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Ear pain and hearing loss

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Hello friends. I will not repeat myself with the story because whoever reads this already knows me (I guess). I will make a summary. So, I had a SSHL on the 7th of March 2025. Medrol failed (few rounds). My last is in my profile. It looks like my first audiogram when I lost my hearing in my right ear. Funny ah? I had better days due to steroids but now, is at it was on 7 March. Well like a month ago I start to have a dull pain in my ear and I had a sudden drop in hearing. I was scared so I was to an audiologist to make a new audiogram to have it ready when I meet my . When she stuck the camera inside my ear she told me: of course your hearing is worse, you have some liquid in there, that’s why the pain. Go get some treatment and when you return we will make an audiogram. Ok, I did some rounds of antibiotics (standard practice in here), some nose sprays, some Valsava and I suppose it went away. I returned, took the new audiogram (the one in my profile) and finally my day at the ENT came (1 September 2025). I was there mainly to renew my papers for the . In my country is available 3 months, then you must go to the doctor (when they put you on a list to see him long up to 3 week to a month) to renew it. So is a lot of synchronisation work while you hope the phone will ring and call you to the MRI. I finally made it to the doctor, she renewed my MRI papers and I told her, I start to feel pain. What should I do? The audiologist told me I had liquid in there. She was like: yeah I believe you is hurting. Let me check. She used her otoscope, then a tunning forque: can you hear it here? me: yes, can you hear it here? me: yes: etc.. Yeah, you don’t have liquid. Is ok! Just take your Betaserc. Now keep in mind in my country may take up to a till your turn comes for a MRI or a scan. I’m on the waiting list 3 months and a week in. The problem is just from yesterday my head start to hurt like a lot. Today I missed work. I had huge pain in my ear, I had stabbing like sharp pain in my deaf ear. I made some Valsava maneuver and the air is flowing good. I hear noises in there like something moving from time to time (not the usual tinnitus due to hearing loss). The dull pain is still there but now those sharp pains are debilitating. What is that guys? I cannot take it anymore! Maybe they will find out at the autopsy! What should I do? We have an emergency room, but I already been there like a few months ago when a sharp pain in my neck and ear made me faint. They made me some Tramadol (a painkiller) and they sent me home. I mean.. there is no point in getting there. The medical system in my country is so corrupt, if you have no money to go the private way you are doomed. And you may say: this is what you get for not working! I work! In my country they take you like 47% from your income. You never see the money. 10% goes to the state health insurance. That system that is sending you home, giving you wrong diagnosis and when it takes up to a year to make a MRI or a CT scan. When it takes up to a month to see a specialist. Please did anyobody went through this? I don’t know what to believe anymore. I started to believe I have ear cancer or something. On the other hand I read is pretty rare. Like 6 cases in a million of inner and middle ear cancer. (I exclude the outer ear because the ENT just seen my ear chanal). I cannot do this anymore. I’m so tired of everything. My head is hurting, my ear is hurting, I can’t hear well, the boss at the job had enough of me, I barely sleep 3 hours/night because blasting tinnitus and now some new symptoms like some brain zaps or something. I feel like electric current from my deaf ear to the good ear passing fast with a bzzzz sound and like electric current is passing through me. I don’t know. I’m very scared, I’m very alone in this, nobody is telling me anything, doctors don’t care, people don’t understand me nor care. What I did wrong I don’t know. :frowning: P.S. tested my hearing with Mimi App usually my bad ear is stuck at 23 (actual audiogram 36dB loss, is missing a lot in the bass, I read about this in a study), now the funny things is I hear better since the stabbing pain started, is at 18dB on mimi app!

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I wonder if maybe fluid has formed behind your eardrum again. Maybe the antibiotics were not specific enough for whatever bacteria are responsible? Or maybe it’s a virus. I’m really sorry you’re having so much trouble. If you went to the Emergency Room, would they give you a different antibiotic? Or, how soon could you see a doctor again?

