"Well, you can hear me" and other ignorant comments

Just would like to hear from others what comments they have received from doctors, friends, family, co-workers, etc. that show they have absolutely no understanding or caring about this damn disease.

In the beginning when I hadn't yet been diagnosed, there were frequent days when my hearing would be very bad because of extreme pressure, fullness and noises in my head. One of those days, I was looking for help from a doctor and straining to hear him over the phone, and his answer to me was. "your hearing can't be that bad, because you can hear me." I wanted to punch him! Did he think I just called him up to lie about how I felt? I wanted help, but he thought I was making it up!!!

I have also been told. "Don't worry, so your hearing is bad today, but it always comes back." Yeah, with killer doses of prednisone, and even then it doesn't all come back. With each episode I lose more. I'm tired of saying it because they just don't get it.

How about, "I don't know why it bothers you. I've lost some hearing too. We all lose it as we get older." Of course losing some hearing and going deaf in one ear, with the possibility of going deaf in the other without heavy medications is not the same, but again they don't get it.

I could go on and on.

Would like to hear from others what comments they have endured.

 

"Losing your hearing is no big deal nowdays. You can always get a cochlear implant."

That from a friend and also from a doctor. I wanted to whack them both! That really
hurt.

 

I don't have hearing loss but have had comments made about my dizziness. Like, I can't believe someone could be dizzy all the time, are you sure your dizzy all the time? I have mav and yes I'm dizzy all the time.

Or, why do you need that cane your not old enough to need that, why are you using that electric cart in the store? CAUSE I'M DIZZY. I just keep saying in my mind lalalalalalalalalalalalalal till they shut up

 

You heard what I said this morning.....why not now?

 

"Why don't you drive? It isn't THAT bad is it?"

"You were fine a few minutes ago, does it really come on that fast?"

And the grand prize winner for me is:
"I know exactly what you are going through--I had a dizzy spell last year (I think it was sinus realated) and it was awful!"

Willie Marie

 

"I am talking to you, do you not have your hearing aid on?"

 

My all time favorite is "you'll just have to learn to live with it"

 

How about the ever-popular "HUH?" shouted at the top of their lungs to everything you say, followed by gales of laughter....oh, they are just SO funny!!!!

Grrrrrrr.....

Two words: justifiable homicide...

 

When me and my wife first got to gether she didn't under stand what was going on with me.After me not knowing myself it was hard and never knew when it was going to happen.Didn't have any insurance to help out made it even harder.never had a doctor put me down for what was wrong with me.I've been lucky and found a good doctor that I been with for about 10 years now and found a neurologist several years back that understood and knew what test to run.Alot of people just don't understand what we go threw everyday and it makes it hard on us.Be strong

 

"How is it- you can't hear what I am saying to you, but yet you tell me to quit being so loud?"

I can't say it's such a stupid comment, that was coming from my son..... It's kind of hard explaining to a child that you can't distinguish a lot of words.... but yet that many sounds actually hurt your ears because they seem too loud.

 

I agree with Nursemom. I can hear people but I don't know what they are saying. I am afraid of going totally deaf and am almost there now. I am trying a home course in lip-reading but not getting very far.

The comment I like is when I tell people I am deaf and they smile and say "My wife says I have selective hearing loss". Give it a rest guys. This isn't funny.

 

wish I had the old post in which I described the MIEP (Meniere's instant empathy pill)--you give it to some less than sympathetic or empathic person and they instantly lose hearing in one ear, and have the sound of a jet engine roar in the other and both ears have cricket sounds so loud the person needs for you to scream above them and they get nausea so bad they puke all over themselves so violently they feel like they have split a gut--all this of course when they are strapped to one of those fancy machines NASA has that spin you so fast your eyeballs just about pop out
the original description was more humorous and refined but you get my point
MIEPs for all those "friends"!

 

I have been the recipient of many of the comments already posted, but I had a comment made to me which was the mother of all ignorant comments.

I was trying to explain to someone how the disease goes in and out of remission, and that even when I am symptom-free, it is always in the back of my mind that the symptoms will return at some point. The idiot then told me that it was MY FAULT that my symptoms returned--that my thinking caused me to become ill, and if I believed that the symptoms would never return, then they wouldn't return. Yeah, right. If I hadn't been so shocked at the remark, I probably would have punched the idiot who made it.

 

i only suffer from vertigo.. i am an electrician and i always get when i explain that i have vertigo...

( so your afraid of heights then ) !!!!

would love to let people experiance it

 

DC,

Here's what you do. Practice with someone you love. Quietly mumble "It isn't funny when it happens to you." Everytime someone shouts "Huh" or "What" mumble the line over and over again until they start to get frustrated and stop thinking it's so funny!.

And my two word term for people like that is: Retroactive Abortion

Hopefully they haven't breed yet!

Tracy

 

.

 

After telling a snotty little doc about my extreme dizziness, he turned to me and said 'Surely, this can't be affecting your quality of life in any significant way'..........I lost him quick enoug!

 

People can be so insensitive can't they? My ENT doesn't act as if he believes me half of the time. He says things like your hearing hasn't gotten much worse since your last visit. That would be OK if it had been more than a month since I saw him! Then he turns around and ask me when did you have your accident? I looked at him weird, now sure that I had heard him correctly and he said how did you hurt your ear. I amost came unglued. I have a wonderful Neurologist that is compassionate and understanding. He is referring me to a new ENT.

 

PERFECT.......and probably #1..............You look alright to me!

 

I remember someone from the old board was explaining about her husband or child talking to her and looking at the floor and mumbling.

She said she got in the habit of responding, "What was that you just said to the floor?" Great way to get your point across.