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When Dad turned 65 years old my sister and I sat him down and had a discussion. We always had a good relationship with my father but we were concerned with his lack of recognizing his advanced age. He had done a really good job making sure that he was financially taken care of in retirement, and even after my mom passed away, he stayed involved in community activities and active with friends. In fact, he traveled so much the running joke on his block was that someone could rob his house and he wouldn't know for a month. He traveled around the world so frequently that it seemed like he was never at home. Being active and perpetually young is a good thing in a lot of ways. However, if a 25 year old doesn't see the doctor frequently it is a lot different than a senior citizen skipping those visits. Dad didn't like medical professionals. He felt that they were intrusive and "meddled in his personal business." While he is not technically wrong, we wanted to urge him to see the doctor regularly if he hoped to live as long as we wanted to have him around for. We emphasized how early diagnosis is the way to fight off inevitable issues that he and everybody else face when growing old. Somewhere among his busy travel, coffee, tennis, and poker-playing schedule he found time to see a doctor. It was not the way he wanted to spend a few hours but he loved his kids so he took his first physical in at least a decade and probably longer. He took a hearing test among other expected activities. The hearing test showed that indeed dad was slowing down, but not at an alarming rate. My father came back from the doctor and told us that he needed to see an ear, nose, and throat doctor. He was only hearing at 85 to 90 percent capacity and the doctor speculated about a variety of possible reasons for it. He suggested dad see a specialist. Not surprisingly, dad had to be coaxed to see another doctor. He took another hearing test with similar results. The doctor came into the room and my father was nervous. As his ear was inspected, the specialist proclaimed, "You have wax in your ears." My dad said, "what?" It was unclear whether he couldn't hear or didn't understand. A few minutes later a vacuum like suctioning device was connected to his left ear. The machine made a lot of noise and quickly cleared wax out of his ear. Not only did it "clean" him out, but also suddenly he was hearing perfectly again. They gave him another hearing test and he passed with flying colors. Like only my father can do, he told my brother and I about the wax by saying, "you tried to prove I was old, now I hear better than you two and look better too." And off he went to play tennis, in Paris. If you're in need of a Cedar Rapids, IA, hearing test, check out the services of Miracle Ear. For more information, visit: http://www.miracle-ear-cedarrapids.com.
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