PSA - Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

[cutter]

Posting this so you may avoid having the same happen to you. One day back in January I notices a stuffy feeling in both my ears and trouble hearing with no other symptoms. I ignored it for about a week and then went to my family doctor who told me I had fluid in my left ear. He prescribed Flonase and told me to return in three weeks if it didn't clear up. Well it didn't and on the second visit, he didn't see any fluid and prescribed a antihistamine and a steroid burst. Once again return in three weeks if no resolution and he would sent me to a ENT.

After another three weeks with no change I went ahead and went to the ENT expecting to be told I had a blocked eustachian tube and to be told to stand on my head while using some very expensive nose drops.

Well after listening to my story and looking in my ears, the ENT tapped a tuning fork and touched it to the top of my head. When I could hear it in my good ear, but not in my bad I knew I was kittened. He told me I have http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hear...es/sudden.aspx sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) in the affected ear which was probably permanent. The kicker was that if it had been properly diagnosed and treated in the first 72 hours, there would have been a 80% chance of a full recovery. So now I am looking at getting a hearing aid much sooner than planned.

So if you wake up that morning or suddenly notice that you can't hear out of one ear with no cold or allergy symptoms don't ignore it. Try these two tests. Call someone or a business, say the Social Security Administration, who has a long voicemail message. Hold the handset up to one ear then the other. If you hear fine in one ear, but not the other, do a hum test. Hum with your mouth closed and put you finger in one ear then the next.

If you can't hear the humming in the same ear that you could not hear the phone, you have a real problem. Since there are plenty of horror stories on the Internet of family doctors mis-diagnosing SSHL, I recommend calling a ENT and tell them that you think you have SSHL. If they blow you off by giving you a appointment a week later or you can't go directly to a ENT go to a Emergency Department. Remember you have 72 hours to get treatment. If they tell you you don't have SSHL, understand why not. If they didn't do a Weber (tuning fork) test ask why not. Be a jerk it's your hearing.

[BarneyCallahan]

Cutter,
I'm sorry to hear about your hearing loss. About 2 1/2 years ago I too experienced sudden hearing loss. I went to my GP doctor the same morning I realized I was 'deaf' in one ear (turned out to be "profound,' not total). In my case my doctor immediately initiated a 'shotgun' approach including antihistamine, steroid and something else that I don't now remember. But, alas, it was to no effect. After referral to an excellent specialist, etc., my hearing loss is permanent. It really sucks and makes it hard to socialize in groups or noisy environments. I've had good (expensive) hearing aids now for almost 2 years. While they help some, they're not miraculous. While I can hear louder, I still don't understand very well if there is background noise or more than one person talking, etc. So don't expect even the best hearing aids to work miracles.
Bottom line: Cherish and protect your hearing (as well as all your other faculties) your whole life.

I am retired a LEO. I have been exposed to unprotected gunfire at close proximity on several occasions, including 5.56/.223 (ouch). Also, there was a time in my career when my employer transitioned to a much louder and higher pitched siren, which for a time was still mounted on the roof (in the light bar). It downright hurt until you could get the windows rolled up. I didn't know of its effect on my hearing until years after I had retired.

[RoyGBiv]

Thanks for the warning.!

[JV_]

I appreciate the reminder.

[cutter]

Sorry to bring back a zombie thread, but I want to recommend a treatment for SSHL.

Last year I had a cochlear implant done on my affected ear. The results are great and I highly recommend the procedure. I had profound hearing loss in that ear and hearing aid was worthless. With the implant, I score over 85% comprehension using both ears and 50% or so in the affected ear.

Most insurances (TRICARE for one) will not pay for a implant for single sided loss but some have started to. I had Aetna through my employer at the time and my ENT was able to win the appeal when it was denied. It is a same day surgery and my ENT says a simple one.

Once age I rate it 3 1/2 stars, you will not get your normal hearing back, voices sound like a SSB radio, but it is a functional fix for your hearing loss.

[Grey]

My friend had this happen to him earlier this year - nailed it in the 72 hour window and recovered. Definitely a good reminder.

[Gater]

Sorry to bring back a zombie thread, but I want to recommend a treatment for SSHL.

Last year I had a cochlear implant done on my affected ear. The results are great and I highly recommend the procedure. I had profound hearing loss in that ear and hearing aid was worthless. With the implant, I score over 85% comprehension using both ears and 50% or so in the affected ear.

Most insurances (TRICARE for one) will not pay for a implant for single sided loss but some have started to. I had Aetna through my employer at the time and my ENT was able to win the appeal when it was denied. It is a same day surgery and my ENT says a simple one.

Once age I rate it 3 1/2 stars, you will not get your normal hearing back, voices sound like a SSB radio, but it is a functional fix for your hearing loss.