They don’t care man! I just went to the and told her I have pain, and she was like: “yeah I know ..I know” like is something normal. She looked inside my ear with an otoscope and she tested my hearing placing a tuning fork in forehead (I heard the sound from both ears, which is a first time for me), then on my left mastoid bone (I heard the sound, another first for me, before that it was dead), then next to my left ear, asked me if I hear it, I said yes, and she was like: “yeah you have no liquid in your middle ear”. “Take your Betaserc, and when you have the come and let’s see what’s what”. Simple as that! In the emergency room they don’t interfere with chronic conditions. As I said, some months ago I was @ work and I felt a stabbing pain in my neck, was so strong I fainted. The people in there called the ambulance. After 6 hours staying on their chairs full of bacteria and viruses, someone came to me and asked me what’s what. They wanted to send me to a cardiologist. I said: noooo has nothing to do with that, I’m 100%, send me to an ENT, has something to do with my hearing loss and my ear”. They believed me so they sent me to the ENT. The doctor there asked me some things, looked inside my nose, my throat while I was telling her about my hearing loss and my doctor. She told me: “I don’t care, nor can I interfere with Ms. R. your doctor, I’m just interested why you fainted”. She considered everything looked good, they took some blood and did some tests (basic ones) everything came back fine, they made me a Tramadol (a painkiller like an opiate) for the pain and they sent me home. Brother this is Romania. Not some decent country. They make fun of you! Simple as that. They don’t care. The only thing they care about are their salaries and the money made. When I took the antibiotics the pain went away, but as you said I suspect more viral infection. Guess what! Today I had better hearing than ever! :slight_smile: I’m so happy. Sure, is weird with all that pain in my ear but I can clearly hear the sound better. The mimi apps show improvement but I have some other kind of improvement (a far better one). The diplacusis disharmonica is less now (hearing different pitches of the same sound with different ears). The pure sine tones I use at home for testing are clear! Not distorted as before! It is the first time I listened to music in soooo many months! :slight_smile: It is fantastic! I’m 7 months in since I lost my hearing, yet despite my ear pain, clearly my hearing is better! I bet the loss can be reversed but I don’t have the right people. I plan to go to my G.P. and ask her what I should take. If i schedule me to a specialist, it will take up to a month. I already visited 2 of them. If I go to my main one I already know the answer “I bet it hurst, you have nothing in your middle ear, bring the MRI”, the second one sent me after a scan which of course I’m on a long long list to make it (same as for MRI up to a year). Is it possible for a viral infection to last like 7 monts? I looked it up on the internet and they say ear infection usually lasts around 2 weeks and then goes away. I disagree though. One month in since I have the dull pain. A few days since I have had sharp stabbings, yet the good part is my hearing is slowly returning. Finally, I had some clear bass notes! Man, I missed that bass. Can be late Covid? Over one year almost two I had Covid. Man was bad I almost died; I’m not even joking. I remember back then having the hearing affected. The ENT asked me from our first meeting if I had Covid and I said yes but not in the pandemic, but after, when it wasn’t cool anymore. She told me it is a possibility for the virus to stay dormant in there and mess with my inner ear. Another weird thing is, at my workplace I have a coworker missing for a month or so. I asked what’s wrong with him and they told me has some “equilibrium problems”. They are too stupid to know is the same “inner ear” problem in him also. But that was that very guy that shared his covid with us and got us ill in the first place. So yes, what are the odds right? He affected the vestibular (equilibrium) part more, and in my case went for my cochlea. I do have some mild dizziness, but my problem is hearing. Also was the first time in an extraordinarily long time without tinnitus for me! How about that! I’m so upset because I feel it is something treatable, but I don’t have the specialist or the good-hearted doctor to help me. They are all stuck at “images” and they ignore everything I complain about

Well, at least your hearing has improved! I think you should get the when it’s finally your turn - at least you’ll be able to show the the images. Maybe besides proving compliance with the treatment plan, it’ll actually help diagnose (or at least rule out) the causes of all this pain and hearing changes. How frustrating, though!

Finally they programmed me at . 3 Tesla. In a week I go and I will see what’s inside. I’m so scared. I was upset when they postponed it for so long but now when is on, is very scary.

Finally today I took the . It was a 3 Tesla resolution machine. I don’t know when the results will be ready, but they posted the images on a server right away. Now I’m not an expert but I browsed through them to look for big tumors. It was a contrast one, so I tried to look for inconsistencies. Also, I used on the images. Funny how grok AI turned out fairly good at detailing some aspects. Of course, the ideal is to post all the images, but it is impossible for me to upload like 185 sequences of my cranium. I uploaded the sequences that looked suspicious to my untrained eye. Then I uploaded some images from the internet with very discreet tumors and other problems to test the Ai, and they detected the problem right away, so I hope they were good also when studying my MRI images. Man that thing was loud. Like super loud. They gave me some headphones, but they were earbuds, and I refused to fit them because they are not have been sterilized. It sucked. It took like 50 minutes. It was terrible. I started to understand my “ear pain” might be a more complex problem. Neurological in nature. If the MRI comes clear, I have some sort of other problems. Like neuralgia or cervicogenic headaches I don’t know but clearly the trigeminal nerve is in, the glossopharyngeal nerve is in, occipital nerve is hurting also, I noticed trigger points near the base of my skull on my sternocleidomastoid and trapezius muscles. They hurt like hell. Specially when I press the point under the ear behind the jaw of the sternocleidomastoid the pain is oddly similar with what I feel in my ear day by day. Also I might have a TMJ problem. It may be a more complex problem. Sure one and only did what it did and I bet is related to my SSHL also but I think is more neurological in nature.

