Sudden Hearing loss _{Page 22 of 105}

Some of you must think 'how come she is always on the forum?' It is that when my house is clean, I sit on my PC as I am trying to write a book. So I peek into this forum from time to time during the day. I am not working anymore since the onset of SSHL. After my software engineering job was outsourced to India, I only found a job on the phones in some corporation.
--To Barb--
I am glad you shared your problem with us on this forum. I do hope you can see the ENT guy before the end of October. Time is of the essence here.
I saw a famous doctor in Boston (I live in MA)only three months after I tried to get an appointment. They send me in the meanwhile to another doctor, but he did not give me anything (had gotten a 6 days course of Prednisone right after the onset from my first ENT doctor. My Kids insisted that I go to Boston for more and better treatment........
The famous doctor might eventually have to do a CI implant, if the hearing in my left ear fades away also.
I am so scared....
But to get back to your problem Barb, insist on seeing a specialist asap. Insist on having an MRI done.
- the treatments it seems are:
1. Prednisone in pill form for at least 6 days
2. Steroid shots right into the ear
3. hyperbaric oxygen treatment
Follow the way Nitrams2000 does, he seems very very proactive and the results are that he got his hearing back.
The famous doctor (I do not like to name doctors here) told me that my onset of sudden deafness might have been a mini blood clot. But I did have an upper respiratory viral infection 4 weeks before the onset?
The medical profession does not seem to come to a definite conclusion as to what causes these onsets.
After the onset (1/22/06), I had so much pressure in the deaf ear and a feeling of fulness, now this is replaced by constant tinnitus that drives me crazy.
I have also tinnitus in the other ear but that is masked during the day by a hearing aid that I have to wear (have now mild to severe hearing loss in that ear)
Again, make sure you can see a specialist asap.
I am so surprised, I was always under the impression that you guys in Canada have a much better health care system than us in the US.
I have a very dear friend outside Toronto (her and I went to the same school many many years ago in France) she seems quite happy with the system in Canada.
I wish all the best and I hope you can see a good ENT guy now.

I also was under the impression that Canada had a much better healthcare system, BUT, now I'm wondering.

It's tough enough here in the USA, we close to 300M people, where as Canada has 30M....such a smaller country. But I've heard there are long waits to see doctors, hospitals, etc...

Nothing is Perfect, is it?

As I've mentioned prior my daugher (43) is totally deaf due to SHL and her life has been turned upside and every which way, you name it.

I feel so much pain for you all.

TaraJoy and hope

TaraJoy may I ask. when the good ear started ringing. did the ringing finally stop or did it keep ringing or did you finally loose hearingin that ear.

why I ask is I have several theories but one is that I beleive the ringing starts as a sign of attack in your inner ear of what ever this thing is. since ringing in your ear starts as you start to loose hearing then it would be a good assumption that whatever it is , is attacking youe inner ear. now the reason why you still hear in that ear is because the battle is still on but the disease or what ever it is cant completly win that war. but yet there is still damage to some of those hairs or areas in you inner ear. I would say it more like a bald spot on your head. You have hair but the bald spot is more sensitive. more noticeable and gets sun burnt easy. a very delicate area. same with the ear. thats why some get ringing and have it all of thier lives. they figured they could here so they never got it checked out and the ringing continues.... now this is seriously where doctors screw up because they wont do anything tell they know you lost hearing and by then it may very well be to late because you may have been fighting this thing with the ring for months. that would explain why some people thought they got right on it, they tried the pills and shots and they did not work. in actualality they have had this thing for months. didint notice it and by then it was ot late. thats my thoery and if i am right then there is a hell of alot more cases of this then people think. they just dont know but i bet im right with this thing.

as for hope... girl you can post till the sun goes down. I for one appreciate what you post and your words mean the world to me. there is no better lesson then one that is taught by someone with wisdom and that you have. you have lost of experience witht his and you have been a great help to me. post on girl post on!!!

Yes, I also thought our Candaian medical system was good but I am beginning to wonder about that now. The waiting list is too long. I haven't had my MRI done yet because it is scheduled for next year July. My doctor advised me that it is safe to wait that long medically.

he wants you to wait a year. he must be insane. what if its urgent. yes most likly it isnt but do you want to take that chance. I had mine the next day.... thats nuts. I bet if that doctor had the same problem he wouldnt wiat no year. that just the craziest thing i ever heard.

