Sudden Hearing loss _{Page 2 of 105}

Thanks Michael!
My hearing loss is severe, i don't hear anything at all with my right ear. I'll try to find out where it could be done in Atlanta. I appreciate your input very much!

I have recently had the same thing happen to me- 36 years old- female- it is very upsetting. Did the steroid treatment and its just a few days now since I finished steroids, I dont really see any change. I had them shot into my eardrum- someone from my work told me that she had the same thing and it was THREE TO FOUR months before she got her hearing back....from what I understand might not come back....they dont seem to know too much about it. If you have learned anything since you posted this, let me know. I can use all the advice I can get. Right now I am taking 1000mg Vitamin E- daily b/c I read a study online that showed Vitamin E might be related to improved hearing loss.....who knows.

Hi,
sorry to hear about your hearing loss. I never got my hearing back. I actually did a similar procedure, not really shots but a tube was inserted into my ear thru which i delivered the steroid drops for 2 weeks. I started this treatment 2.5 weeks after the hearing loss and the ENT told me that it was rather late but we could try. And i did take the oral steroids starting 2 days after the hearing loss onset. My dosage was rather low since i am pregnant. Not only do i still not hear but the hole in the ear drum never healed and they tell me now that if i want it healed i'd need another surgery to patch it. It is all very individual, my loss was 100% overnight, this is a bad scenario, the more severe the loss the less the chances of getting it back. Good luck!

Thank you so much for your reply. It is so comforting to hear from someone who has gone through the same thing. Though my hearing loss is not 100% - it is still not back to normal and I guess now its a wait and see situation. Have you adjusted to the loss of hearing? Does it cause dizziness and ringing noises?

I think you have a lot better chances if your hearing loss wasn't 100%. I have completely adjusted to not hearing with one ear, the only times i run into problems hearing is when i am in the noisy place and someone is trying to tell me something from the non-hearing side. I had a lot of static noise especially in the noisy places during the first few weeks but it's gotten a lot better now. I've heard that the ringing is worse in people with partial loss. I think dizziness depends on the cause of the hearing loss. I never had it except for the first day when i suddenly lost my hearing. A good thing is that you started your treatment early, so the chances are a lot better. Good luck! Also since your hearing loss is partial you could at least take advantage of the hearing aid if you ever decide to get one. I know it is frustrating to even think about it but with 100% loss you can't even do that - i am really scared to loose my second ear...

to kslm23
I think we emailed a few months ago correct. I am sorry that you hearing never came back. Please keep in mind that there are what is called cochlear implants that they use with people who completeluy lose their hearing in both eras. Also here is a lot of reserach going on here both in the implnats and general hair cell growth. i read an article a few months ago that they think in 5-10 years they will be able to regrow hair cells which they think are what die and cause the hearing loss.

faith in science I wish you well
Michael

Michael, you are right, the technology does wonders, one needs to hope for the best. Thanks for your wishes!

I can completely understand how you feel - being worried about the loss of hearing in the second ear. I am afraid to fly anywhere now for fear it will effect my ears, make it worse or do something to my second ear. I am lucky it is not 100%- yes, we must be happy with small blessings, and you that you still have in one ear! Take care.

If we could just get our government to put the money into science .....we could cure the world.

this new format of the site apparently lost my two emails to you last night

First off I had 2-3 steriod shots to the inner ear, to do it they puncture the ear drum which can create its own set of problems (as it worse tinnitus until it heals sometimes takes 3-4 weeks)
The first shot was about 2.5 weeks after the loss the second shot was a month later. My hearing started to come back I believe after about 3 weeks after the first shot. so do not despair if it does not come back immediately.

The hyperbaric if done should be done in the first 30 days I did it for 3 weeks biut after almost 3 months and realized no benefit. make sure the hyperbaric is done in the big divers chanmbers
There are some less than reputable chiropracters who have like a garment bag that gives you oxygen BUT THIS DOES NOT have any benefit.

If you exp[erienced this hearing loss when you dove under water it could be a PERILYMPH fistulae which I belive is like a membrane tear or rupture in the inner ear. I am not sure what the treatment is, but this is what its called. An ENT specialist should be able to direct you to the right treatment. I do not believe they have a way of doignosing if it is a PERILYMPH fistulae other than they ask you if it happened sky diving or under water diving and if it was one of these occcurences, then they give you the treatment for this PF

Hang in there I think that almost 20-30% of people experinec some hearing loss recovery. I know iots depressing and discouraging

Sorry my last nite repsonse did not get posted

Michael

Hi everyone. About a month ago, I lost total hearing in my right ear whilst diving on holiday. I went immediately to the Hospital and saw an ENT specialist who did four basic tests and conluded that I had acute hearing loss (plus 90db) and the prognosis was not good. He gave me some basic drugs (no steroid treatment!)and he recommended hyperbaric chamber treatment.

