Tinnitus + Hearing Loss in One Ear = ...

Hi everyone,

I came across this forum while researching a cure scam that almost took me in. So, thanks to this forum and its creators and moderators. I am an admin/moderator on another forum and know the work it takes to keep a forum useful, so I appreciate and applaud your efforts in providing this valuable resource for all of us who suffer from this awful malady.

My tinnitus I believe stems from use of antidepressants. It's a long story, but I have a friend who extracted about 20 thousand pages of documents from GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals proving that their own clinical trials established that Paxil causes neural damage to the frontal lobe of the brain. The same is true of other SSRI antidepressants. They can also cause ancillary damage to auditory neurons. Timing strongly suggests that the antidepressants cause my tinnitus.

They also inflict terrible withdrawal symptoms, amongst a host of other evils. Fortunately, I didn't suffer from those, and stopped in time to avoid damage to my emotional and spiritual existence. But the ringing in the ears was a done deal. I have lived with it since 2010.

Last August, I awoke one morning deaf in my left ear. I went to the ENT clinic, which sent me to a local hospital, where the docs sent me to a large regional hospital. Total hearing loss: 0%. After ruling out a tumor, they put me on prednisone for two weeks. After the prednisone didn't help, they told me I would never regain hearing in that ear. Shortly thereafter, I was standing at a busy crosswalk, waiting for the light to turn green. When it did, I took one step forward. My right ear heard everyone around me cry out, while my left ear barely detected a low rumbling vibration. I stopped. A bus went hurtling by about 3 inches in front of my nose.

In the weeks after that, I regained about 20% volume in my left ear. I'm a musician, and I was dismayed to find out that what audio signal I had regained was about a half-step flat in pitch. That is, where my right ear heard a B note played on keyboard, my left ear detected a B-flat.

After a while, the pitch was corrected. But what I am about to tell you makes me wish that there was an easy medical procedure to render me stone deaf in my left ear -- in other words, just delete the part of my brain that processes audio signals from that side.

It is this: since I lost hearing in that ear, it is a roaring high-pitch ocean of noise, so loud that I can't even hear the tinnitus in my right ear any more. That would seem to be a blessing. It is not. The noise in my left is much, much louder than the tinnitus used to be in both ears combined. It is so awful that I am ready to leave this life. Not suicidal, but if the bus had taken me out, I wouldn't mourn it, if that makes any sense. I'm not throwing any kind of pity party here, it's just that awful. It's like having a hair dryer on cool setting without the wind jammed up against my left ear 24/7. Even in my sleep it's there, keening at ungodly frequencies. Imagine a synth keyboard tuned up 2 octaves, and some devil is playing a chord of all 12 notes of the chromatic scale, right into your left ear, at volume 11 (out of 10). It's awful. I would much rather have low-level tinnitus in both ears with both ears fully functional. If I had that, I would probably stop complaining about tinnitus altogether. Well, I probably wouldn't, because it's awful as it is, but that's my feeling right now anyway.

Thank you for reading this far if you have. It helps to find this forum and read the voices of others out there who are dealing with this affliction. I look forward to getting to know you all.

Yours,

Farganne

 

It sucks there is no cure for T.

 

Dear Farganne,

I am sorry to read your story. Mine is almost same as yours. Only difference is that mine is due to a medical condition called otosclerosis, a genetic disorder as the doctors say. Coming to your case, I came to know that there are hearing aids that can help amplify the sound and make us realise the sound by which the we tend to ignore the effect of Tinnitus. I had just ordered one. Mine is a moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss in my left ear. I can give my feed back after testing it for about sometime.

Wish and pray peaceful time ahead for you.

Gayathri

 

This sounds awful and I hope there is something that can help you.

 

God may be able to help. Try prayer.