Sudden Hearing loss _{Page 32 of 105}

meritie.

Heres the big picture problem. The ear doctor knows there is nothing more he can do and he is right.... there is nothing more he can do.. you need to see a immunoligist or continue testing with your regular doctor.

look at other symptoms you maye have. no matter how little. There is a undrlying problem and if you want to stop it from happening again then you gotta find it or hope and pray to god that it doesnt comeback. the good news is if you do find it and fix it then there is a small chance that you could get back all your hearing.

for those that have this hapen once and its gone... god bless you your lucky.... if it comes back then you can bet 1 million bucks there is a problem somewhere. not nessecaerly does that mean the problem is life threatining but its a problem.

look at the link i gave on TB... thats a good one.. also remember genes and age plays a factor. Im only 36 and i got this.. i beleive that if you get it at a younger age then you can be rest assured there is a problem but if you get it at a older age then maybe noise, age or genetics plays a roll but thats just my beleif.

alot of what I say is very assumptive but its really all I have to go on. I read tons of stuff on this.. I beleive now just like the doctors believe that this could be Autoimmune disease related but I think its the patients that drop the ball on this and not the doctors.

If you have SSNHL and you go to the ear doctor and you stop there then you as a patient are doing wrong. the ear doctor is somewhere you should go but thats not the end.. thats just the begining. regular visits to regular doctor, immunoligists, otheo, nuerology, should also be done and a slew of blood test.

If you get SSNHL then thats where the hunt for the needle in the haystack should begin not end, by searching you may just find the very thing that may save your hearing or better yet save your life. I beleive this to be true.

they Describe SSNHL as a medical emergency and it should be treated as such. my symptoms are as follows.

1. 'hearing loss to left ear' (regained hearing back)

2. 'Night sweats'. had for many years as long as i can remember

3. 'sensation of pressure around teeth and jar are'

4. Mild to moderate headaches

5. Fever sometimes and mild high blood pressuer

6. cholestral was 400 then lowered to 299 and now 250

7. Tinnitus very very slight ring in left ear only noticable in total silence.

8. Tinnitus in right ear. slightly louder can hear it once in a while if i concentrate on it. sometimes bothers me depending on sleep and diet.

9. recently my glands around my neck have swollen on the left side. I can press on it and it feels tender. that could be just a sore throat or sometihng. it is the season for that.


call it a witch hunt but then again what if witches are real. are you willing to take the chance and walk away and hope for the best or do you choose to fight and find out..

this is alot of our own faults and doctors are to blame to. no one wants to be proactive. if a ear doctor sees this then immediatly he should do the shots and the pills and then he should send you to the right doctors so you can begin to find out whats wrong..... its not over its just beginginng and SSNHL is nothing more then your warning to switch to defcon 2 because its time to go to war..

aslo some added symptooms. i can some mild pain and pressure around the back of head near spine. also my ears hurt a little sometimes and since then pills and sots have basically no a hardly any ear wax being produced at all.

I beleieve the lack of any ear wax bould up is due to the steroids though

Thanks Nitrams for your inspiration I am going to my GP on Thursday and ask for all the blood tests and then on to the Nuerologist and immunologist if need be, I really don't want to give up on this I really need to know what caused this so it doesnt happen again in any ear.
So to us all I hope and pray for the faith and strength to overcome this and find the cause.

I think I have at last found out what has caused my SHL and Recruitment. About 5 weeks before I was struck down with this deadly thing I was put on Oxazepam for my very poor sleeping. Approx 2 to 3 hours a night.
I found out this morning through continued research that this is an Ototoxic drug. I found out that any drug of this kind if it ends in pam can cause SHL. As of tonight I stop taking this drug and need advise on a natural remedy for sleep.
Cheers everone, I am sure this is my problem and I feel so much better having discovered this!!!!!

hope

melatonin is all natural sleep aid it is great.

lunesta is not ototxic but it is a prescribed sleep aid.

youll like them

as far as the drug you mentioned , it is ototoxic but keep in mind in order for a ototoxic drug to cause ssnhl you would of had to be on it for a bit or toook to much of it or possible had a reaction to it...a good example of a advers effect from drugs is rush limbaugh. he took lortab and oxycotin but he took them for a long time and at times he took way to many. he became a drug attic and was poppin 8 and 10 of these things a day.. it did eventualy make him deaf but it took alot6 of time and alot of drugs.... he now has cochlear implants... i used to like this guy but after what i seen that he said about michael J. Fox. I think that Rush is a cruel man to pick on someone with a disibility the way he picked on michael... especially when rush has a disibility. any I hope you found your culprit. hang in there. we all love you.