In reply to @AttilaDaPun

clear! Well at least I had a stone off my chest. My MRI is clear. Absolutely no problem.
The crappy news is I still have pains, and nobody knows the cause. I noticed people going deaf or losing a few here and there don’t have pain, yet I do have. I’m very discouraged. This is not life.

I understand. I have chronic pain myself, and it is frustrating.
I’m glad your doesn’t show any nasty abnormalities! I certainly hope your doctor has an idea what it is that’s causing this!

So you have pain in the ear that lost hearing? This is what happened to me. A few months after I had the sudden hearing loss, I started feeling something. Like something is inflamed and is hurting inside my ear. I know that inner ear (cochlea) doesn’t hurt, so I suppose it was the middle ear. I think it was a virus of some sort because after that my ear started to build up fluid. I read once that if a middle ear infection (as in my case) follows a sudden hearing loss a few months in, most likely was a virus, and is moving. Si like having a runny nose but in your middle ear. In 44 years never had such a problem. Since then, it has become even more painful. Is a constant dull pain on the right side of my head. Behind my ear, my occipital area, in the temple, at the base of the skull. I noticed stabbing like sensation from time to time. Because of symptomatology I was scared and sure about something “growing” inside my boss skull. Now no more liquid but my the on in my right side is a little bit worse than when I lost some of my hearing. I’m sure the doctor has nothing to tell me for the 3 main reasons. 1. In here (and in many places) they don’t care about you. My last visit on 1 September when I was complaining about the pain led to an “Yeah I believe it hurts”.. And that was that. 2. Usually, I do my homework reading excessively about a subject and when I end up in there many times, I suggest my medication. The visits were no exception. In fact, I was asked in my country if I was a student or worked in the health department. 3. They don’t really know the cause. When I say they I say the human race, the tech we have. Now that I described my pain and everything, can you tell me how it is yours? Was SSHL related?

No, my chronic pain has nothing to do with my ears. I have multilevel spinal stenosis with nerve root damage as a result.

In reply to @samyaza

I don’t have much time to analyse the post, but perhaps your pain isn’t associated directly to your hearing?

Ear pain3

Ear pain, also known as earache or otalgia, is pain in the ear. Primary ear pain is pain that originates from the ear. Secondary ear pain is a type of referred pain, meaning that the source of the pain differs from the location where the pain is felt. Most causes of ear pain are non-life-threatening. Primary ear pain is more common than secondary ear pain, and it is often due to infection or injury. The conditions that cause secondary (referred) ear pain are broad and range from temporomandibula...

See especially part of secondary causes.

Screenshot_20250926_120645_Wikipedia

Edited

In reply to @samyaza

Hi again, just looking at your past posts after your latest post re: recovery (and happy for you!) Thought I’d make some comments, though the key thing is getting better. Hope your treatments keep working.

@samyaza said:

Can be late Covid? Over one year almost two I had Covid. Man was bad I almost died; I’m not even joking.

Definitely. Whether you call it Long/late COVID or not, as I mentioned in the other thread, I think there is growing evidence that COVID can/has affected hearing, but getting formal recognition will both take a long time and be difficult. And unfortunately even then it doesn’t necessarily help us while our hearing declines.

I also had major issues after COVID (vaccination in my case) and have had problems ever since, with hearing clearly affected a few years.

@samyaza said:

Is it possible for a viral infection to last like 7 monts?

Yes. Firstly, even if the infection doesn’t last 7 months (or more), what many people don’t understand is that the EFFECTS of an infection can last well past the infection, in the extreme case lifelong. And if you look at examples such as HIV, it is very clear infection can be lifelong. Unfortunately, most people feel no reported symptoms = no infection = no problem, which is not necessarily true at all.

@samyaza said:

Of course, the ideal is to post all the images, but it is impossible for me to upload like 185 sequences of my cranium.

If you are interested in doing so, or for anyone reading this in future who might want to do so, there are ways such as via radiopaedia.org - you will need a free account to upload, and “unlisted case” is probably most suitable unless you know what to fill in for all the fields. Another (less formal) way is to download the DICOM data and provide it to others who can then open it. Often if you can see the scans online then there is an export/download option, and select the DICOM option.

