Sudden Low Frequency Hearing Loss??

[SilverSpiral]

I have sudden low frequency hearing loss in my ear with the loudest T, and a rumbling in my ears when I speak, and my voice has an occlusion sound that it didn't before. It's onset has been the last 72 hours, I saw my doctor the first day, and initially he wanted an MRI but I was afraid of the noise, then we settled on hoping it was congestion/Eustachian tube and the onset of a cold, which I havent had since T onset, so it's new how congestion sounds or something, but it's kept worsening and I don't have other cold symptoms. Got immediate hearing test today, weird sudden low freq ski slop in the worst ear. Went back to doctor, he looked in ear and said he wanted to do syringing. I told him no because of all the stuff i've heard about it, and i told him i could show him scientific articles online showing people have gotten T from syringing, but he said he needed to do it to rule out infection and make a decision by clearly seeing the ear drum. He did the syringing, or irrigation, it wasnt that loud, he asked me if my hearing was different, and i said i could hear high freqs a little better, but i still had the other stuff, he put a tuning fork on my skull and i still had low freq hearing loss in that skull, I think he said it's conductive? Doctor put me on prednisone and ordered MRI. The ear that has the sudden low frequency hearing loss and the worst of all these new symptoms is the one that took the brunt of the acoustic trauma over a year ago. I've vigilantly protected my ears and avoided noisy situations, and there was nothing noisy leading up to this, and the plugged heavy sensation, and occlusion effect my voice has is similar to that of when you have a bad cold, or when you go fast upwards or downwards, and your ears pop, but it's not the same, it's a different sensation than i've ever experienced exactly. I don't understand what/why this can be, the rumbling sensation is sort of like if you close your eyes and squint hard and your ears make a low rumble.

There have been several changes to my T tones throughout this, more fluctuations in the past few days than I've had since the first couple months after my onset. and my H is a lot worse in general (but I originally attributed that to this weird new rumbling sensation when I talk). I'm still hoping it's a cold.

Also ENT appointment coming, and i dont know when the mri. I'm worried about the mri, every health professional i've talked to, except the audiologist, has been dismissive of my concerns of the mri being too loud. What if they don't let me use muffs in the mri because it will block the imaging. I even had a nurse on the help line tell me "an mri shouldnt be loud, it is magnetic". wtf

 

[fishbone]

There has to be a reason, why this is happening. It might be an infection/cold. MRI might give some answers and your dr wants them done. Hang in there ....

 

[Jkph75]

I have the same thing happening. It's awful.

 

[fhs]

Went back to doctor, he looked in ear and said he wanted to do syringing. I told him no because of all the stuff i've heard about it, and i told him i could show him scientific articles online showing people have gotten T from syringing, but he said he needed to do it to rule out infection and make a decision by clearly seeing the ear drum. He did the syringing, or irrigation, it wasnt that loud, he asked me if my hearing was different, and i said i could hear high freqs a little better, but i still had the other stuff, he put a tuning fork on my skull and i still had low freq hearing loss in that skull, I think he said it's conductive?

The decibel level of the ear syringing largely depends on the width of the tip. A wide tip is much quieter than a thin tip and that could be used. It looks like you have an ear wax impaction if the doctor is unable to see your ear drum. You need to get it fixed unless you want the tinnitus to set permanently through centralization.

MRI is highly unlikely to find anything. The doc needs to see your ear drum. I would go for the ear syringing if it's not a thin tip.

 

[SilverSpiral]

The decibel level of the ear syringing largely depends on the width of the tip. A wide tip is much quieter than a thin tip and that could be used. It looks like you have an ear wax impaction if the doctor is unable to see your ear drum. You need to get it fixed unless you want the tinnitus to set permanently through centralization.

MRI is highly unlikely to find anything. The doc needs to see your ear drum. I would go for the ear syringing if it's not a thin tip.

I did not have a wax impaction, my eardrum was only partially obscured, the audiologist even mentioned it was not very bad, but the doctor wanted to do the syringing before deciding what to do. He did do the syringing, all the syringing did was give me a bit brighter hearing in that ear (more high freqs). My T in the other ear was reacting to the syringing though.

 

[SilverSpiral]

Could be this SSNHL or what? they are even looking at autoimmune of MS. The audiologist said it could be further fallout of my acoustic trauma, but i said, isn't noise damage usually high freqs, and he said not necessarily, he knows truckers with low and high freq loss with knotches everywhere. But then I went back to the doctor and he demanded doing ear syringing before doing prednisone and an mri. this is kind of scary. i've been doing everything to make my ears better. all the supplements i've tried, not going around any noisy situations, always using protection well into the realms of what some on this forum consider "overprotection" why would this happen now.

