Speak Out Feb 2017

remove wax from the ears. Not only did we encounter people who had used inventive objects to remove the wax (e.g., tree root or wooden sticks) but since they had no earwax, people had insects in their ears, ear infections and itchy ears (dermatitis). ‘Itchy ears’ were prevalent and ‘catchy’. People did not want to miss out on a service so even if they did not have dermatitis, if they sat next to someone who needed Chyrisse’s ‘itchy ear cream’, they wanted it as well. Actually, ‘itchy ear’ management required an “itchy cream” area for its administration. “Although the days were long, followed by late dinners, late debriefing and even later to bed, we fondly remember many of the patients we saw, like: the lady who mimicked the audiometric tones, the gentleman who received a listening system and had cataract surgery, and a father who heard on the radio that we were in town and travelled by taxi for four hours so we could help his daughter. The list goes on and on. “By the end of the mission, we had assessed 670 people, fitted over 600 listening systems and completed numerous swallowing assessments and therapy sessions. Our job was over for now! “As quickly as our clinic was set up, it was dismantled. By late Saturday afternoon, there were no queues or new registrations. The atmosphere had gone, the bustling, chaotic crowd of people (including local school children and food vendors) was gone. The hospital was quiet. By mid-Sunday, we said goodbye to Pursat. “On our final evening, the Cambodia Vision team attended a wonderful dinner with the Cambodian Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, Ambassador Corcoran (the Australian Ambassador to Cambodia) and Ambassador Heidt (the American Ambassador to Cambodia) in attendance. What a grand conclusion to a successful mission! Goodbye Cambodia, we will be back!” thinking about the chaotic day, but who knew what the next day or week would bring?” “We debriefed every night after dinner. It was hard to sleep

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February 2017 www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au

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