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Block right ear and became sensitive to the sounds
My right ear became sensitive to the sounds around me 40 days ago; even when people talked to me, it vibrated in my head, and I lost 90% of my hearing. I went to a general doctor, and she said it might be wax or an infection. They flushed my ear with water and gave me Antibiotics drops to use for five days. After three days, my hearing was back to 85%, and sound sensitivities had been reduced as well. Two weeks later, the same thing happened, and I called my family doctor, who said it could be a virus or related to my sinuses and gave me a high dose of cortisone (50mg) for ten days. After three days, my hearing was back again to 85%, and sensitivity to sound also reduced, and now it's been about three weeks. Today, I feel a constant sound like bass in my ear with a headache in the same ear for the whole day, bringing me anxiety about what is wrong with my ear and what I should do about it. I called my doctor, and he said I need to do an MRI this week. Does anyone know if this is related to SSNHL or ETD, or something else so I can be proactive? Here in Canada, it's not easy to see an ENT as you need to be referred by a family doctor.
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What a scary story! I’m not familiar with your experience of extreme sound sensitivity preceding a sudden hearing loss, although I recognize the medical response, which is to administer cortisone to reverse a sudden hearing loss. But that treatment is only effective when used very soon after the loss has occurred, as happened in your case twice. I think your family doctor is appropriate in ordering an MRI, clearly there’s something going on. My read on it is that the first doc under-treated you (sounds like she didn’t listen to your description of your sound sensitivity symptoms, which she attributed to ear wax—really??), but your family doctor was more on track, although I think the MRI should have been recommended the second time you reported the extreme sound sensitivity. Wishing you the best of luck.
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1 ReactionI had similar experience, though not the prompt treatment with steroid.
Please make sure you have good ear protection for the MRI. Exposure to continuous loud noises of the machine will very likely make your sound sensitivities MUCH worse. That is what happened to me. I was rushed into the MRI machine with ill fitting ear plugs. I did not understand that I should STOP the proceedings until my ears were well protected.
Good luck. I have been in a similar situation for two years now. Still deteriorating hearing and profound sound sensitivity and tinnitus.
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1 ReactionGood luck with the MRI and I hope you get some definitive answers. There’s a phenomenon called hyperacusis that I’ve seen some people talk about where they have extreme sensitivity and sometimes pain from sounds.
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2 ReactionsHyperacusis might be hereditary. My maternal grandmother, my mother, myself and my daughter all have it. We are all the first daughters of our mothers. It makes wearing hearing aids problematic because enhancing sound can be uncomfortable and even painful for the ears, and can cause further hearing loss. does anyone else have this problem?