for the patient.  I commented on this and praised the doc for this terrific treatment.  A look of confusion came over the doc’s face and then he and the nurse began to laugh.  When I asked what the problem was, the doc stated that the order was for a ’sitz bath’ and not the six pack that I was so impressed with.  I did manage to quit laughing long enough to ask if the patient could have a six pack while they were taking the sitz bath.  The doc did ponder a minute before refusing with a smile. 

Another time,  I was helping a patient to get ready to go home since their rehabilitation time was finished.  A nurse asked me to check on his ‘baloney’.  I went to the staff refrigerator and looked at all the items in there with names on them and reported back to the nurse that he had no food stuffs in the fridge.  She had the same blank look that the first doc did and finally began laughing and said that she had asked me to check his ‘belongings’.  Needless to say, we both had to get that one out of our system before we could resume work on the floor. 

Recently, a delighful patient was having a hard day and I was trying to cheer her up.  She was talking about not wanting to cry about things.  I sang the phrase ‘don’t cry for me argentina’ to which the patient looked at me with a smile and asked, ‘what was that about oranges and peaches?’  We both laughed and managed to make her feel a bit better. 

Anyway, I’m not the only one that has trouble with hearing in our family.  The kids never hear ANYTHING  that we say when we need them to do something, but they can hear from across the house if we are trying to sneak into the refrigerator for some ice cream.    Sound familiar?  The poor hubby is actually worse than me (I think) about mishearing lyrics to songs.  Some of the things that come out of his mouth when we are singing to the radio is enough to make me snort while I’m driving.  I gently correct him after I quit giggling and off we go on another song. 

I ain’t misbehavin’, I’m just mishearin’ !