Dear colleagues,
Although my case is still recent, the oddities about it made me write in a plea for help.
Relying on your own experiences and on your years of reading about others' experiences, I would likely to kindly ask for your insights and help, so I can better understand what is going on with me and make some critical decisions. As you will see, my symptoms and story are rather odd.
The short version:
Six weeks after an episode of what is assumed to have been a mild sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) in the right ear caught early, I currently have intermittent mild-moderate tinnitus in the left ear, intermittent ear fullness in the right ear, hyperacusis of varying intensity (but no pain), and the most annoying thing that I can only describe as: a distorted sound in my left ear when I speak some words/sentences at given volumes/frequencies (like an exploding metallic distortion, similar to a broken speaker). Perhaps it is some sort of diplacusis or autophony, since when I whistle songs at higher-pitch I can double-hear it in the left ear? I haven´t found anything about this. The only other situation in which I can hear the same type of distortion (although less pronounced) is when I hear some female voices singing in very high pitch.
The long version:
All began on the evening of 09/19/2023. While working on my computer, out of nowhere I suddenly heard a two minute loud buzz in my right ear. After that, it calmed down to a quiet buzz. In the next day I saw a University of Michigan GP, who looked into my ears, saw nothing abnormal except for the right ear being very mildly red. Just in case, they prescribed me Ciprofloxacin-Dexamethasone 0.3-0.1 % twice a day for seven days just in case there was an infection.
Four days later, on 09/23/2023 I started having non-stop tinnitus and (not painful) hyperacusis in both ears, and actually even more on the left ear. Perhaps interestingly, two days later (on 09/25/2023) my wife was diagnosed with Covid. I myself never tested positive since this saga began, nor do I remember having any Covid symptoms in the weeks prior; just a very mild sensitivity in my throat a few days after this saga began (my wife and I are all 4 times vaccinated, 1 + 3 boosters, with last shot taken last year, all without any problems).
On 09/27/2023 I started noticing a fullness in my right ear, and that I was also starting to hear worse from the right ear. That same day I heard a frightening loud buzz in my left ear that lasted for a few minutes and made me scream and cry. On 09/28/2023 I went to the ER, where various blood work and a CT scan of the brain returned normal. With a tuning fork Weber test, the ER ENT detected that the hearing of right ear indeed was worse than the left ear, and immediately put me on Prednisone for 14 days for suspected mild/initial SSHL.
On 10/04/2023 I got an audiogram done, which showed complete recovery of my hearing in both ears between 250 Hz and 8000 Hz, with perfect speech recognition. At that point, oddly the tinnitus from the originally affected right ear was gone, but it remained in the left ear. A day later, however, I started developing the weird sound distortion in my left ear when I speak. Doing online audio tests of lower and higher frequencies (50 Hz-16000 Hz), I noted that my right ear was not capable of hearing above 13000 Hz, while my left ear could hear up to 16000 Hz. Since then, that seems to also have normalized and as of yesterday, I can hear up to 16000 Hz in both ears mostly similarly in all volumes I tried.
Over the weeks, my tinnitus has also improved from constant to intermittent (although when it is present it stays for long), and also to a mild volume most of the time it is present. My hyperacusis is always here in both ears, although worse in the left ear, and its severity also varies from mild to quite bothersome (again, always painless). However, I have seen little progress in the very disturbing sound distortions and noise that I hear in my left ear when I speak. Also, from time to time, my right ear again have this fullness sensation and a bit of a very mild soreness.
Past acoustic experiences:
During my entire life (I am a 40-year-old male), I very rarely went to shows, nightclubs or used headphones / earbuds. Very rarely. In the last year or so I started using those at bed to watch shows without disturbing my wife, but at very low volumes. Although not always, from time to time I would fall sleep with the headphones / earbuds on, but would take them off in the middle of the night. I never had an acoustic trauma from those being loud at all. Decades ago, before high-school, a colleague made a silly prank buzzing a loud sound to my left ear that did give an acoustic trauma: since then, sometimes when I heard really loud noises (e.g., in movie theaters), my left ear would have some very quick sound distortions; but nothing bothersome).
My questions:
(1) have you ever had, have you ever known of someone or read about someone who has had, such a weird sound distortion when they spoke? For the life of me, I cannot find anything about this online or in the forums. And I don't need to tell you that the ENT that I saw after my audiogram was completely terrible, dismissive, insensitive and inhumane.
(2) I do have an MRI ordered: "MRI CN VIII protocol with and without gadolinium". But I am very scared of doing it because of the loud noises that it emits even when using earplugs + noise-cancelling headphones. I had an MRI of the brain done last year for different reasons (which showed nothing remarkable; and by the way the ENT looked at it again and saw nothing worrisome, but decided to ask a new one more focused on the ears and with those specific contrasts) and I remember well how noisy it was. Given that I have odd symptoms but in both ears, and how they are evolving, do you think it would be wise to do this MRI right now or delay a bit further to see how my hyperacusis progresses?
(3) Any other insights, ideas or even guesses that you could give would be of great great help for me to try to find myself out of this mess. It has been particularly difficult because of the fluctuating of symptoms.