Hi. I am so glad this board is active. I try to get on my computer a few times a week. I work long hours. And also my husband does not want me to. He thinks it only makes me more stressed out and depressed. He does not understand this is the only place I can freely share info and help each other and feel good about myself.

For the ringing on the other ear, it started about a month after the onset. I was so worried like you, Niatram and Tarajoy. It upsetted me so much that my doctor gave me emergency prednisone to keep at home just in case. The ringing is not as bad as the other ear and I only hear it at night. I keep telling myself stereo sounds are more bearable than mono sound. I asked several doctors, and they do say the chance of other ear getting SSHL is very slim. But if I were you, I would wear ear protetion when you go to a concert. Love.

Also, if anyone is looking for an ear doctor in US , check out otologist at entnet.org. You can find a top specialist (specialising only for ear) near you. I found out that ent doctors mainly work on nose and throat, not so much on ear. You need to see an Otologist or Neuotologist. If you pay out of your pocket, make sure to mention it so you can get a discount (almost 30 % off).

my theory is becuse I have the ringing in the good ear, that the good ear now is infected too. now well it get as bad as the other ear. lord I hope not, but I beleive the ringing is a true sign of it being there. I think i'm going to watch it for weds and thurs and friday if it isnt better then I will get atleast one shot in that ear too. Dr. Atkins said it cant hurt so I'm going to try it. I'm sticking to my proactive approach. also had accupncture monday and it really seemed to help. somedays I wake up in a great mood that I will be ok and other days I panic and freak out. my nerves are truly shot to hell.

I have decided that since I am on this strict diet and vits and pills that my ears should go on a diet too. no moore loud areas. no more loud music, no more football games or concerts or loud events. quite and easy is my model. even going to not use the cell phone that much anymore. sick of living my life on a cell phone. i use over 6000 minutes a month of primetime for work and I am stressed out enough so the business will have to run without me for awhile. i'm taking a break I think.

Hi all - Did not see all these posts until now. Had to spend the night over my daughter's (45 minutes from here) she had locked herself out of her condo.
I got a panic attack during the night. Here in my house, I can get up during the night if the tinnitus gets too loud, cannot do this over her place.
The tinnitus in the deaf ear is terrible and now the tinnitus in the other ear is also more pronounced. Your theory Nitrams2000 makes sense, and if you are right, I will soon be screwed in that ear also. It is scary
To Octobergodess - I am floored to hear that you should wait for over a year to have that MRI.
Lets say you have a tumor somewhere in the head.... No way can you wait that long.
Take it from somebody that had a malignant tumor on the lung in 1989....This is the most incredible thing I have heard...waiting a year for an MRI..... This is totally insane. Contact a newspaper, or your local TV station and let them know. You cannot wait a year. Even if you are outwardly fine, these doctors do not know what could be wrong in your head.
When I had that tumor I jogged 5 miles twice a week and felt great.
I remember my brother (a private pilot) flying into Boston telling me 'you look great Marie-Andree' 4 weeks later I was diagnosed with this tumor and I was given 6 to 8 months to live.
Had I not come back from Switzerland with this terrible cold which made me go to the emergency room that same evening (where an Xray showed the tumor), it would have metastased and I would not be alive anymore
Bottom line is that you need to have this MRI Octobergodess. You are porobably fine, but you need to know that.....for sure
I hope my bla bla bla has not scared you. I just wanted you to know what can happen.
I pray that somebody will step in so that you get that MRI now.
My prayers are with you and all the others.
Hope01 (just a user ID I use on this forum)

Sorry - in my previous post I said I jogged 5 miles twice a week. That is a mistake which I do so often, I wanted to say 5 K (kilometers).
Quite a difference - Sorry

hope. my adive. to the good ear and maybe to help the tinnitus. get more steroids, prednisone cant hurt and try to find away to get the shot to the good ear. als cant hurt. who know it might help. i know you may have done this before but if at first you dont succeed try try again. My prayers are with you.

