Unilateral Hearing Loss

[Guru]

I want to write my experience with tinnitus that could be of some help to other...

I first had tinnitus when I was very young. It lasted for ~3 weeks. I had an audiogram that showed a notch at 4000 Hz only in one ear. I took some generic prescribed medication but I dont think it helped. Only time, focusing on other activities and not thinking about tinnitus helped. Doctors back then didnt recommend any MRI etc to probe the reason for unilateral hearing loss.

Then after more than 15 yrs, I experienced tinnitus again. Did the audiogram again, and found the exact same notch as before. Doctors were more cautious this time and wanted to do an MRI to rule out few things as unilateral hearing loss is not common and many a times associated with some physiological reason behind it. This freaked me out and actually made the tinnitus worse. Finally had MRI done which turned out to be fine. This was a huge relief. Tinnitus reduced drastically to almost none the very next day

Some time later, I had a bad migraine. Took some OTC ibuprofen that was probably a high dose. Tinnitus increased a lot as a result, but luckily went back down to a point where it doesnt bother me..

So to conclude:
1. Unilateral Tinnitus or Unilateral Hearing Loss does not mean that there is something sinister going on. It could very well be totally unrelated or even stress induced.
2. It is recommended to get an MRI done. This serves 2 purposes. a) Rule out a physiological problem or catch the problem early. b) If MRI comes out clean, the amount or relief that you will have is unparalleled.
3. Tinnitus, for me, only went away with Time, Patience, accepting that having tinnitus is OK and by not stressing out unnecessarily.
4. Be careful with OTC drugs.. some are well known to exacerbate Tinnitus.

Hope this helps..

 

[Dominic1955]

I developed sudden unilateral sensorineural hearing loss in my lt ear 5 weeks ago, I have severe tinnitus and constant feeling of being blocked in lt ear. Had normal MRI took prednisone for almost 1 month. I am not better tinnitus is main problem although I have severe hearing loss on lt my right is normal. Does anyone have any idea how long it took to accept the tinnitus?

 

[fitActive04]

I developed sudden unilateral sensorineural hearing loss in my lt ear 5 weeks ago, I have severe tinnitus and constant feeling of being blocked in lt ear. Had normal MRI took prednisone for almost 1 month. I am not better tinnitus is main problem although I have severe hearing loss on lt my right is normal. Does anyone have any idea how long it took to accept the tinnitus?

Although I do not know the cause of your hearing loss, there was a study from the University of Florida in 2014 which claimed taking the following dietary supplements helped with hearing loss: vitamin C, vitamin E, beta carotene, and magnesium.

Hearing loss or not, those supplements are beneficial for many things, so maybe it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

Here's a link to the study:
http://news.ufl.edu/archive/2014/03...-induced-hearing-loss-uf-researchers-say.html

 

[Dominic1955]

The SSHL cause is unknown, the tinnitus is my problem it will not go away, I doubt that my hearing will come back. It's 5 weeks, I was wondering if there someone out there with similar episode of sudden hearing loss and tinnitus who recovered from the tinnitus ? And how long

 

[Guru]

Hello all, just a short update. There are always flare-ups with tinnitus, most of them last a few minutes to hours but sometimes it can last weeks or months. My tinnitus was mostly dormant for 2+ years and came back a few months ago as I was really stressed out about a different health reason. But with time, it always gets better as it has in the past. One thing that definitely helps when I feel a bit down with tinnitus is just telling my self that its OK to hear tinnitus, its not interfering with any activities and that I have overcome it twice already. I was recently on a 2 week vacation and I did not hear my tinnitus at all because I was so engaged and engrossed with daily activities and visiting new places. Hope this helps...