I Woke Up Deaf in One Ear Today

I've had tinnitus, hyperacusis, a bit of ear pain and more recently hearing loss all happening over the last year.

Woke up deaf in my left ear today and it stayed that way for about 3 hours.

I'm 90 percent back to normal 8 hours on. What on earth has caused this sudden deafness?

Is it a warning sign of Meniere's disease? I have bad balance anyway. And have had a vertigo attack before. My ears seem to change hearing in even the moderate noise environments.

 

Still some deafness in that ear, I'm starting to freak out now. I only have 30 mg of Prednisone left and the doctors won't prescribe it to me. Does anyone know anything about this, please someone comment?

 

Sudden loss of hearing is a medical emergency. Why the fuck are you not at the urgent care getting steroid injections into your ear?

 

I went to accident and emergency 1 hour after it occured.

I live in the UK they dont treat this as an emergency.

Its a fucking tragedy.

 

at least beg for a taper of prednisone and try to find out if there is an hbot facility near you..
And get some good multivitamin with a high dose of b12 and some extra magnesium, stat!

 

It really irritates me that emergency departments don't understand why sudden hearing loss is a medical emergency. Do you have a GP (family doctor) you know that you can see? Can you go somewhere else?

 

This happens to me a lot, like once a week in my right ear. Yeah no emergency here either. Go to the doctor and you get to wait 6 months to see an ENT. No one cares about hearing loss as it will not kill you.

Mine does the same, always comes back although not fully. I'm slowly but surely going deaf. Mine can last a day to weeks.

 

There was a GP at the emergency room ( he thought it was ridiculous i had come in the middle of the night to A and E) , i asked him to check my ears. No wax, no infection, so still with a reduction in my left ear he sent me on my way. Even after I enquired about steroids.

I feel like i have regained most of my hearing after taking some more prednisone (although still slightly muffled), im going to my GP tommorow to get a quick ENT appointment sorted out.

But I agree, its infuriating, what if I hadn't had an initial remission of symptoms? What if I hadnt thought to stash prednisone? I would have had to wait a couple of weeks to see an ENT and by that point. Game over.

 

I have those supplements at home and i have an HBOT chamber an hours drive from me.

I feel mostly back to normal, should i still pursue HBOT?

I will ask for a taper tommorow.


The reason for this incident was that i was wearing eaplugs as i fell asleep, i rolled over to my side. I woke up about 2 hours later with an extreme 10/10 T and alot of pain because i had been crushing my ear against the pillow basically.
My ears were hot as well so im guessing there was a blood flow problem.

@Telis, what causes your sudden deafness does it just come out of nowhere? Do you have meniers? Do I have meniers!?

 

Well, i am far from a medical specialist... Good your hearing is coming back. Be sure to get a professional opinion on the matter and be prepared to do whatever is necessary.

 

I don't know what causes it, I can't directly link it to anything. The last time it happened, 3 days ago I was out at having dinner and it was painfully loud for me, but I don't know, it happens just randomly as well. I have damaged my ears through barotrauma so I suspect perrilymph fistula. If I do things like weight lift or anything strenuous this is a sure way for me to loose hearing, happens a lot that way.

 

Oh, i'm sorry about that @Telis , it must hard to deal with. So do you go on a cycle of prednisone every time that happens?

 

I tried it one time, did nothing so I don't bother putting the poison in my body. I had hearing loss and T in one ear at onset, two hours after prednisone I had T in both ears, maybe it's a coincidence but I can't be taking that stuff every episode, I would be on it permanatly.

 

Have you seen that ENT yet?

 

I have an appointment in October

 

This happens to me but only lasts for a few minutes at a time.. What does hyperbaric o2 tank do to help?

 

I think it reduces inflamation basically.

 

Just an update Guys.

I went to the GP and told them about my sudden hearing loss, was sent up to get a full, audiogram, hearing in noise and speech discrimination test the next day (yesterday).

This was remarkable considering NHS waiting times but they knew who I was and they knew I'd had problems before I was also sure to emphasize the feelings of aural fullness and burning which probably go his attention.

Audiogram showed reduction in the left ear so I was sent straight to the ENT and thankfully was prescribed prednisone.

4 days since the incident I am starting a high dose of 40mg, will taper down after 5 days.

Hopefully I can recover all my hearing.

If anyone is reading this thread and has sudden hearing loss, you must get access to an ENT as soon as possible, doesn't matter about the cost or time, use all your resources so that you can get a diagnoses and then medication as soon as possible. If your in the UK just go private if you have to. I'm a student so that wasn't an option for me but luckily I knew what symptoms to be clear about so that I could get prescribed quickly.

Anyway I hope it goes well.