The Disability Chat

Dr. House:

"...Alright. We have two more... one for each side of your head." I explained, stopping the lingering vibration of the fork and taking a moment to jot that down. "Next, I want you to tell me if the feeling of your skull vibrating is more or less intense than whatever you feel from the air or the room. We do that one once for each side of your head... and you're going to feel the tuning fork just a bit behind and up from your ear." I informed him carefully. I figured that since I'd already been given the general go ahead, I could proceed, but I went with caution, thwacking the tuning fork on the counter as I went, and then holding it just behind his ear.

Cricket

I waited. I didn't hear the thing, but I could feel it. I . . . think that was a good sign. I think. I nodded.

Dr. House:

He nodded. ...Alright... Well. He clearly heard...or felt...something. It was just a mystery as to which. "Was that that you could hear the air or your skull better?" I inquired. Again... I was figuring that I kind of knew which, based on the answers to the last test.

Cricket

Ah. Aye. Specifics. I was simply happy I felt something. Was that a crime? "Skull."

Dr. House:

Well... at least he had his Cochleae intact. That...would make things easier. Surgery-wise. "Alright. I'm going around to the other side of your head now... tell me if there's any change at all." I requested before hitting the tuning fork against something else and putting it against the other side of his head.

Cricket

"Same."

Dr. House:

And with that, I put the tuning fork away, and jotted down several things. "Congratulations... You've gotten yourself out of gene therapy." I told him as I finished up with that sheet of paper, and started on another that I got out of the drawer. Skinny file...not for long.

"It's shaping up to look like you're going to be ending up with implants that just reach the actual "hearing" part of your ear without any of the obnoxious crap that your ear canal and ear drum are giving you by being all damaged like that. However... if you want, we can certainly go in and try to reconstruct your ears first, before going with the implants. We also now have to discuss which variety of implants you'll be wanting, based on your lifestyle and what all you have access to at home. "

"I also would like to do some X-Rays on your head just to make sure everything looks alright structurally... and we'll need them anyway if we're going to end up doing anything." I explained, back to sitting on my stool. That was a lot of words, I realised, and didn't know how well that all would be going down with him. "...Take a minute to think about all that, and then I'll be happy to answer any questions you have about anything I just said." I added after a second.

Cricket

I took a moment to think about that and decided to simply nod and go with it. That was quite a lot to soak in, but I didn't feel much like asking questions. I'd find out eventually. "No questions."

Dr. House:

That was fairly straightforward. I wasn't going to force him to ask anything, so, if he felt that he was alright with the information that he currently had, that was perfectly alright. "I know that by now you're probably sick of me asking you questions, but I have a few more and then we're going to take you back to X-Ray... and then you should be able to go back to whatever you were scheduled to do for the rest of the day, Alright?"

Cricket

"A'right."

Dr. House:

"Firstly, I need to know whether or not you're going to be at all interested in trying to rebuild the parts of your inner ear that have been damaged, and if not, then we have to discuss what options you would like to choose for your implants, based on your lifestyle." I told him, going though this one step at a time. At this point in time I wasn't sure if reconstruction was actually something that was possible, but, best to find out if he'd be interested in even trying before automatically going for the implants. Implants were pricey. Clearly he had some kind of mysterious financial backer, according to the paperwork I'd gotten from the finance office, but still. If you could try to fix it prior to going with the implants, it was preferable, clearly.