• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Contact | 360-778-1266

Center for Hearing Loss Help

Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Reference
    • Glossary of Ear Terms
    • Drug Pronunciation Guide
    • Looping Information
    • “Learn About Hearing”
    • Useful Links
  • Museum
  • Blog
  • Shop
    • Alerting Devices
    • Assistive Listening Devices
    • Books
    • Loop Systems
    • Speechreading CDs
    • Telephones, amplified
    • Visor Cards

Successfully Advocating for Your Hearing Needs—A Success Story

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

If you are hard of hearing, you need to learn to advocate for yourself and your unique hearing needs. One lady did just that. Here is her story.

I asked about an interpreter or CART [real time captioning] for cardiac catheterization and this is how it turned out.

I went to the catheterization laboratory the week before the actual catheterization and talked to the people who would be working with me. They agreed that they could have someone drop their mask to talk to me and that it would be the same person each time. They said that the things I’d be asked were so few they didn’t think I would need an interpreter during the procedure. However, it was up to me whether I wanted one for before and after—when the important stuff was discussed and explained. I opted not to get an interpreter because I knew apart from the procedure itself, I could ask them to repeat things and/or write them down for me. As a result, I would not be stressed.

When I showed up a week later for the actual catheterization they all remembered me. (No doubt, the “Face Me I Read Lips” sticker I wore on my gown also helped. This was a sticker not a button because we’d be in a “no metal allowed” room.)

Shortly after returning home, I started to run a fever. I was prescribed anti-inflammatories and antibiotics. During the day my pain increased, then my right leg started to swell (the one where they entered my artery), then my right leg turned colder than my left. My doctor said, “Get to the emergency room now!” At the ER, they did ultrasounds of my artery and both veins. I had blood clots (deep vein thrombosis) in each vein that were impairing blood flow. I was put on bed rest and given anti-coagulants and clot-buster medicines.

My cardiologist, his partner, the interventional cardiologist, a new hematologist, my primary care doctor and the hospitalist (assigned by my insurance company to coordinate care while I was in the hospital) decided that the interventional guy would go into the veins in the back of my knee and remove as much of the clots as he could via catheters at the catheterization laboratory.

Because I had met the folks at the catheterization laboratory and they had accommodated me before, this time they were the ones talking about how they were going to make sure I could hear/understand. I was going to be on my stomach this time with my head in a pillow, no glasses and only one hearing aid on my “better” ear. They told me to close my eyes and then each came and talked to me to see who I could understand best (a man with a deep voice) and he was made my primary communication person. They also got the interventional cardiologist (who didn’t know me) to work with them on communication during the two hour procedure.

While I’m sure the Versed calmed me, knowing that I would have decent communication was in itself quite calming.

I’m glad I made the effort to discuss beforehand a number of communications options. Together we chose those that worked best for us all. And thankfully they worked just as well during the stressful emergency situation. I call that successful advocacy.

I do too. That was very successful advocacy. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the next they work on a hard of hearing person, they will suggest the same strategies. Way to go!

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hearing Loss Research & Resources

Free Visor Cards

Download your free Visor Cards for hard of hearing or deaf people here.

Loop Systems

Loop your home or meeting room. Discover how you can hear wonderfully clear sound again when listening to the TV/radio, etc, or when listening to a speaker at a meeting.

Loop systems are one of the best-kept secrets in town. To learn more about Loop Systems and what they can do for you, click here.

Take Control of Your Tinnitus—Here’s How

If your ears ring, buzz, chirp, hiss, click or roar, you know just how annoying tinnitus can be. You do not have to put up with this racket for the rest of your life. This book teaches you many things you can do to help bring your tinnitus under your control so it no longer bothers you.

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Sounds Now Too Loud for You?

Hypersensitive to Sound front coverIf some (or all) normal sounds seem so loud they “blow the top of your head off”, or make you wince or jump, or cause you headaches or ear pain, or affect your balance, or result in fear or annoyance of sounds so you feel you have to avoid these sounds, this book is for you!

Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Hearing Phantom Sounds?

When hard of hearing people begin hearing phantom voices or music, they immediately worry they are going crazy. It never crosses their minds that they are sane and are just experiencing Musical Ear syndrome.

To learn more about the strange phantom sounds of Musical Ear syndrome and what you can do about them, click here to read a comprehensive article about Musical Ear Syndrome.

Or get the book—Learn More | Add to Cart—Printed | Add to Cart—eBook

Glossary Navigation

  • Full List of Glossary Terms
  • A to Z Index

Footer

Center for Hearing Loss Help

Neil G. Bauman, Ph.D.

1013 Ridgeway Drive, Lynden,
WA 98264-1057 USA

Email: neil@hearinglosshelp.com

Phone: 360-778-1266 (M-F 9:00 AM-5:00 PM PST)

© 2025 Center for Hearing Loss Help – Help for your hearing loss, tinnitus and other ear conditions

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life [which also includes perfect hearing] through Jesus Christ our Lord." [Romans 6:23]

"But know this, in the last days perilous times will come" [2 Timothy 3:1]. "For there will be famines, pestilences, and [severe] earthquakes in various places" [Matthew 24:7], "distress of nations, the sea and the waves roaring"—tsunamis, hurricanes—Luke 21:25, but this is good news if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for "when these things begin to happen, lift up your heads [and rejoice] because your redemption draws near" [Luke 21:28].