Possible Cochlear Hydrops — Low Frequency Tinnitus

Hey everyone, Happy New Year!

I just found Tinnitus Talk a week ago, it's so great that it's here. This past couple of months, I've had my first struggles with tinnitus. I've been reading many of your experiences and would like to share mine. As well, I'm wondering, if anyone has any ideas as to the next step. Sorry for the length of the post:

Mid October, I started getting bilateral high frequency tinnitus, almost white noise in nature. I saw an ENT in early November and the audiogram came back normal with a slight dip at 6 kHz. I chalked it up to long term noise exposure (although I'm very careful wearing earplugs in noisy environments). ENT saw nothing wrong in both ears.

A week later I awoke to an imbalanced, full-feeling in my left ear, paired with a slight low frequency hearing loss in the same ear. I thought I was just getting sick and in a week it seemed to return to normal.

Early December I started to hear about a 226 Hz single tone in my left ear and went straight to urgent care. I was prescribed a 5 day dose of Prednisone but I'm not sure if the drug helped. The tone seemed to go away before I started the next day. After coming off Prednisone, the same ear started going crazy with high pitched ringing every 10 minutes or so.

I was able to see the ENT again on the 16th of December, who couldn't see anything wrong and suggested it may be cochlear hydrops. The audiogram was the same as in November. He didn't prescribe any diuretics.

These past couple of weeks have been a roller coaster for my left ear. Currently I have a 108 Hz tone that will morph into a 5th above it (about 170 Hz) and sometimes up to the 226 Hz tone when stimulated with noise. A flex of my inner ear muscles will drop the pitch back down to 108 Hz. I also have about a 98 Hz low tone that goes away (masked?) by any amount of noise. My hearing seems to have disappeared below 150 Hz in the left ear and I also have diplacusis in the left ear below 250 Hz. I've been trying to see any ENT, but they're all so busy.

That's my story so far. I've cut out caffeine and started a very low sodium diet but I can't tell if they're working. Everything changes day by day, it seems.

Does this sound like cochlear hydrops? How long do I have before hearing loss is permanent with hydrops, as I've read this can be treated with diet and drugs?

Thanks for the help and support everyone. I wish you all the best.

 

Welcome to the forum. Cochlear hydrops has been discussed often so if there isn't enough response to help you from the Introduction, asearch like the below also gives a detailed list of prior discussions. Check them out to see if there are helpful information. Take good care. God bless.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/search/7835881/?q=Cochlear+hydrop&t=post&o=relevance&c[node]=11

 

Thanks for the help and link @billie48. For sure, I've been trying to read all I can on this forum.

A quick update for reference: My 108 Hz tone has started to stay at the 170 Hz region and is becoming louder. At least I can't get it to go up to 226 Hz but a new 880 Hz tone has appeared.

I was able to see the ENT last Friday and got another hearing test. Looks like my low frequency hearing 250 Hz and below is starting to drop.

The ENT really thinks it's Cochlear Hydrops now and wants to put me on prednisone. Surprised he didn't want to try a diuretic.

I'm very hesitant to try Prednisone again after my first experience. The script also came with Omeprazole which I heard was to treat stomach issues related to Prednisone. Reading here, it seems Omeprazole can also cause tinnitus!

Can I take Prednisone without the Omeprazole?