Although my case is still recent, the oddities about it made me write in a plea for help.
Relying on your own experiences and on your years of reading about others' experiences, I would likely to kindly ask for your insights and help, so I can better understand what is going on with me and make some critical decisions. As you will see, my symptoms and story are rather odd.
The short version:
Six weeks after an episode of what is assumed to have been a mild sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) in the right ear caught early, I currently have intermittent mild-moderate tinnitus in the left ear, intermittent ear fullness in the right ear, hyperacusis of varying intensity (but no pain), and the most annoying thing that I can only describe as: a distorted sound in my left ear when I speak some words/sentences at given volumes/frequencies (like an exploding metallic distortion, similar to a broken speaker). Perhaps it is some sort of diplacusis or autophony, since when I whistle songs at higher-pitch I can double-hear it in the left ear? I haven´t found anything about this. The only other situation in which I can hear the same type of distortion (although less pronounced) is when I hear some female voices singing in very high pitch.
The long version:
All began on the evening of 09/19/2023. While working on my computer, out of nowhere I suddenly heard a two minute loud buzz in my right ear. After that, it calmed down to a quiet buzz. In the next day I saw a University of Michigan GP, who looked into my ears, saw nothing abnormal except for the right ear being very mildly red. Just in case, they prescribed me Ciprofloxacin-Dexamethasone 0.3-0.1 % twice a day for seven days just in case there was an infection.
Four days later, on 09/23/2023 I started having non-stop tinnitus and (not painful) hyperacusis in both ears, and actually even more on the left ear. Perhaps interestingly, two days later (on 09/25/2023) my wife was diagnosed with Covid. I myself never tested positive since this saga began, nor do I remember having any Covid symptoms in the weeks prior; just a very mild sensitivity in my throat a few days after this saga began (my wife and I are all 4 times vaccinated, 1 + 3 boosters, with last shot taken last year, all without any problems).
On 09/27/2023 I started noticing a fullness in my right ear, and that I was also starting to hear worse from the right ear. That same day I heard a frightening loud buzz in my left ear that lasted for a few minutes and made me scream and cry. On 09/28/2023 I went to the ER, where various blood work and a CT scan of the brain returned normal. With a tuning fork Weber test, the ER ENT detected that the hearing of right ear indeed was worse than the left ear, and immediately put me on Prednisone for 14 days for suspected mild/initial SSHL.
On 10/04/2023 I got an audiogram done, which showed complete recovery of my hearing in both ears between 250 Hz and 8000 Hz, with perfect speech recognition. At that point, oddly the tinnitus from the originally affected right ear was gone, but it remained in the left ear. A day later, however, I started developing the weird sound distortion in my left ear when I speak. Doing online audio tests of lower and higher frequencies (50 Hz-16000 Hz), I noted that my right ear was not capable of hearing above 13000 Hz, while my left ear could hear up to 16000 Hz. Since then, that seems to also have normalized and as of yesterday, I can hear up to 16000 Hz in both ears mostly similarly in all volumes I tried.
Over the weeks, my tinnitus has also improved from constant to intermittent (although when it is present it stays for long), and also to a mild volume most of the time it is present. My hyperacusis is always here in both ears, although worse in the left ear, and its severity also varies from mild to quite bothersome (again, always painless). However, I have seen little progress in the very disturbing sound distortions and noise that I hear in my left ear when I speak. Also, from time to time, my right ear again have this fullness sensation and a bit of a very mild soreness.
Past acoustic experiences:
During my entire life (I am a 40-year-old male), I very rarely went to shows, nightclubs or used headphones / earbuds. Very rarely. In the last year or so I started using those at bed to watch shows without disturbing my wife, but at very low volumes. Although not always, from time to time I would fall sleep with the headphones / earbuds on, but would take them off in the middle of the night. I never had an acoustic trauma from those being loud at all. Decades ago, before high-school, a colleague made a silly prank buzzing a loud sound to my left ear that did give an acoustic trauma: since then, sometimes when I heard really loud noises (e.g., in movie theaters), my left ear would have some very quick sound distortions; but nothing bothersome).
My questions:
(1) have you ever had, have you ever known of someone or read about someone who has had, such a weird sound distortion when they spoke? For the life of me, I cannot find anything about this online or in the forums. And I don't need to tell you that the ENT that I saw after my audiogram was completely terrible, dismissive, insensitive and inhumane.
(2) I do have an MRI ordered: "MRI CN VIII protocol with and without gadolinium". But I am very scared of doing it because of the loud noises that it emits even when using earplugs + noise-cancelling headphones. I had an MRI of the brain done last year for different reasons (which showed nothing remarkable; and by the way the ENT looked at it again and saw nothing worrisome, but decided to ask a new one more focused on the ears and with those specific contrasts) and I remember well how noisy it was. Given that I have odd symptoms but in both ears, and how they are evolving, do you think it would be wise to do this MRI right now or delay a bit further to see how my hyperacusis progresses?
(3) Any other insights, ideas or even guesses that you could give would be of great great help for me to try to find myself out of this mess. It has been particularly difficult because of the fluctuating of symptoms.
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