Doc Jake were you this way at the VA, or are you now taking it out on everyone here because you could not do so at the VA.
It’s really not reasonable for someone with no history of hearing loss to insist on seeing an ENT for every earache. How many millions of people come down with an ear infection annually? Should we really expect ever person who’s got an earache to get a full audiology exam with bone conduction testing?
I took amoxicillin 850 mg three times daily. I took pseudoephedrine following the doctor’s instructions (which I don’t have handy) and was later told to take an Oxymetazalone HCL nasal spray twice daily for a maximum of two days. That was what seems finally to have cleared the congestion. My doctor gave me a prescription for moxifloxacin, which I did not take because the congestion cleared and the doctor had already confirmed that the infection had cleared.
Thanks! I’m going to keep looking into aids; my primary focus, aside from speech clarity, is on keeping the sound as natural as possible. I have perfect pitch, so any frequency shifting would be very unsettling. Can frequency-shifting technologies be disabled in most hearing aids? Are there any with broader frequency coverage than others?
none of the Vets were near as tender as some folks here none of the Vets came in with a list of stupid paranold questions they read on the internet none of them ran hpme to mommy crying the mean people wouldn’ t give the aids i wanted only what i needed. When you were in the Navy how much hand holding and touchy feelly advice did you get? How many apologized whenthey politey suggested maybe you do this or that.
First of all you did what you should of done and that is to go see a doctor, however, a sudden onset earache that is bad enough to send the patient to an urgent care facility on a weekend, should not be ignored and treated like just another earache, the doctor should have referred you to an ENT. Urgent care is usually only interested in treating symptoms and not getting to the cause of the problem and they take a wait and see approach, this can lead to bad end results in such cases. There are many people like you on various sites like this one who had the same issues, went to the doctor and are deaf in one or both ears today. Time is of the essence in situations like yours and if it isn’t treated in a timely manner permanent hearing loss is often the end result.
I guess both of us need to be glad that you were not my Audi and I was not your patient, due to the fact that I do ask lots of questions, and I do demand lots of information. That is due to the fact that I was not really in the regular Navy most of my service career, but was part of WHCA. I learned just how politics works. And by the way I hate it but know how to use it when needed. While I hate being politically correct, I do know how to use it if needed too.
But yes I do know what you mean. When I was part of the regular we were taught to think for our selves and to do what was needed, and that worked to my advantage also while in WHCA. It took what I learned in the regular Navy and also what learned as part of WHCA to get through the rest of my work career. Also I will say that WHCA background opened lots of doors, in public life.
By the way, to follow up on an earlier question, I am now taking 60 mg/day of prednisone for 10 days followed by a taper. It might not do anything, but I think it’s better to try it than always to wonder.
It’s really not reasonable for someone with no history of hearing loss to insist on seeing an ENT for every earache.
I rather suddenly developed severe pain in my left ear. I also quickly developed ringing, popping, and hearing loss.
yep, sounds like any old run of the mill headache to me.questions were never a problem as long as you didn’t act like a victim.
That is great to hear. I have know for a long time what my hearing loss was caused by, and for the most part it was my fault as much as it was the fault of the service for not telling us what could happen to our hearing. And I have always been so grateful to the VA for everything that they have done for me. At the time I went into the service there was so many guys not coming home, so I knew what could happen, and was so grateful that I never came close to combat. I have always felt that someone was looking out for me. And I have always been grateful for what I have and what I had.
It might help, but it probably is too late. Should of been prescribed or steroid shots should of been administered much earlier.
Most hearing aids do not have frequency-shifting so there is nothing to disable. That technology is rarely used and has met with limited success in the marketplace. It is good to have frequency shifting (transposition) available for the small group of candidates who do use it and benefit from it.
Please post an audiogram when you can but from what you have described, you should do well with a set of modern digital hearing aids. There will be a few weeks/months of adaptation time for your ears and brain of course.
why? the problem has come and gone leaving you with the results.
