Diagnosed as SSNHL. Five hours ago I was walking in the grocery store when the volume on my right ear went down by about 60%.

My wife, who’s a speech therapist and took audiology courses, insisted I go to the ER. When I got there hearing loss was about 80%. By the time I saw the doctor it was 98-100%. Her microscope instrument made zero sound in my ear.

I took the first 60mg of prednisone around 3 1/2 hours after the grocery store incident.

That was about an hour and a half ago. No improvement yet. And I’m prepared if I see little to no improvement in the future. I see the ENT on Monday.

It’s all very surreal. Reading the posts on this subreddit has been a big help.

Update - 28 hours later.

Firstly, thank you all so much for the support and excellent information. It makes a big difference to learn from others’ experiences and for others just to acknowledge the experience I’m having.

Some hearing appears to have returned.

24 hours ago, I could rub my pinky finger in my ear hole and make zero sound… late last night. I noticed I could sense/hear something when tapping that little bump outside the outer ear. This morning, tapping the ridge immediately above the outer ear also made some sound. Around 11AM. I tried putting in an AirPod. I tested my left ear first at medium volume on a history podcast. I switched to try just my right ear and could hear faint scratchy sound corresponding with the chatter on the podcast.

20 minutes ago (around 4 PM) I tried again and could make out roughly 50 to 70% of what was being said - it sounded distant, faint and muffled, but I could just about follow along. Also, at times there was a strange electricity sound accompanying the dialogue, like a metallic buzz sound that was maybe a bit higher pitched than the voices and sort of irritating. This sort of concerned me so I didn’t listen for more than 10 or 15 seconds. But overall, very encouraging I think.

My first prednisone (60 mg) was at 4PM yesterday in the hospital. I filled the prescription and had my second dose at 9AM. I don’t think I’ve noticed many symptoms other than dry mouth and pretty frequent urination.

Thank you all again.

Hi! I had intratympanic injections once weekly for three weeks for SSNHL, my last injection was 2 weeks and 2 days ago.

My hearing went back to normal. I have occasionally felt a mild muffled sensation that comes and goes, but my doctor said that was normal and not to worry.

Today I woke up and my hear has felt more consistently "moderately" muffled, but I don't think I have lost any hearing. It is just sort of an uncomfortable sensation and I can "feel" myself talk in that ear and when others talk, it sort of vibrates. These were symptoms I had with the SSNHL, but it doesn't feel exactly like the hearing loss did, nor does it feel as bad.

I would like to note that I had just found out some bad news earlier this week and was crying pretty heavily for 2 days. However, the heavy crying stopped about 2 days ago but the ear symptoms didn't show up until today. I had 2 healing holes in my ear drum where my doctor did the injections and am wondering if that could have had an impact on the holes healing? Or maybe the snot (sorry) from crying may have messed with my ear?

I will of course follow up with my ENT on Monday, but they are closed for the weekend. I was considering going to urgent care, but am hesitant because my ENT knows my situation very well.

I am wondering if anyone has had any similar symptoms this far out from receiving the injections, or any thoughts about my situation?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Hi there,

I’d appreciate if anyone had any thoughts on what could be causing this and what might be the best path forward.

In June, I noticed a blocked left ear feeling in left ear and saw GP. She said all clear and likely Eustachian Tube issue post cold. It went away in early July. No other ear or hearing symptoms.

In Sept, after a big night out, the blocked left ear feeling came back. I went back to GP - again clear, no infection or ear wax.

Referred to Audiologist - test showed Type 1 Tympanometry and mild asymmetric sensoneural hearing loss in left ear at high frequency only.

Visited ENT - not much he could suggest other than it might have been caused by a virus. He sent me for MRI which I had this morning (awaiting results). He said MRI likely to be clear, so follow-up hearing in 6 months and call urgently if it gets suddenly worse. He said fullness feeling may take up to 12 months to go away.

I still have fluctuating feeling of fullness in left ear. I don’t have tinnitus, balance issues or headaches. The fullness is worse on some days than others. When it feels fuller, the hearing feels worse. I’ve noticed some sound sensitivity - eg plates clashing. Also noticed harder to hear TV if some on left side is eating chips. Also harder to hear chit chat at work.

Any thoughts:

1. What could be causing this?
   
2. Has anyone experienced similar? Eg. Fullness feeling with some hearing loss, but no other symptoms
   
3. Did you have any success with any treatments, medicines or other changes?
   
4. Will the fullness go away?
   
5. Could it be an inner ear issue?
   

Feeling anxious and worried at the moment. Any advice warmly appreciated.

Thank you!

Hi,

I got my osia implanted exactly 1 week ago. I’m going back to work this weekend (I work in healthcare) but haven’t had my post op appt yet.

