Colorado Academy of Audiology

Last weekend was the Colorado Academy of Audiology (CAA) Convention.  It was located in Breckenridge, CO.  I must say, that was one of the most gorgeous drives I have ever been on.  It started on Thursday and went through Saturday afternoon.  I had a great time.  I took a really great class that was 6 hours long on cerumen management (essentially an ear wax removal course).  The last 2 hours of it were hands on practice with all the different instrument options for removing wax. 



This dress in NOT as short as it looks - it's actually very appropriate... usually. 
And you should be looking at the fancy head gear anyways. 





Inserting the speculum (and as you can see the dress length looks better now)

 

The serious microscope - this is what our ENT uses to do wax removal

Cerumen management is a part of my scope of practice for audiology (at least in most states it is).  However, in my audiology program, we do not have a single class providing training on how to properly remove wax from the ear.  Yet, once I graduate, I am free to perform wax removal on my patients and say that I am a professional and licensed to do this procedure.  Is it just me or does that sound ridiculous to anyone else too?  Aside from being familiar with the anatomy of the ear and outer ear pathologies, what makes me any more capable of removing wax that the "average Joe" on the street without training?  Therefore, it was very important to me that I got into this class.  They only allowed 30 participants, but luckily I was one of them. 

There was only one down side to the class.  During the hands on section, we got to practice removing wax from the other people in the class.  We practiced on each other, but nobody in my group had enough wax in their ears to bother removing.  Needless to say, it is hard to practice removing wax from the ear when there is no wax in the ear to begin with.  But, because I took the class, my supervisors will allow me to start doing some wax removal in clinic, with their supervision of course.  So I will still get the proper hands on training I feel I should have before graduating! 

Surprisingly, this wax removal course was my highlight of the convention for me.  Since the course took most of the day, there were only a couple of lectures I got to see after it was done and the next morning I attended an interesting lecture by Chuck Berlin.  Thursday and Friday nights were both eventful.  They provided a couple of free drinks each night for some socializing.  On Friday night a bunch of us went out to downtown Breckenridge for a late night.  It was a great time!  It is a very cute city too, and of course the scenery was beautiful. 

Out in downtown Breckenridge with one of my favorites!



Sweet view from the ski resort the convention was held at



The colors are starting to change!