Nitrams--my hearing in my good ear is completely fine,although I go through periods (maybe a day or 2 at a time) where I notice some ringing and that clogged feeling; exactly how it started in my bad ear. I actually asked my ENT for some prednisone to take for my good ear to prevent this SSHL from happening but he claims he can't give it to me until I show loss of hearing during the hearing test. I was denied the steroid shot so I didn't bother to ask about that again. As for your theory, I pray you're not right but it does make sense. One of my freinds was telling me how Foxy Brown woke up completely deaf one morning and it turns out she has a very severe case of SSHL in both ears and I freaked. Thats when I barged into my ENT's office and told him I was not going to let that happen to me and he told me that rarely every happens; that SSHL only presents itself once and thats it. Although, I don't see this dr. anymore so who even knows if he knew what he is talking about. My accupuncture doctor tells me to just relax, that it won't happen again, but then he thinks this is all due to stress. I'm not sure what to beleive, I've stopped asking for reasons why and instead am trying my absolute hardest to calm down because for the last 3 months I have made myself crazy. Like you, some days I feel positive and beleive that I can get through this and other times I just feel like comepletely hopeless. Its a terrible thing for all of us to have to go through. I do thank God for this forum though, it really is comforting to know that others know exactly what you are going through. Feel good everyone :)

I'm so sick of doctors blaming everything on stress. I was having problems with the way I felt about a year before the hearing loss. When I went to the doctors he said it was stress and put me on Zoloft. I was dizzy and tired and had a nervous stomache. I just didn't feel like myself. I started to take the zoloft for a year then lost my hearing in left ear. When I was on the zoloft I did feel better to my stomace but I still feel dizzy and tired and I yawn a lot. Even when I'm not tired. Does any of this mean anything? My guess is I should never have been on the zoloft and the dizziness is because of the viral infection in my system. Is it gone now? I don't think so. My question is how long does a viral infection stay in your system? Some days are better than others with the buzzing. I just tell myself, if it wan't this to stress me out, it would be something else. Even people who have no problems, have some problem! This just happens to be mine-

mich18. let me ask. so you have lost hearing in both ears??? is that right?? you say the left ear you lost do to zoloft but did you loose in both ears. sorry you made have allready mentioned this but i forget. sorry. jm

mich18 - It is hard to believe that these doctors all like to put us on these antidepressants.
When I complained about tinnitus, my second ENT guy put me on Klonopin. I am very careful not to take that stuff every day because it becomes addictive.
I had to shake my head when I read that your doctor put you on Zoloft. That is a medication for a very depressed person not somebody with ear problems like SSHL. They are ruining us with all this stuff (I would rather use another word).
Before the onset of sudden deafness, I never felt as frustrated as I am these days with doctors.
I sometimes feel bad that my real job was outsourced to India. But I must say that in 1989 when I had lung cancer my thoracic surgeon here in New England was an Indian doctor. He did a great job, I could not have asked for a better doctor (sorry I got of the topic of this thread)
May we all find peace despite our hearing impairment and 'angst' to loose the residual hearing.

update. my right ear is ringing still and that was supposed to be my good ear. i have had two accupuncture treatments since the right ear started ringing with little change. i notice that sometimes it seems louder then other times but that may be because of the area im in. also another strange thing. if I am in a area where this is some ringing from like a ice box or a machine.... man can that ear pick that up big time. first i think my ringing has gotten louder and when i leave the room where the ring is I realize that the ring in my ear seems to be about the same. tomorrw i start begging for the ear shot.

OK ASKING ADVICE HERE FROM THE BOARD. someone please respond with a answer. ... I have prednisone with me which is the pills. should I start taking them now?? i have them left over form before and they are still good. any ideas or thoughts on this is much appreciated.

My ENT doctor told me to use extra Prednisone if my hearing on the good ear starts losing hearing on weekend. If on weekdays, I am supposed to do hearing test first. Prednisone is some strong stuff. Did someone mention it is ototoxic itself? I would wait until I really must.

Hope01, so you are survivor of cancer and SSHL. I totally admire you. We just do not know what happens tomorrow... It only makes us strong.

Lately I feel so tired and feverish. Feel like I am fighting off cold virus or something. If the cause of SSHL was virus, how do we know the same virus is now gone from the system? Is there any test to determine that? Is there any antiviral med out there? If anyone knows, please let me know. Thank you!

mstctiger - I did my first post on this forum on the 25th Sept and havent had a chance to upgrade my progress yet, however on my fist visit to the ENT he reassured me that the Virus is unlikely to occur again as you aoutimmune response kicks in to attack the Virus ( hence the swelling and inflamation on the nerve) and you become immmune to it much like you would a cold or flu virus. Hope that allays some of your fears and is probably why we only nornally get this in one ear.

