Tinnitus, Dysacusis, Muffled Hearing and Ear Pain Out of Nothing

Dear community,

I was already reading many many posts before I got an account. Especially the Success Stories always gave me a feeling of hope. But let's start with my journey so far. Sorry for the long text that will now follow!

I still know the exact date, time and situation when I first noticed my tinnitus: October 23rd last year in the evening. But before that happened, two weeks earlier something else happened.

It was the last week at my old job. I wanted that everyone kept me in mind as a good colleague/employee so I worked very hard every day. I begun every day by waking up at around 6 AM and started to work at about 6:30 AM. During this time I was really focused on working out so after my 9 hour shift I would always do some workouts even though I was completely exhausted of my job already.

On Thursday I think I noticed that something was itching inside my ear so I started scratching my skin next to the affected left ear. As the feeling would not disappear, I was scratching and moving my skin really hard and suddenly my ear felt full. I already knew this feeling as it would sometimes happen when my ear was blocked because I was using a cotton swab to clean my ears (I know this is something we should not do on our own). As this would not disappear after a week, I was a bit nervous and went to an ENT to get my ear checked. Surprisingly, she found nothing and told me to relax even though the audiogram showed that my hearing on my left ear was worse at 8 kHz compared to the right one. I also had the feeling I could not really understand people talking that were sitting/walking next to my left (affected) side. But because my ENT told me I should not worry about it as it would disappear on its own, I started to forget about the issue.

Fast forward to the day my tinnitus started:
I was exhausted after a stressful day of work and my workout I just did (it was Friday and I was just glad the weekend had started). After taking a shower I wanted to go to bed when I realized there was a very very loud and high pitched noise coming from my left ear. I told my mom about it but was not really freaking out as I sometimes had such noises before that would disappear after a few minutes or the next morning at the latest.

After waking up the next day I still noticed the noise and got a bit scared. The noise seemed to change a bit but all in all it seemed to get worse and worse. On Tuesday the next week I finally went to the ENT again who did an audiogram again which seemed to have normalized again. She also told me to get an appointment for an MRI (which was normal in the end) and told me to stay calm as it was caused by stress. I told her I could barely think as the noise was SO LOUD it could not be masked. During those first weeks I was crying almost every day. I was feeling like my life was over at the age of 22. I really had no hope the noise would ever become better as not even one doctor could help me. I visited neurologists, ENTs, orthopedists etc.

After about four or five weeks I started to notice some improvements as the noise would not be that loud the whole time. I was having some hope again that the noise would disappear but as you can see up to now it hasn't vanished. However, the 10/10 loud noise is now completely gone. Sometimes, I can hear this noise again but it is a volume 1/10 and I do not hear it everyday now. Instead, it is now mainly a high pitched hiss that is sometimes gone, sometimes at a low volume but also sometimes still a 7/10 I would say. But at least it's fluctuating and the hissing noises are also different. Everything changes a lot during the day. But also my ear spikes a lot during the day. Sometimes the noises are barely noticeable while I can sometimes even hear it with the TV being turned on.

Besides, I also developed a dysacusis which I think started in parallel with my tinnitus. It was worse in the beginning than it is now. But still, rushing water, traffic noises and especially the noise of a hairdryer are really really bad. I noticed that my left ear would not or barely hear noises over 13 kHz while my right ear hears up to 17/18 kHz.

Sometimes my ear starts to hurt and feel full. And even though my MRI was unsuspicious the last ENT also did a BERA and today he told me the left side would be a bit delayed. So now I also am scared that something is wrong with my auditory nerve even though the MRI that was done in November seemed to be good.

I really do not know if there is still hope for me. I would love to hear that my journey so far still seems to be positive as my noise changed, my dysacusis seems to get slowly better and the ear pain as well as the ear fullness do not occur as often as they did before.

Thank you to those who read my whole story.

 

I'm sorry to hear what you're going through. I know how difficult it can be. Have you been exposed to loud sounds in the past?

 

Welcome to the forum. You seem to have similar symptoms of SSHL which I suffered from December last year. I have profound hearing loss on my left ear and severe vertigo plus new loud roaring rumbling tinnitus in the deaf ear. The ears feel full, pressured and plugged all the time. Now it has bad hyperacusis or sound sensitivity. So I understand the difficulty you are going through. The best we can do now, after seeing all the doctors and experts, is to try to be positive and optimistic that things will improve with time and you are seeing that from your above statement. The body will try to adjust to the new hearing capabilities. It is going to be a slow recovery and we need to have utmost patience. One day at a time. Take care. God bless.

 

Hello Havel,

well I know I was listening to music via my AirPods very loud during the time I wrote my Bachelor's thesis (May to the end of June). Sometimes I listened to music a bit louder than you should in my car. But during the time I started to hear less in my left eye, I did none of the above...

 

But isn't there meant to be a trigger for SSHL? I had not much stress, was not exposed to loud noises and was quite happy the time I started to hear less and develop tinnitus. Do you know or read of some cases that have similar symptoms like us with a "success" in the end? Like being able to hear more or their tinnitus had disappeared after some months/years? I know the best we can do is to stay positive and I try REALLY hard to have a positive mindset. This also works when I barely hear my tinnitus or notice an improvement. But as soon as I get a spike or I notice a "step backwards" I am completely desperate and doubt that I will ever feel better.

 

Many people with SSHL cannot trace to a definite cause or trigger. Some can, such as from Meniere's and from viral infection or acoustic neuroma. Others simply have no clue why SSHL hits them without any prior warning. As for recovery, it is generally slow and require lots of patience. But if you browse some SSHL support groups you can see more experienced people saying to the new comers that things will improve or that people and their brain adjust and get used to the new normal, much like habituation even if the tinnitus stays. It is therefore helpful to stay positive and hopeful.

Saying that, we also should be mentally prepared that there will be setbacks along the way. So try to avoid negative reactions which will cause the brain to go into fight or flight mode and delay the habituation process.

 

Do you know positive success stories of people recovering from tinnitus and even being able to hear better after some months?

I really am afraid that this will stay forever as I can not habituate. The volume and the noise itself changes multiple times per day. Also, the noise increases when I eat something "harder" like a bread or pizza with a hard crust. I haven't read that somebody else suffers from that symptom?

But the worst really is the dysacusis which prevents me from going to "louder" places such as restaurants, bars, etc. Even at home I have to be careful with some noises as these trigger my dysacusis...

 

Yes there are those cases of improvement. You can read up the Success Stories on Tinnitus Talk or browse support groups of SSHL and read up people's postings. That is the general impression I get when reading enough of those postings. Whether those successes will happen to you or me no one can say but at least we have hope that things will improve over time for some people. One thing we can do is also to check on available treatments, such as BAHA and cochlear implant. Those will be last resorts if hearing aids don't help. I am no expert on these but you can Google search them to find out more details.