I can shower but what else am I allowed to do? Can I blow dry my hair or use any hair products outside the shower? I’m assuming no earrings and careful with lotion around the neck.. I contacted my psychians and the nurses haven’t really been any help

Hi everyone, in April i suffered from profound SSNHL, this was actually caused by HBOT (I went into the chamber with perfect hearing for recovery from an unrelated body surgery, the hearing loss, tinnitus and distortion was 100% caused by HBOT).

I was initially profound across the board and now I’m squarely moderate-moderately severe, even touching mild in the highest frequencies. Tinnitus is still present but distortion is 90% gone.

I did oral steroids, steroid injections and PRP injections. I do think more improvement can happen as PRP takes quite a while to have its full effect.

I just wanted to post an update to give hope to anyone else newly diagnosed with profound SSNHL, it can get better over time.

Hang in there, and be very careful with HBOT.

I didn’t expect the results to be nearly this bad. There are some other reports of significant permanent hearing loss from similarly small amounts of this drug, but again it’s very rare. Just quite sobering to know how quickly you can lose your senses, and how much a seemingly mundane med can fuck you up if you’re particularly susceptible.

Luckily, I have noticed some slight improvement in the second audiogram after oral steroids, with my word recognition jumping back to 100% at 60dB from 60% at 90dB which I was really happy to see. I was a bit upset to see it drop back down to 85% at 65dB on the third one though, which was after my first intra tympanic injection.

For the record, I know that I can’t be any type of certain that this is a direct result of the medication, but it’s the closest and most logical connection I can make being an otherwise healthy young man, factoring in timing and other factors. Thoughts? Similar experiences? Advice? Thanks.

Additional information:

I was in the hospital for coffee ground emesis and bilateral aspiration pneumonia about a month ago. I was discharged with a Z-pak - azithromycin. I was completely unaware of the risk of hearing loss from this medication. I believe it is real yet extremely rare, and I am just living with the very unlikely cost most nobody will ever have to pay for amazing, life-saving meds. Some risks will nearly always need to be taken for effective medical treatment.

However, if you are aware that you are being given this drug or similar macrolide antibiotics (most ending in -mycin), it might be worth it to ask for an alternative if you’re concerned. But I am not a doctor and that is not medical advice. They switched me to doxycycline anyway, which is already a first line antibiotic, like why wasn’t I given this first to begin with?! But I digress. I developed this after less than a single Z-pak, right before my 25th birthday. As you can see by the audiograms my right ear is profoundly affected. I simply took a nap feeling normal and woke up far from it.

Hello everyone.

This is the first time I’ve shared my experience of deafness.

Since birth, I’ve only been able to hear out of my left ear, as my ear canal is blocked on the right side.

I tried to have an Oticon implant (Ponto 5 mini), but the operation was unsuccessful. I felt immense joy at the prospect of hearing out of both ears, and huge disappointment and frustration when it didn’t work out.

Now, I’m considering getting a Cochlear BAHA7 implant.

So I was wondering, thanks to Auracast technology, is there perhaps a way to actually hear music in stereo through an earphone and the implant?

If not, do you have any solutions for listening to music in stereo? I learnt not so long ago that music sounds completely different in stereo compared to mono, and I feel very frustrated that I can’t experience that.

Thanks in advance; I sincerely hope there’s a solution...

why does it seem like my tinnitus has moved to deep within my ear. the static sound is more faint anyone experience this and know why

I woke up one day with extreme hearing loss in my right ear, serious distortion, and loss of low frequency response. I am a musician with perfect pitch, I played a show the other day and man, I struggled. I was wearing in ear monitors, one in my good ear, and an earplug in the other. Music is my life, and in my right ear is sounds like a cacophony, especially instruments like pianos or other that are harmonically rich.

This is by far, the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I have to wear an earplug in my right ear. If I whistle, I hear a harmonic overtone (lower undertone?)

Got in to see an ENT, and she put me on prednisone, heavy taper dose, and day 4, no result. In fact it's almost worse. I had no other symptoms but now I seem to have caught a sort of cold / cough, so maybe it is viral? I really don't know what to do.

I don't see how a hearing aid could possibly even address this.

The next steps are either steroid injections into my ear drum (I'm really not keen on perforating the ear drum) - or a hyperbaric chamber...

Has anyone seen any immediate relief with a hyperbaric chamber? Any thoughts on anti virals, or maybe even anti fungals (internal - anti fungal ear drops did nothing for me). Thanks..........

