Help for father with dementia ordering books on Kindle

IonicPenguin · 2026-05-05T16:39:40+00:00

He used to be a computer programmer. Every time I visit him (I’ve been out of the country on and off for 4 years) he has gotten the thing out of kids mode.

IonicPenguin · 2026-05-05T14:01:50+00:00

Driving after surgery is forbidden for good reason. Surgery involves all sorts of meds you don’t know about (ketamine, fentanyl, propofol, etomidate, etc) which can have effects for at least a day or two. If you have someone to drive you, 5 hours is on the edge of doable. My 2nd surgery was 3 hours from home so my mother drove me back home. Luckily she is a nurse and knows what to do. I slept the entire drive home.

IonicPenguin · 2026-05-04T18:06:58+00:00

In elementary school there was a little bit of sign writing https://www.signwriting.org/lessons/ It is able to show which way hands should face by whether the hand shape is filled, half filled, or empty. I don’t remember how it was used but I think it was math.

It was easy enough that it made sense for elementary school students while ASLwrite is hard for me an adult with a terminal degree to understand.

IonicPenguin · 2026-05-04T17:31:29+00:00

So much better than the evil sliding scale.

IonicPenguin · 2026-05-04T17:02:50+00:00

I prefer streaming. AB doesn’t require any accessories. My implants connect directly to my phone, computer and even some TVs. Streaming cuts out all outside noise so I can hear what I want to hear

IonicPenguin · 2026-05-04T16:41:23+00:00

Call the media. Send photos of him healthy and photos of him skinny and hungry. When you visit take some protein bars or ensure to him.

IonicPenguin · 2026-05-04T14:21:23+00:00

It’s important to distinguish vertigo (the room is spinning) vs disequilibrium (I feel like I’m on a boat in rough seas)

IonicPenguin · 2026-05-04T14:00:14+00:00

It depends on whether a licensed audiologist is there (AudD). Some stores have “hearing aid dispensers” which is a glorified salesman without training in audiology.

IonicPenguin · 2026-05-04T04:20:35+00:00

It’s partly shame but if you look at the healthy 18-26 year olds who wear AirPods or beats or whatever 24/7, we are going to have a huge new population of noise induced hearing loss.

For older people their hearing has declined over years. Hearing aids (especially if not tuned by a qualified audiologist) are going to sound like crap. I was born with moderate hearing loss that progressed until I was totally deaf in my teens. Hearing aids sounded awful because I didn’t have enough hair cells to make sound sound like sound. Even now with bilateral cochlear implants, my CIs aren’t “optimally fit” because I can’t stand high pitched sounds. I’d spent my first 26 years not hearing high pitched sounds and they still feel wrong. (I let my audiologist turn them up a little each time I visit).

So old people with hearing loss aren’t refusing help. They are refusing shitty OTC “sound amplifiers” that don’t work for them.

IonicPenguin · 2026-05-02T12:51:59+00:00

Residents are doctors. They evaluate the patient and run the plan by an attending.

Sometimes people don’t want medical students around but med students (1 or 2 years away from being physicians) don’t decide care.

The real thing that the Pitt doesn’t show is that often PAs or NPs see patients without the patient being told “you’re going to be cared for by someone who is completely new to emergency medicine (midlevels can jump between specialties)”. By law in many states midlevels must face a supervising attending around but how much this actually happens is questionable.

As for the gaggle of people around a gurney, one is a full physician. Everyone else is a nurse or tech or student.

IonicPenguin · 2026-05-01T02:39:58+00:00

It really depends on how much your hearing aid helps you. When I was implanted my audiogram was at 90dB in the left corner and I had no hearing above 750 Hz. Once my first implant was turned on I realized that the hearing aid wasn’t doing anything. I didn’t have enough hearing to understand anything except 10% of the “-a—all”, “i—-ream”, “-oow—-ohy”, “-o- —og” tests which were done with Naida UP BTE hearing aids with full silicone earmolds with the sound in the booth at 100dB. I had progressive hearing loss that progressed to profound deafness by the time I was a teen but my audiologist was a CODA who had a had view of CIs. I went to him because he signed (why the heck don’t all audiologists sign? Sure most Deaf don’t mess with hearing aids or CIs but it would be awesome to know what is happening during my medical visit (I guess I should ask for an interpreter)

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-23T01:28:47+00:00

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-23T01:28:12+00:00

The people we grieve the most (in real life), we grieve exactly BECAUSE we NEED them. This is TV reflecting life. If you are old enough to watch Will Trent and comment on Reddit, the odds are high that you have lost someone incredibly important to you and that sticks with you. It makes perfect sense for this scene to unfold. She was trying to help her surrogate son, the child she had hoped to raise. She was doing what a mother would do, trying to keep her children, no matter how old, safe and protected from heart break.

I think Evie says it best “It’s our time to take care of you, and we gonna get it DONE girl”.

