angelatgg72

I woke up one night in Oct. 2002 with a terrible pain in my left ear. It felt like something inside my head had exploded! I went to the ER. They told me I had an ear infection and sent me home w/ antibiotics. By the next morning I couldn't hear. Several weeks and a visit to the ENT later, the doctor said I probably had a viral infection that wasn't caught early enough, wasn't treated early enough, and caused me to loose my hearing. He gave me a round of high powered rx... I don't remember what it was, but it didn't work. A few months later, I developed tinnitus and it has never gone away. I was able to see a doctor at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. He basically said, yep, your deaf now, learn to live with it. I have... lived with it, for 15 yrs now. As far as my hearing goes, it basically sounds like I'm under water, all the time... on top of having chronic tinnitus. If it was just one or the other, it might now be so bad. But the tinnitus makes me crazy! I have noticed it gets louder during stressful times.