Intermittent hearing loss

You have had a rough time.
I am not a doctor of any sorts. Just reading through your post the first thing that came to mind is Meniere’s Disease. We have a few members who have it and the symptoms sound similar to yours.
@kevels55 might be able to comment on this.

Thanks, I didn’t mean to come across as “rough time” because even my hearing problems are much less than many on here and of course no problems financing since it is covered by our NHS.

Menieres was the consultant’s first thought and he prescribed the (usual?) medication for it pending investigations but the balance centre where I went for testing ruled it out.

Thanks again!

Hello Sphexx

Somethings are similar to my old symptoms of Meniers, others are not, but Meniers displays itself in different ways depending who has it? I know it is a very difficult disease to actually diagnose in a definitive clinical way, it can have major debilitations in some People and not so in other folks, I first heard the name Meniers in 1993 when my Doctor at the time said; “he thought given my symptoms, that I had Meniers”! Now at that time I had no idea what Meniers was… Suffice to say I soon read up on what to expect, for me it lasted approximately 13 years, it was a gradual increase in “All” of my symptoms, it just got progressively worse year by year, it was probably at it height in 2003, Balance problems, Nausea, Dizziness, Extreme Tinnitus, Severe Vertigo, Extreme Distortion in my hearing, I could not comprehend anything spoken to me, in was just a garbled noise! I had to lay down and close my eyes as the walls would be moving and the ceiling coming down to meet me, I got what was called cluster attacks, these could last a day or 2, perhaps a week and occasionally 2 or 3 weeks, at first it was a living hell, but eventually I came to understand when an attack was imminent, my “Tinnitus” would go off the scale and the “Distortion” would would start and I would just lay down and ride it out till the symptoms started to ease off, you could never actually tell how long each attack would last, might be an hour or 2 it might last all night or all day… It was such a relief when it stopped but you were acutely aware it would be back sometime soon, I could plan nothing, I was unable to work for anyone, whom would employ me? I remember going on holiday we were staying in a caravan near a very beautiful beach for a week, me and the wife, 3 kids and one of the children’s friends, 6 of in the van and it rained nonstop for the week and I couldn’t move from my bed for a week…My wife still calls it the holiday from hell. There are triggers that do not help, stress is a major one and it can lead to a vicious circle with worry over Meniers… Try to avoid salt, tea, coffee, alcohol, shopping malls with uniformed flooring can also set it off… Doctors told me each attack was gradually destroying what little residual hearing I had left, but thankfully it gradually burned itself out, attacks got less and less, maybe once or twice a month, then every month or so, eventually 6 months and then nothing by 2006, I was probably attack free by then, but I would say it was years before I actually believed it was gone, by that time my hearing was challenging to say the least, my balance not so great, but that was heaven in comparison to where I had been! You said you have been on Chemotherapy, Chemo can and does sometimes reek havoc on certain folks hearing, it can leave some people with a mild/moderate or severe loss. Hopefully you do not have Meniers and there is some other logical explanation as Meniers can be a living nightmare, if you recognise your own symptoms in my old ones ask for a referral to ENT…Edit here… Just noticed your other post on you seeing a consultant and visiting the balance centre, apologies! Good Luck, cheers Kev.