A Close Call?

[Rings-a-Bell]

I have had hearing loss at 4k and tinnitus to match it since I was exposed to loud white noise while sleeping bad in April. It took a while to start habituating but since the AM101 trial failed and I lost hope of a near term cure it has accelerated quite a lot. I have gone from thinking about my T 2000 times per day to around 50. My emotions around it have also settled down a lot. It never keeps me from sleeping or wakes me up. That being said my T itself hasn't changed. It is primarily in my right ear (although it spreads around a bit) and is always there if I think about it.

Yesterday morning I was awakened at 7am by sudden tinnitus in my "good" left ear that was 2-3x stronger than anything my right ear had ever produced. I managed to sleep again but when I woke in a few hours my left ear felt muffled and dead. I used the frequency slider on notchtherapy.com to do a self test and discovered that my ability to hear 2300->3500hz was almost gone! I have never had hearing loss in that range before. This was a case of sudden onset hearing loss! Lucky for me I read this forum and know what that means. I got myself to an ENT immediately and did an audiograph that showed a big difference from the one I did 3 months ago. Within 6 hours of onset I was on steroids and blood dilation drugs. There is an MRI scheduled for Tues (4 days away, first appt we could get). The doctor said if I hadn't acted so quickly the hearing loss would have been permanent.

It is now 24 hours since the incident first happened and I am happy to report that my "good" ear seems like it has gone back to normal baseline. I had an (irrational) hope that the drugs would also help my 4 month old T... but that hasn't changed. Still I am grateful that the new tone and loss from yesterday is gone. It would have been quite a bit harder to habituate to.

 

[Rings-a-Bell]

Overall Tinnitus reduction is amazing!

It's now been 36 hours since my sudden hearing loss + spike. The steroids and blood vessel dilators have removed any evidence of the spike in my "good" ear. Earlier today that left me at my 4 month old baseline tinnitus level, primarily in my bad right ear. I wasn't expecting this baseline to be affected but tonight it certainly has. My old baseline T is down about 40-50%. Still there but much less loud. I wasn't expecting it to be affected. To say I'm surprised would be an understatement. This is the quietest it has been in 4 MONTHS! I have to "listen" for it in a quiet room to find it.

Not sure if this is a permanent effect or not but I am enjoying it while I can. That being said I can't stay on these drugs forever... the dilators make my blood pressure super low 110/65 and I'm quite light-headed when I move around.

 

[Tim Hogan]

Lucky bastard, wish i was given something for my spike, instead i was just told it will settle down, what kind of white noise did u expose yourself to, that caused ur tinnitus?

 

[Alue]

Lucky you got in early. I'm glad for you.

It also pisses me off to no end that even in the medical profession few seem to know this is a medical emergency. Even if you go to urgent care or the ER, it's a hit and miss if you will actually be given anything for it after you pay an arm and a leg. With ENT's you may have to wait weeks or even months to get in to see them, by that time it's far too late and you are screwed. (at least that's how it's here in the US)

 

[Rings-a-Bell]

I am embarrassed to say how I initially injured my ears because it was sooo dumb in retrospect. I was trying to sleep in a basement with kids jumping and banging on the floor upstairs. I have a "fan" app on my tablet so I played that for white noise... but it wasn't loud enough. Eventually I balanced the tablet on my ear. It was quite loud but nothing like a dance bar or a concert. So I fell asleep like that for about 4 hours. When I woke up my ear was ringing... and it still hasn't stopped... 4 months later. The irony is... while trying to find a kind of quiet, I gave myself eternal sound.

 

[Rings-a-Bell]

@Alue I'm a Canadian who has lived in the US and is now in Barbados. The medical system here is much more responsive than either of the other two (and way cheaper than the US). I called up an ENT, said my hearing had disappeared in one ear and had an appt 30 mins later.. cost $75. He sent me next door to an audiologist (who has had T for 25 years so was very sympathetic) got my new audiograph done for $125. The steroids and blood thinners cost $25.

Of course it also helped that I know all about T and I knew exactly what to ask for.

 

[Alue]

@Alue I'm a Canadian who has lived in the US and is now in Barbados. The medical system here is much more responsive than either of the other two (and way cheaper than the US). I called up an ENT, said my hearing had disappeared in one ear and had an appt 30 mins later.. cost $75. He sent me next door to an audiologist (who has had T for 25 years so was very sympathetic) got my new audiograph done for $125. The steroids and blood thinners cost $25.

