A Country Doctor Writes:

Being middle aged is not very glamorous. For months now, I have had to work extra hard to take blood pressures. I always pump the sphygmomanometer up higher than the nurses and release the pressure slower, and consequently have a reputation of finding more hypertension cases than most…

In simple conversations at home, I have had to ask my wife to repeat things a lot lately. I haven’t heard the crickets or the frogs on the river from our bedroom for a couple of years now, and my tinnitus once had me worry that the screech in the sound system at the symphony was an exacerbation of my own medical problem.

Today, I resolved to do something about it, and brought home my housecall bag. After dinner, which we in usual fashion had in the sunroom with a kerosene lamp on the table and a nice bottle of Cotes du Rhone, I asked my wife, who is a medical provider no longer doing the work I do, to check me for ear wax.

I had not anticipated the reaction I got. She broke down in hysterical laughter. In between paroxysms of giggling I heard her utter the words “middle aged” and “playing doctor”.

So, after our romantic dinner and her giggling spell, she checked my ears. The verdict was not what I wanted: No wax. So now I have to weigh my options. I am thinking I might get one of those fancy stethoscopes with built-in amplification. So far I can handle conversations if I pay close attention, and I don’t think I need a hearing aid just yet.

After all, I hear a lot of men during their annual physical exams say: “My wife says I don’t hear too well.”

I always reassure them: “They all say that!”