Spike with Sudden, Substantial Hearing Loss?

[12stepCornelius]

So I'm waking up now, with my T pretty much back to normal as it was yesterday before I completely freaked out late last night.

I had a sudden spike in T in the right ear whilst watching TV at a reasonable volume, shortly before bed. I had just come back from a restaurant with a friend, having sat outdoors and realizing that while we were there for an hour, the noise level was probably a bit much. However I was not bothered by it, other than having to speak a bit louder while I was there.

I'd also vaped a little MJ as I tend to regularly do (never seemed to bother my T before other than making it slightly more noticeable at times, but even that hasn't been a problem anymore).

Last night was a completely new experience, akin to when my T first came on last year, my left ear having suffered SSNHL, which caused a lot of fullness in my left ear and a decrease in hearing for the duration of a day or two.

So last night, a sudden spike in T with a serious dip in hearing from my right ear (which is usually my better ear), followed by a slight numbness around the ear. I have TMJ as well. Earlier yesterday I had a couple beers (never bothered my T before) and had eaten restaurant food which as we all know, can be loaded with salt. It scared me so much I was actually shaking thinking I'd suddenly lost nearly 50% of what is actually fairly normal hearing levels, despite the mild-moderate T and occasional H. However, I woke around an hour of dozing and noticed my hearing had been coming back online in that ear, and felt as if it was all back to normal after several more hours of sleep.

My concern is if a dip in hearing like that with T is normal or not for T sufferers? Has anyone else experience this? I'm wondering if I need to rush back in to my audiologist or an MD to get started on steroids or not. Don't want to be stupid and sit around on my hands if my hearing is at risk!

 

[12stepCornelius]

UPDATE:

So I'm more or less back to normal as far as I can tell. I would assume hearing-preserving methods (i.e., prednisone) are not effective at this point, as my hearing seems to have corrected itself.

Can intense spikes cause a dip in hearing to such an extent? It was as if the entire area around my right ear became slightly numb, sort of as if I were keeping my head on a pillow on that side.

There was also what felt like a small band of pressure right inside my outer ear canal as it was occurring, which if I think about it, I can still somewhat feel, though I don't have any redness or infection that I can tell.

My allergies have been acting up slightly the past couple of weeks (sneezing, drainage, coughing here and there). I had a good spike in my right ear about a month ago that lasted about 2 weeks before I either habituated to it or it calmed down back to baseline levels to where the ringing often fades into the background, even in quiet rooms.

I know tinnitus doesn't directly cause hearing loss, so even with a spike, I wouldn't think hearing damage could be the issue, especially since I was sitting in a moderately volumed room when it occurred out of the blue.