Because published studies indicate that systemic steroids may help SSNHL if taken within 30 days of onset (and I am still within 30 days of onset) and because my doctor considered it a reasonable course to take when I asked him about it. It may do nothing, sure, and I’m not getting my hopes up; but I tolerate prednisone well and even if the chance of it helping is small I think it’s worth trying. It’s not as though there is anything else with even a chance of restoring any of my hearing loss.
If it does nothing, I’m out 10 bucks and a little nausea—not much of a downside. If I regain even a small amount of the dynamic range I’ve lost in the high frequencies, on the other hand, I will consider that a tremendous upside.
I might have skipped the antibiotics, they may have damaged your hearing further being ototoxic including drugs in the ampicillin class. there are many drugs that are ototoxic.
you are lucky I couldn’t even get more than a medrol pack
Had I known that I had sensorineural rather than merely conductive hearing loss, I might have done that. But I have taken amoxicillin numerous times with no negative effects, and had no reason to believe it would affect me any more than it had on previous occasions.
If you were suffering from SSNHL, then a course of prednisone was pretty muc te standard of care. I’m not sure why you consider yourself unlucky.
Take a guess on how many patients working in an ENT practice that I’ve seen who’s primary care doctor or the ER doctor diagnosed them with Otitis Media and they really had a SSNHL? The sad part is those who let it go on for 3 months before they were sent to us. ER docs are good if you have a GSW to the abdomen. They are wrong probably half the time with ears. We were sent a patient who was diagnosed with a Cholesteatoma in the ER, it was the end of a Q-tip stuck in his ear near the ear drum. We had a patient who was sent to us (I didn’t know they were coming from their PCP same day) for a TM perforation. Looked in her ear, no hole (He’s looking at a small amount of scar tissue I can only assume). Told the patient no hole was present, explained that 80% of TM perforations heal on their own in a few weeks. She then asked how was that possible, she just came over from her doctor. Foot in mouth (Don’t want to make her doc look bad), in the back of my head I’m thinking her doctor is an idiot.
SteveAUD: is it your opinion that every person who presents with ear pain, congestion, red, enflamed ear drums, visible fluid in the middle ear, and hearing loss which started at the same time as the congestion should immediately be referred to an ENT for evaluation for SSNHL? I don’t think there’s any doubt that I had an ear infection, and I’m really not sure if it’s reasonable to have expected a GP to suspect SSNHL with those symptoms. But maybe it is; I’ll be curious to hear your opinion.
I am, however, upset that the guy filling in for my vacationing PCP was dismissive of my complaints of ongoing hearing loss at my follow-up appointment. I’m glad I didn’t follow his advice to try two (!) more courses of antibiotics before seeing an ENT (who, he said, would only “get medieval on [me]”) but made an appointment with an ENT as soon as my ear had cleared but my hearing had not improved. That said, it is clear that by that time there was nothing that could be done.
Know how many people we’ve seen who were told they had fluid in their ear and put on 3 rounds of antibiotics. Show up to our office stating their PCP said their middle ear had fluid still and the only finding is a slightly retracted eardrum. Let me ask you this, were you put on ear drops?
No, why would I have been put on ear drops for otitis media? Also, would you care to answer my question? Do you think that people who present to their PCP with the symptoms of acute otitis media and hearing loss that coincides with the onset of the other symptoms should routinely be referred immediately to an audiologist for evaluation for SSNHL?
My doctor prescribed something for what might be a bit of an ear fungus. I said, “Isn’t that ototoxic?”, dropping a word I recently learned here. He got a funny look and said something to the effect that we (docs) do that all the time and it doesn’t make sense. Anyway, he wrote a scrip for one that wasn’t.
I got to the pharmacy and the pharmacists asked me if I was sure I wanted it; it was $185. I didn’t and bought a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide instead. The ototoxic one would have been 10-bucks. Poor doctors get damned if they do/don’t over these drugs that most can tolerate.