Recently Woke Up with SSHL and Tinnitus

My story is really not all the different from the others on the forum regarding SSHL. My issues started on the morning of April 30th, 2021 when I awoke to being around 80% deaf in my right ear. I went to bed without any cold, flu, or allergy symptoms the night before. Just woke up and, wham... massive hearing issue.

As the morning went on, I still didn't exhibit any typical cold or allergy symptoms. In fact, I felt normal aside from the hearing loss. The right ear felt like I had a bed pillow covering it and everything was very muted. At that point, I had no tinnitus.

I decided to make an quick appointment with my general doctor. He wasn't available so I had to see the PA. I'm not a big fan of them because I really feel like they are just Google readers when it comes to treating people rather than having experience and listening to the patient. I'm perfectly capable (and have lots of practice) incorrectly self-diagnosing myself with the worse case scenarios (more on that another time). She looked at my ears, nose, throat and said all looked fine. She suspected ETD which was a valid guess since it is allergy season, so I bought into this theory not knowing or having ever heard of something called SSHL.

As the day went on, the hearing seemed to get worse, but that could have been my anxiety kicking in. I also started to get a little tinnitus and weird distortions at higher frequencies. That evening I got on the internet and started diagnosing myself, which is usually the WORST course of action in the world (again, I have 15 years of why that's a bad idea, but won't talk about that in this post). My wife an I talked about this condition I found called SSHL. She said I was crazy and have always picked the worst case scenario. However, as I continued researching, I thought my issues doesn't sound anything like ETD and succumbed to the self-diagnoses of SSHL. I decided it was time to go to the ER because it said this was a medical emergency that required immediate treatment.

So by about 8:45 pm that Friday night, I was at the Emergency Room. Told them what was wrong and got admitted pretty quick. Like the PA, the on-call doctor looked at my ears and said everything looks fine. By this time, the tinnitus was worse. It was screeching. They didn't seem the least bit alarmed, said nothing we can do and sent me home with a referral for an ENT on Monday morning.

Over the weekend two significant things happened. The tinnitus was really morphing into a whole bunch of different sounds. It would change from something that sounds like the first tone in the Emergency Broadcast System that plays on TV in the United States, to a river in the distance, to dual tone, to single tone with really weird ambulance siren and chirping distortions. Surprisingly, my hearing was getting better though.

Monday rolls around (about 72 hours from SSHL onset) and I fortunately got an ENT appointment based upon the ER referral. My hearing was almost back to normal EXCEPT for this god awful tinnitus which had gotten worse. The ENT doctor was really upset that the ER didn't immediately start me on steroid treatment, especially since they didn't see any obvious conduction issues in the ear. He said sudden hearing loss is a "Medical Emergency" and that I had done the right thing by going in. They should have been on the phone with an ENT or called one in. He then went on to explain SSHL and that I'm actually pretty lucky my hearing came back so quickly. Also, because I was at the tail end oft he 72-hour window from onset, treatment was still possible but said it doesn't always work. He wasn't in the least bit concerned about the tinnitus. An in office hearing test did reveal I was about -15 dB lower in my affected ear as compare to my left ear in the 1 kHz to 2 kHz frequency regions and -30 dB in the 8 kHz region (mild hearing loss in that range). He got me started on a 7-day 20 mg x3 times daily prescription for Prednisone and I started taking it at 10:30 am that day. I'm on day #3 of the treatment.

The hearing is probably still the same. It's probably just a smidge below what I remember as being "normal". I probably did have some damage to the affected right ear from a couple years ago working around a loud generator without ear protection (dumb move on my part).

...but the tinnitus is non-stop. It's now stuck at this single-tone that is really loud. Any other sounds around that frequency get distorted. It's a really odd distortion too. Almost like a tinny frequency offset that is really noticeable when flushing toilets, running water, microwave beeps, synth music tones, or squeaking wheels. It's really odd. I notice it all the time right now. It never goes away. I know it's only been a few days, but sheesh. This will be a tough "just get used to it" thing, but it is what it is.

I feel immense sympathy for all the others on here explaining their situations that are in many cases worse than mine. But I'll let you know, the suggestions and positive attitudes many of you have are really helpful... and spot on. I suffered from severe health anxiety for many, many years and have learned a lot of coping/habituation mechanisms. I will put those to work so I can become best of friends with my new tinnitus partner in life. I already have a sound machine on order. I'll try and help others if possible and will bring nothing but a positive attitude... because that is the single most important thing when dealing with a new ailment.

It's been over 10 years since I posted on those anxiety forums (any forums for that matter), so I might be a little rusty on this kind of stuff (PMs, interfaces, etc). And I apologize up front if I drop off suddenly and disappear as this most likely means I have habituated to my new condition and constantly dwelling on it only makes it worse.

