Progress

Yesterday was FAR better than the previous, demoralizing suck ass one.

For starters I switched Prose lens trainers to one who has a damn clue about how to communicate with a deafie in an extremadamente importante learning sitch. I AM after all attempting to learn how to put this fabulously advanced and expensive prosthetic cornea in my damn eye. This is wickedly key shit. These sessions are make or break. Ya know? If I bomb out, my sad left eye gets sewn shut. Yeah sure, I’d get to craft some really cool eye patches but I’D BE LESS ONE EYE!

Now to be fair, the woman from the first day wasn’t a complete hardhearted Hannah. Nope. It was just clear to me that she lacked the ability to walk a mile or two in a deafie’s moccasins.

There was an instructional vid. After it began I saw that the closed captioning wasn’t on. I told the nurse that I needed her to turn that on. After a bit of fuss, I came to understand that either there was no cc OR she didn’t know how to turn it on. I was stunned. HOW will I know and understand what I need to do – there’s a lot of talking going here. Her response? I should just watch it.

Huh. Rilly?! So…we deafies are magical and can absorb all we need to know through electromagnetic fields or something? DAMN, I missed that in the You and Your Crapped Out Ears training session! Is there, like, a switch in my head that just needs to flicked on? I’ll then be all tricked out with my very own wizard-y ability to know what’s being said without the benefit of all that pesky communication?

The nurse eventually, AFTER this MONDO frustrating first “training” session, came up with a transcript for the vid. I’d asked for one, she hadn’t offered. The first session might have gone significantly better had she provided me with the transcript BEFOREHAND.

Word to the unwise, if you don’t know a tiny bit of ASL, if there’s no damn CART in the training room AND you’re reluctant to write down OR show me/pantomime what I NEED to know, possibly you should rethink your choice of profession. Helping people, relating to folks who are different from yurself MAY not be within your skill set.

My trainer yesterday, Heidi, was like night and day. She didn’t have any signing BUT she spoke slowly, clearly and WHILE I was looking at her. She wrote stuff down for me (without me having to beg) and, best yet, pantomimed the very important techniques for successful lens insertion. This made, as I bet you figured already, a HUGE difference!

This morning I’m not stressed to the max and fearful. Trepidation is no longer my middle name. Putting the prosthetic cornea in correctly takes practice. I’ll have a lot more of that today and with Heidi’s pro assistance, it’s gonna go smoothly.