I had 100% hearing loss, woke in the night to a high pitch buzzing and then lost the hearing in a matter of minutes, and after 3 weeks got 20-30% back and feel now I can hear more,(4 weeks tomorrow since onset) have another hearing test on Tuesday. I can just make out what peple are saying on the phone so hopefully some of the higher frequencies are coming back.

To all- the treatments I have had are 40mg Prednisone for 12 days and tapering, started on day 5 or six, Intravenous anti viral containing hydrogen peroxdide to shut down the immune system to reduce the inflamation,Selennium to fight the virus and another substance for vascular flow(cant remeber the name), 2x week. I have a very good alternative GP wh treats cancer patients with the same anti viral sibstances.

Accupuncture and sub cranial massage 2x week and a load of supplements.

Meditation each day focusing on the ear.

The Idea was to attack it from all angles ie Virus, vascular and immune.

The shots are not available here in Australia so wasnt an option.

I will do a full post of supplements and treatments in a time line over the weekend incase it helps others.

I did also have light tinnitus problem before all this but don't feel it was related as I still get tinnitus in my good ear.

sorry about the spelling in my last post

I just hope samething isnt happening to my right ear. Scared to death. :(

Hi, Mertie. Thanks for the info! I feel a bit better now.
It is 10:00 pm and I just had a cup of camoomile tea. It helps me to sleep. I just hope I will not wake up every 2-3 hours.
Love to you all.

Mstctiger - I am with you when it comes to steroids - They are very strong and should not be used lightly,
especially if one takes other meds. I have something for high bood pressure and something for high cholesterol.
Come to think off it, this is maybe why the ENT guy did not want to give me the shots into the ear.
But still he should have explained that to me.
Nitrams2000, I am worried that you might take these steroids too lightly. But then you got your hearing back. Also, you might not have a reason to take other meds.
Don't you guys all find it a bit strange that here we are and we have to muddle our ways through these things, instead of having good doctors sit down with us and tell us the pros and cons and whatever else we should know. After all they are the ones that went through Med school, not us.
Mertie - Thanks so much for your informative post.
To all have a good day despetite all our EAR problems.
I am off and running

I have waited. did not tske the pilld yet.... I woke up this morning and ofcourse the stupid ring is there. its actually not as bad this morning but i think thats just because i havent gotten started yet with the day... as i go its seems to worsen.

I knew it was to good to be true. For some reason I know I wasnt getting off that easy. I shall call Atkins this morning and report my results. Sorry guys I guess I'm not that great succeess story after all. Infact even though my doctor says he has had 50% success rate I think it is just positive thinking that he is trying to provide.

I still only know one person other then me that got full hearing back and he has the ringing too. I try to stay positive because I do beleive your body can will this away but either people dont have the will or they cant win because success with this thing is so hard.

Nitrams2000- I too beleive in the power of the mind and found the meditation really helpful and relaxing its a really positive thing to do along with the power of prayer, it may be that your ringing is due to the noise exposure you had over that weekend, I wish you luck and pray that you will be fine. It is good that you haven't had to use the steroids again yet, they are nasty but sometimes necessary.

Hope01& mstctiger, ur welcome, I've read so much on this forum and it has helped enormously it really helps to share, its interesting to read that all of us experience pretty much the same symptoms and fears at some stage through this journey, from the early days of despair and unknown through to hope and anticipation.
Off to bed now its 10.00pm here and have acupuncture and antiviral IV tomorrow morning and then back to work again, starting to feel a bit more normal.
Take care and God bless.

called atkins. appointment monday at 4:30. gonna do the ear shot. here we go again. jeesh.

waited on the predniosne because it is oxotoxic. question i have is. do you have to be taking these drugs for a long time in order for them to hurt you? I guess what i'm trying to say is you can take ototoxic drug for a short time without them hurting you right??

Nitrams2000
I am not sure about Prednisone. But after I had the onset of sudden deafness in the right ear I was given only 6 days of that med. by the first ENT guy.
My left ear was fine. Then when I saw the first ENT guy again, he put me on BIAXIN XL an antibiotic because I had and still have fluid in that left ear.
To make a long story short, after the 7-8 days treatment of that med. the hearing in the left ear had declined to the point where I had to cuff the ear with my hand in order to hear as well as I did the week before.
I now have an expensive hearing aid (a Phonak Savia BTE) for that ear.
I am not a doctor, but I would say that in some cases it does not take long to get a hearing loss from these ototoxic drugs.
This is why I wish we had doctors that would sit down with us and explain all these factors to us.
Take care and be well