A little over 2 weeks ago I had what I thought was a sinus infection when I was vacationing in Mexico. Antibiotics did not help. I noticed a change in hearing on my left side - when in bed on my right side I could barely hear the tv. The doctor there prescribed nasal sprays and decongestants. I am now home and will see an tomorrow but I am hoping against hope that there will be a resolution to this. Suggestions, thoughts, advice?
Don’t hesitate. Could be a virus that causes sudden deafness syndrome. Antibiotics are worthless. About the only treatment is a steroid injection and or tablets. Not all docs are familiar with it.
Then again it could be wax. That happened to me once. Easy to treat.
I have SSHL. Sudden Sensori-neural Hearing Loss. One minute you are hearing, the next it is like someone turned the volume WAY down.
My left ear, this happened in Oct 2014, I woke up and as I stood up getting out of bed, my hearing went. This is considered an emergency, and you need to see an asap. I went to my Primary Care doc, who prescribed antibiotics for an ‘infection,’ even though I had no other symptoms. It was more than 3 weeks before my referred me to an ENT.
I did have the intra-tympanic injections, 3 over the course of a short time, and initially my hearing returned, but only for 4 or 5 days. The ENT said that some people regain hearing if they have the injections immediately (within 48 hours). They inject a steroid to try and calm the nerve.
My right ear went in Sept 2019. This time I didn’t bother seeing an ENT, nor even my PCP.
SSHL has many causes and unknown causes. For me, it is a side effect of me being on high dose NSAIDs for 8 years before I finally qualified for total knee replacements. The pain from the arthritis had me barely able to walk, but my health insurance wouldn’t approve the replacements. No one ever told me the side effect was going to be hearing loss. But even if they had, what was I going to do? The whole thing gets me annoyed and upset.
Same thing. Had a sore throat with no real cold or flu signs and my hearing went down in my left ear. Went to doctor and they found fluid in the ear. They gave me two different types of medication along with the nasal spray and it is SLOWLY going away and I can tell the hearing in the ear is returning to normal.
Methuen, MA