 

[SilverSpiral]

He also gave me a very large blood work panel to have done before the ENT.

 

[fhs]

But then I went back to the doctor and he demanded doing ear syringing before doing prednisone and an mri. this is kind of scary.

You went back to the doctor and he demanded ear syringing. It means your ears aren't clean yet. I would get them clean.

i've been doing everything to make my ears better. all the supplements i've tried, not going around any noisy situations, always using protection well into the realms of what some on this forum consider "overprotection" why would this happen now.

Having an ear plug in your ear all the time can cause wax buildup. Also I have a hunch that ear plugs act almost like ear wax impactions because they block sound. We know that ear wax impactions cause tinnitus because they block sound. Put the two and two together. If you're always wearing ear plugs then it's like having an ear wax impaction. The first thing I would do is stop wearing ear plugs unless you're in a concert and then get your ears cleaned.

Tinnitus and hyperacusis can be caused due to a lack of sound. It might even help if you have a low amount of artificial white noise if your hearing loss doesn't let you hear the constant 30dB ambient noises at all the frequencies.

 

[SilverSpiral]

You went back to the doctor and he demanded ear syringing. It means your ears aren't clean yet. I would get them clean.



Having an ear plug in your ear all the time can cause wax buildup. Also I have a hunch that ear plugs act almost like ear wax impactions because they block sound. We know that ear wax impactions cause tinnitus because they block sound. Put the two and two together. If you're always wearing ear plugs then it's like having an ear wax impaction. The first thing I would do is stop wearing ear plugs unless you're in a concert and then get your ears cleaned.

Tinnitus and hyperacusis can be caused due to a lack of sound. It might even help if you have a low amount of artificial white noise if your hearing loss doesn't let you hear the constant 30dB ambient noises at all the frequencies.

I use Howard Leight by Honeywell L2F EDITION. And Peltor X5A. These are headmuffs not earplugs, the provide better protection. I rarely use plugs, i guess mainly for social sitations, so once every 10 years or something maybe at this rate... Sometimes i double the muffs over some comfy plugs

The wax you are focused on was a small flak obscuring part of my ear drum, the audiologist said it was no big deal and used a plastic wand to remove it. I then went back to the audiogram and he compared it to my old ones and there is sudden loss, he used several tuning fork measuremesnts, The doctor then wanted to syrings, I said not until he reads the article about chronic T from wax removal, but he said no, he needs to do it to make a decision here, and it's the only equipment he has in the office. So i did the ear syringing, it wasnt painfully loud or anything. then after he did the fork tests again, and then put me on prednisone 50 and bloodwork for ENT and an MRI.

 

[fhs]

I use Howard Leight by Honeywell L2F EDITION. And Peltor X5A. These are headmuffs not earplugs, the provide better protection. I rarely use plugs, i guess mainly for social sitations, so once every 10 years or something maybe at this rate... Sometimes i double the muffs over some comfy plugs

I think that your tinnitus could be caused by the headmuffs then. They block sound just like ear wax impactions do. You also have acoustic hearing loss on top of that so the auditory cortex in your brain is literally dying for sound hence why you got much stronger tinnitus now. Does this make sense to you?

The headmuffs are no different than having a conductive loss. So if you're wearing them often it's like you have 30dB conductive loss on top of any sensorineural hearing loss that you have.

 

[SilverSpiral]

I think that your tinnitus could be caused by the headmuffs then. They block sound just like ear wax impactions do. You also have acoustic hearing loss on top of that so the auditory cortex in your brain is literally dying for sound hence why you got much stronger tinnitus now. Does this make sense to you?

The headmuffs are no different than having a conductive loss. So if you're wearing them often it's like you have 30dB conductive loss on top of any sensorineural hearing loss that you have.

I don't wear them often, I wear them when I'm around anything that could get over 90db.
I don't wear protection every day, I often don't even leave my room. But when I do thinks, like if I take the trash out, I wear muffs, if it has cans, otherwise i wear no protection, but avoid the bad door that slams behind you.

both doctors referred to this was "just a bit" obscuring part of the eardrum, the audiologist removed some with a pick, adn then the doctor did the irrigation/syringing not sure. he said "yeah now i can see a bit better...doesnt seem to be much going on there. Then he put me on prednisone and ordered mri. He didnt even syringe the other ear. I don't know why you are fixated on this wax,it has been removed and it had no major effect. This is the first time my ears have ever been cleaned as wax, as I don't get it coming out my eardrums or something. And i've been seeing audiologists and ENT this past year, and none of them said anything about wax.

