Introducing Me

Hello everyone. I am a 50 year old female, married with 3 children and living in the UK.

I have a long history (nearly 30 years) of lupus/UCTD. It's not particularly severe but it is erratic and frequently changes course. Over the past year, and probably even longer, I have noticed recurrent episodes when my hearing literally seems to switch off leaving my hearing very muffled in one then both ears followed by high pitched tinnitus. Sometimes this can be when I'm in mid conversation and can last seconds, minutes or longer but seems to resolve without doing irreversible damage but I do notice that it tends to occur when I have signs of systemic lupus flares. I also notice bouts of dizziness and vertigo which can be either very severe or really quite mild. My worst attacks have followed allergic reactions to medications. Often, but not always, the dizziness, deafness and tinnitus occur in the same time periods.

My feeling is that this must surely be some auto immune hearing problem but it doesn't seem to be progressive. Can anyone shed any light? Probably I don't need to worry too much if it's not progressive but I'm curious. Thanks for reading x