Sudden hearing loss and an echo

Hi @erikas Thanks for you answer and for the contacts, I will have a look there...

My ENT prescribed me two different vasodilators treatments one month Each without success. He told me now that there was nothing he was aware of that would help for sure and that if I was willing trying more medicines with no assurance it will actually help, I should contact him again. For the moment I am not taking anything but aspirins. This is why I am interested to know the experiences and evolution of symptoms of people suffering similar conditions since longer time.

I am so glad you got in so quickly. I made the mistake of going to my GP and he just treated as ear infection. After two weeks it was to late for steroids to work.

Hi everyone.... well although we try and remain positive it is a bit disheartening discovering so many ear issues and treatments not helping in many cases.... my dad passed away long time ago in UK but relatives tell me he had hearing issues so mine could be hereditary... I never went to pop or loud concerts.. tinnitus started out of the blue many years ago and became worse few years ago after too many antibiotics (could be coincidence) also C.Diff. Gradually tinnitus got like a rumble/machine noise and sometimes our heating furnace was running at night, sometimes it was one of the older fridges we have, but sometimes nothing was running and I could still hear. Now its 24/7 and bad enough but also have ear pain and a dash of tmj thrown in with ear pessure/pain in area. I think I could handle a bit better if didnt have other health issues. I dont use hearing aids as just turn up tv and ask family to repeat, but that might change in future I am 77. My 50 yr old daughter told me she has had tinnitus for 9 months but didnt want to tell me and doesnt want to discuss: I could cry knowing whats ahead for her. Feel for everyone who has these issues, not life threatening but very much life altering!!

You may want to consider a cochlear implant. Is there a cochlear implant center in your area? Your ENT should be able to tell you more about how to proceed. NOTE: Insurance and Medicare do cover the cost of cochlear implants.

@dwi ...twice last year a clinic gave me antibiotics for the ear pain but I did not take them... because I had cdiff after 7 antibiotics in 6 months in 2018 and bowel never recovered; actually it was coincidence by time i got first antibiotic that ear pain subsided and second time, the next day i went to emerge clinic as wasn't sure it was infection - no temperature or discharge and he concurred.... said hold off on it. So for once I made the right decision.
Also I have obtained some lab reports recently and found that at least twice in last year I was given and TOOK antibiotics for bladder infection and didnt have one; and most recently given antibiotics for fast strep throat test ,but asked to wait and have lab test, did... and it was not strep throat.
The doctors did their best, but in five cases in last year five times antibiotics given not required and i have has enough antibiotics to last my lifetime. Oh and last December toothache, dentist prescribed antibiotic over phoned which was thing to do, but I asked if I could have tooth out instead and did.
I have been given antibiotics time and time and dont even want to go back further in time and check; even for the cdiff causes by antibiotic overuse, I had to take more antibiotics, Vaconcomycin, over 120 pills, to stop it and now on top of ibs-d which I already had,, have fecal incontinence, and yes I do understand that antibiotics have saved lives, probably millions, but sometimes given as a quick fix rather than wait til lab results or investigation or alternative treatment tried?
J.

To be honest, it may be touch much of a learning curve for me at 73 .

I apologize ahead of time if I'm doing this wrong. This is my first post and I'm unsure of what the etiquette is for the forum.

My daughter, who's 16, experienced a "pop" in her left ear around April 17th. She's not experiencing the echoing that's been mentioned here. But she does have daily experiences of ringing (could be high pitched or low, it varies), muffled sound (like your head is underwater, and then to no hearing. There is no "back to normal" for her hearing. She saw an audiologist and ENT last week. We had an awful experience with then and got a second opinion today. They audiologist today was beyond amazing. She ran 6 different tests on her hearing. At the end she told us that she has mild to moderate hearing loss. The ENT was fantastic as well. He listened to our story, asked about whether or not she gets dizzy (she mentioned that it a couple of times) and then he checked her ear drums (which appeared normal). He did put her on a treatment of steroids for 12 days. She starts them tomorrow morning. He never formally came out and said she has Sudden Hearing Loss. But did prescribe the steroids and said that information has come out saying where it has been helpful. We're scheduled for a follow up hearing test appointing in July. No MRI was mentioned.