And my tinnitus is not caused by wax like you said, i got it after a sudden impulse sounds blasted near me, in addition to the extreme volume of the show at the end, exposure of unsafe levels of sound, temporary shift, tinnitus, hyperacusis, hearing distortions, but nothing abnormal on any of my audiograms, though the one 3 months after the trauma is worse than the one 6 months after, my thresholds recovered, but still had T and distortions.

Things been pretty much the same grim, state, constant t fluctuates a bit, but not like most, hyperacusis fluctuates based on things i'm not sure what but the fluctuations are small enough that i don't bother trying to control them yet, but its mainly just unmaskable but not THAT loud... until now over a year later wake up with a even weirder heavy suction feeling in my bad ear and things sound like in a seashell and my voice rumbles my ears and has occluded sound... had a little bit of congestion the days before so my first doctor visit, at first he was like uh oh mri, but then i told him about the sound, and the congestion and he said yeah it could just be a cold and your eustachian tube changing your symptoms since its the first cold or conjestion since the acoustic trauma, but now he does prednisone and mri and ear syringe since the audiogram confirmed what he thought with his tuning for test. he seemed to be getting a lot of data out of the tuning fork stuff, i never saw a doctor use one as many ways as that.

But i think they said the losses are conductive, but i think they may have said it as "conductive too" so in addition to whatever isn't conductive.

 

[Jkph75]

@SilverSpiral

Can you post your audiogram? It should be fairly easy to tell by looking at it what the possibilities are. Maybe someone here can help you. I would try. You listed a lot of things here but they can't all be possibilities. Your audiogram will rule some of them out.

 

[SilverSpiral]

@SilverSpiral

Can you post your audiogram? It should be fairly easy to tell by looking at it what the possibilities are. Maybe someone here can help you. I would try. You listed a lot of things here but they can't all be possibilities. Your audiogram will rule some of them out.

I can't post my audiogram, i had to run the hardcopy over to my doctor for him to look at when he made his diagnosis, and then run the hardcopy back to the audiologist, so that he makes official audiology reports for both my doctor, and my ENT, i got an immediate audiology test and ran the hardcopy over my doctor so he could decide what to do since this was getting to 72 hours point and he need to know if it could be SSNHL or what the heck is going on, then i took the hardcopy back to the audiology guy, because he is going to do a detailed report for my ENT and my Doctor, but i needed the audiogram today for the doctor.

But in the summary i remember he typed "sudden loss 125hz-1k " on the information for my MRI refereall

 

[SilverSpiral]

I should be able to get a copy of the audiogram from the ENT i am upcoming seeing, or my doctor, which would be a while longer though.

 

[SilverSpiral]

The thing is guys, think about this, MArkkuu got his T from syringing, and linked me to this article
http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/arti...resulting-from-cerumen-removal-procedures.pdf
and I had it, and i took it to the docrot and he would not look at it, he simply flat out said, he has one method of syringing and he needs to do it before he decides on what treatments, and even when i was on the table i was like could you just look at the article to see if i has any safety tips, or something that could prevent something bad from happening and hes like no i know theres a risk but if you want treatment theres a risk or something along those lines and then he did it and it wasnt that loud, but my tones are sure different and that ear is loud, but things have been a mess leading up to all this anyways, and i had the audiology test, and parts of it was loud, just H type loud, the tones were quiet, its just the guys voice that comes in too loud not like ACOUSTIC TRAUMA LOUD but H i wanna run away from this person if they are talking that loud

 

[SilverSpiral]

Now if I blow air out my left nostril, on of my T tones in my left ear rings loud. If I ear crunchy food, the ringing reacts to the chewing sounds, it sounds to soft foods, unless they smack, then you get a little. Like if you were eating pepperoni stick (gross) it would ring each initial chomp you make through the skin, but once your eating much it wont ring to that. THE HECK IS THIS

 

[Jkph75]

I can't post my audiogram, i had to run the hardcopy over to my doctor for him to look at when he made his diagnosis, and then run the hardcopy back to the audiologist, so that he makes official audiology reports for both my doctor, and my ENT, i got an immediate audiology test and ran the hardcopy over my doctor so he could decide what to do since this was getting to 72 hours point and he need to know if it could be SSNHL or what the heck is going on, then i took the hardcopy back to the audiology guy, because he is going to do a detailed report for my ENT and my Doctor, but i needed the audiogram today for the doctor.

