Possible Sudden Hearing Loss

Hey,
I posted on here a few weeks ago about my MRI, humming ear etc. Well things got a whole lot worse

For the past 2 months I've been having a strange problem with my right ear. Started as a feeling of loosing some hearing which I put down to ETD. Then came the humming which went with pseudoephedrine.

Fast forward some weeks and the immense stress, anxiety and depression of breaking up with my gf and kids started to show. So I went to the doctor and got back on Fluoxetine. The past 2 weeks have been a hell of super mega anxiety which basically bed rid me. The hearing loss and humming continued to be a problem which made things a lot worse.

Yesterday after taking the kids to soft play, which felt unberiably loud, I came home popped an ear plug in to help distract me from the ear problem and tried to sleep. After failing to sleep I took the plug out and to my horror noticed the voices on TV were distant and making my hearing distort! I could barely hear the ticking of the mantel clock either! Panic set in and after trying to sleep I woke in the middle of the night and got an ooh GP appointment for 8am.

By 8am I was absolutely distraught so had my dad take me up to the hospital. The GP looked in my ears and saw nothing untoward but again suggested ETD. He was sensible enough to prescribe prednisone though! No hearing test....I've got to arrange that with my Dr.

I haven't suffered a huge loss comoared to some ppl I can still kind of follow conversations but sounds make a strange *boing* kind of sound in my bad ear. This morning when calling GP ooh the ear was next to useless!

I had a sense of fullness this morning but that seems to have gone slightly. However I'm getting strange clicks and pops from the ear along with an itchy feeling in the canal.

Also now have a rushing noise in the ear too. Not too dissimilar to the hum that started 2 months ago!

Its probably also worth noting I started hearing distortion in the right ear a week ago. When I plugged the good ear the bad ear made what I can only describe as a fan or motor noise when subjected to traffic noise etc.

So here I sit feeling sorry for myself. Wondering if I'll ever feel normal again! Can't help wondering if its something I did? Popping my ears maybe too often (but not too hard)? That noisey dyson Hand dryer I was subjected to a month ago?

Any tips for the new hard of hearing guy? I'm assuming this has weakened my hearing and there is a chance I could loose it all?

Shaun.

 

Sounds like Meniere's. When is your hearing test? Did the Prednisone help?

 

Hey,
Yes menieres has been mentioned but I have absolutely no dizziness. So maybe hydrops? Or maybe it could be ETD? ENTs are next to useless.

Don't know if prednisone helped as it seemed to clear up on its own. It still isnt quite right..bit of distortion but its liveable with.

Hearing test is sometime this week when I book it.

Shaun.

 

@ShaunR

Sorry if you have to be going through with all of this and not just your hearing bud. I am very glad, however, that you have a clever GP who was wise to give you prednisone as this does sound like sudden hearing loss and not ETD. However, granted you were using an earplug and had some itchy feelings in an ear canal, there could also be something going on at the same time. How quickly did you pull the plug out?

The other thing that comes to my mind is that you have been under a significant amount of stress over the past few weeks. All of those stress hormones, and all of that adrenaline, can also adversely affect the inner ear, and high stress in general has been indicated as a risk factor for sudden hearing loss. I have been suffering from anxiety, panic disorder, and moderate-severe depression for the last year and a half. Every time I had a panic attack, my hearing would get worse and my ears would get very full, and I would have spikes and T. It turns out my panic attacks were setting off migraines and blood vessel spasms, and as you can imagine those panic attacks were already doing wonky things to my blood pressure and heart rate. Hence, controlling stress may be pertinent to letting ears heal and to prevent them from getting worse.

The point of the matter is that I would highly recommend you either begin to practice relaxation techniques or find a time to schedule psychological counseling or an appt. with a psychiatrist to point you on a short course, and a low dose, of an ant-anxiety med. I have been on clonopin and previously seroquel and both nearly eliminated my panic attacks and cut out a significant trigger for my inner ear problems and migraines. I understand your stressors are significant and very difficult to control for, but I am sure any of these things might help and may even help your ears to recover.

 

Why it sound like Menieres?
there isnt dizzy spells...

 

Humming, rushing sounds, distorted hearing and hearing loss. Meniere's doesn't always start out with dizziness. I guess you would call it Hydrops at this point if there is a hearing loss, especially a low frequency one.