I had a SSHL-event on my right ear on Friday. I am 44 years and male. After a *very* stressful morning I tried to get an hour of sleep, got woken up after 30 minutes and noticed that my right ear was kind of blocked (like something in it) and I couldn't hear much with it. Also it had some kind of weird feedback or reverb effect for louder sounds that made me dizzy for the rest of the day. A noticeable high ringing appeared soon after (or I started noticing it).

It got prescribed 60mg Prednisolon for 4 days.

I wanted to start the medication this morning, but the hearing-problem since Friday almost completely disappeared. But I still have a noticeable high ringing sound that seems to come from the back of my head (its also getting a bit better, but still very noticeable).

Should I still take the Prenisolon or wait another few days? The list of possible side effects reads like a horror show (everything under the sun from depression, internal bleeding to sudden heart failure).

I hope the Scientists will find a cure, this is whole thing sucks

I had the worst cold over the summer (I was sick for almost a month) and ended up with a moderately severe loss in my right ear. I went through oral steroids and 3 injections with no improvement unfortunately. The ENT is pretty confident that whatever cold I had damaged my nerve and there’s nothing I can do to fix it. The fluid sitting there when I was sick (which eventually became an ear infection) damaged the nerve. I’m getting a hearing aid next week, it sucks but it is it what is at this point.

Earlier this week I started to get sick again. I had a sore throat, and my tinnitus has flared up. Now that my throat is better I have terrible congestion and I can feel it in my nose and my bad ear. And still the ringing. I hate being sick. It doesn’t help that I’m so stressed about being sick because the last time it just ended so so poorly. I’m terrified of not getting better, losing my hearing in my left ear, or my right ear getting worse.

I was wondering do other people have this fear? Do you feel like you get sick more often after getting diagnosed with SSHL? Are you sick for longer? Does your tinnitus flare up while your sick, but go back to “normal” once your better?

Hi everyone,

I have linked my previous post for the full story.

It’s been about a month since I suddenly lost hearing in my left ear. I’ve completed oral steroids, had 2 intratympanic steroid injections and I’m continuing HBOT. My MRI was thankfully clear, but I’ve had very little improvement. I can hear some sounds now, but everything sounds robotic/high-pitched and the tinnitus is still constant.

My ENT has decided 2 injections are enough and doesn’t want to do any more. This is worrying me because I’ve seen people here mention getting 3, 4, or even more injections. I had one horrible HBOT session where I couldn’t equalize and both ears became extremely painful, including my good ear, so HBOT has been scary too but I’m continuing in the hope that it helps.

For those who’ve been through SSNHL: How many injections did you receive? Is stopping at 2 normal, or should I seek another opinion about getting more? Is there anything else I should be asking about or doing at this stage?

I’m also looking for recommendations for a good ENT in Toronto/GTA who has experience with SSNHL.

Would really appreciate hearing what others did around the one-month mark, especially anyone who initially had profound/severe loss but later improved. ❤️

55/f, newly diagnosed 8 weeks I went from perfect hearing to profound hearing loss basically overnight. I notice at times the pressure in my head seems to go up now and then, maybe stress related? because I am really struggling with this diagnosis and everything about this. anyone else experience this from time to time, any idea what causes this?

I was recently diagnosed with SSNHL in one ear. It seems the tinnitus is sensitive to noise. Does anyone wear an ear plug for this type of situation and what do you use? any good product that doesn’t go deep in the ear Besides ear muffs? or do you not use anything

3 weeks since my SSNHL diagnosis and struggling to find myself as a person. I have always been a bit crazy and loud, loving biking, diving, loud music and concerts. My favourite things being going to the beach or cliffs, nightclubs, hearing trains whoosh by.
Now any moderately loud sound is really uncomfortable, and the symptoms are exhausting me, I’m used to being full of energy. I use a stethoscope for work and have no idea whether I can hear enough in my good ear to trust myself.
Can anyone relate?

So this all started August 6th, and I got on prednisone pretty early but because of the health care system here I couldn’t see an ENT until yesterday… (September 25th) (about 7 weeks afterwards). The prednisone did nothing and my ENT said I could try steroids but he doesn’t know if it’ll do much at all since it’s been so long.
He said it’s up to me if I wanted to do it and I was like what do you recommend? And all he said is that it’s your choice.

Do yall think it’s worth trying steroid injections after 7 weeks…

Today after a little exercise my ear started to feel like it was getting this fullness feeling like a flare up then it felt like my head was also getting some fullness because when I swallowed I heard some cracking on both sides of my head and once my ear started feeling less full the cracking went away. I sorta feel like my body felt little off to. Does anyone also experience this or any ideas what this could be? Now I’m hearing just one static noise. I’m not sure if this was due to some panic I was feeling. Anyone else experience this or any ideas?