am a 60 year-old female new to this site and hoping someone can give me some answers. I was born with normal hearing which I had for most of my life up until about 15 years ago when I began having problems with my right ear initially noticed when using the telephone. Audiograms showed hearing loss consistent with Menieres Disease but I had had no episodes of vertigo or balance issues. To sum up, I went from completely normal hearing to completely deaf in my right ear within the space of four years. Almost immediately I began to hear constant static from this ear. The hearing in my left ear started to slowly deteriorate and at the point of hearing it is classed as severe hearing loss. Audiogram for this ear shows a cookie bite hearing loss. I currently have a hearing aid have been referred for cola implant but I am not keen on having this. Over the last year I am noticing significant changes in my hearing an accompanied by an increasing of tinnitus. Initially I started to hear a low hum which at its onset I wasn't even clear whether it was external or originating in my ear/head. This was a nighttime occurrence over several months before disappearing entirely. It was then replaced by a rhythmic tinnitus sound that was constant but in the great scheme of things bearable. I still get this but what I am also now experiencing is something that is totally unbearable and ruining my life. I am getting a very low deep rumble which lasts approximately 20 minutes and then it leads into another form of rhythmic tinnitus that can only be described as a bassist playing in a frenzied manner. It is a daily occurrence. If I am stressed, it will come on immediately but it also just crops up randomly. It is extremely loud and will drown out even the loudest of background noises. Since this has occurred, I believe that I have lost the ability to hear more frequencies. I had up until this point still been able to listen to music after a fashion, albeit that it was in mono rather than stereo. Now every single piece of music regardless of whatever genre sounds exactly the same. The only thing that I can still differentiate is the tempo. I am quite frightened that I am rapidly hurtling towards complete hearing loss. Everything that I have described happened to my mother although she was slightly older than me when her problems started, but she did eventually become stone deaf and developed Alzheimer's disease. This is all really a worry to me and I would be so grateful if there is anyone out there that could shed some light on this even if only to tell me what the cause of it all could be so I could have something concrete with which to seek help with.