Long story short, I completed 10 x 1 hour sessions in the hyperbaric chamber (used not for decompression sickness in this case but to increase oxygen to the body - Hyperbaric treatment involves placing the body under a pressure that allows it to absorb up to 8 times normal oxygen when breathing pure oxygen - Henrys Law) Unfortunately, there was zero improvement and a bill of $2000.00!

When I returned to the UK, I saw another ENT doc who placed me on a 10 day course of Prednisone (5mg tablets, 4 tablets - 3 times a day) but this was 2 weeks after the incident. This did have some effect, I can now hear very low frequencies, heavy base, drums etc...but this is faint and distorted...as good as useless.

My MRI tests came back fine, blood tests confirmed I had higher than average red blood cell count and high lipids. Other than that, all okay.

What annoys me though is that these ENT chaps seem quick to diagnose these types of hearing conditions as ideopathic and speculate usually on either a viral infection, blood clot, or spastic nerve. I have seen this on numerous forums. I understand that the hearing structure, nerves and brain are complicated but there are other tests that can be done that it seems are not being done.

The way I look at it, hearing is very important to all of us. These so called specialists need to get a little proactive in doing their work. If they cannot tell you what has caused the problem, they can rule out what has not, so that folks like you and I know where to focus our investigative efforts. I.e., do I have Menieres disease? Has my ear suffered the effects of barotrauma? Do I have a perilymph fistula, have I popped the round or oval window etc....

The purpose of this post is just to try and encourage you all to push your ENTs to investigate and not give up after a few simple tests. (light in the ear, audio test, tuning falk test, MRI, ear drum and Inner Ear pressure test.) There are a mulititude of factors that may cause sudden acute hearing loss and if these Docs want to hold specialist titles, they need to start performing specialist tests....and not tell me what I already know...i.e., I am deaf in mjy right ear. Sorry but they really wind me up

I agree- it seems like the treatment is not guaranteed- they are rolling the dice and hoping for the best. At the end of the day most likely since this is not a deadly disease (deafness)- they are not investing the money in research. So we are stuck with what they can give us. I am surprised you did not get a steroid treatment- from everything I have ready, that is the most common and most effective treatment. Update on my situation: My doctor says my hearing is back to acceptable levels in my left ear- and my dizziness and ringing has stopped but I do not feel like my hearing is back to normal. The Doctor says its b/c of the hole he put in my eardrum for the steroid shots and hopefully will heal in a few weeks (though its been three already and the same feeling of blockage is there). I guess I wont believe it until I can actually feel its back to normal. Either way, I have definetly adjusted to the change- and have a new outlook since this has happened to me.

Damagato, I'm glad to hear you have improvement in hearing and diziness. It might not me anywhaere near what you would consider good enough....but it's a move in the right direction. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you...let's hope things get even better over the next weeks or couple of months.

My hearing loss was strange...I'm convinced it's barotrauma related but neither of the ENTs I saw seem to agree. Yet it was sudden (i.e within 10 seconds) and happened whilst I was 10 meters under water. I had this atrange buzzing sound that increased in pitch and volume, then died away...that's when I was deaf, stone deaf in that ear! The other thing was that when I surfaced 20 minutes later, I was dazed. Not dizzy, unbalanced, vertigo etc...jsut dazed. I am still dazed now, 5 weeks later. It feels like a light concusion.

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has experienced this buzzing sound prior to losing their hearing. Or anyone who has any info at all about hearing loss, recovery, drug therapy etc. Cheers all.

Can you please read Phosphorus and if you find your symptom tallying with it, you can try Phosphorus 30.

Thans

Hi and thanks, I'll certainly give it a try. Just read the types of ailments this homeopathic medication is aimed at treating....seems everything under the sun is listed. I'll give it a try though...I'll try anything at this stage. Thanks again.

suggest you try and get an appt with ENT specialist...i agree with your comments
these ent's couldn't find their A** with both hands
here is everything i tried
prednisone (oral 2 series of does) do not think help)

acyclovir (anti viral)
ENT did not want to do, even though i had told him I had a virus leading up to SHl

finally got the dope to refer me to someone(ent specialist at UCSF (san francisco) and there i received 2-3 steriod shots to the inner ear and I believe it was this that enabled me to recoup approx
20% hearing

tried vitamin e, the diving chamber for oxygen for 3 weeks, coq-10 (circulatory vitamin/mineral supplements
etc...lumbrokinase, heparin as blood thinnner to improve circulation and break up virus, in conjunction with lumbro-kinase to flush it out...

keep the faith...

