FAQ34: A Perspective in dealing with "The Professionals"
by Paul Galioni

As we have pointed out to ourselves a lot over the years, larries and those with laryngeal cancers are a very small percentage of the population. One cannot expect a physician to be up on everything going on.

I once owned a car that few have heard of — a Borgward Isabella It was a wonderful car. An Astonishing car. It rode like glass on ice. The doors shut with a beautifully crafted 'thunk' — without even a hint of a treble note.

Finding a Mechanic to work on one was a nightmare — and the real answer was: there aren't any.

I also owned a real Range Rover and a Series I and a Series II Land Rover. Trying to find a mechanic to work on them was only a little easier — except the range rover — no one worked on the real range rovers or the Borgward. 

It is the price you pay for having something that is uncommon where you are. If I was in Australia I am certain that I would have no trouble finding a mechanic for the Rovers, and if I was in Germany I am certain that I could find someone who could work on the Borgward Isabella. I know that those of us here in the NADA area (in Spanish it means 'nothing' and generally refers to service, parts, and general knowledge of Rovers, in British speak it is the North American Dollar Area) if you weren't a mechanic you learned to be - for as a long time owner told me - they never run right, but they always run. We all knew that somewhere there was an elephant graveyard full of all the rovers we could ever want and the parts were all free.

The same is true when you end up with a very rare condition - unless you are near a hospital which has an otolaryngology department and makes all their new doc rotate through it - you will find that lots of doctors know very little about larries.

And you will also find that there are SLP's who have never seen a real live larrie because we are uncommon.

Here is what I like to do - name one country that the Limpopo River flows through. Quick now! 

You learned that - you read that - but you can't remember.

Again, QUICK - name one country that the Ebola River flows through. You know that one too. but you probably can't answer it.

the reason is that you seldom use the information. 

Quick! name one former Dutch colony on the Western coast of Africa! — woops! you probably forgot that too.

You see, even though you learn stuff, if you don't use it — you forget it — like the muzzle velocity of a 223, or the drop at 100, 200, 300 yards. 

Lots of stuff.

We all need to remember that other people are just like us, only different. their knowledge base is different — and I would suspect that even someone with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering would have a hard time telling you the resistance difference between 10, 12, 14 and 16 gage wire — or what the maximum distance it can safely carry current. Unless they were involved with that aspect of electrical engineering.

So — sometimes we just have to give people a break, and remember what Ann Landers always pointed out — fifty percent of any profession graduates in the lower half of their class.

I was a paramedic and did emergency field medicine for years upon years upon years and never saw a larrie. Not even once. I don't know what I would have done had I seen one. Heck, I might have even put an oxygen tube up to his nose — I don't know. I would hope not, but I'll never know.

We all need to learn to give people the same break that we would want given to us. And that means that it is OK to forget stuff. 

Just remember — you are driving a Borgward Isabella in America in 2003. Or you are driving a 1966 Range Rover in the middle of Nevada in 2003. good luck finding anyone who knows about the car.

We are all teachers to one degree or another — so let's just teach and not bully.