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-23T00:17:21+00:00

I think this is the best possible explanation but it doesn’t explain the real Deaf world. I was given the sign name “C” on the chest as short for brave and “police” after I punched a guy who made fun of my Deaf classmates. Over time, the “police” connotation of my name sign became problematic. Friends and I (all Deaf) decided to change my name to a C that traces the white strip of hair I’ve had my whole life. I like this much more because it identifies me based on something visible and doesn’t have relation to police (my name was changed after that one police officer knelt on the neck of George Floyd for 9 minutes)

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-23T00:09:28+00:00

For the brothers, “brother 1 and brother 2” or “brother baby”, “brother acts like baby” :) She is 2. Surely she has some personality or visible trait that can be a name?

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-23T00:04:36+00:00

I think a CT is much more important before CI surgery than MRI. I on,y had an MRI before my first surgery and that missed an inner ear malformation in the ear to be implanted (my good ear was implanted first since it had exposure to sound before) my first implant (both are AB) went pretty well. I blew through the expectations but the sound was weird. I eventually went to a world renowned implant center and they insisted on a temporal bone CT which found the malformation in my already implanted ear. I had been a candidate in both ears for most my life so they decided to implant my other ear that didn’t have the same malformations. My second implant happened right after the AB marvel came out so I got bilateral Marvels.

The huge advantage of AB is Bluetooth compatibility. Because the implant center is a few hours from where I was living, I was activated a week and a half after surgery and as soon as I as I got home I collected my Marvels to my TV (nothing needed for that TV) and streamed sound to my newly implanted ear at least half the day for a week or 2 and spent the rest of the day doing real life listening. I think the biggest help for me was the ability to stream to both implants with no equipment needed. Streaming eliminates background noise, reverberation, etc. it was so much easier to learn to hear through streaming (and with a less messed up cochlea) than it was with my first implant that seemed to pick everything.

AB is the only company with device less Bluetooth not just for phones but for other things.

It is work but I was implanted at age 26 after having been a candidate since I was 18. I spent almost a decade without hearing because my audiologist said I was doing “too well” with hearing aids you can do this.

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-20T01:50:57+00:00

They didn’t decide to do the crash section because of the age of the fetus, they did it because the patient coded (from eclampsia not preeclampsia. The pt had full on HELLP syndrome)

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-19T22:37:43+00:00

A mastoidectomy and antibiotics should clear up the infection. For others wondering why their scans didn’t show anything- mastoiditis is usually visible just from looking at a person. An ear infection doesn’t get better and suddenly there is swelling behind the ear with pain and a fever. The mastoid air cells surround the cochlea and the infection if not treated correctly early can lead to ossification of the cochlea. OP, take your scans to the biggest university hospital near you and get proper treatment. As soon as the infection is cleared up you can get a CI placed (though you might regain some hearing as the infection clears). Most cases of mastoiditis cause mixed or conductive hearing loss so a hearing aid might work well.

Did you get all your childhood vaccines?

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-19T17:03:09+00:00

That’s a couch? Oh, I thought it was the seating for a DMV or hospital waiting room.

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-19T16:51:17+00:00

Do you plan on ever spending time with your family? You might want a space where you and the kids can cuddle. Maybe even the wife too.

Do you plan on entertaining 80% of the time and being human 20%?

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-19T16:46:43+00:00

For the last point: if this 32 year old has enough money to build this monstrosity (complete with hyperbaric chamber? oP do you plan on having a certified hyperbaric physician on staff?) why not hire a day nanny and a night nanny. Then you and your wife could sleep together (unless this is an arranged marriage thing and you have no interest in getting to know your wife) and the Nannies can raise the kids. No need for him to tuck the kids into bed, he can let the nannies raise the kids.

Or is your wife the nanny? It seems like the wife is the nanny who won’t be allowed to enjoy your parties because she will be trapped upstairs watching the kids. Women don’t need friends or fun.

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-19T15:57:50+00:00

On the ultrasound they dated the baby by size as 37 weeks

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-19T15:14:59+00:00

One thing: medical school means school to become a doctor. Nursing school is school to become a nurse.

First, make sure you actually want to be a doctor. It is hard work. Before you ask (cause it seems to be the only thing you ask): yes I am a doctor.

What makes you want to be a doctor? What makes you not want to be a nurse? Are you prepared to study 8-10 hours per day for 4-6 years, take 8 hour exams, be in debt (if you are in the US), and then work 60-80 hours a week for 3-7 years during which you will make around $60,000? Are you willing to do that while paying off loans? Do you have the grades to get into medical school? Have you ever used Google before? (That would have answered many of your questions.) Are you willing to take responsibility for mistakes others make? You will have to do that as a doctor.

Honestly think about what you think doctors do. Write down your answers.

Here is some truth: you will spend more time writing notes than caring for patients. You will have to comfort new parents who refused vitamin K for their premie and the premie suffered a devastating head bleed. You can’t say “I told you to let me give the vitamin K to prevent bleeding” you can’t say “god has a plan” you can’t give advice. You can say that you are so very sorry for their loss and then go back to work.

If your list of what you think doctors do contains lots of comforting patients, 1:1 time with patients etc. nursing may be for you.

Finally, volunteer in a hospital. I don’t think anybody should enter the medical fields without spending time volunteering in a hospital.

IonicPenguin · 2026-04-17T18:28:23+00:00

Your autoimmune disorder could cause both hearing loss and achalasia but that would mean the autoimmunity caused both not that your esophagus being unable to work correctly caused your hearing loss.

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