96 and Out Of Breath

My wife, an avid blogger, www.livinglovingbreathingboys.com  has finally convinced me to start a blog on Everything Related to Hearing. As a Doctor of Audiology, this could prove to be a discussion of things limited to the field of Audiology, however I would rather choose to share experiences and insights into the human element of what I do for a living.

I have a story I love to tell of a truly life altering encounter I had with a patient many years ago that I hope will set the tone for my blogs to follow. I was working in the office of an Otolaryngologists many years ago and was waiting on my next patient. I had been running a busy schedule and as per usual had reviewed the patient chart quickly to get an idea of what I might expect. The chart proved to have little information that might help me prepare other than to cue me to the fact that my patient was a 96 year old female. I formed in my mind a vision of a hearing impaired little old lady that would soon walk in my door. I began to get annoyed because either the patient was late or going to be a no show and therefore I was not going to make any money during this time slot. These dark thoughts had started to permeate my consciousness when a knock on my door cued me to the arrival of my patient. When my patient arrived she was indeed this 96 year old woman panting and out of breath. I started to panic wondering if my patient was going into cardiac arrest or something just as sinister. As if reading my mind, or the panicked look on my face the lady told me not to worry, she was fine. You see she had been at the gym in the pool swimming laps when she realized she better scoot on over to her appointment with me. This lady had hurried over and in the interest of saving time just run up to the fourth floor on the stairs instead of using the elevator and this was why she was out of breath.

My interest in this woman was peaked at this point and we began the discussion that changed my life. You see she said "when I turned 90 I decided it was time for me to make some changes in my life, I decided to start taking better care of myself and to try new things". At 90 years of age this lady started going to the gym and exploring the world of possibility in front of her. The woman was fascinating and had captured me with the revelations of her life in the last six years. Never having tried it but always wanting to this woman took an art class at 90 and the long story short was that at 96 she had been painting and selling her art for a living with great success.

This encounter in life has spurred a thought that has driven me along the way. You never know what you are capable of if you have never tried. Your talents can go unexplored if you stop exploring the realm of possibility. I was a young adult at that time and have used the knowledge gained in that encounter to propel me to constantly be looking for new things to try and to learn.  That little old lady shook my world as I knew it.