New Member

Hi,
My Name is Kevin and I am 49 years old. 3 weeks ago I had a tinning sound in my left ear when I would talk loud. After 4 days I went to a med clinic and was told I had some fluid in my ear and was put on antibiotics. Because I get allergy shots I often see an ENT so I schedule an appt. I was unable to get the appt. for ten days. After a week the noise stopped for 2 days but I did not cancel my appt. The noise came back 3 days before I was to see the dock and was worse than ever. Loud rushing noises and high pitch noises. At my appt. I learned I did not have fluid in my ear and that I had sudden hearing loss syndrome with no explained cause. I have lost 30% of my hearing but that's nothing compared to the noises. I would rather not hear anything at all. He put me on prednisone for 2 weeks and then I have another appt. He sais I have a 50% chance of it coming back but did not seem to confident. Been on prednisone for 5 days and sounds are louder and worse. Very upsetting. I don't know how all of you can deal with this. I cant think, don't have any self confidence or self worth. Thanks for being here.

 

@kevin becker hi!
I developed SSHL 3 1/2 months ago I am 61
Had steroids orally and injection in my ear drum
I did not have improved so far
I had severe anxiety because of the T it lasted 6 weeks , I lost 10 lbs and could not work. My anxiety is better but my severe hearing loss and t continue!
I am starting TRT
Since you are young your hearing should come back and soT should go soon
Good luck!

 

Welcome to the forum. I don't know if I had SSHL when my T started a few years ago, but my doctors/ENTS did some tests and said I have hearing loss in the high frequency and hence my ultra high pitch T. It was very hard initially and worse I had severe hyperacusis on top of T. That was a horrible period of suffering that I often thought not livable especially not long term. It got so bad I had relentless anxiety and panic attacks and had to depend on drugs just to survive each long, dark day. I had the same doubt as you that how people could deal with that. I never thought I could recover and live a good life again. But never say never. Today I live a full, normal, absolutely enjoyable life and I wrote my success story like many other members do. I list many helpful strategies to help me turn around the suffering. If you like to know them, for brevity, here is the link to my success story. Take care. God bless.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/from-darkness-to-light-how-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

Try to stay calm as humanly as you can as anxiety and stress are bad for T. Try natural supplements such as lemon balm, chamomile tea, melatonin etc. to help you calm the nerves. If your T bothers you much, then try masking it. I used to mask all days even with partial marking due to my H. It helps to reduce the anxiety. If you haven't done masking, here are some suggestions:

1) Mask at bed time so you can sleep better. Find whatever sounds/music that are soothing to you. You can use a sound machine or sound pillow for this, or a computer with speakers.

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds.

3) If you have computer and speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds too:

TT's audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: http://mynoise.net/

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

 

Just wanted to give an update. First of all I would like to mention how incredibly wonderful and brave all you people are on here. You are all truly an inspiration. Ok here goes. After the cycle of prednisone I went back to the ENT last Thursday. I was sure to find no improvement because I still have trouble hearing because of my T. To my surprise 95% of the hearing I lost came back. My word recognition score was outstanding. A month ago I only could repeat 4 words back. My T however is basically the same. It realy bothers me when I or someone else is talking.The rest of the time its still there but either I'm getting used to it or it just doesn't bother me that much. I'm unsure of wich. My ENT sais I have to have patience and I will see him again.in 3 months. I don't know if the T will ever go away but I can tell you that the vets on this forum who say learn to live with it and don't fight it have the correct idea. I'm not saying I am giving up hope I am just saying that is doesn't bother me as much since I accepted the fact that its part of who I am now. Thanks to all of you and keep the faith

 

Well I have had another hearing loss episode. Not sure how bad this time but I can tell by my ear fullness and how bad voices are distorted when I use my left ear on the phone. I have an ENT appt. tomorrow to se how bad it is. My question is because prednisone brought some of it back the first time is there a chance it can work again. Has anybody ever had this happen to them.