I thought i had read that there was specific treatments for the ruptured membrane that divers sometimes run into..again try a specialist
these ENTS are no more than trained chimps, swab your throat, shine the light in your ear and then ring the tuning forks

Michael

had a lot of blood tests done that seemed to indicate some type of brain virus and have subsequest;ly developed some type of chronic fatique (i think its fatigue from dealing with ENT's and other
morons..

this posting site must be ran by drs or the medial profession, it will not let you post the word for the sound that a duck makes that starts with Q and ends with K...what a joke

Michael, you make me laugh!!! I agree with a lot of what you have said 100%. It has taken me 3 weeks to post a message on this forum and I only realiased the other day it was because I too was using that duck name that is used in reference to Doctors QQuuak. (see if that works)

I'm seeing my ENT tomorrow morning for the 2nd time and will politely ask him to shift a gear or refer me elsewhere. You nailed it on the head with your brief synopsis of what they do.... light in the old ear, tuning fork....your deaf now *%^* off story. Had I known, I would have become an ENT specialist, charge £426.23 for a 30 minute visit (£60 for hearing test, £40 for tuning fork (come on???) and the rest for his valuable "time" away from the steering wheel of the Merc parked out back.

That aside, how long after your hearing loss did you have the steriod jabs? I read somewhere from someone (maybe you?) that this is painfull? If it helps me hear, bring it on. I'll certainly mention it to my errr Doc, but he's probably not qualified to hold a syringe. And one with a needle would be a definate no no.

Good talking...I let you know of any valuable information I pick up, in tips that may be of help. If you discover any miracle cures, give me a buzz.

glad i didn't scare you off with my rant; I know you can appreciate how frustrating it becomes with these so called doctors not having a clue or giving a rats A**

I think the steriod shot to the ear was about 3 weeks
so yes the sooner the better
i will not lie to you it was freaking painful, sort of like a bee sting on your brain... but when its your hearing like you said you gotta do it.

I had 3 of them so i think that wasd what finally contributed to my recovery even though its only 20%

the good news (although) its down the road id that they are finally doping research on the hair cells in the earand think in the enxt 5-10 years they will be able to rejuvenate hair cells (grow them back)

but yea i never realized how cllectively useless these ent's were until this. I mean for K-rist sake this would be like something that you think they would be prepped for as "hello its someone losing their hearing".

I gave up on mine after the first visits and spent my money and time on the web. After the first visit I knew
more than he did and I told him so in plain freaking english.

Good luck, try the nearest university that has a specialist and before you go to one...make sure they are willing to try this and have hopefully done it before

Well, just been to see my ENT. He did the standard 4 tests, confirmed no improvement from previous visit and said We'll have to wait and see... Hold your horses there my learned Doctor!

So I was very frank with him, politely told him to shift a gear or refer me elsewhere. He is now referring me to what he calls the top auto-neurologist in the country based in Cambridge, UK. It will probably take a couple of weeks to get in to see this gentleman but at least a move in the right direction. Funny, I told the ENT chap, politely, about what I had read thus far about ENTs on the web. I think he realised I was not going to role over and accept defeat...he was quite good about it I guess and said he would do the same.

He is still not confident that my condition will ever improve but agrees a second opinion would be good.

So to all my fellow deaf web buddies - dont ever get fobbed off by your ENT. FIGHT! You may end up still being deaf, or partly deaf. But hearing is obviously worth fighting for and if you can gain improvement or complete recovery. It would be worth every effort, every Penny or cent.

ent's like this should be just taken out back and put down; they're ego gets in the way of saying i don't know, lets look at other options...

keep fighting the good fight
buddy and as they say don't let the b'tards get you down

thats the same crap my ent said, "not confident i would get any hearing back", BUT unwilling to look at any other options, a plague on his house

my savior ent's (head of the department) name is Lustig, cannot remember his first name but he was at John Hopkins before he came to ucsf, both top top rated medical research universities, so search his name on google and tie in sudden hearing loss and steriod treatment. I believe
he has been doing it for a good 5 years and it seems to be relatively common practise
at the specialist level...its just these dopes in the trenches are still using their magic tuning fork and taking throat swabs and feeling they are serving manking...K-rist even Helen Keller wasn't this blind

Michael

You two are both very humorous to read. The best thing is to not give up- its so easy to feel like giving up in the beginning but then you realize why? Especially when you start reading all this other information that is available. While I liked my ENT Dr. b/c he seemed very caring and wanted to be aggressive from my first visit (with the steroid shots)- I still feel that overall none of them have too much new information- and it is just boiling down to more research on this which is so frustrating. I still have that blocked feeling in my left ear and my right ear seems to get it too at times which is scary but the Dr. says its just compensation for the eardrum perforation due to the steroid shot- but its still not healed. I am just happy that the ringing and dizziness has stopped. Thank God for small miracles. Are you both from England? What parts?
CARRSPAINTS: definetly your hearing loss is due to barotrauma (spelling?)- same thing can happen in airplanes they say. Change in air pressure brings it on. Mine was from a bad sideways dive (Huge splash) in the swimming pool. I think I burst something in there- or damaged cells or something. God knows. Now I am afraid to fly anywhere for fear something worse will happen.

