I Need Help Understanding: High-Frequency Drop, Worried About Meds

[StephanieLC]

Hi,

I used only one dose (3 drops) of neomycin/polymyxin B eardrops about 6 weeks ago for a perforated eardrum. Then I read it shouldn't be used for that so I didn't use them again. I did develop ringing in my ears (both ears/in my head) and of course I'm worried the toxic drops have caused this.. but I'm even more worried about something else..

When I put the drops in, my ear was bleeding, should I be worried about systemic absorption of the neomycin? I know it's very toxic to the ears when in the system. I calculated the amount of neomycin I used was only about 0.5 - 0.7mg in the 3 drops, probably similar to the amount in a dose of Neosporin which has the same meds in it. I'm worried about it being in my system because my other ear feels full and I have tinnitus in both ears, not just the perforated one.

I've been doing hearing tests on my phone (which seems very accurate, surprisingly, and results match my professional test from the audiologist) to watch things and I've also been doing an ear age test with higher frequencies. For about a month I consistently heard up to 16500hz but suddenly today I'm only hitting 16000. According to the test I was hearing at 24 years old and now today at 27 years old. A 3 year change over a few days scares me.
Since neomycin ototoxicity starts in the high frequencies and continues to progress downward for months up to a year, and I suddenly can't hear 16500 anymore should I be worried I'm slowly losing hearing from neomycin in my system?? Every time I ask my ENT about this he shrugs me off. I've tried hard to understand things and I think I'll try a new ENT.. but anyone out there who does research, could you please help me to understand the risk here with the drops being applied to a bleeding area? And to understand if the sudden 500hz dip in high frequencies is worrisome?

Thank you!

 

[GregCA]

500 Hz diffs could be considered a bit of a rounding error in terms of high frequency measurements (it's a very small range of an octave at such high frequencies), especially because there are other types of issues that come up when testing high frequencies, in particular when your testbed includes your phone and your headphones/earbuds, as they may not reproduce high frequencies correctly.

Since you have the hardware and the knowledge to run a test, what I would do is run tests regularly (do one every week for example) and try to perform the test in the exact same conditions (same phone, same earbuds, same location, as quiet as possible).
When you get the resulting audiogram from the app, do a screenshot and store all your results by date in a folder on your computer.

That way you'll be able to start trending and visually "see" any trend as you go through all the screenshots on your computer (if you know how to animate the screenshots or build a movie out of them, even better!). Give yourself a good dozen samples to start "believing the trend".

Good luck.

 

[StephanieLC]

500 Hz diffs could be considered a bit of a rounding error in terms of high frequency measurements (it's a very small range of an octave at such high frequencies), especially because there are other types of issues that come up when testing high frequencies, in particular when your testbed includes your phone and your headphones/earbuds, as they may not reproduce high frequencies correctly.

Since you have the hardware and the knowledge to run a test, what I would do is run tests regularly (do one every week for example) and try to perform the test in the exact same conditions (same phone, same earbuds, same location, as quiet as possible).
When you get the resulting audiogram from the app, do a screenshot and store all your results by date in a folder on your computer.

That way you'll be able to start trending and visually "see" any trend as you go through all the screenshots on your computer (if you know how to animate the screenshots or build a movie out of them, even better!). Give yourself a good dozen samples to start "believing the trend".

Good luck.

Thank you for your response!

Yes, I've been testing in the same environment each time and saving all my results. So far, the normal hearing test seems unchanged. I have a slight notch at 4,000hz (it's still within normal hearing range) which my ENT thinks was probably already there.
I've been testing since March 8th. But today is the first time I could not hear 16500hz at all and could every single time I've tested since I started. So worrisome as I've been worried about the meds getting into my system already.

 

[GregCA]

But today is the first time I could not hear 16500hz at all and could every single time I've tested since I started.

Understood, but it's hard to be conclusive when you only have one data point. Today may be the day when something else is affecting your hearing (independent from your antibiotic poisoning), so you need to retest again in the next few days and if you do see consistency then you can start trusting the result.

 

[StephanieLC]

Understood, but it's hard to be conclusive when you only have one data point. Today may be the day when something else is affecting your hearing (independent from your antibiotic poisoning), so you need to retest again in the next few days and if you do see consistency then you can start trusting the result.

Thanks! I'll do that!

 

[linearb]

my high frequency hearing does all sorts of weird things but if there's any kind of overall downward trend I haven't noticed it. There have been a couple times where meditation seems to cause my ears to "open up" and my hearing gets a lot crisper/cleaner feeling for a bit. If I could reliably produce that I might be less lazy about my meditation practice.