I'm not sure exactly where to start, so I will just give a brief summary of my medical history. I have all the things that go together - acid reflux, sleep apnea, allergies, asthma, etc. etc. I'm having a new worsening of the hearing in my left ear. From what I gathered from my trip to the ENT, I think that the first time I had hearing loss was 2007, in my left ear. At that time he said a virus was a likely cause for the loss of hearing. I had been to them again in 2014 because acid reflux was causing hoarseness, but that seems to have mostly calmed down for now. I did a hearing test in 2014 and I think it was about the same as it was in 2007. This current bout of sudden hearing loss, I seem to have lost most of the hearing in my left ear. I was able to make out 56% of the words they sent to me. The ENT told me a hearing aid is probably going to do a little or nothing for my left ear at this point. He wants to check me again in three months to see if The hearing improves, apparently sometimes that happens? He suspects Ménière's disease, but of course he's not sure.
My two questions for now are, has anyone found any alternative therapies or conventional therapies that help them with their tinnitus or hearing loss? And I asked him what happens if I start losing hearing in my right ear God forbid, and he said that a cochlear implant would be an option. But he also mentioned there's some kind of an implant that I might be able to get for behind my left ear for now? Does anyone know what kind of implant that might be? Any thoughts appreciated! I don't know why but the tinnitus at one point when this new incident started was very loud - it's sort of mostly tolerable at the moment. The tinnitus started again like a week after this last vertigo attack. My biggest concern right now is the hearing loss and what could be done about it? I should also mention I had my second vertigo attack recently the first one was about three years ago and nowhere near as bad. The way the ENT explained it to me, right now don't worry about the tinnitus that's keeping you from sleeping, and not being able to hear - worry about a debilitating attack of vertigo!
Lovely!
Thoughts?