Of course it also helped that I know all about T and I knew exactly what to ask for.

Wow, lucky. I'm not even confident if that happened to me if I would be able to get treatment in time, even going to the emergency room and paying a $1,000 bill they may not do any good for me. I went with kidney stones once and was denied painkillers because they thought I was a drug seeker.

That being said... when I got my initial tinnitus I did see and ENT within a few days and they offered to do a IT steroid injection into my middle ear. I wish I had gone for it, but didn't and just went with the oral steroids that did not help. I didn't know any better at that point.

The urgent care doctor I saw within 24 hours told me I would be fine. When I called back later after having seen the ENT the urgent care doctor told me "drink lots of water". I'm convinced urgent cares are pretty much useless unless you have a very obvious but not severe injury.

 

[Rings-a-Bell]

@Alue Hmm... I didn't get an injection, just oral steroids... they seem to be doing the job though.

I have had kidney stones here too. They had me on morphine within 40 minutes and ultrasound the next day. Total cost including the scans was around $300.

 

[Kazue]

Oh my. These large numbers are scary. I'm blessed enough to have insurance in the United States. I came across a few good doctors but the ENT were pretty useless. They sugarcoat it so much and then wonder why I'm having anxiety attacks. Basically they're basically saying I have to live with it. Didn't recommend therapy or anything. Just gave me antibiotics and sent me home. I didn't learn about therapy until I got on here. You guys know more than the ENT's and give way more support.

 

[MikeP505]

You guys know more than the ENT's

Question: How many ENT's does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: None. Zero. Not one of em can be bothered cause there too busy shoving people thru the door quickly and forwarding the bill to your insurance company!

Observations: They live in dark houses with burnt out light bulbs!

 

[Jomo]

Question..i never realeased that sudden loss of hearing a certain range is a medical emergency. Im assuming that this is somthing i should monitor? Only a month and a half in and had my second hearing test a week ago...my results were the same...my hearing is normal with a slight dip i the lower ranges but according to my ENT that is still in the normal range.

 

[Rings-a-Bell]

I'm actually monitoring my hearing now a couple of times a week using an app on my tablet that does an audiogram. Since the app isn't professionally calibrated, I don't care much about the absolute values that it gives me... I just look for changes over time. It has helped me diffuse some of the tension that comes with a spike, by allowing me to test myself in the middle of a spike and reassure myself that my actual hearing levels are unchanged. And of course with T, anything that diffuses tension/anxiety is a good thing.

I should mention that when I had the sudden hearing loss it was a dramatic change, not a subtle one like what my weekly monitoring might pick up. At 2000hz in my left ear I went from no hearing loss to barely able to hear the tone at all.

The good news is I have completely recovered from my "new" tinnitus and sudden hearing loss in my left ear. Either the drugs worked or it went away on it's own. The bad (but not unexpected) news is there is zero change in my tinnitus in my right ear from 5 months ago. When I first went on the steroids and vasodilators there were a few days when it seemed much quieter than usual... but that effect did not last.

 

[MikeP505]

Hello Jomo.

Yes sudden hearing loss is considered an emergency situation. I know as I suffered just that. All you can do now is keep monitoring this from time to time. If you suffer any real loss, trust me you will know it right away.

 

[MikeP505]

No need to be anal and self monitor with apps etc. They are not very accurate what so ever. If you keep stressing over this, it will not help with your situation. Just ask to see your ENT bi-yearly at least and have some proper tests done. In the mean time, relax and move on with it. Like I said, you will know if you lose a large amount of hearing quickly!! I woke up one day just after a surgery almost deaf. Thought I had ear wax. Was shocked when I saw my doc and he said my ears were clean. Yikes!!

Trying to monitor small losses with useless apps is mindless.

 

[Jomo]

@MikeP505

Thx mike...its funny my ENT admitted to me Friday that i know more about Tinnitus than he does lol He wants me back in 3 months to see how i am doing....will definitely heed your advice.

 

[MikeP505]

will definitely heed your advice

An ENT studies a broad range of issues and not just hearing loss or tinnitus. They cannot know everything unless they have suffered thru it.

Keep us posted Jomo. Hope you get along well with all of this. We all have our fingers crossed for a cure or decent treatment soon........