digital aids

Well, I have just returned from hospital where they have tried to solve the mystery of why
my new digital hearing aids ( or at least one of them) suddenly stopped working and why
I keep getting a noise, at certain pitches, that sounds like an out -of -tune guitar string being
strummed.
I explained that the right aid refused to work when I put it in yesterday morning, and that after
trying 4 new batteries it gave a pathetic bleep and died.
Why do technicians always assume that it must be the deaf person's fault?
"Have you got /had an ear infection? Have you got moisture inside it? How do you mean
you can't hear as well on the right side with your digital aid as you could with the analogue
one? Impossible!"
I reassured the technician that after 28years of being deaf and wearing aids, I knew when/
if my ears were infected, (it's messy and painful) and that keeping them dry was crucial.
"Well, you will get feed back if you put your hand near the microphone, dear."
Yes, but I don't walk around with my hand cupped to my ear and it still twangs.
There was still the question of not hearing as well on the right as I did with the old
analogues.
"And the tubing in that aid is rigid, how could that have happened, dear?
Are you sure you haven't got an ear infection? We'll just check shall we?"
Ok, just to keep you happy.

She shone the light of the auroscope into my ear canal and pronounced it clear.
I thought she would have apoplexy when I confessed (it did feel like that) that I had been
wearing digital in the left and analogue in the right and it was better.
"No! No! No! You can't do that. That can't be right."
Is it some sort of heresy to challenge the supremacy of new technology or to suggest that
it doesn't fit all circumstances?
When she had recovered herself she disappeared for a while.
On return she re-tubed the ear piece and produced the aid like a rabbit out of
a hat. "
You will never guess? There seemed to be some moisture in the filter hidden
away in the hook, dear. I wonder how it got there?"
Yes, I wonder - was it a convenien t get-out and of course it put the onus right back on me?

When you're deaf you are always to blame for the breakdown in communication.
It couldn't possibly be that the hearing party didn't open their mouths, annunciate, or take their
hands away from their mouths?
Well, when it's my fault I'll take responsiblity but not when it's down to laziness and ignorance.