First Sudden Tinnitus, Now I Have Been Diagnosed with Hearing Loss

Two months ago I was sitting down and had a sudden ringing in my left ear. Had no idea what was going on. Two weeks later I started prednisone 20mg/day for 6 days. Seemed to help for a while with tinnitus and what not but it then came back.

Now after another course of prednisone a month after that I am not doing so well. I have been diagnosed with mild hearing loss above 4khz in one ear. As the frequency ascends the degree of loss increases overall. My worst loss is between 5500-8000hz and also above 12khz. Interestingly 9khz-11khz is not so bad.

At first I thought it was due to injury from my auditory cortex in a concussion on the opposite side of my head as the bad ear. My hearing on the side of my head with the impact is normal, so I thought it must be the brain.

Now I am not so sure the concussion was at all the cause of any of this. Most concussion caused hearing impairment is due to problems with the ear and not the brain as I understand it. Even though my tinnitus has now partly resolved I am devastated beyond words to find out about my hearing loss. Music doesn't sound even, I have some trouble hearing people if they are on the wrong side of me, and I just hate the way the world sounds, uneven and half muffled.

Instead I am thinking this was a viral incident. I had been itching that ear furiously for months at least and never had it checked out. I wore earplugs a lot during a period of a few days in the hospital leading up to the onset of tinnitus and hearing loss and I think that may have caused some sort of damage to my cochlea. I can take a look at the cochlear map and pick out which parts could be damaged based on the frequencies which are depressed.

Is there any hope for recovery at all? Should I bother taking an antiviral drug at this point? I am quite suspicious that this was caused by some virus I picked up in the hospital. Today is supposed to be my last day of prednisone and I don't notice an improvement at this point.

Devastated beyond words. I am 28 years old. The audiologist suggested I get a hearing aid.

 

My right ear has some mild hearing loss at 3 and 4khz , about 30 db i think. I don't struggle to hear things though so i am not interested in a hearkng Aid. I think its really about if you think you would benefit from one.

 

Hi there-

As a lover of music, even DJ'd and wrote my own music once upon a time, I understand that feeling of devastation. You are not deaf in that ear, and my understanding is, in many cases a good healthful change in ones lifestyle over the next months could see the hearing improve - this likelihood also improves that you are young, 28 is not old, I encourage you to focus on that.

It is only two months in too (only!). This type of condition, from what I have read and the people I have met, is not a small episodic evening of feeling a little ill, maybe because something you ate was off, and you go to bed and are good to go in the morning. This is more in the space of tendon damage that can have a longer healing process. That doesnt help with the anxiety about the loss of ones major sense faculties, I know. Yet at some point I find with this, the turning point comes when one refocuses the energy that goes into worry, into wholesome positive actions towards looking to the future, making a plan, making changes, and riding the process. Negative emotions are known to cause stress in the body, and the key for healing is to take care of yourself.

The universe unfolds in a somewhat chaotic fashion. Look at how a car begins to rust. Look at how decay in every aspect of life and the human condition manifests. Releasing oneself to this has been a great help to my own journey. I recently saw someone who looked decidedly UNHEALTHY. Everything about this person was unhealthy, but they had all of their faculties about them it seemed. And for a moment, but definitely just a moment, I felt some anger, some sadness, some regret, feelings of unfairness - WHY ME and not them??? Before my "event", I had 8% body fat and work out 5x a week and am impeccably healthy (a connoisseur in intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet). Yet at 42, after never ever being ill, I take get taken down, I lose ALL of my hearing in my left ear, and I have a vicious tinnitus with hyperacusis. I have not listened to any music since my incident, and in the first week when i attempted to listen to some of my most sentimental music, I was emotionally hijacked with an ocean of sadness.

But all of those thoughts, if even for a moment, go nowhere but to hell in a hand basket. Every aspect of the universe does its stuff the way it does under laws that cannot be truly predicted. My wife showed me a story of a centennial who has smoked since the age of 9, and still does smoke, yet has never had cancer or heart attack or any major disease.

Its also hard not to fall into the Gilgamesh trap - we all want to live forever. And when we see others with impediments, theres a part of being human that flirts with the desire and relief that we reach our final days unscathed, with a selfish part of us deep inside (shadow or now) that is glad thats not us.

In all of that, the pain comes from. Its fighting reality. In your case you have many factors that look like things could improve; no need to get on the sad train, but if you do, make sure you buy a cheap ticket and get off as soon as you can. Then just step back into life and try your best to focus on recovery, improvement and living your life to the very fullest regardless.

mf

 

This ^^

Some really good advise here.

Thank you.