the hearing aid

Last Sunday, when I took my brother out for breakfast, I took home his hearing aid so I could get it fixed.  It was pretty obvious that the nursing home was changing the battery but not cleaning it.  When I tried to clean it, a huge glob of ear wax came out, but that still wasn't good enough for him to hear properly.

I did the 15 minute drive on Monday morning to the hearing aid store, only to find out it was closed on Mondays, despite the fact their web page said they were open.  Normally this would drive me up a wall because I would have had to take off from work to do it.  However, since I am still recovering from surgery, I am available to do short jaunts.

I went  back on Tuesday and found out that his insurance doesn't cover the hearing aid, because the issue is "weak sound", not that it was broken.  Whatever.  I also had to agree to pay $60 so it would be fixed within a week rather than two weeks.  My brother really turns into himself when he can't hear, and stops communicating, and it isn't healthy.  The whole thing is going to cost more than $300.

However, the hearing aid store offered to send someone out on a monthly basis to the nursing home to clean everyone's hearing aids.  They do this to drum up business, they did it at the place where my brother was doing assisted living.  The nursing home seems up for it, and the patient advocate is agitating for the nursing home to pay the bill because she recognized it was their fault for not cleaning the hearing aid in the first place.  Now, if I could only get them to find his clothes that are missing!

My brother still seems somehow, not quite right, and was a little out of breath when he walked to the car.  I hope this does not develop into yet another crisis.