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My experience - sudden deafness

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Hi all - I have been enjoying reading this forum for a couple of weeks and thought I might share my experience with sudden deafness.

In about Sept 09 things were going pretty badly with me. I woke up one morning feeling terrible and was considering not going to work when my Dad called to let me know that my grandmother had passed away the night prior. I jumped in the car and headed off to be with my family which is about a 5 hour drive from my home. In hindsight I think I was pretty sick with something but I guess some adrenaline meant I just pushed through it.

I can’t exactly recall when but shortly after I remember noticing my ears felt plugged up and I couldn’t hear well and the ringing in my ears seemed extremely loud when I went to bed at night. I didn’t pay too much attention - things weren’t going well for me at the time and work was particularly stressful so I carried on. It wasn’t until I missed the discussion around a fairly serious health and safety incident in the department I manage that I finally went to a local hearing clinic that I had used to have ear wax removed via suction in the past.

They checked my ears and the wax wasn’t terribly bad. The nurse tested my hearing and it wasn’t good. I had lost about 30db bilaterally (based on a I had done their previously). I was referred to the hospital that day. After various scans tests etc they put me on steriods for about a month. Potentially the worst month of my life. I couldn’t sit still my brain seemed to be racing and I couldn’t sleep (not to mention the weight gain). It would have been worth it if my hearing came back but sadly it didn’t and they weren’t able to determine a cause. I was advised to see an audiologist.

I was very pleased to find out that in NZ there is some funding to help people get hearing aids if it is to enable them to stay employed. Unfortunately the waiting list for the funding was about 2 years! After a concerted effort to plead my case via a stream of letter writing I was able to get some urgent funding.

About two weeks ago I was fitted with Siemens Pure 700 . Wow have to say I am loving being back in the land of the hearing. Without my hearing aids life was pretty hard - I hadn’t developed any lip reading skills and I found that the effort and concentration required to hear people in a whole day of meetings often left me asleep on the couch by 6pm. It was also kind of like working every day with a hangover - I wasn’t quite all there.

Because I haven’t got a ski slope audiogram I haven’t had the feedback issues others have noted with the Pure. I am also picking up my Tek at the end of next week - really looking forward to that!

Anyway please excuse my rambling - I really just wanted to say that I never expected to need hearing aids at 26, but this forum has made it far easier to understand a whole lot of things!

14 people in this conversation13 min readJump to latest

thanks for sharing your story shooting star - sounds like you’ve had a bugger of an experience! good luck with your Pure 700’s and TEK! - Glad to hear that NZ helps out with funding for working people - it’d be good if we had it this side of the ditch as well :slight_smile:

37, male Greece.

a hot summer night I was eating with good friends admiring a panoramic view of my city.(thessaloniki)

had a couple of wine glasses. went to sleep with some ringing in my ear .
next morning i woke about completely deaf in left hear. went to at once, took 20 pills per day (didnt want to enter hospital) .

audiogramm in my left was a big zero (not even 120 db) ! i couldnt walk, drive and i couldnt sleep because of tinnitus!. i also received injections of pure cortizon inside the ear drum.

after 40 days my hearing partially recovered up to 40% .

now 8 months later the situation is stable and my brain very much adopted to new circumstances. i think i hear everything although machines say i have average 65 db loss in my left hear. tinnitus is here 24/7 but it doesnt bother so much anymore…

i was very curious and i tried yesterday widex and siemens . Siemens is much better but not for me! but again i cannot use the phone even with it !!

i think that in my case it doesnt worth paying 3.000 E . i

Hi Kdula, isn’t it amazing how the brain can adapt to hearing loss!

I had a sudden hearing loss in my good ear (whilst at work, just noticed the ‘blocked’ sensation and tinnitus) having had moderate pre-existing hearing loss. I felt completely unable to cope for around 4 weeks but it’s amazing how we can adapt! I only notice the tinnitus occasionally and it doesn’t really bother me.

Unlike you my hearing didn’t improve with the steroids (though they made me feel pretty weird!) but it feels like it improved - I think just cos I’ve got used to it!

It’s stressful when it first happens though… isn’t it!

Can we really adapt? My brain feels like its frozen and my body feels like its going faster than normal. Nice shorty thought, right now it feels like a disconnect between my ear and my head/voice and this more than a week after my accident with a loudspeaker. I hope i can adapt because i don’t feel to good.

I need to speak with someone who is dealing with the same thing. I am on high doses of steroids and it doesnt seem to be helping. Getting 2nd opinion tomorrow from another . Already had and it came back normal. Anyone out there have something to help me?