@samyaza said:

I started to understand my “ear pain” might be a more complex problem. Neurological in nature.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I do highly suspect your issues are likely neurological in nature, though it probably also related to COVID, blood clots/flow issues and immunology. As to how they are specifically related and what specifically what set off what, that is still being researched, and there are a lot of theories (which could all be correct and interrelated). It’s reasonable to suspect COVID triggered something which then cascaded. Proof will be difficult or take (a lot more) time.

The problem is that it is unlikely to be “typical” neurological problem that will show up on , so the MRI likely shows up clear. You could consider seeing a neurologist (or more specifically neuroimmunlogy) if your insurance will cover it, but do know that it will be expensive, there will be a lot of tests, and there’s a good chance it will be a lot of convincing on your part before they believe you, and there is no guarantee they can do anything about it.

I can’t add much in terms of effective treatment options etc., but I will say that I have had and still have almost all of your symptoms. The key difference is I never had fluid in my ears in any visual exam and my problems were triggered by COVID vaccination instead of infection. Hope knowing others are going through similar things makes you feel less crazy, and wish you keep improving.

Look forward to any updates.

Sorry for this delay buddy. Yes, I took a 3 Tesla . Yes it was with contrast. Yes it lasted about 50 minutes. Once on the table they start making some sequences also without contrast. At one point (I should say around 20 minutes in) they inject you the contrast solution. It was a MRI with contrast looking for a neurinoma. Came out clear. Be aware of something I wasn’t. Because I live in Romania and this is like Africa or something, they gave me the pair of earbuds for protecting my hearing. But they didn’t disinfect them. I’ve seen earwax on them! I was ashamed to ask for a towel with alcohol to wipe it clean, but I didn’t put them in the ears either (me having hearing loss). I noticed some very very loud noise. When I leaved I took a picture of the machine to see what model it was. Looked at the specs. In some modes can pull out 137dB at your ear level! So yeah… Nice choice. My head was ringing. No extra hearing loss .. I guess.

Thanks. All of that information suggests it was a brain , which is expected if they were looking for neuromas. If you have the actual report, I’d be curious if they said anything about non-specific abnormal enhanced signals, degree of gliosis (if any) etc.

I can tell you what is in the report. The AICA is close but not in contact with the cranial nerves VII, VIII in my left (not the ear studied). Also i can tell you how is working in my country. The doctors are writing in the report all they see! They look for what the specialist asked him but is looking at everything. A 3Tesla can go down up to 3mm or resolution (which I was disappointed since the final “picture” are 500 px x 500 px! That’s it! Good luck finding small things! But is still better to at a regular 1,5 Tesla machine. P.S. I heard they have 7 Tesla machines in some countries and places. That’s very big and very loud. Probably solves the hearing problem since you gonna get out deaf from there. Keep in mind a 3 Tesla machines, in some moments pull out up to 134dB! That’s a lot!

OK, thanks. That doesn’t make any mention of the other things - they might be there, but sometimes they consider it too insignificant diagnostically to report. But if they were concerned about anything from their point of view, they would definitely put it in the report.

@samyaza said:

The doctors are writing in the report all they see!

Yes, that’s how it works. They focus on what was asked, but they will note down anything in the they think is worth reporting (which is not necessarily everything they see.) That is how you get incidental findings from imaging. It also depends on the reporting doctor - depending on the imaging centre, it could be a normal radiologist, or a neuroradiologist (someone who specialises in brain MRIs.)

@samyaza said:

Good luck finding small things!

You can’t - that’s part of the problem. So a normal MRI doesn’t mean there’s nothing, just nothing they can see. And yes, small things would likely be not visible, due to the technical limitations. Even if the technical limitations allow you to get smaller voxels (e.g. <1mm resolution), your other problem is if the patient can stay still enough over the 50 minute scan. The movement will blur the image so the scanning time issue is going to be harder to resolve. Know the limitations of the scan (which are there), but don’t let that knowledge cause any anxiety as you had when you were waiting for your scan.

In situations where you want to find small stuff, get a - but that is probably not helpful in your situation (CT not as good for brain scans of this nature.)

Two years ago, when I lost my hearing in the left ear (yeah, was a story with two ears, but the left one got back). I had a full body scan. They said I have some calcifications on my brain, but they are normal at my age 43 then. Nothing to worry about. I’m just curious how come my hearing bounced back 10-11 months after the opportunity window (how they call it) and how come one I quit the medication my hearing stabilized in a good way. I’m not hearing like before the event. I still have diplacusis and a loss in bass frequencies but as long I can listen to music is fine with me.

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