I'm concerned that with today being May 26th, that she's starting these too late. I've read most all of the information I can come across as well as several of the discussion posts here. You guys seem so knowledgeable and helpful. I'm hoping that someone here can help.

TYIA!

@worriedmominnc You did everything right. It's sad that the first ENT was a bad experience. Could you elaborate on that experience? There is not a lot known about sudden hearing loss but steroids, when prescribed quickly, seem to help. MRI's seem to never find anything. Maybe the first ENT was blunt on the reality that your daughter's hearing may never be what it once was. Did the audiologist want her to go back once the steroid treatment is finished? A mild to moderate hearing loss should not go untreated. Is her loss in both ears even though you mentioned the popping in only her left ear? You should consider hearing aid(s) for your daughter.
Tony in Michigan

Thank you for your reply Tony. Here is our experience from the ENT and audiologist from last week.

We saw the audiologist first. She ran two tests, one to test the inner ear (where the speaker was placed outside of her ear) and the other where the ear buds were inside her ear. During the inner ear test her good ear was not plugged to prevent her from actually hearing things. During that particular test, I could hear the audiologist speaking to her from where I was sitting across the room. She made comments like "if you can hear my voice you can hear the beeps". Apparently this was said during the ear bud test as well. This made her feel bad for not hearing and not responding even though she couldn't hear the beeps. So she just started saying beep randomly. She also told me that there were times where she didn't "hear" a beep but felt the vibrations and responded to those as well. She was very critical of my childs responses during the test.

Let me back up just a moment in the sequence of events, when we were first called back by the audiologist she brought up a hearing test that was performed a couple of years ago. At the time we were trying to get answers on why she was failing tests at her Peds doctors office. Based on that test that particular audiologist (different one altogether) felt like she has Auditory Processing Disorder. There was a packet of survey style questions I had to answer for a follow up appointment. At the time, we didn't feel like we needed the follow up as there isn't a fix or cure for APD. Just an adjustment for her. She seemed to understand the issues around it. Although she has some issues with loud background noises and not being able to hear clearly she seems to have worked around having this problem. So when we were being taken back by this audiologist last week she was questioning my decision for not following up on that test. I tried my best to explain and redirect her to focus on what the current problem is since the two don't go hand in hand. But in the end I was made to feel like my decision back then was wrong.

After the hearing test was complete we sat with the ENT. We were so unhappy with how the audiologist handle things that we decided to let the ENT know of the issues. We don't feel like the audiologist provided a good hearing test and the results probably reflected that. I used the words "feel bad" to the ENT in the recount of the interaction. He said to us that "if we were here to not feel bad then he and i weren't on the same page". I told him that we were here for answers to her hearing problems regardless of how it made us feel. He didn't listen to nor displayed any signs of caring about her story on her hearing issues leading us to that appointment. All he wanted to do was get another test done because the first was inconclusive (i.e. she could hear some beeps at a range but not others at the same range). Mind you this audiologist only took 2 tests. The one from yesterday took 6 to get a clear understanding of why this was happening. I wish the ENT at this visit had mentioned hearing loss, steroids or anything that would have helped us understand that yes she really has a problem. Even if it was something along the lines of it can't be fixed. But nothing was ever mentioned along those lines. He speculated nothing (understandable since doctors tend to want evidence to help lead to what the issue is). But we left with more questions than answers and zero idea of what was going on.

We ended up leaving that appointment with a second hearing test scheduled for June 3rd. I called around and spoke to a nice lady at a hearing loss office. It was because of her that we found the doctor we saw yesterday. Regarding yesterdays visit, he only mentioned having the follow up appointment 2 months out. No direct visit right after her treatment was finished. Is this something we should ask for? And to clarify the hearing loss that she is experiencing now is only in one ear, her left.

Thank you again for your reply.

I did ask that particular ENT if would have been helpful to plug her good ear to prevent her good ear from compensating for her bad ear during the test. His response was "i don't know i'm not an expert". I asked if he could make that request for the next hearing test. He said "no because i don't want to make that audiologist bias for the test". Then told me that I could make that request.

The audiologist yesterday, automatically did this. She placed an ear bud with static noise in her good ear to prevent that from happening. I didn't have to make this request.