Damagato
my eardrum took about a 4-6 weeks to heal up..i had more
ringing sounds/tinnitus during this time due to the whole and sounds really seemd to vibrate in my ear...sort of like a steriod speaker when its broke
so hopefully that will heal up

Good afternoon.

I was diagnosed with SSHL on June 1, 2003; I was 30 years old at the time. I lost 100% of my hearing in the left ear over night. I had no prior illness but had been wakeboarding up in Lake Havasu the week prior to onset of illness. It started the night before with increasingly loud tinnitus - similar to what you would experience at a concert - and got to a level that sounded like an airplane engine in my head. I awoke the next morning completely deaf with tinnitus and severe vertigo. I saw an ENT that morning who diagnosed me with SSHL and put me on oral steriods for 2 weeks and told me there was no cure. I could only hope the steriods would restore my hearing. I wound up in the hospital that night as the vertigo was so bad I vomited about 25 times that day and was completely dehydrated. I had all of the necessary tests, MRI, cat scan, x ray blood tests and everything was negative. Very puzzling. I was fortunate enough to be seen by Dr. House of the House Ear Clinic in Los Angeles 3 days later. He confirmed the SSHL diagnosis and i continued my steriod treatment. After the oral round of steriods was completed my hearing had only improved slightly so he injected my middle ear twice with steriods. Prior to the injections I started Hyberbaric oxygen chamber therapy and my hearing improved to 28% of word recognition at 80 decibels. It got as high as 40% but then I started the injections and i ended up losing some of the hearing I had regained. its been 2 years now. I honestly believe the HBO therapy worked well for me but the steriod injection did not. But that is not the same for everyone. The vertigo comes and goes and my ear flares on me all the time - imbalance, pain, etc. I notice that my ear is particularly sensitive to sinus infections. Any time I get a sinus infection it only attacks the left side of my head and centers around my bad ear. Does anyone else experience that? The tinnitus levels are more tolerable now but drive me nuts. Has anyone come across a remedy for the tinnnitus?

Michael,

You tried massage, acupuncture; did those treatments have any effect?

I loss my right hearing on Nov 10th, 10 days ago, it was during the day, I pick up my 3 yr old son from half day school, we had lunch, then I help him to bed to take his nap, I lay down in bed with him to ask him what happened at school that day, we chat a little, I ask them to close his eye and sleep, shortly he fall asleep, I got up, and notice my right ear feels funny.

I am in general good health, 35 yr old, never really had any problem, I am now 6 month pregnant, I went to see my ENT two days after the hearing lose, he said it could be my stuffed nose, that might block my middle ear, ask me to wait a week to see if it clear up by itself, if not, go do a hearing test. I did the hearing test on the 17th, and was diagnosed with SHL, they told me if the hearing did not come back within one month, it will most likely to be gone forever. My ENT told me since I am pregnant, steroid could harm the fetus, oxygen chamber therapy also not for pregnant woman, the best bet for me is to wait and see.

I felt so helpless; I don¡¯t want to try anything that would harm the fetus, yet I don¡¯t want to let my hearing go.

Please give me more information on massage, or acupuncture.
My time is ticking, already 10 days now, and I am facing with Thanksgiving shut down as well. Thanks in advance.

Elischee

I think accupuncture and cranial sacral massage helped
the other thing you could try with dr's permission is vitamin A and C and E, both are strong anti viral and I went on them right away along with garlic
in my case the cranial sacral and massage person said that my right side which i had experienced the SHL was frozen up, meaning restrited BUT do not know if this was a cause or an effect of the hearing loss
Keep the faith and prayers, many of these hearing losses come back on their own although mmine did not
Michael

tinnitus treatments from personal experience: (mine gets bad as well whenever i have a cold or sinus infection)

I have a hearing aid which masks the tinnitus during the day and helps quite a bit. I take the hearing aid out at night as it amplifies too much sound. At night I find white noise helps (ie humming of fridge) and other tape sounds of harmonious noises I leave on

The hardest thing is when I am experienceing a lot of stress, the noise either seems to be louder or maybe I just am more atuned to annoyances

i have heard a salty diet can aggarvate tinnitus. I like you try my best to avoid sinusitis attacks and am taking a lot of vitamin c,e,a, (anti viral) garlic and vinegar this flu season to avoid as best as possible.

I missed out on repsonding to a Stanford research study on sinusitis so there maybe some studies sponsored by the more research oriented hospitals that you could check
Good luck, I know its an annoying problem
Michael