Hi Gabriel!

Your description of a broken speaker sounds really
similar to mine.

What type of implant do you have? Mine is titanium. It could be that certain implants have a greater risk for this side effect.

On the bright side, after some research, it looks like there might be a solution that wouldn’t involve redoing your stapedectomy. I can’t post links but if you search Pubmed for “Round and Oval Window Reinforcement” you should find it.

Reinforcing the oval window might be lower risk than a new stapedectomy with less downtime. I would ask your surgeon about that!

There are also two schools of thought with hyperacusis: some say to avoid sound, and others say to slowly reintroduce sound in hopes that you might get accustomed to it. Maybe try listening to a podcast each day during your commute at a level where it rarely “crackles” and slowly bring it up to see if that helps?

For me, at this point I’ve just accepted it and learned to live around it. I would say that it should get better and has gotten better for me over time, though I can still hear it.

Talk to you soon!

flat