Over the last years Albina's hearing has been deteriorating. TV had to be on quite loud, she had difficiculty hearing people on the phone, and anything I said to her I had to repeat twice, or even more. In fact, I realized that a lot of the time she would not even be aware that I was talking to her at all, especially if I was on her left side. I have a loud voice that carries. Many people, Albina included, have complained over how loud it is. Now it is the opposite. She often fails to hear her morning alarm call and I have to come running from the kitchen into the bedroom to switch it off. If she is in the sitting room she cannot hear the downstairs bell in our flat, so that many times couriers take back their parcels, even though Albina was in. She could not hear conversations in pubs, but then I partly had that problem too. To me her hearing was part of the reason why she retired more and more from life and kept to her bed.
Now I fear my hearing may going the same way though I still hear much beter than Albina. However, I was determined to ensure that Albina should have a more fulfilling life. That is why I pushed her to get some proper wigs to cover her thinning hair, and proper but discrete hearing aids to make her more aware of life around her.
On Wednesday I took Albina to a hearing clinic in Kensington with the discrete name Hidden Hearing. They had advertised free hearing tests and for some reason Albina had chosen not to go to Specsavers for a hearing test, because it took too long to book an appointment. Hidden Hearing were ready to book her test quickly, so soon after her return from Poland. I thought we might compare the two services so I went ahead and booked a hearing test for myself at Specsavers but let her try Hidden Hearing.
We arrived a little early expecting to see a queue. In fact we were alone. I stepped forward to the receptionist to give our name but she just smiled and said "Albina, right?" It looked like we were certainly expected. The aural specialist came out of his office early and called us in. First, he peered into her ears and recorded no infections or perforated eardrums. Neverhteless he booked some hospital tests for her to be arranged via her clinic. Then he asked her to press a button whenever she heard some low voiced sounds and finally had a fifteen minute session of recording her reaction to sounds which he generated while playing on the keyboard of his computer. Finally, he pointed out on a screen the difference between her two ears, including the fact that in her right ear, much of the sound was lost inside the actual ear tube, while on her left ear, where the loss of hearing was greater, much of it had gone, before it even entered her ear. He showed us a pair of almost invisible hearing aids, which changed Albina's hearing range dramatically. She put them on. Then when I spoke to her, she told me not to speak so loudly. A good sign.
So how much was this new hearing aid worth, including a lifetime service and regular half yearly free visits? A mere £5700. I swallowed hard. That consumed all the money I had personally saved up as my contribution to the world trip. However, I wanted to make sure she had the best possible use of her new hearing aids. So I said yes, without even consulting her. Nor did she try to stop me. Eventually I paid £5000 from my debit cared on the spot, and asked her to pay the difference. I left with mixed feelings. On the one hand, delighted that an additional barrier to her escape from the real world had been removed and that she could now participate in conversations and hear everything while watching TV, on the other, with no more money to spend on the long trip. All our expenditure would now have to be jointly agreed. I had lost a chance for arranging certain things on my own without asking her, like the £800 I was prepared to spend on using the vessel's wifi. I was going to need that to make sure I could continue this log every day, while on the boat.
There was still other possible heavy expenditures facing us, like my own visit to the hearing centre in Specsavers, as well as the new pair of glasses I would need in January to ensure that my improved sight following my operation, could be further enhanced to see the far horizon when we were bestriding the globe in our joint adventure.
It was sure sign though how relying on the NHS was more and more fraught as the country's infrastructure is collapsing around our ears. On Monday, one of my colleagues came to work troubled with acute kidney pains. He rang his clinic and was told there was no chance of an appointment before next Monday and only then after he had made a booking at 8am on Monday. We suggested that he go to the drop in centre at Ashford Hospital nearby. I drove him there myself and left him. Two hours later he rang to say that a receptionist had finally told him he may have to wait a further 8 hours. However, as he was far from his flat in Hammersmith, she gave him a referral to Charing Cross Hospital. He went there and was finally seen and given some medicine aroung 8 in the evening. There are 7 and half million people on NHS waiting lists. I am on one for my nose bleeds when my next appontment is in June next year. The NHS is ailing and exhausted and so is nearly every service: railways, schools, clinics, care homes, water, energy. The strikes are continuing while all the governmemt can do is stand aside and bleat, telling nurses they are helping Putin. They forget that the best Tory present for Putin was Brexit, but they cherish the myth of natioanl regenration while we are unable to trade with our nearest partners in Europe. It all needs massive investment and reorganization and reorientation by the state in partnership with private companies. The current government cannot deliver it but for the next two years it can still prevent someone else delivering it. After that we get to the Age of Starmer. I hope it will last 10 years.
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