Stapedectomy --> SSD --> Tinnitus... Any Advice Is Welcomed!

[alexh]

Hi, I am new to this forum. I had a stapedectomy in March because I had otosclerosis. It went bad. I lost my hearing completely in the ear where the procedure was performed and developed Tinnitus. I am a professor and a researcher (not a medical one...), and needless to say, the T is affecting me a lot at every level. Any advice or known method to cope with it? Thank you

 

[glynis]

My son had his ear bones out age 7 and does not have tinnitus.
It can take up to a year for the brain to adjust and tinnitus to settle down after the operation.
Have you been offered artificial bones to be put in and give you some hearing back ?

Always keep music on that you find relaxing as helps anxiety and stress and helps distract you from your sound.
Love glynis

 

[GregCA]

@alexh - welcome!
I'm sorry about your situation, as I know that the odds of this happening are pretty low, but they obviously do happen.
Do you know what happened in your case? Did you get your hearing back for a while and then SSD set in?
Is it possible that something in the surgery didn't work well, or that the prosthesis came off, or something else of a mechanical nature? Prosthesis coming off are a known possible cause of full deafness.

As far as coping techniques I'm not sure I can be of much help unfortunately, as you are facing the challenge of being unable to use sound therapy to drown or mask your T.
Are you completely deaf now in that ear, from a sensorineural point of view?
How is your other ear?
You can manage anxiety with either natural methods (meditation, mindfulness, etc) or with medication. Maybe this will get you over the hump in your journey to habituation.
As someone who went through a stapedotomy too, and who still has severe T, I do feel for you.
You're not alone.
Good luck!

 

[GregCA]

Have you been offered artificial bones to be put in and give you some hearing back ?

Yes that is the surgery s/he had (a prosthetic replacement for the stapes bone).

 

[glynis]

Yes that is the surgery s/he had (a prosthetic replacement for the stapes bone).

Not everyone has replaced bones with the Stapedectomy.
My son could not have them put in.
Reason- his middle ear nerves were left in dangling loose in the middle ear and to dangerous to do it as the nerve should be cases and fit a bit like a socket on a wall in the inner ear and had to be left just dangling.
Love glynis x

 

[alexh]

@glynis Thank you for the reply! Fortunately I still hear from my other ear, so having some music in the background helps a little. I will start meditating. I have done acupuncture and seems to work too, however, I do not know why.

 

[alexh]

@GregCA Hi Greg! Thank you for the support. I do have hearing in the other ear. I am completely deaf in that ear from a sensorineural point of view. I had a severe inflammation at the moment of the surgery, which might be what caused the hearing loss.

 

[GregCA]

I do have hearing in the other ear. I am completely deaf in that ear from a sensorineural point of view. I had a severe inflammation at the moment of the surgery, which might be what caused the hearing loss.

Ugh!
Did you lose the hearing right away or was it progressive after the surgery?
Was the surgery done with laser or drill?

If you have one "good ear", you can still try to "drown" your T with other sounds (I don't mean completely masking it, I just mean that it'll be part of a "bigger picture" where the brain isn't going to pay as much attention to it)

Is your other (good) ear also affected by otosclerosis?

 

[GregCA]

Not everyone has replaced bones with the Stapedectomy.

That is true, but @alexh mentioned s/he had otosclerosis. When you suffer from otosclerosis and perform a stapedotomy/stapedectomy (there's a slight difference but it's not really useful to get into details for the purpose of this discussion), the surgery consists of restoring the mobility of the ossicular chain by replacing the stapes bone with a prosthesis.

I'm sure there are other medical reasons for removing the stapes, but when you have otosclerosis, it's really to put a prosthesis in its place.

 

[alexh]

@GregCA I completely lost my hearing after a couple of days. The surgery was done with laser. In the other ear I had a stapedectomy that went well, since it also had otosclerosis.

 

[GregCA]

@GregCA I completely lost my hearing after a couple of days. The surgery was done with laser. In the other ear I had a stapedectomy that went well, since it also had otosclerosis.

Oh I understand now.
How were you able to tell that you had lost your hearing after 2 days? At 2 days aren't you still with packing that essentially gives you the impression that you are deaf anyways? That's what I had for about a week: it's only after removing the packing that I could have determined whether or not I was really deaf.

 

[alexh]

@GregCA Sorry for being imprecise! When I wrote a couple of days I was not referring to exactly two Yes, you are right, after the ENT removed the packing the first time, I was already not able to hear very well but in the audiometry I recognized several words with the operated ear. My ear was still very swollen thou, so the ENT put some packing or something back for more time. By the way, when he put the packing back it hurt like hell.

 

[GregCA]

Sorry for being imprecise! When I wrote a couple of days I was not referring to exactly two Yes, you are right, after the ENT removed the packing the first time, I was already not able to hear very well but in the audiometry I recognized several words with the operated ear. My ear was still very swollen thou, so the ENT put some packing or something back for more time. By the way, when he put the packing back it hurt like hell.

OK I understand better now - thanks for the clarification.
Anything that gets near the ear drum is extremely uncomfortable indeed. When my surgeon removed the packing he had to clean up some scabs that mixed with wax and other materials near the ear drum. He went in with the microscope and some kind of pliers and pulled - and indeed it was quite something.

 

[Ziggyzaggy2020]

Alexh, have you requested for revision surgery? That is if the prostesis slipped out for any reason -being slightly shorter than it needed to be, or because the skin graft it was poking into the inner ear side may have tightened up on healing, causing it to push up the prosthesis and displace it enough to stop conducting etc.

 

[Ziggyzaggy2020]

Alexh, I am thinking revision surgery at the least at the least may help clarify what the real issue is for the loss, with nothing to lose since you already have no hearing in that ear.