Tinnitus Started 17 Days After Stapedectomy; Constant Hissing in Operated Ear for Six Days!

I had a stapedectomy 17 days ago and I could notice a huge improvement in hearing immediately after the surgery. I heard the heartbeat sounds in my ear, cracking, shooting pain but that went away. There has been a constant hissing in the operated ear for the past 6 days; it can best be described as air escaping from a tire. Is this normal? Has anyone else had a stapedectomy with these results? My hearing is adjusting and improving everyday and is not as hypersensitive as it was in the beginning but this constant hissing is just not going away. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

 

Karen,
Thank you so much for responding; I really appreciate it. I read every post from the other forum that you recommended. I am hopeful that this will go away as I did not have tinnitus beforehand, only little crackles every now and then. This is day 8 of hissing tinnitus. I also have otosclerosis and will wait and see how this ear settles before deciding on getting my left ear done. Besides the hissing, everything has gone extremely well with the surgery. Dizziness lasted exactly 10 days; no nausea or vomiting and instant hearing. If this hissing goes away, I would absolutely recommend it. Have you decided what to do about yourself?
Kindest regards,
Michelle

 

Hi Karen,
No, I did not have pulsatile tinnitus before the surgery or any other kind for that matter; only a little clicking sound every now and then. Today is day 11 with constant hissing tinnitus and I just keep hoping that it will go away as my hearing is still not settled after the surgery. I'm waiting to see the audiologist to make sure that everything else is fine with pressure etc… as my surgeon is a 7-hour drive away. It sounds as though you have really been through a lot with your tinnitus. I was looking up some suggestions for coping with t and came across Beyond Tinnitus.com. Have you ever heard of it or tried it?
Michelle

 

Same thing sorta happened to me. I had a stapedectomy nearly a couple of years ago and my tinnitus started a few months afterwards. My ENT still isn't certain about what happened but speculates that scar tissue grew around the plastic prosthesis in my ear and possibly damaged the nerve.

 

Yeah, it's still there but it's comfortably dull most of the time. As far as I can tell, it hasn't gotten better or worse since it started. If it is quiet or absent most of the time, then I can hope that someday they'll come up with either a med or a procedure that will elongate the silence.

 

Sadly, no. Whatever caused the T also caused my hearing in the operated ear to regress to being just a little bit better than it was before the surgery. It's still my better ear, though.

 

Thanks for responding Alex. I guess dealing with tinnitus really is a state of mind.

I still have hissing tinnitus (13 days nonstop), a heavy head for the last few days, some dizziness and facial numbness on and off since Friday. This is certainly not what I expected post-op at four weeks tomorrow. My hearing in the operated ear has settled down considerably but still has a little ways to go but I can definitely hear. I just keep waiting for all the other nonsense to go away. At this point in time, I believe I would have just decided on hearing aids and not do the surgery.

 

With regard to Beyond Tinnitus, they did email me and suggested that I wait until two months post surgery to try their product. I have had constant hissing tinnitus for four weeks now and am starting to come to terms that it may not go away even though I did not have it pre-surgery. I have also experienced facial weakness and have had an MRI and CT Scan; I was treated with a steroid and anti-viral meds for shingles on the facial nerve. I still have some different feelings on the right side of my head and have another call with my ENT today. It seems that I have had every single uncommon complication from the surgery except total deafness. My hearing is still great and is still settling; I can't sing loud or shout out without hearing a vibration in my head.

 

Hi @tedmino -

My experience has been very similar to yours. I had my stapedectomy on Nov 17. The surgery went really well, and at my first post op checkup, the doctor said that he was very happy with the progress. I could definitely feel the difference. Then one night (approx 12 days after my surgery) I sneezed and forgot to open my mouth. There was a loud tuning fork sound in my ear that lasted a few seconds. And from then on I have had constant buzzing in my ear. I definitely hear much better in terms of volume, however due to the buzzing/ringing I can't comprehend what the other person is saying. I have done one course of steroids but that hasn't helped. Now I am 5 weeks post op and waiting for the buzzing to subside. I've read and heard my doctor say that it could take up to 6 months for hearing to get better. Has yours gotten any better?

