I Fixed It My Ownself !

I don't have to go into Ottawa today after all.

So, as it turns out, I could have gone to Barrhaven and waited in that interminable lineup and actually got my H1N1 shot yesterday  (my girlfriend went through the process and got hers -- it wasn't fun but it's done).

Anyway, as I was going to bed last night, I went through the usual routine of putting my hearing aids away for the night.  That routine involves cleaning the devices with a thread-like tool that pushes out any debris that has collected in the airway that is critical to the operation of the unit.

Now, normally, when one arrives at the shop saying, "My hearing aid doesn't work," the first thing they do is ascertain that it is in fact operational, after which they clean it for wax build up that the client cannot get at (over time, everybody has to go in and have their hearing aids cleaned properly).

Keep in mind that I just got this hearing aid on August 14th; that's a mere two months prior to my arriving on their doorstep telling them that it wasn't working.  One would not expect it to have any unnatural wax build-up in that time-frame.  That should not have stopped them from putting it through the paces.

So last night, I pushed the thread through and it didn't want to come out the other end (usually, this is a very routine exercise).

So I pushed a little harder.

And out came a piece of old wax; judging from the colour, it had been there a while.

Now, when I first told them that it didn't work, I described the sensation as feeling like "a piece of wax was moving around in my ear but only when the hearing aid was in place."  That should have been a dead give-away for them. 

Apparently, there was no attempt to clean the hearing aid when they had it last week; they obviously didn't clean it before giving it back to me on Monday.

When I cleaned it on both Monday and Tuesday nights, I must have slid that thread "around" the wax plug (there must have been a sliver of an opening somewhere and I must have been finding it).

Then last night, I hit the jackpot!

And none too soon, I might add.

Because I really didn't want to be going into Ottawa if I don't have to.

And I don't have to.

There is no need for the ENT specialist to waste his time or mine checking my ear for no good reason.

I'll call and cancel the appointment and I'll let them know that it was a wax plug that caused the "intermittent" and "positional" problem with the unit.

Perhaps they should start paying closer attention to their own intake protocol:  (2) clean device for wax build-up.