Sudden SNHL + Tinnitus and Dysacusis

[Esra47]

Hello everyone,

First, sorry for my bad English as I am from Germany.

3 weeks ago (I was in Istanbul on holiday) I suffered sudden hearing loss in my right ear along with really strange tinnitus. I was lying on the bed in the hotel watching a movie and then when I stood up, it suddenly started.

It doesn't sound like normal tinnitus. It's more like an electric tinnitus. For example if you want to listen to the radio, the annoying sound in the background when you try to find the right channel - my tinnitus sounds like that.

It's thank god not really loud and I have not problems with sleeping.

I spent one week in Turkey and visited 2-3 ENTs. I have attached my audiogram. I have hearing loss in the high frequencies (4000 Hz and maybe more in the other high frequencies)

Years ago I had a really big problem with my ears. I got an ear myoclonus which reacts to certain sounds (for example kids' voice, supermarket scanner etc.) but all tests were ok! I never had any problems with hearing loss and I could live with it a normal life (but always protected my ears).

I have problems with allergies and during my holiday in Istanbul I had trouble with breathing from the nose.

The first ENT gave me a spray and an antihistamine for my allergies. I took it for 3 days.

The second ENT gave me Betaserc and the last one Ginkgo biloba

I decided to fly back to Germany but unlucky as I am, my ENT was on holiday so I had to go to another ENT. He gave 3 days high dose Prednisolone. I had to take it as tablet (5 days) but it doesn't help me.

I also tried Ginkgo biloba, Magnesium and Vitamin B Complex.

I could live with the tinnitus but the problem right now is that everything sounds distorted. Especially watching TV.

And I don't know how to describe it, but when I am talking to my mum, watching TV or something else, there is sometimes a high beep tone after the sound I hear. Sorry I really don't know how to describe it. It's probably dysacusis or diplacusis. Or can we say it's reactive tinnitus?

Another strange thing is that some of the ENTs in Germany said that my hearing test is normal again and other doctor who did an audiogram as well said that it's better than before but not normal yet.

So I tested my hearing of high frequency tones on YouTube. I realized that even in the lowest volume (when I close my healthy ear) I can hear the high frequencies BUT I hear it distorted. It's not like the same tone which I hear with my healthy, left ear. Maybe because of that my audiogram seems normal because I am hearing these frequencies in my right ear but not as well as my left ear. I tried an online tone generator yesterday and my tinnitus disappeared when I heard the tone of 3,425 Hz.

So strange things which makes me really crazy! Besides, after returning back to Germany, I got a really big virus which affected my ears as well

Any suggestions?

 

[Matchbox]

This is my greatest fear even when living amongst the bullshit amount of sounds I have; hearing nothing and just hearing them and distortion. As it is, I get limited escape of my noises and distortion with drugs, exercise, and pulling the distortions into a noisy object.

I've suffered with sudden loss of higher frequencies and best known as a mish mash of wavering sounds like a creaking metal bridge or seashell like.

It "usually" slowly comes back over several days.

I have experienced what I believe you have going on, a beep riding on top of sounds or especially voices, and the background tinnitus sounding akin to "light popping or static" like listening to rice krispies once you pour milk into the cereal, except all around me throughout my hearing.

This happened after a significant noise and pressure trauma with an Acoustic Reflex test.

No audiogram to prove that one, but it was awful, absolutely awful.

It did fade away over time, my initial thoughts are you suffered some kind of noise trauma at that 3.5 kHz frequency, or maybe they are blasting your ears whilst you have something else underlying going on.

If it's just one ear and the same one you had issues with, maybe try out antivirals too?

Steroids are probably the best option, try to take them for a while but REALLY taper off REALLY slowly... like REALLY slowly so you don't get worse.

I'm hoping your beep slowly goes away as well. Mine took about a week doing nothing significant.

 

[Esra47]

@Matchbox, yes, it's just my right ear.

Doctor prescribed me penicillin because I had an infection but this didn't help with the tinnitus or the distortions.

I don't know if they would prescribe me antivirals because I have cardiomyopathy and the doctors here in Germany are always careful with me because of my situation (I also have an implanted pacemaker defibrillator).

It's really weird that some people who don't have hearing loss, do have sound distortions or diplacusis.

I have read stories about people here who get relief from hearing aids, diuretics, LDN, Nystatin etc.

It's also weird that sometimes antidepressants help these kinds of problems. So maybe psychological problems can play a big role as well.

Many years ago I had problems with hyperacusis and middle ear spasms (it was horrible - I still have spasms to some sounds but it's manageable). It subsided after 6 months.