SWC Convention - Day Three

In the morning we had workshops. Usually convention hotels provide "breakfast" in the form of rolls, fruit and coffee or tea for those attending meetings. I managed to find a yogurt and a sliver of honeydew melon before everything ran out. Many complained about the skimpiness of our 'breakfast', and I'm happy to say our catered buffet overflowed with fruit and muffins the following day.

Our first presenter was Neil Bauman who has written about ototoxic drugs. Let me say I do believe drugs can sometimes cause harm to hearing, and I appreciate his earnest effort in getting the word out. Neither my doctor or audiologist ever said word one about prescription drugs and otoxicity until I brought it up after stumbling upon Bauman's website years ago. A couple times doctors have done a double-take when I mentioned it because they were not even familiar with the word 'ototixic'. Since then my GP has changed a few prescriptions after consulting the PDR at my request.

However, I didn't feel Bauman's presentation included enough convincing factual information. I had hoped for more charts and detailed scientific studies from research institutions to back up his theories. Instead he related several amazing testimonials from people who claimed to have lost their hearing after using prescription drugs. Many of their stories had been gathered on-line in his own informal study from victims who wrote to him.

Never-the-less I've known several people who lost their hearing from prescription drugs and also during hospital stays. I just hope people can put Bauman's information into perspective when deciding to have medical treatment. While it's true prescription drugs can harm your hearing, the chances of experiencing such side-effects are very small.

The next workshop was about webcaptel, which is an exciting relatively new technology put out by Sprint. Instead of needing a special captel phone, all you need is a computer and a phone. The Sprint representative showed a video, then went through the steps for how to access webcaptel. It's simple! I tried it out later. Like captel it's a bit slow, but it's accurate and I can use it practically anywhere-- at work, when I'm visiting my parents out-of-state, or at a friend's house. I also like that it allows me to use my voice and other people don't know there's a transcriber typing what they say to me. It feels so much more natural than my old VCO.

Next was the hosted lunch for everyone in SWC who volunteers on a committee. Like the previous morning, restaurant service was incredibly slow. We had all pre-ordered so you'd think we could have been served in time to finish before our Philly Duck tour, but no . . .

The "ducks" are both a car and a boat. We were all given quackers, then driven around town to sitesee, and finally ended up in floating in the Delaware River. My only complaint was the tour bus was hot. I was happy when we finally went into the river as it felt cooler there. Someone bought little rubber duckies for everyone, and wrote our names on them with a sharpie. I was struck by the murkiness of the Delware, even though our tour guide said it was the cleanest it had ever been in over 200 years. I suppose it has something to do with mineral content or silt. I am not well-educated on river water.

Later that night Lorne and I walked around town looking for a good place to eat. We finally settled on Rotten Ralph's -- a small bar and grill with rare vegetarian variety. We found a quiet table on the second floor above all the street noise. My eggplant was delicious. Lorne's fishNchips were just "ok." Robyn and Michael joined us for beer as we were finishing up.

Then we all walked back to the hotel and bar. I got a craving for ice cream, mainly because Robyn had mentioned her apple-dumpling experience in Reading Terminal. I couldn't stop thinking about sweets. Since the bar was closed the waitress wouldn't give me any. So I asked the hotel manager where to go for an ice cream in "Old Town" after 10. He was kind enough to dish up a bowl of delicious Philly ice cream-- no charge!! I honestly had no problem with the hotel staff.