Looking for Help in NYC/Philly Area

[Shem]

Hi Folks,

I was wondering if anybody had any positive experiences with Dr's in the New York or Philly area. I am located in central NJ, but would be willing to travel to find somebody who specializes in Tinnitus treatments and is up to date on the current treatment options. I am only going on 1.5 weeks since profound single sided hearing loss, but the onset of (what I would call) severe tinnitus has been very hard to deal with. Being treated with oral prednisone and the dexamethasone injections, but no recovery so far, and the tinnitus seems to be getting worse daily. Understandably, my ENT is much more focused on trying to recover the hearing than the tinnitus right now, but I also get the feeling he is not super well versed in treatment options for that.

I have been googling around, but would really value anybody's personal experience with a clinic or Dr. It seems like there are many good ENT's out there, but they are not necessarily on the up and up on what seems to be a very dynamic landscape of tinnitus options.

Would REALLY appreciate any recommendations. Having a hard time.

Thanks

 

[Chris Heinrich]

You didn't expand on your hearing loss: do you still have hearing loss, or did the steroids clear up that problem? I'm guessing by "sudden" hearing loss that it came out of nowhere, not related to acoustic trauma? Since you are in the early stages, it's important that you've taken care of the steroid options; because research suggests that it's the smartest thing you can do if you have hearing problems due to acoustic trauma.

 

[Shem]

Hi Chris, thanks for the response.

Yes, "sudden" meaning I woke up with ringing and hearing loss. No acoustic trauma. Went to the ENT that day, and started the predisone that afternoon, followed a few days later with Dexamethasone injection, and have had a few of those since. That was 10 days ago. Hearing loss was was profound, worse with high frequency, loss roughly at the 80-95db level, although even at low frequency loss is 60+db and has not improved, so I'm guessing that's where it will remain, but you never know.

The tinnitus has gotten progressively worse to the point where it is very loud, constant, never stopping. Things like sleeping, working, taking care of the kids, has been a challenge. I've been slogging through, but looking for some light at the end of the tunnel. As I'm sure everybody here can appreciate, the anxiety level thinking that this might not get better is hard to deal with.

On the positive side, masking with rain white noise helps, so I have been using that alot.

What I was hoping was that somebody out there knows some really good local resources (Dr's, clinic) that I can contact to help. My ENT is doing all the right stuff for trying to get teh hearing back, as he should at this point, but I am pretty focused on the constant ringing. I would gladly give up all hearing in the ear if it would just stop the ringing.