Cutter, thank you for sharing your experience with this, and with the cochlear implant. I didn't realize we had been down this road in another thread before, but we had another member who had a scare previously (fortunately, with a good outcome):

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....edge-out-there

Unfortunately, my experience was much like yours: mis/non-diagnosis over multiple visits before finally getting in with ENT, who immediately recognized it for what it was and attempted a hail Mary--but too late, and to no effect. @Grey , your friend was extremely fortunate.

There are people faced with far greater challenges (including the completely deaf), but I can attest to how debilitating this is: there are circumstances where I am completely unable to understand people--even at close quarters--including (to his astonishment) a former Marine DI that I have known for a long time. Cochlear was recommended to me, but I haven't gotten there yet. Hearing aid is basically useless: I primarily wear it to signal to other folks that there is a problem (and it doesn't work very well for that, either--although I have had people sign to me...).

To all, be aware that this exists--you are your own best patient advocate. Regardless of whether you encounter SSHL or not, you are on P-F, so you shoot: PROTECT YOUR HEARING! I had shrugged off typical shooter (or maybe not: think antitank weps) hearing loss in my strongside ear...now that ear is my "good" one.

[Hemiram]

About 25 years ago, I had the ear infection from hell. I had a ton of them when I was a kid, but this one at 39 was unlike any I ever had. It started out mild enough, and I stupidly went to the local urgent care on a Friday night. The doctor looks in my right ear and says, "Yeah, you've got a pretty bad looking infection going!". He took a q-tip and touched my eardrum and said, "Did that hurt?", when I didn't really react to it. I said, "Yeah, a little!". He looked confused and said, "It should hurt a lot!". He gives me a prescription and I go off to get it filled. Turns out he gave me the wrong antibiotic and by Monday, it's rolling. I called my regular doctor, who got me in and looked in my ear and said, 'Wow, it looks bad!", then he looks at the bottle of pills I had and said, "That's not the right antibiotic for an ear infection!". He gives me another prescription and some samples to get me going, and a shot too. It took the steam out of it, but it came roaring back, and the left ear decided to join the fun. I ended up having to take an insanely expensive antibiotic that cost about $20 a pill twice a day for 2 weeks. At it's peak, I had goo pouring out of both ears and was deaf as a rock. Finally, it cleared after several nights of misery. I went to the ENT doctor who gave me a hearing test which showed a slight loss in the left ear, almost certainly due to this guy yelling all the time With his giant lungs and head, he was LOUD.

My right ear, the one most affected was really great, I could still hear to 20K! The only thing that seemed to come out of all of it, was my right ear needed to be "popped" a couple of times a day or my hearing was slightly muffled, and my ear felt "full". It continued this way for many years. About 2017, I began having to "pop" my ear a lot more often, it wouldn't clear as long as it used to, and it was more muffled when it was "full". In late 2019, it got much worse and I had to "pop" it every few minutes, or it would feel "Full" and be muffled. I called the ENT place and the appt took forever to get and I had o cancel once when my car doors froze shut and I couldn't get in! Finally, I get the appointment, and it's over on the other side of town, and I had problems finding it. I wish I hadn't found it at all.

The Audiologist gives me a hearing test, and without popping my right ear, I have both a high and low freq loss. Then I see the doctor, who looks at the hearing test, and says, "You have a very strange hearing loss!", and walked out to talk to the audiologist about me. He comes back in, and whacks a tuning fork and puts it next to my right ear and then touches it to the bone behind my ear, and then touches it to the center of my forehead. He asks me which was louder, and I said "Touching it to the bone behind my ear", and then he touched it to my forehead again, and asks "Where does the sound seem to be coming from?", I pointed to the center of my forehead and he looks like I told him I could fly. Then he put the tuning fork next to my ear, and then touched it to the bone again, and asked which was louder, I said, "Next to my ear, it's way louder!". He shook his head and said, "I don't get it!", and goes out with my file and talks to another doctor, who comes in and does the exact same thing, and they both look totally confused. After they left and talked a while, the doc came back in and said, "This is very odd. You can do three things, live with it, get a hearing aid, or have a tube put into your eardrum!". I don't know anyone who really is happy with hearing aids, so I passed on that, and then I really screwed up, at least temporarily, and had the tube put in. Now, my right ear is worthless, except once in a great while the high end seems to come back for a while, but I can't even "pop" it anymore, I guess the tube lets the pressure bleed off so the tube doesn't open. On top of that, about once or twice an hour, my ear pops on it's own, loud enough to startle me when I'm awake and loud enough to wake me up when I am asleep! Earwax production has skyrocketed in my right ear, and I just hope that when the tube falls out, and my eardrum heals up, I can "pop" my right ear back like I used to be able to do. I just wish I had left well enough alone. I think the balloon in the eustation tube is what I need, but my insurance won't cover it and it's thousands of dollars if I pay for it myself. And if it doesn't work..I would be more than upset. But it's going on 9 months with this and it's beyond old at this point. All I wanted was to not have to continuously pop my ear!