I was recently travelling back from an Audiology convention and was standing in a security checkpoint line at the Orlando airport. I actually love airports, I love seeing all the people and often try to imagine what their "story" is. I tend to be very visual anyway and notice much about my surroundings. This was the end of the U.S. Spring break and a Sunday and as such the airport was busy and bustling. As security lines go mine was moving nicely when next to me I noticed and older couple travelling and yes I couldn't help but notice his ears and his hearing aids. Right away I could tell what manufacturer they were and rather obviously I could see that his earmolds (the pieces in the ear) were not in correctly. Within moments I surmised that these were new earmolds as they looked new with new tubing. I turned to my travel partner and pointed out this inefficiency. In my office I would have no problem walking up to my patient and helping them fix the hearing aid insertion. I felt compelled to just reach over and fix it but that of course would be weird and I would have probably ended up swarmed my the many security officers at that checkpoint. As much as knew what I wanted to do I resisted the urge to do so. As we passed through security my friend asked if I was going to go over and say something to this man as the hearing aids looked like they were going to fall out of his ears. As outgoing as I can be in my own office I am sometimes more inclined to blend into the woodwork in public places. I just didn't feel comfortable helping this man hear better in this context. We had some time to wait for our flight and being a large and busy airport filled with thousands of people at any given time I had many stories to put together about those that I saw travelling.As I was boarding the plane I looked at my boarding pass to check my seat number and there in what I suspected was my row was the very same man with the ill fitting hearing aids. I felt a little like Jonah to use a Bible analogy being called and compelled to do my work as an Audiologist. I leaned over to this gentleman and asked him if I could help him with his hearing aids and explained that I was actually an Audiologist (luckily he know what that was) . In a couple of seconds this man was hearing again and we proceeded to have a nice conversations through our trip. I gave this an a little advice along the way regarding his hearing aids and am certain that his Audiologist will take good care of him now that he has returned home.
While at the Orlando airport I saw a Disney store that had the sign EarPort and the Disney logo meaning this was a place to get mouse ears. I couldn't help but think that in more ways than one Orlando really was an EarPort that day.