Have to make this one before the monitor gets no signal from the pc again.
My problem is not fixed yet. Have a case number with HP.
Thanks Nitrams2000 for all your hard work and research. Will read on this when I get my PC back and in order,
Mertie and Hopebc, do not give up hope, an audiogram of my deaf ear has regained considerable high frequency hearing, yet not in the speech range.
But there is movement in that ear......
Hopebc, your doctor could be the twin of my GP.
Must go before this is lost
Good day to all

My hearing remains good here in Mexico, with my trusty bottle of Prednisone at the ready. I am regularly massaging around my affected ear, meditating and contemplating my next attack on the etilogy of my SSHL, since it has happened twice in a 14 month period. Tinnitus remains at this time.

I have been reading the discussions every several days down here and I have to say that my approach will be with the homeopathic and naturopathic community, as I do not believe the allopathic community is ready to take a holistic approach to this problem. They each work within their own sphere of knowledge and are quick to rule out things without due consideration or objectivity. This has happened with my otologist, who dismissed autoimmune etiology and who told me to quit Prednisone without tapering. I do have an appointment the first week day I am back from Mexico and we will be discussing blood tests. Concurrent with that I will be dealing with my naturopathically-oriented M.D. primary care physician on a systemic approach.

By the way, the woman I met down here who suffered SSHL 1.5 years ago and has maybe a 20% hearing capability in her affected ear was prescribed 25 mg. of Prednisone in the beginning. I finally had to ask her, even if it meant her knowing that she might have been shortchanged. Everything I have read in studies suggests 60 mg per day. Just another example of physicians not doing their homework and taking advantage of what little IS known, since we all know how much is NOT known and we seem to be grasping at anything as far as etiology is concerned.

your right is does seem like we grasp for a cause. but finding the cause is the answer.. unfortunetly they only find the cause in 10% of the cases but I dont think that docotrs or patients try hard enough and thats why we have so little answers. we may not be able to tell you what you have but by taking test and ruling out, we can tell you what you dont have. sooner or later by taking the test you will eventauly run through enough dont haves until you find the 'do have' and then you can say bingo....

Hi all,
By the looks I will be without PC for 2 3 weeks if they have to send it to HP.
I might buy another one, I do not want to be without my PC that long.
Hopefully I can finish this post before the darn thing shuts off again.
Nitrams2000, thanks for the tip on the C reactive protein blood test. Saw my GP today and ordered that test. Will take it one of these days since one has to fasten for 12 hours. Very good tip, Nitrams. Even the doctor admitted that this is a good test to take. So why did he not suggest it? LOL
It is as you said we all have to do our own homework in this situation which SSHL.
Best wishes to all of us

Hi all,
I am not posting from my home.
Geeeee, nobody said anything since the 8th of the month.
Hopefully none of you are afraid to look at this forum.
I do not have a software problem, but a hardware problemm, my slimline desktop HP is overheating.
But I said that before, it seems that when I post here at times it shuts off all posting, and that is so depressing. I am glad I am not at home.
In any case, two more doctors and severals nurse I spoke with had no clue about sudden deafnes. This is really terrible. I hope that Oprah will soon have a show on this subject. Has anybody heard from here? I do not want to go on that show because I have an accent and these days it is not good to have an accent even if one is like me in this country since a long long time.
Nice weekend to all

several nurses not nurse

I went to see a specialist regarding my tinnitus in my ear in which I lost my hearing. Was rather dissapointed with the appointment, as I learned nothing that I already knew. I told him that I saw an ENT specialist who wanted to perform a surgery where they inserted a shunt into my inner ear and then use a course of steriod drops, but couldn't have it done in the end as I found out I was pregnant. He said that wouldn't have done anything for me and would have probably made my situation worse (ie. increase levels of tinnitus, completely altered my balance). Can see his point, but at least this ENT specialist was willing to try something....anything. It seems like you either get doctors who don't even want to try to help you, or you might find the rare ones that are willing to take a chance. Asked him about cranio-osteopathy to help with the tinnitus and he poo-pooed all forms of homeopathy. His suggestion was relaxation therapy.

