A Strange Case — I Need Some Help

So a week ago, I went to bed and I put in the earplug that l always sleep with during the night because of the loud air conditioning. After I put it in there, I thought to myself how solid it is in there today because I could not hear the air conditioning.

The next morning i woke up and i felt a little off balance. This disappeared after an hour or so but I was left with feeling that my left ear (the ear with the earplug) could not hear as well as the right. When I tested it out with some sounds, it seemed like some frequencies were missing (especially the lower frequencies) in the left ear. The best way to describe it as if I had some earwax stuck very deep in the left ear.

This lasted for a few days and I went to the ENT to have my earwax (this is what I assumed happened) removed. They did that, but said my right was full and left ear was fine. I was no closer to a solution. I did receive a dose of steroids for sudden hearing loss (prednisone). at that point I decided not to take the Prednisone as the ENT said it might resolve itself.

The next day (I slept without the earplug again), I woke up and my hearing went a lot better (50% better) and the next day even more (back to normal hearing). I did have some instances in the last 4 days of some crazy new and varied tinnitus sounds in the left ear though.

So today I woke up (again slept without the earplug) and all of a sudden my hearing is back to being as bad as it was two days ago before the improvements started. I did have some weird tinnitus sounds this morning though.

At this point I decided to start taking take the Prednisone (I have had 2 doses now) and that has helped me a bit with the new tinnitus sounds, and a tiny bit with the "having wax" stuck in the left ear feeling that came on again suddenly this morning.

Has anybody have had any similar experiences or know what is going on. I am very confused as it was going better for the last few days, and all of a sudden it took a nose-dive again this morning. Could it be sudden hearing loss (even though I did nothing except maybe putting in the earplug to deep that somehow caused damage?), allergies (I live in a wooded environment), or nasal congestion?

 

Keep taking it, is the course for 7 days?

 

Hello @jer,

I would recommend telling your doctor and/or ENT about the developments between your ENT appointment and the current status. I do know (because of a recent ENT visit) that asymmetry in hearing is nor normal, especially without a physical cause, so, if your ears checked out okay before, there may be something problematic that cannot be seen from outside (you may need an MRI to detect the source). That being said I am not a doctor and have absolutely no qualifications to make the above statements, I am just reiterating things I learned from my recent visit and my asymmetric hearing loss (moderate hearing loss in both of my ears, the left is much worse).

Good luck, please keep us updated on your progress.

 

@Onsdag yes the course is for 7 days and i will keep taking it. @kollsar i am the same way as you. I have always had that my left ear was much worse than my right. I always assumed that this was because i have always had A LOT of earwax buildup in my right to the point that it was blocking the whole eardrum. So i always assumed that this was because of that when i received the damage (noise exposure) that the eardrum on the left was much more battered then on the right because of the wax. Do you have a similar problem?

Thank you also for that suggestion and i do might need to get an MRI to get everything in my head checked out.