But in the summary i remember he typed "sudden loss 125hz-1k " on the information for my MRI refereall

Ok. This means that your loss is sensory neural (in your inner ear). You couldn't have caused this by over protecting your ear. The loss and your new rumble weren't caused by the syringing. The rumble is the result of your low frequency loss. You should take the Prednisone stat. Hopefully, it will help you get your hearing back.

 

[SilverSpiral]

I have taken prednisone twice now
Could you take Lipoflavinoids with Prednisone? Any supplements to avoid while taking course of prednisone?

 

[SilverSpiral]

the buzz in my loudest T ear is at like 90db now it has to be it is way louder than conversation even my mom yelling at me it has a physical buzz and this is a couple steps below the one time it stepped up to a painful supersonic dentist drill pain closest thing ive ever had to a headache and i never had a headache it covers up a broad band of cound it is horrible like also has like a shimmering tingling field like just 2 inches in your skull you have this electric shimmering supersponicvibrating thing emitting whitnoise very high pitch sound waves and lots of weird low droneing tone mechanical and super slow motion mechanical sound down your left side.

These are gross sounds, and it is more somatic than other, when i move my neck to the one side it completely changes the interactions of the various sounds for a bit.

 

[Jkph75]

You can take Lipoflavinoids and Prednisone. What dose of Prednisone are you on? I have those sounds. I am deaf in my other ear, so I can barely hear at this point. It's horrible. I feel for you.

 

[SilverSpiral]

50mg prednisone for 10 days.

 

[SilverSpiral]

now when i yawn i get a big phone dial like tone and buzz that i didnt before wtf

 

[linearb]

now when i yawn i get a big phone dial like tone and buzz that i didnt before wtf

this sounds like some strange variant of autophonia, I have experienced such things for a couple weeks after airplane flights and similar.

 

[SilverSpiral]

It's so weird, this sudden onset, and for it to be so much worse in the same ear that was already so much worse because of acoustic trauma. The doctor was figuring SSNHL, or else some weird cold/virus, but the audiologist mentioned he's seen acoustic traumas worsen over the years, and i told him noise induced hearing loss is usually dips at 5 6 12k etc, he said no he's seen noise induced skiislopes in truckers and stuff. I dunno what to make of that. The one thing is using valsalva maneuvre it is difficult for me to open the eustachian tube of the bad ear, but i think it's always been that way. after the ear cleaning the doctor said it looked find, so he went with prednisone, mri, and ent referall.

 

[SilverSpiral]

Also the rumbling feeling in my ear. A plane was flying way in the distance above, so it wasnt loud, but it was setting off the rumbles in my ear, but the rumble in my ear away from the plane would rumble, so if i turned i could change which ear rumbled. The plane noise was so quiet too it was a very quiet woosh, the kind that is almost comforting if it werent for all the distortions i hear on top of white noise sources. These weird symptoms I've read a few others vague who have them, it is very strange.

I am also taking steroid nasal spray prescribed.

 

[VRZ78]

Did the doctor rolled out any type of infection ? Because in case of bacterial or viral infection (like a cold) Prednisone is not recommended as it greatly reduces the immune system

 

[VRZ78]

Do you have balence issue ?

 

[SilverSpiral]

Do you have balence issue ?

yeah he was unsure about the prednisone he said, the ent might be mad about it, but he sayd it might be ssnhl or something i dont really have a cold i dunno what the mir is gonna show, my ears feel very uneven now and have these weird pressurization stuff the rumbling in my ears when i talk is a bet better but ive been whispering since finshed all he doctors.no middle ear infection i guess thats why he wanted to irrigate to make sure he could see the whole eardrum well he did, and then he prescribed prednisone and mri, but i am taking steroid nasal sprays, who knows.

 

[SilverSpiral]

Do you have balence issue ?

how severe?

 

[SilverSpiral]

Did the doctor rolled out any type of infection ? Because in case of bacterial or viral infection (like a cold) Prednisone is not recommended as it greatly reduces the immune system

no he took a huge blood panel that goes to him the mri and the ent
included stuff like "dylenemiation diseases" or ms?!?!
thats just the one things i saw i couldnt read much