I plan to look further into some of the vitamins that others have mentioned on here, but still awaiting arrival of baby (due this friday!!).

mhoyuk

dont give up hope. there is still a answer for everyone. At your point I dont know if you will ever get back hearing in that ear due to time but the good news is there is still im plants and surgeries and diffrent things you can do to work on tinnitus. look at a few of my past posts. I posted some articles on different types of surggeries and things o try. An I would definitly try the steroids anyway. I like what your ent wanted to try and how could it get worse... you got nothing to loose.

Here the thing with Tinnitus. Everyone has it almost but to what degree makes a big difference when you get SSNHL. People that are lucky enough to have little or no Tinnitus in their ears are the lucky ones because if they get SSNHL then they wont here it as loud. the reason why Tinnitus is so loud for others is simple.... The ringing was always one of 2 things... A. It was always there and you just never noticed it till you lost your hearing and now it sounds loud as sin because there is nothing else there to drowned it out or B. The inner hair cells died and small part of your innner hair cells lives and they are trying to work but what comes out is tinnitus... there is a third reason but its extremly rare and I thought I had it at one point but now I'm not sure.....

A doctor I spoke with talked about dergrees of tinnitus changing all the time and going louder and softer and the frequency changing... this is calle Prenitious Aneima... this is where the blood veins in that area have gone thin or became blocked due to high cholestral or a degenerative vein problem. so to increase blood flow and low cholestral we take all these vitamins and drugs but a side effect is you can actually hear the blood flowing or a increase in circulation. I.E. Tinnitus....

I thought that was me but I do have other unexplainable symptoms and everytime I mention it to a doctor they think im crazy and they say its very very rare.


anyway look at my past posts. I posted a link form a doctor explaining all the different things you can do to help tinnitus and he quote. ' with the new ideas in to works and new technology, there is no reason why some should have to suffer from Tinnitus. '

That quote was from a doctor that beleived he had answers to help.... dont give up. we pray fro you. keep trying. there is no reason why we shouldnt be able to find a answer to your suffering. god bless.

mhoyuk

I would try the steroids... it cant make it worse. you got notihng to loose. I would also try oral steroids too. Give it all you got.

To mhoyuk
I want to wish you a good delivery next Friday.
As for your hearing condition, if I am not mistaken it was on this forum that I read a while back of several young women who's hearing came back after the birth of their child.
When I was your age, I had never heard of sudden deafness. I still believe that we all take way too many drugs these days and so many are ototoxic. Yet the majority of these GP's have no clue about SSHL.
Nitrams2000 thank you so much for your research into this condition. You indicate many interesting points which we all can look into. My famous doctor still maintains that my case was probbly of viral infection origin. Although he agreed with me that in Europe they are more inclined to think small blood clot.
I will see him again on 12/12/06. But now that I regained considerable high frequency hearing, I might not become a CI (cochlear implant) candidate.
But if I do not regain any hearing in the speech frequencies, this gain that I have might not be a good thing.
In the meanwhile I keep up with my NO SALT diet and I take a lot of supplements.
Hopebc, I was happy to read that things seem to be OK again at your end.
Seattlestan, I am intrigued by the fact that you have suffered SSHL last year and again this year. In your case it could not have been a blood clot. I will mention your case to the famous doctor Rauch at MEEI when I see him next month. Curious to hear what he thinks about that. I am glad to hear that each time you recover from it.
I believe I mentioned earlier that one of my work colleagues in one of the European offices told me that he had an onset in April and then had spontaneous recovery.
All I can say as a lung cancer survivor is that this hearing problem and Tinnitus is worse for me than the cancer was.
I hate to hear the phrase' Wonderful to see you, you look great'. My Friends have no clue how miserable I feel with these noises in the head and ears and a hearing aid stuck in one ear.
Only people on forums like this understand.
I wish us all the best. God bless us all and give us the strength to put up with this.

Hope01

I am meeting this morning with my otologist and am expecting him to report an almost 100% recovery. My fear is that he will think that is enough and our sessions are at an end. I am bringing a one sheet summary of events surrounding both my episodes to discuss with him and use for setting a course for determining etiology. Due to some previous talkes with him, I worry about him being dismissive of certain things, in which case, I will move on to partnering with someone who will be more open and creative in trying to mitigate a 3rd occurrence. This does not rule out my own mind-body connections and what I may have to do myself, e.g. meditation, psychological introspection, cranial self-massage.

