Treatments for Damaged Speech Comprehension?

I still have bad speech comprehension and miss sentences. I'm not sure if it is from hearing damage and/or brain damage from antibiotics.
by the way what are normal numbers for a DPOE distortion product otoacoustic emission test for DP and NF?
I read on a hospital website that hearing mumbling is a common hearing loss symptom. I'm wondering where the damage is in my inner ear, or brain nerve, or middle ear or somewhere else?

I'm just having a terrible time with these ENTs ignoring me or sending me for testing.

 

Hello @physics13

I'm in the same boat as you searching for an answer to my problems. If you want to learn more about my issue you can read my introductory thread https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...nnitus-hearing-loss-—-normal-audiogram.12040/

Over the past 4 months my hearing has been getting worse. My ability to comprehend speech with any background noise is getting harder and harder every day. I've read many articles all pointing to our nerve fibers (auditory nerve) being the culprit. You can have hair cells that are intact picking up frequencies and sound waves, but when you start losing the nerve fibers in which many are connected to inner hair cells and a few to outer, it's almost as if you have a microphone and you begin to unplug the cables that help that microphone pick up sounds clearly. The loss of nerve fibers make the hair cells much weaker in promptly picking up noise. So the damage for you has to be at the nerves and not the hair cells. Try and get an ABR test done (Auditory Brain Response) and you should see how your brain is reacting to when you hear sounds with it.

I have an appointment scheduled tomorrow at The University of Michigan to get an ABR and DPOAE test done. I've had 3 audiograms coming out as normal hearing audiograms yet I have lost a lot of the sensation I had with my hearing and I'm struggling with processing any kind of noise.

 

The doctor should answer that question. You paid for the test.

 

Yes it's terrible to lose hearing and musical discernment and precision. I made the mistake I think of going to a local ENT and the other ENT I went to wasn't good.
It seems that it's difficult to know where the damage is exactly when you lose speech comprehension and clarity. I think it is possible to regrow nerves, I had bell's palsy and some of the nerves regrew but I still have weakness in my eyes. I had an ABR test and I think it was ok so I'm not sure where the damage is. The PCP told me that my DPOE looked really bad.

I went on prednisone for months and I recovered some hearing, this is the standard treatment according to the ENT surgeon I emailed.

I've also been taking vitamin ACE, NAC, ginko biloba and ACLAR and alpha lipoic acid now but I'm not sure these supplements are safe. I also started borage oil and it seems to help with nerve conduction. I kind of wish now I had started the magnesium ACLAR and ALA sooner. Apparently it may be the case that these antioxidants help stop damage from reactive oxygen species from noise or antibiotic damage.
there is a mushroom supplement called lion's mane that may help nerve regrowth but I'm not sure about the safety of it.

What may be the best and safest thing to do is not to take supplements, and avoid any damaging loud noises with high quality ear plugs I'm not really sure.