Sudden Hearing Loss - - - I HATE THIS!

Hearing Loss
1

New to this…

March 5, 2015 during the night I had to sneeze, so I set up and sneezed, kind of holding it in so it wouldn’t be so loud. Well it was a big sneeze and I even saw stars…Felt fine and went back to sleep.

By Friday, March 6, 2015 afternoon I started hearing popping in my right ear, went to the grocery store and while there felt my ear was filling up and becoming plugged. By the time I left the store, my felt plugged and I couldn’t hear anything and was feeling some pressure. By evening I had NO hearing in my right ear.
March 7th and 8th, Saturday and Sunday, NO hearing at all, no pressure, no pain, just nothing there. Even when I rub my ear I could hear nothing. The right side of my face feels weird too. I went to the mirror several times on Saturday and Sunday to see if my face was looking OK and if it moved like it should and all looked normal, just feels weird.
Monday, March 9, 2015 I went to see my General Doctor and she was stumped. Said maybe she should subscribe steroids, but decided to wait. She wanted me to go get a hearing test done, NOW she said. It was upstairs in that clinic, she tried to call them but got an answering machine, so told me to walk up and see if I could get in. I walked up stairs and little did I know but the doctor followed me up, telling them to see me now. They had no openings, but called another office that could get me in.
I went for the hearing test later that afternoon and they found there was no hearing in my right ear, failed all tests. And my left ear was just fair, which I knew as I always favored my right ear. As I was leaving the hearing clinic the hearing specialist said she was going to call my doctor. And within a few minutes, my doctor called me and said I needed to see an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist, soon. She said to call now and make an appointment, that she had already sent them a referral. I feel like there is so much urgency. I feel that way too, but just because I can’t hear?
March 10, 2015, I saw an EMT specialist. He told me on a hearing chart, I am bottomed lined, totally deaf in my right ear. They started me on Steroids, hoping that might help, but he said usually it does help with people that have at least some hearing, but with mine, it would take a miracle. He said it could be a blood vessel that burst, a bad infection, a virus, or a tumor, but looking in my ear he said it looks perfectly healthy. I do need a Miracle!!

March 12, 2015 appointment for an MRI, and all results came back that my head was normal.
March 14, 2015 – Went to dinner with my son for his birthday and was miserable, the background noise was so LOUD I couldn’t hear anything. Just felt like I was there alone and so left out of the group.
My next appointment with the ENT isn’t for another week. There are times I can actually hear just a tiny bit when I rub my ear. And at other times the pressure is terrible, it just feels it needs to pop.
Have any of you ever tried essential oils? I am so new to this I don’t even know what I am in for, but this is terrible. I have never felt so alone and don’t want to watch TV as the noise is just too loud, and I can’t understand what they are saying. I don’t like going out as I can’t hear what is going on. HELP!!

2

Wow. I’m so sorry to hear that. I, too, had sudden hearing loss in my left ear, following an infection, but it was nothing like as severe as yours. Even with my less-severe loss, I know what you mean about feeling alone and isolated. It’s hard, too, when none of your family or friends can really understand what you’re going through. I think coming here is a good first step, because people here at least all have experience with hearing loss of some sort.

There are several people on here who have single-sided deafness, and I know that there are several solutions designed to feed sound from your bad ear to your good to provide you with 360° hearing. Look up CROS and bi-CROS.

3

I am very sorry. I have had time to adjust to my hearing loss. It has been gradual over a couple of years. Hearing loss results in a lot of emotions. You will find that you will go through many steps of grieving. You may withdraw, become angry, try to bargain and eventually reach acceptance. This will be a very tough time in your life. It helps if your family is empathetic and supportive. This will be tough for them because they will have no clue about what you are or aren’t hearing. They may not realize the range and depth of the emotions that you are dealing with. Coming to this forum is a good thing in my opinion. It helps to make this journey with others who have already experienced many of the the feelings and issues that you will be experiencing.

4

As someone who suffered sudden hearig loss 3 months ago, I feel your pain. My loss was like yours, almost completely deaf. It will take some time before you feel any improvement. I couldn’t hear anything until the 18th day. The first month is the time window where you are going to recover the most if recover does happen. After that, your recovery is going to be very slow. I recovered some hearings during the first month and half. My hearing of left ear is still pretty bad, but at least aidable. What you need to do now is to rest well, get plenty of sleep and try to relax as much as you can even it’s going to be very hard. Steroids is the standard treatment for SSHL. It may or may not work. Some people can even recover spontaneously in a few days, but that usually occur with mild/moderate losses. I know how horrible suddenly lost your hearing is. That was the darkest weeks in my life. But at least it’s not life threatening and there are some solutions avaiable out there. Don’t feel desperate! It’s not the end of the world. Good luck with your recovery!

5

Thank you so much for the information on the CROS and bi-CROS, that may be an option. Just wonder how the noise is, as the roaring in my ear is so bad now, how does it take that away. I will know more on my next appointment after the steroids are complete, but for now it just is a roaring world. Glad I found this place and also two Facebook pages that deal with this problem.

6

Check out these two Facebook pages, another good source. Not a fun problem to deal with, but it could be worse, so I just need to look at the blessings I do have.
Sudden Hearing Loss / Tinnitus (Ringing) andSudden Hearing Loss Syndrome

7

Sorry to hear that happened, mine was gradual, much different. Family are often not very nice about hearing loss, whether sudden or gradual. I don’t get why that is, but that was my experience.

Get all the tests etc, & 2nd opinions & if you don’t feel good about a doc or a hearing aid fitter dump them & get a better one.

IMO forget the “oils”.

:slight_smile:

8

My sudden loss was not as bad. As said, recovery maxes out quickly, get on the steroids.

For me, reduced potassium, stopping caffeine and nicotine was some help.

9

how does stopping caffeine and reducing potassium help? I’m thinking of going a month on the prednisone. I also started taking NAC and glutathione and it seems to help

10

Please if u h ave I need advice

11

What you describe is something we’ve all had to face. It is a repeated theme. There isn’t a snap your finger solution but almost all get a workable solution that provides a quite reasonable future.