I appreciate your willingness to share the fact that this has happened twice with Dr. Rauch and will be interested to see what he might say about it. Glad you have gained high frequency capability and hope there is more progress awaiting you.

Hi all
To Hope01
I am still at the same stage I was at, the noises in my head drive me crazy.
I was at an audioligist last week and they say I need to get a hearing aid that will be programable as I have become so susceptible to any type of noise. They said that it would have to be turned down in the frequencys I am overly sensitive to, and turned up in the frequency I cannot hear in. I find it very confusing. They want $3500 for this type and said if I go cheaper it would not be any good. I have decided to wait and see what happens as that is too much money for me to spend at this time.
I see the ENT again in December, so I will see at that time how I am doing. Thanks for your nice words always.
To Nitrams2000
You are always so full of good advise and research. I stopped taking the sleeping pills a week ago and got Melatonin to replace them. I had a few terrible nights but am now getting to sleep for 5 hours a night. I think the prescription sleeping pills are now out of my system .
Good luck to all of us. We need a lot of help and Prayers to get through all this.

Well, I saw my otologist yesterday and my hearing tested 100%, back to where it was a year ago after recovery from the 1st SSHL occurrence. I was also pleasantly surprised when he revisited autoimmune as a potential area for consideration, after having dismissed out of hand a few weeks ago. We discussed a number of things I had listed as events/conditions preceding each occurrence. Regarding otoxic drugs, like Ibuprofen, it would normally affect both ears,as would some other things I brought up, whereas autoimmune etiology could affect only one ear. He still believes it is a virus etiology, but wants to do blood tests to rule out autoimmue. If it is autoimmune, then he would refer me to a rheumatologist/immunologist.

The tests he had me have my blood drawn for are: ANA (antinuclear antibody), Sedimentation Rate, and Rheumatoid Factor. These are all immunological tests and are inflammation-related.

In autoimmune diseases, the immune system fights its own body cells as if they were invaders. When the immune system fights against its own body cells, it creates autoantibodies that attack the body itself. Antinuclear antibodies are autoantibodies that react against the nuclei (cores) of the body's own cells when these cell parts are mistaken for foreign invaders.

It will be at least a week for the results to come back. If it rules out autoimmune I will find out which path I need to take from there. In any case, I am continuing to reduce stress in my life, have added a couple more supplements to my regimen (like grapeseed extract and astralagus). That's all for now.

seattlestan my only problem with the autoimmune theory is that if it is true and a autoimmune does make our body attack that area then why does steroids work towards correcting it?? Steroids generally make things shrink and make us stronger. why would taking a steroid help to fight of the autoimmune disease. if the steroids make us stronger then wouldnt the steroids also make the diseae worse?? just a thought...

the theory behind steroids working to shrink inflamation and muscles in that area makes sens and thats why accupuncture might work too , because accupuncture increases blood flow and is good for inflamation.

Many question arise ... also you have the wonder of doctors sweeping this under the bus as I call it, what i mean by this is, whenever they dont have a answer for something they call it disease. I wonder.... :(

update. my right ear still rings from time to time... more lately then not... also in silent areas i can hear them both ring but anything is better then what I had before. god bless you guys... I dont know how you could deal with it and i definatly could not.

to much stress for me... I get freaked out even thinking about it. thats for sure.

Hope drop me a email when you get a chance. I miss your kind words. :)

hi all, i just came across this site and wanted to tell you my story. about a month and a half ago, i woke up one morning and my right ear felt like it was blocked. i thought it might have been ear wax because i have had wax build up before. i had a regular scheduled dr. appt. on thurs. so i thought i would wait and have my dr. fluss my ear out. that did nothing. he told me if it wasn't better by the next morning, which was fri to call him.by this time i couldn't even hear a dial tone in the phone. i called him and told him something has to be done. it was driving me nuts. ringing and buzzing sound. he set me up that day with an ent dr. i went, and they did an audio test and it was really bad. i had sudden sensor neural hearing loss. i was given a steroid pill and a viral pill and told to come back on mon for another audio test to see if it was improving. it was not. i was sent to another dr. in a bigger city about an 1 1/2 away from me. i got a series of 3 steroid shots in my ear, a week and a half apart. (not as bad as it sounds) the dr. was really optimistic. this was on a tues. by sat., i heard a little of a dial tone. slowly heard more and more. i went for my second shot and the dr. had to look twice at my audio test. he could not believe the fast improvement. i was up to about an 80%. i got my second shot and when i went back i was at about 90%. i got my third shot 2 weeks ago and i will go back next wed. for check up and audio test again. i am just so happy with my results. the quicker you respond, the better. of course prayers and positive thinking did a big part too.