Stay positive everyone. Life is a journey and learning to navigate is the game.

 

I am very sorry this happened.

You mention this was 2.5 weeks after COVID-19 shot #2. That's almost certainly unrelated but out of curiosity, which vaccine did you get, which side was the shot on, did you have any direct symptoms from the vaccine, and which side is the SSHNL on?

 

Welcome to the forum and to the unfortunate club of SSHL sufferers. It is a blessing indeed your hearing comes back. Thank you for your positive message. I too have SSHL and unfortunately my deaf ear doesn't restore hearing even after all standard treatments including oral and injection of steroids and 20 sessions of HBOT. But that is the nature of SSHL. Some just won't get hearing back. We just have to move on with life with a positive attitude and focus on other aspects of life to coexist peacefully with our health challenges. Your tinnitus may improve overtime as your hearing is back. Without hyperacusis like what I have now, you can mask tinnitus when it bothers you.

All the best to you. God bless your recovery.

 

No intratympanic steroids, really?

Sound damage from years ago does not equal you magically waking up deaf. Not your fault at all. Shame on the ER. Sounds like they didn't try or want to make a call.

 

I got the Pfizer vaccine in my right shoulder (same side as affected ear). My shoulder was sore after the first shot and I was tired about 24 hours later. The tiredness lasted one day, then went away. I had no reaction to the second shot. Nothing at all.

The ENT doctor said he has seen an abnormal number of SSHL patients since the start of COVID-19, even before the vaccines were administered. Still lots of unknowns regarding the virus, but I've read quite a few reports/studies that have linked the body's autoimmune response attacking the central nervous system as the reason why people lose taste/smell. I'm wondering if the autoimmune response from the vaccine could also target the nervous system responsible for hearing? I dunno.

I have a pretty long history of going to the ER for hypochondria type things from many years ago. I sometimes wonder if they pull up my medical history and think "sheesh, this guy's had every illness in the medical book. I seriously doubt he's lost his hearing. I'll let the ENT deal with him." They took my temperature, blood pressure, looked in my ears and sent me home. And nope, no shots into the ear while at the ENT.

This Prednisone is not my friend. Very fidgety and mixed with the tinnitus I'm having a hell of a time falling asleep. The tinnitus was loud enough to hear while walking outside in the wind heading into work today. It's still stuck on the same exact tone and loudness level. I read on the forum that wearing headphones is not advisable when you have tinnitus like this, so I chose not to listen to music while walking in. I'll have to read more on this to make sure I understood correctly.

Fortunately, there were long stretches of the day where I was occupied and didn't notice the tinnitus. I focused on this positivity and plan to do the same thing tomorrow.

 

Call them back and ask about it.

Ask about salvage therapy.

The last thing you want is regret.

The ER thinking you're a hypochondriac doesn't matter. They have a legal obligation to treat chicken Little because he might just be right.

If it is autoimmune, then again steroids.

 

I had SSNHL and it was at about day 7 that my hearing kind of snapped back and my tinnitus all of a sudden went from high pitch tone to a quieter static sound that stayed with me. My hearing went back into normal range but I was left with the static tinnitus.

 

Thats's why I keep a stock of Prednisone ready at home in case of SSHL, which always seem to happen in the middle of the night, so that I can take a single large dose - 150 mg or more - ASAP. And I have some PPI pills ready to avoid the stomach damage.

In Germany the standard dosage for noise trauma is 250 mg a day. It takes a few hours to build up in blood so a large dose as soon as possible is needed.

I don't think more than one dose is needed, after one large oral dose you should notice improvements pretty soon, on your way to the ENT to get the in ear injections.
I had it once and it saved me I think.

To get Prednisone, visit and ENT and make up a noise trauma story, fireworks, airbag, shooting range, concert whatever and all you have to do is to press the button much later during the hearing test when you hear the higher frequencies of 4 kHz or more so that the hearing loss seems evident to the ENT. It's really easy to fake hearing loss!

In the fridge the drug can be stored for 3-4 years at least, and time is the essence once it happens.

 

Amazing that they can give patient 250 mg per day in Germany but my ER doctor and ENT in Canada only gave me 50 mg and 60 mg per day saying that is the max.

 

Holy smokes... that's almost exactly my case. The hearing is mostly back to normal, I think. But the tinnitus has now changed from a solid tone, to static. It sounds like an old neon light power supply that hisses. It's much less annoying, but I keep looking to my right thinking something is plugged into outlet.

 

Anyone ever had this happen bilaterally when coming "off" steroids?

I went from 60 mg to 0 mg and the following morning I was greeted with new loud low wavering tones bilaterally and I couldn't hear the jingling of keys (sounded super soft).