When I had a big air-bone gap (pre-surgery), my voice would sometimes feel loud, and I had episodes of "joy" thinking that my hearing was actually getting better through some kind of miracle.
What was probably happening to me is that the voice was reaching the inner hear through bone conduction, vs the rest of the world using the air conduction path through the ear drum.
So it felt like my ear was opening, but the rest of the world was still muffled. It was an artifact of the air-bone gap. This isn't happening to me anymore (post-surgery).