Nitrams2000

On the subject of autoimmune, this otologist does not believe that it is the cause, but wants to rule it out objectively with the blood tests. Actually, from what I understand, the Prednisone suppresses our immune system, which is attacking the cells-in both autoimmune and viral etiologies-and allows shrinkage of the inflammation and the healing to occur.

So this explains how we can regain our hearing in many cases, but what it does not do, at least for me, is explain why this happened twice. If the autoimmune is ruled out, that leaves me primarily with viral. And, once again, I am left with believing that it may be allergenic in nature. For me that could be dust or molds. I have a meeting with my primary care physician (PCP) this Friday and will be pursuing a referral to a N.D. who works more deeply with etiology and is creative and 'out-of-the-box'. In addition, my PCP, in relation to tinnitus, which I still have in my affected ear only, has told me that 'they' (the allopathic community) can I.D. only 10% of the etiology of tinnitus and if he could solve this, he would be awarded a Nobel prize. He believes that for tinnitus, cranio-sacral therapy and/or acupuncture are the mediums he recommends if there is any chance of success. For my money, if I have to live with tinnitus, versus deafness, there is no choice to make.

Hello all
I am back so to speak, since I still have to purchase windows office suite and install it. I will have my slimline PC fixed free (under warranty) then I will give it to a charity.
In any case, I am back on the internet.
Got the results of my CRP test and they were not good. My GP called me at home to talk to me since he did not want his admin giving me the news and not be able to reply to any of my questions. This was really a nice effort of my GP.
He cannot give me a statin since I am already on Lipitor. So he wanted me to take at least one aspirin a day. I am allergic to aspirin and besides that, that is one of the more ototoxic drugs.....He did not rememeber that fact....
I am now on a very strict diet (very little starch etc...)
Nitrams2000 I thank you again so much for the tip on the CRP, nobody would ever had me take that test had I not asked for it and heard of it through you. You are great.
I see another poster crafter 126 also having good results with the shots into the ear.
Why in the world was I not given these shots???
This is another question I will ask Dr Rauch when I see him (he of course had nothing to do with all this since I only saw him 3 months after the onset). But the ones that I did see in the West suburban office, did not suggest the shots, and I want to know why.
We all learn so much from reading the posts on this forum.
For that I thank you all.

Hope01 if you dont mind me being to nosey. may I ask the result of your test. maybe I can do some research based on your result and let you know what I come up with... CRP test tell you alot of things and there is ways to get it up or down but more importantly it is a red flag as to what is happening right now in your body... there are ways to minipulate it but you dont want to because taking it the way you did gives you the right honest answer...

Nitrams2000
I am looking at the email the doctor sent me after talking to me and he says my result is 2.02 (had mad a hard copy of that email before disconnecting the slimline PC)
I still have problems with my new PC, do not yet have Windows office suite on it, so my emails have to go through the comcast home page webmail. Sent an email to one of my brothers, and he did not get it.... Should get all fixed tomorrow evening (I hope). I think I will get an extended warranty pon this new PC.
In any case this is off the subject 'Amen'
I am rather puzzled by this 2.02, I am not heavy and I jog and I eat healthy meals. However, our Dad passed away at 57 due to heart problems and hardening of the arteries.
So I probably have inherited all this from him.
Tomorrow, I have an appointment with a Dr Snow at a Holistic Health Center. Hopefully, I will not just dish out money for nothing.
Will let you all know what he recommends for Tinnitus and ear infections.
Thanks Nitrams2000 for caring.

steroids studies... found a few links last night that result in recent steroid studies on Tinnitus... they are starting to use steroids for treating steroids. they say that there is an improvent of tinnitus in 7 out of 10 that use steroids over a period of time.... the suggestion can be as much as 80mg for as long as 4 weeks.... geesh and they gripe at us for using 60mg.. for 10 days. wow!! 80mg is allot but whatever helps... i know i still have ringing in the right ear and some days its worse then others but atleast its not hearing loss or extreme tinnitus. I would say my tinnitus is mild at times, hardly noticeable to moderate.. noticeable but can deal with.