Hearing Loss

I've had tinnitus for a couple of years now, but today it started bothering me really bad. Usually, I hear a thunderous sound when it's quiet at night, but I've had a loud ringing all day today. Suddenly, out of nowhere, my hearing in my left ear was just completely gone! It was instantaneous! I don't know if I should make an emergency doctors appointment or wait and see if it comes back. Any advice?

 

If your hearing is "gone" and continues to be gone i.e. no hearing with your other ear covered or no hearing when speaking on a phone held against your left-ear, then it is considered a medical emergency. Potentially at least.

 

Has it gotten better?

 

The ringing is gone, and my hearing is back but everything is much softer than normal

 

Cecily: I can't tell if the softness of sound is because of the extreme loudness from the tinnitus suddenly disappearing. This would seem to make things softer - for some time. But I don't know if it's an issue.

If you have an ENT and/or audiologist, a basic hearing test will confirm or deny the softness. I'd get it checked out because you really don't want to mess with this. Just trust me on this. I've lived through a lifetime of hearing loss and now tinnitus.

 

I've had something similar, except I would experience near deffness in one ear for about a few seconds. During this time, a simultanious ringing sound would be heard in that ear, then fade away just as the hearing came back to normal. Someone told me that was an ear hair cell falling off. Apparently that means I've lost some hearing in whatever frequency I just heard ringing...