Sensorineural Hearing Loss / Idiopathic Sudden Hearing Loss

[Dad88]

Hello everyone,

I'm a 54-year-old father of 3. On September 13, 2025, I noticed that my hearing on my right side wasn't working. The next day, Sunday, I went to the emergency room, and they said I had packed down wax and needed to use an ear wax solution for a week and I'd be fine. The following Friday, I went to my doctor because there was no improvement. That's when he told me about sensorineural hearing loss and idiopathic sudden hearing loss. He said it's often caused by a virus, and that COVID has been identified as a possible cause as well. He put me on antiviral medication and steroids for a week. There was still no improvement.

On October 8, I saw an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Two appointments and two steroid injections in my ear have resulted in no improvement in my hearing, so now the conversation has shifted to a cochlear implant. I'm praying for a miracle to avoid that outcome.

Between my first and second appointment with the ENT is when the tinnitus started. There was no loud concert, no trips to the shooting range, nothing like that. I simply woke up at midnight one night and heard a loud static sound, and it hasn't stopped since. It only varies in intensity. Sometimes it feels mild, other times it roars. My head feels swollen, and the ENT said the cochlear implant might help with the tinnitus.

There have got to be answers out there, and I'm hoping for help. I've read on this forum about Turmeric with Curcumin 900 mg and fish oil, and I'm willing to try anything. I would greatly appreciate any advice or wisdom. This has changed my life dramatically, and I need hope that it'll get better.

I saw a long advertisement on YouTube about a product called SonusZen, which featured Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil. It was a compelling claim that this product works. The ad even said the product is made in the USA. It seemed too good to be true, but I gave them my email address and phone number, and I got a phone call before I even finished trying to place the order. When the person on the other end clearly wasn't from the USA, I said I needed to do some research on the product, and he hung up on me. I later got a follow-up email from Brazil. I nearly fell for a scam.

If you could send me a message or offer me any words, I'd be deeply grateful. My only solace in all of this is that it didn't happen to my kids, and that's what I focus on. But I crave silence more and more, and I'm not sure how long I can endure this.

Blessings

 

[Tanager]

I'm so sorry you're in the throes of early tinnitus; it can get better. Not the tinnitus - at least, not in my long experience - but in learning how to cope with it. I experienced SSNHL at the age of 29, back in 1997, and it *started* with tinnitus. I went around my apartment unplugging things because I thought an electronic device was emitting the high-pitched sound I heard. It didn't go away, but I was 29 years old, and I assumed it would be gone in the morning.

Less than four hours later, I woke in my bed and was profoundly deaf in my right ear - I could not hear the dial tone on the phone with it pressed tightly to that ear. These were the days of no health insurance if you couldn't afford it, so even though I went to my doctor, he suggested some decongestants to see if that would magically cure profound deafness (I'm a tad bitter over his lack of urgency on this). I ended up at an ENT anyway, paying out of pocket, and he said I should have been in his office within the first 24 hours, and it may now be too late to save my hearing.

It wasn't; I did a heavy course of oral corticosteroids and got about 60% of my hearing back, which was considered a great success in light of the extreme rapidity of my particular case. I very quickly learned that I did not care about the hearing loss - it was the tinnitus that was driving me crazy. It never went away, and coping with it was very difficult for quite some time. Now, as I'm getting older, it's louder and begining in my left ear as well - just from natural aging. No professional has ever offered me any hope regarding the tinnitus (and I'm within easy range of the famous Mass Eye and Ear in Boston), and the only effective strategy for me has been masking. As I type this, I have a full headset on, pouring customized white noise into both ears (I use mynoise.net, both in a desktop browser and as a phone app), there is constant music playing in my kitchen (which I can hear from my desk), and at night I use no less than three different sound devices (water-based white noise, a looped instrumental track I like, and I fall asleep to the entire Gospel of John - in the summer, I also have a fan running). All of these things have helped me deal with the fact that I will never know silence again.

I would do or pay almost anything for a cure, but it's not out there yet. Still, I am not miserable, and can cope with it by keeping my ears - and mind - distracted. This was very difficult in the beginning - no cell phones, no earbuds, no easy white noise apps, just a basic white noise machine you plug in - but there are more options today, and you can eventually train your brain to ignore it much of the time. I hope you are able to accumulate some coping methods that help you!

Peace to you.