Updates

Up to this point Sterling has had four different clients and unfortunately I cannot remember the details for every client but the few that I can remember I will relate. One of his first clients was an elderly lady that was having some problems with her hearing aids, they just weren't working as well as they used to. Upon further inspection Sterling found that the ear wax that was once in her ear was now lodged in the hearing aid causing a decrease in proper hearing aid function. He said he had to remove which sounds absolutely disgusting to me. I hate removing my own ear wax and I definitely don't want to be dealing with somebody else's. Apparently the appointment was fine and both the clinician and client were satisfied.

The only other client I can remember was a man that had a significant hearing loss in one of his ears and had to wear an outside the ear hearing aid. He prefers to not wear the hearing aid in social settings and would like to get an in the ear hearing aid for that reason. Due to the extent of hearing loss in that ear an in the ear hearing aid is not the best option but as Sterling said, "you kind of have to give the client what he/she wants." So to make a long story short, the hearing evaluation lasted about two hours after which the man was frustrated because all he really wanted was to go to the clinic and be fit for new hearing aids. However he was not so frustrated that he denied a return appoint to be fit for the type of hearing aids that he wants.

As for me, the first two weeks of work have come and gone. The first week of work was mostly paperwork and training while the second week was actually work. So for all of you that are interested in what I actually do, let me explain. First picture a bunch of geeks in lab coats playing with chemistry and DNA bases and you will have a fine picture of my work environment. I work four days a week, ten hours a day in a lab creating and testing synthetic strands of DNA which are used for research. Some common uses for oligos (short strands of DNA) include diagnostic tests for genetic diseases, like breast cancer or cystic fibrosis, diagnostic tests for infectious diseases, like Hepatitis or AIDS, research to discover new drugs or treatments for a variety of diseases and producing safer and more plentiful agricultural products.

That's all of the excitement in our lives, it's not that exciting but it is our life.