Long-Winded Story (Low-Frequency Hearing Loss)

Hi all,

I've been looking at various threads here for a couple months now (as well as many other places that discusses hearing-related problems), but I've finally decided to make a post because it feels things are slowly going downhill for me. I've included a bit of a backstory but you can go ahead and skip it.

My incident occurred between February 10th and February 12th, and was entirely my fault. I had purchased a brand new set of high quality headphones (I've always used cheap brands) and used them quite excessively over the course of two days. Without going into too much detail, I had the volume set at roughly my usual volume (which admittedly was probably too high) but in addition to new headphones was also using a new audio chip. It wasn't until February 12th that I noticed a very noticeable decrease in audio quality, which I had instantly faulted my brand new headphones for.

The following I would say it felt like everything was half as loud (so I guess maybe 10db-20db loss), I did not seek attention right away because I thought it might clear up by itself since it didn't seem too serious, and if it didn't I figured not much could be done anyway. But as the week went on I thought my hearing loss was getting worse as I could not hear my own footsteps and city traffic became less audible. However it was the noticeable increase in ringing that drove me to an urgent care clinic as it was impossible for me to fall asleep. I was prescribed prednisone and told to drown out the sound with something like a fan.

T settled down a little after I decreased my salt intake, and I would say roughly 70% of my hearing came back after two weeks on steroids. At this point in time I had accepted that if my hearing and ringing were to remain the same that I should have no reason to be too upset. But I guess I wasn't off the hook...

A couple weeks after I had follow-up with an audiologist and ENT (at that point I thought it might be useless since a good chunk of my hearing had returned). The ENT wasn't much help as he didn't even think it was noise-induced after explaining my story and said I should get an MRI for an acoustic neuroma (odds he had given me were around 1%). Literally the day after I had headphones on set at less than half my usual listening volume with the bass amplified for only ~20 seconds and I had the the worst ringing I have ever experienced, which lasted the course of about a weekend. Went to urgent care once again shortly after and started another round of prednisone. Almost the same deal, after two weeks 50% of hearing returned and T died down significantly. Week after that a similar situation occurred but to a lesser degree, but I can't be prescribed prednisone anymore since i've been told the risks are too high. Although I would point out that the course of steroids was a lot less than what I've seen online for SNHL, 60mg for 3 days, 40mg for 3 days, then the rest of the taper.


So at this point in time i'm dealing with fluctuating hearing loss (minor), and a constant low droning buzzing throughout my day that I can mostly ignore but wrecks havoc on me when I get home and I manage only to get 4-5 hrs of sleep at best. For half of my life I've been dealing with depression, the last two of which were the most severe (to the point where I had contemplated suicide), but about half a year ago I've been slowing breaking out of my depressing thoughts and had a lot of hope with the new medication I've been prescribed.

I never thought I would have to deal with hearing problems at the age of 26, and honestly had never given it much thought. I've always been under the impression that you would be able to clearly tell when sound is obviously too loud, and that you would experience significant discomfort (but all I had were itchy ears when it occurred).

I feel like my T is probably mild compared to what a lot of you guys are going through, but now that I have a taste of it, I can only fear at how bad things can possibly get.

I'm hoping the best for you all, and that medical research has something in store for us in the future. That hope is all i'm clinging to at this point.

 

Welcome to Tinnitus Talk.
I understand how you feel and I have bilateral tinnitus and high and low sounds together.
I have had the high hiss about 12 years and habituated to it most of the time.
I started last year with a deep drone sound and ended up having time off work and could not sleep and really hit a low place in my life.

Life does go on and I'm my happy bubbly self again but the low drone comes and goes so glad it gives me a break.

My tinnitus though is down to menieres Disease and not the normal causes for tinnitus.

Lots of love glynis