Posted on 10/11/2018 7:34:44 PM PDT by hattend
On Monday, my wife woke up with a total loss of hearing in her left ear. Looking online, it said to treat this as an emergency so she went to the ER.
They admitted her to the hospital and she got a CAT scan and MRI to rule out a stroke or tumors. Apparently, it was caused by virus.
She finally got an appointment with an audiologist toady who, after tested, said she has zero response in her left ear. She was given a referral to an ENT doctor on Monday for possible steroid injections directly into the middle ear. Very Painful. Her other option is a hearing aid in her right ear that will help her brain interpret a stereo effect and maybe a cochlear implant which could cost up to $100K.
Just wondering if anybody has ever experienced this and did any of your hearing ever come back after treatment.
Obviously, my wife is freaked out.
Washing the ear might help. There are kits for this. Happened to me.
Never having heard of such a thing, I immediately consulted Dr. Google. I searched on sudden hearing loss and was gratified to discover that the syndrome is called Sudden Hearing Loss, thus proving once again that great minds think alike. Dr. Google said to treat it as an emergency so I saw an ear specialist that afternoon.
Short synopsis: the docs think this is usually caused by a virus, though there is apparently some debate about this. It is often confined to one ear, though there are exceptions. Hearing usually returns, though this can take weeks or months. There is no medical cure for a viral infection (cf. the flu or the common cold), so the docs tend to prescribe steroids to boost the body's natural resiliency. Beyond that, as with any viral infection, your body will eventually fight it off, or not. With sudden hearing loss, the vast majority of patients recover their hearing. There may be some permanent degradation, usually slight but sometimes significant. No point worrying about it as there is nothing you can do about it, and the odds are greatly in your favor. In my case, I took the steroids in pill form; no needles, which is vastly more civilized. My hearing returned over the period of a few weeks.
Did anyone mention the possibility of shingles? Symptoms can appear before the rash.
I would ask the ENT about that and ask if he thinks an anti-Zoster medicine and steroids would be appropriate. I would ask ASAP - like first thing in the am..
Thanks for your experience.
That should give my wife some hope for getting at least some of her hearing back.
He was too set in his ways.
Got him the bulb and concentrated H2O2 kit. He'd only use the drops.
I’ll pass that along. She sees the ENT on Monday
I have this same problem myself and it came out of left field. Surpringsingly it seems to affect only one ear.
I did the whole nine yards and nothing really worked. I wound up have hearing aids.
Wish I could be more positive but I know from personal experience. It affects all age groups. No one seems to know what causes it.
The only way to regain hearing in the affected ear would be a cochlear implant.
Sorry that has happened to your wife, but it does sound like sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) which I have had first in the right ear, then over a year later the left ear, but mine was not total hearing loss.
They say it might be viral or autoimmune, but the truth is they don’t know. I tried an antiviral, the steroid injections and oral steroids without much benefit. Did a bunch of blood tests, all OK. For the right ear, I got approved for very expensive hyperbaric treatments which helped a lot, but the effect went away as soon as the treatments stopped. It could because by that time, I was almost 2 months out from initial symptoms.
My left ear eventually recovered back to its baseline but my right one never did, and I found the hearing aid too annoying and only a bit helpful. I am not bad enough for a cochlear implant.
This year I did have a friend get the same thing, and she had a very good recovery.
I hope your wife recovers from it - it is very disturbing to have.
BTTT.
The PA flushed out my ear canals with warm water, and I was shocked to see what buildup came out, and ended up in the emesis basin I had held under my ear for her.
This may not be much comfort to your wife, but maybe some hope. I had an incident in June 2009 (at age 61) when I was traveling for business. I woke up one morning at the hotel and had lost all hearing in my right ear.
I could only hear out of one ear for months. I tried ear cleaning and other things (although did not go to a doctor). Although I prayed, at some point I was resigned to the loss.
In late September 2009 I traveled to Canada for a meeting. About an hour into that meeting, my hearing returned. Everyone at this technical meeting noticed me smiling and almost in tears. Perhaps prayer worked. I have had no problem since then.
So your wife should not think the worst yet.
Yes, I’ve been through that, too - and I was quite young at the time. Smoking and allergies seem to increase the protective buildup of ear wax in some people.
Glad to see there have been a number of responses that appear to give a better prognosis than what you might have been expecting. Prayers for her full recovery.
Sudden hearing loss typically occurs in one ear. This is consistent with the viral theory of causation. It is a problem affecting the inner ear, which is a sealed space. There is no connection between your left and right inner ears. A sneaky virus might somehow manage to get into one, but it has no pathway to the other. My doc did caution me against touching one ear and then the other — for example, don’t use the same Q tip in both ears. Chances are that contact with the outer ear won’t lead to an infection of the inner ear, but still, there’s no reason to give an opportunistic virus a free ride to the right zip code. Keep ‘em separate.
Steroids crucial from what I understand. Don’t wait. I had it.
Even oral ones.Steroids saved me. Push for them fast!
The thing is, when you go to a doctor, they use very powerful syringes to flush things out - it feels and sounds like a raging ocean in your ears!
Most of the home remedies that you get at the drugstore don’t work that well, and in my experience they usually just make things worse.
A sunny Saturday morning in 2003, I arose to the usual routine and noticed my right ear seemed plugged up as if a cold or congestion. Short story, two mri’s several doctor’s and hearing tests, still can’t hear well out of right ear. What little I do hear is distorted so hearing aid makes it worse. Told that 7% of world’s population has this problem. Good news is that my good ear has compensated for the loss and I find myself listening to music in anticipation of my other ear crapping out. p.s. I’m approaching 70.
I wouldn’t wait until Monday to ask. First thing in the am:)
My DIL’s dad had a sudden hearing loss very recently, within the last 3 weeks. We do not know the details, but yeh, they are also quite freaked out. She mentioned something about hyperbaric chambers 2 hours a day ‘and if that doesn’t work, they’ll get him a hearing aid.” Bodies...
Sudden Hearing Loss, of course, isn't the only thing that could be going on, but from your description of your wife's situation, it sure sounds like what I experienced. Good luck.
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