Hi all,
Have been thinking for a few weeks whether to post or not worried I might hear something I don’t want to hear.
Long story short, at the beginning of the year I went to have my ears micro-suctioned due to excess wax and this time around, my left ear felt clogged and heavy afterwards so I orginally thought some damage occurred since it had never happened to me before but this time I had also felt pain during the procedure.
3 ENTs and multiple tests later inc. CT scan, I was told there was no physical damage but I was apparently diagnosed with otosclerosis which one of my parent also has.
In terms of next steps, I keep receiving conflicting info based on my audiograms from all ENTs:
- “Get a hearing aid in your bad ear and get on with it. You have around 10 years max and then need surgery”
- “Your hearing isn’t that bad in any of your ears so yes it might me the beginning of the disease but you’re fine, no hearing and and no surgery”
- “have you considered surgery now? This progresses and you might lose all your hearing to the point where no hearing aid or surgery can help”
To be perfectly honest, I can hear from both ears but my problem is this constant feeling of my left ear being blocked/full despite it being clear. I can’t remember how I used to feel before or if my brain is more focused on it now but it honestly drives me crazy and I keep doing the Valsalva manoeuvre all day subconsciously which then gives me headaches etc. To trick my head, I wear airpods all day with nothing playing since it seems to give me the feeling of better equal hearing since they kind of block my right ear a bit
I think my main concern is being told that the disease will keep progressing so I spend all day testing my ears by lowering volume in my headphones and see how far down each ear can hear…
I know the question is a bit a how long is a piece of string but:
- I read somewhere that otosclerosis peaks at 40, is that anyone’s experience? I am 39 now and if my hearing remained like this or deteriorated only slightly it would probably be an easier pill to swallow
- Is this feeling of constant fullness typical?
- has anyone gone through surgery with audiogram result similar to mine? I am so confused whether it is early or advance stage or how good/bad my results are/
Thanks a lot for your time.