I went to an for a routine ear wax removal office visit like I had in the past. My hearing was muffled in one ear and I had a “fullness” feeling. The ENT looked and said there was nothing in my ear and proceeded to give me a hearing test in the booth. He found that I had lost quite a bit of higher frequency in my right ear and the left ear tested out normal. They sent me to get an . The MRI came back normal. The ENT gave me Prednisone 20 mg 3 times a day for a total of 60 mg per day and some dose of Valtrex.

After 2 days on meds I was feeling very anxious and scared. I called my family doctor to get him on the same page and I wanted to cover all basis. He prescribed Omnaris-an anti inflammatory for the sinus and also prescribed Cefuroxime as an antibiotic.

Day 5 on meds with no change I called the ENT back and wanted another hearing test. I am not sure what I was expecting but I am in a frenzy. No change in hearing!

Yesterday was 7 days on steroids and 5 days on antibiotic. I went for a third hearing exam and no change from the first one. My left ear tested normal and my right ear has higher frequency substantial hearing loss. Not to mention the feeling of “fullness” in my ear is running my life now!

I have an appointment with another ENT tomorrow 7.28.2010 to get a 2nd opinion. I hope he has something else to say rather than the first ENT -“The damage thats done is done”. “You have permanent loss”.

Next week I have also made an appointment with a neurotologist to get a view from that angle. I feel I am doing everything I can and from what I have read on the internet about sudden hearing loss this is a time restraint thing. I hope my window hasn’t past. (I am a 38 yr. old healthy male) Anybody with any input please help. Thank you.

In reply to @taxm196

I went to an for a routine ear wax removal office visit like I had in the past. My hearing was muffled in one ear and I had a “fullness” feeling. The ENT looked and said there was nothing in my ear and proceeded to give me a hearing test in the booth. He found that I had lost quite a bit of higher frequency in my right ear and the left ear tested out normal. They sent me to get an . The MRI came back normal. The ENT gave me Prednisone 20 mg 3 times a day for a total of 60 mg per day and some dose of Valtrex.

After 2 days on meds I was feeling very anxious and scared. I called my family doctor to get him on the same page and I wanted to cover all basis. He prescribed Omnaris-an anti inflammatory for the sinus and also prescribed Cefuroxime as an antibiotic.

Day 5 on meds with no change I called the ENT back and wanted another hearing test. I am not sure what I was expecting but I am in a frenzy. No change in hearing!

Yesterday was 7 days on steroids and 5 days on antibiotic. I went for a third hearing exam and no change from the first one. My left ear tested normal and my right ear has higher frequency substantial hearing loss. Not to mention the feeling of “fullness” in my ear is running my life now!

I have an appointment with another ENT tomorrow 7.28.2010 to get a 2nd opinion. I hope he has something else to say rather than the first ENT -“The damage thats done is done”. “You have permanent loss”.

Next week I have also made an appointment with a neurotologist to get a view from that angle. I feel I am doing everything I can and from what I have read on the internet about sudden hearing loss this is a time restraint thing. I hope my window hasn’t past. (I am a 38 yr. old healthy male) Anybody with any input please help. Thank you.

The hardest part of my job is to tell a pt, “I don’t know.” I explain it to them like this…"Why do some people get cavities and others don’t? Why do some people have poor vision and wear glasses and some don’t? Why do some people develop arthritis and some don’t? You see…there IS no answer as to “Why you?”

I examine about 4 patients annually who acquire (sudden sensory neural hearing loss). Sometimes we try steroid profusions…research has demonstrated that there is a 72 hr window of effectiveness in reversing or stabilizing the loss…but sometimes we try anyway even after 2-3 months post onset

Based solely on reading your story, I would say that you are grasping at straws and that the 2nd neuro will find nothing. You’ve had imaging scans…negative…steroid infusion of the middle ear space…no improvement…I’m afraid the 1st doc is correct…I hope I am wrong…

The “fullness” that you are experiencing is from a lack of auditory stimulation. Every pt that I have ever examined complained of the same symptoms. If we were in person I would bet a nickle that amplification would immediately relieve that sensation.

