Woke Up in the Middle of the Night to SSHL: I Never Thought It Would Happen to Me

I woke up in the middle of the night to excruciating loud tinnitus & hearing loss. My initial reaction was to panic because I suffer from severe tinnitus and this only made it worse.

Much worse. I emailed my primary care physician and my audiologist but having read about it on this website, I knew what I needed to do, see a doctor right away.

The doctor at Urgent Care prescribed me Prednisone which I started taking within 12 hours of onset. It's because of Tinnitus Talk that I knew what needed to be done.

Let's just hope it works.

 

I’ll be thinking of you and hoping you can get some relief.

 

I hope it helps you! What’s the dosage you’re on?

 

It's terrible to hear. Hope all goes well after taking some prednisone!

 

I hope prednisone works for you and your hearing comes back to baseline soon

 

I hope everything goes well for you.

 

Thank you! Whether it was the Prednisone or nature taking its course, I'm much better. I want to say that I learned something, but honestly I didn't do anything to cause it, it just happened on its own which concerns me.

 

Hello Valeri,
The doctor prescribed me Prednisone 20mg. I take 3 tabs daily for 7 days, then 2 tabs daily for 3 days, then 1 tab daily for 3 days.

 

I'm glad you feel much better now.

By the way, how did you know it was sudden hearing loss? Did you get an audiometric test?

 

Juan, I couldn't hear any higher frequencies out of my left ear.

 

Thank you, I seem to be better while I continue to take the steroid. I know I shouldn't think this, but I now worry what happened once could happen again. I've never been like this but my years of tinnitus has taught me to expect the unexpected.

 

Thank you my friend.

 

Thank you, it seems I'll be on this for some time.

 

I'd get on nicotinamide riboside too.

If autoimmune, consider low dose naltrexone.

 

@Michael B, just a thought but my autoimmune appears to be virus related. Viruses can attack your hearing remain dormant in your body for years and reactivate. At least that’s what appears to be my case.

 

May I ask how you found out? What type of specialist found this out and what tests are needed? Are there any therapies? Thanks

 

Hello Chinmoku,

Believe it or not it was my ENT. It is a specific blood test in which they look for autoimmune deficiencies. Kind of a bummer because out of all the people with hearing loss only 1% is due to an autoimmune deficiency. Certain viruses can mask themselves in your body. Sometimes they attack the body and go from one ear to the other, but sometimes they attack one ear and then they remain in your body until for whatever reason they reactivate. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks. I had a positive otoblot test but no other sign of autoimmune or dormant virus except possibly worsening tinnitus. They said my hearing was stable so they excluded autoimmune. May I ask:

1. What blood test specifically you did? Also,
2. Did they test for virus presence? And,
3. Where is your ENT based? Finally,
4. Is there any therapy / medication in these cases?

Thanks.
PS. Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss privately.

 

@Chinmoku ....will do.