Thanks
AG

 

Hi AG,

I am curious to know how you are doing now. I had my stapedectomy done 5 weeks ago and I woke up middle of the night a week ago and heard a noise in my operated ear. Since then it never went away. It's sometimes louder than other times. Getting depressed as I'm not sure what to expect. Saw my doctor yesterday and he prescribed steroid (Medrol).

 

Tedmino, any update?

 

@Blue Princess ,
My son has is oppetation age 7 and again when 16 and now 21 and faces another as the mass that causes him have his ear bones removed has come back 3 times.
Lucky he never complained of Tinnitus and hope his next oppetation does not cause tinnitus for him .

Give it time and hope your tinnitus settles down for you .....lots of love glynis

 

Thanks Glynis! I'm also hoping for the best.

 

My tinitus started the day after my stapedectomy and has been a constant companion for almost 20yrs. Hissing at a volume that can be ignored but it's still annoying. I traded one condition for another. My doc's response when I told him I hear a hissing noise "it happens sometimes". When I asked when it would go away: "sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't". After almost 20yrs, I can say with authority that I fall into the latter category. There was no mention of tinitus pre surgery.
I went into the surgery with great expectations and left with tinitus. I also am left with the cynical belief that surgical procedures are not just about cures and correcting, they're also about $$$. My otosclerosis was not that bad and maybe if I had waited and done it later with the newer techniques, I would not have tinitus. Woulda, coulda, shoulda!
I was told what I wanted to hear - my hearing would be significantly restored with a routine procedure.
Wellllll - maybe not so routine in reality and with an additional result that wasn't mentioned.
I don't know how may people have had the sedative/anesthesia wear off in the middle of the stapedectomy, but that was not an enjoyable experience! Listening to the surgeon rooting around in my ear while the anesthesiologist was telling me not to move - about 1000x! move a toe - DON"T MOVE! I was not a happy patient! Hope others fared much better.

 

Hi Matt,
My surgery on the left year was done 30 years ago and to this date I have absolutely no complaint. My hearing on that ear is nearly perfect. However, my surgery on the other ear done 6 months ago did not have as good results. My hearing got better from almost deaf to 50% range, but the constant ringing started 5 weeks after the surgery. I was very depressed in the beginning and saw several doctors, but slowly I am trying to accept it. Doctors don't really know what causes it. But what bothers me is my doctor didn't tell me about this before the surgery and I had no knowledge of it. Otherwise i would have chosen hearing aid instead of the surgery. Oh well!

 

HI tedmino, A Grover

I am new to this site,
I got hissing sound 1 day after the surgery and still having that after 14 days !! nto too lound but its thyere almost all day , going mild to louder a bit..

Will it go away after the bandage is taken out? or will it take few weeks to get rid of it?

Operation was successful and i dint have tinitus before

Hope ypu ar efeeling ok and got rid of annoying sound ..pls reply

 

Nobody can tell you for sure.
There's a chance it's going to go away, especially since you didn't have T before. Give it some time: it takes a long time for the ear to heal after a stapedotomy.

 

@tedmino @A Grover
Did either of your problems go away? I'm experiencing the same issue it started 15 days post op and I'm going crazy. I can't sleep or focus on anything else. Wondering if it actually does go away? I didn't have an issue with and sounds before surgery however, I do also suffer from hearing loss caused by nerve damage.

 

Nobody can tell you if it's going to go away or not.
If you do have nerve damage, then you have a "solid ground" for tinnitus, but that doesn't mean that you are doomed: many people with nerve damage don't have T.

When you do your post-op hearing test, check out:

1. How closed your air-bone gap got (5-10 dB wide air gap is a good outcome)
2. Whether your bone conduction changed, especially in the high frequencies: sometimes HF hearing gets worse after a stapedectomy - it happened to me, but it only got slightly worse.

 

Have any of you considered a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid)? The BAHA bypasses the middle ear entirely and some research has shown that it markedly reduces and in many cases completely gets rid of tinnitus for people that have middle ear hearing loss (which all of you fall into - minus those that have inner ear hearing loss).

 

Anyone?