I saw a 38 YO healthy adult female this morning who acquired unilateral SSNHL about 4 months ago…40 flat . Her primary complaints were aural fullness and tinnitus… The brand and model is irrelevant to this story, but I fit her with a Starkey S-Series IQ7. She experienced immediate relief from the tinnitus and said that it “opened my ear back up.” Today she was again complaining of fullness. Her thresholds had deteriorated 15 dB across the board. I increaded the gain and she once again said that her ear felt “open”. Even though her loss was flat, patients with HFSNHL experience the same results

This all started right around July 1st. It is now 6 weeks later. I have been under the care of a neurotologist for the last two weeks. He took me off the prednisone and kept me on Omnaris which I have been on now for 3 weeks. he also put me on aspirin thinking it may even be a blood clot in my inner ear. The fullness feeling in my ear now comes and goes. It is the strangest thing? I am not sure if my body is just trying to fix itself or what. Maybe its the Omnaris, which Ive been told I may be on permanently. The neurotologist has said we need to continue this regimen for the next couple weeks and I am following up with him the first week of Sept. He stated the steroid injections could be an option at that time. We will keep trying. Its better than it was 30 days ago so at least were making some progress.

I went in for another hearing test and my hearing had got slightly better. He said my body was responding to this treatment. I’ll keep everyone updated.

In reply to @Dr.K

Sudden hearing loss may be caused due to a big noise or sound that occurs near your ear thus defecting your hearing organs up to a certain limit. It may be temporary in some cases but may be permanent also in other cases.

In reply to @Dr.K

Sudden hearing loss with tinnitus is a very unsettling experience, to be sure. I went thru the same tests, ’s, prednisone, noise masking devices, sleeping with headphones on (listening to radio static). Love the humm of air-conditioners! My symptoms occurred at age 40 and started on the left ear only. Now I have tinnitus in stereo and sudden hearing loss episodes in my right ear also.
OK, enough negative stuff. I have found in the ten years of SHL symptoms and tinnitus, that, your brain does adjust and “gets used” to the new conditions. Do I ever stop hearing the tinnitus? Rarely. Do I sometimes think I’m going to go crazy from it? Yes. I’ve even told myself, “if this gets any worse, I’m afraid I won’t be able to handle it”. Guess what? Everytime it increases and gets worse… I can handle it. I know now, that, my brain will adjust to whatever level it reaches. Many times, quiet, is my enemy… but then… too much noise and constant noise also gets un-bearable. It’s a balancing act to be sure. You’ll figure it out. Hearing aids are a must for tinnitus. They amplify sounds and give your brain something to listen to other than that constant ringing.

In reply to @Dr.K

I have a friend of mine who was very healthy but few days back he slept late and when he woke up he had a numb feeling with small ringing in his right ear. After checkup he got to know that he had lost some part of his hearing sense. He had to use a hearing aid and has not improved till now. :frowning:

Hi,
I have just registered on this forum so thought I would say hi to everyone. My story is quite simple. I woke up just after xmas one morning with the most horrible pain in my left ear. I thought nothing more of it and went to work. Only to realise that I had gone deaf in that ear. Got an appt at the dr and an ear infection was diagnosed.

Fast forward 4 weeks, 4 courses of antibiotics and there I was in the dept. The consultant then tells me that I have viral labyrinthine cochlear failure. I was told that I had moderate to severe hearing loss and told to come back in a month for a further test.

I have been left with a feeling of fullness and pain that flairs up badly about 3 times a week. I have been given amitriptyline but find this quite heavy going, however normal analgesia does not seem to touch it.

I have today, been fitted with a siemens impact m hearing aid. Which everything seems so loud!!! I have a permanent problem where loud sounds are painful.

I am a bit reluctant to use the hearing aid if this stays the same. I was wondering if anyone could offer me any advice please. ( Oh i forgot to say that I have tinnitus as well).

thanks :slight_smile:

In reply to @Dr.K

13 days ago I experienced ISSHL (non-contrast /blood work negative). It took 72 hours to receive treatment. I was put on oral corticosteroids (10 days @ 60mg/day) and antivirals (5 days @ 3g/day). 7 days ago I began intratympanic steroid injections and hyperbolic oxygen treatment (twice a week). The treatment has not had ANY impact.

My showed that ALL of my hearing is gone in my left ear. I have some hope, but does not bother me. I have been doing a great job at blocking out the tinnitus - so I am not bothered by this either (even though it is present in my left ear).

Before the incident I was a super healthy and extremely active person; however, now I am immobile because of the constant dizziness and vertigo. I know that this condition varies case by case, but I thought asking someone experience/expertise may be the best place to seek answers.

a)When can I expect the dizziness and vertigo to dissipate? (I want to start hiking, biking, and weight training again)
b) I have a fear of losing the hearing in my right ear. There is less than a 3% chance, but if this happens, when would this occur? (Ie.a few days, weeks, years after?..)
c) Any other advice?

Thanks for all your help and comments.

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