Hearing Aids

[Mikebits]

I awoke a few days ago with a funny weird feeling. It was kinda like vertigo. I walked around for most of the day knowing something was not quite right, but I just could not figure out what was wrong. Well, the phone rang, I answered it and I kept saying "Hello" I switched the phone to my other ear, and sure enough someone was talking on the other end.

At this point I realized my hearing was gone in my left ear. I decided not to panic at this point as I was sure it would pass. By day two my hearing had become progressively worst. Now I started to panic as the only thing I could hear was the horrible ringing in my ear. By 4:00PM I could no longer stand the incessant ear ringing and loss of balance, so I drove myself to the VA hospital. After a 4 hour wait, I saw an ER Dr. She prescribed me some Prednisone and set me up to see an audiologist the next day along with an ENT Dr.

I went for my follow up appt. I had a quite intensive hearing exam. They have this cool device which has a sound emitter and a receiver in same package that gets placed against the ear opening. With this device they measure reflections and can pinpoint where ear obstructions are occurring. In my case it is my inner ear, my middle ear seems to work okay. At the end of the test it was found that I have a 70 dB hearing loss across the band in my left ear in other words that is a 70% loss of hearing.

The doctor said that this affliction is somewhat rare 20% in 100,000 people, and they are not sure of the cause. The planned treatment is Prednisone for two weeks. I have a 35% chance of permanent hearing loss.

So I am wondering. Will a hearing aid help if my condition persist? 70 dB sounds like a lot for a small device. What is the typical amplification of hearing aids?



I found this web site that talks about my condition.

**broken link removed**

 

[Hero999]

That sounds nasty.

Don't you mean 20 in 100,000 people not 20%?

I did a quick Google on Prednisone and it's an immune suppressant so the doctor must think it's an autoimmune disease.

Do you have to take it orally or by injection?

Have they asked you so stay indoors and be very OCD careful about hygene?

Is it a 70db loss across all frequencies?

You might need a hearing aid with a response tailored to match your hearing loss.

 

[Mikebits]

The hearing loss was flatlined around 70 dB. The Doc showed me a graph. According to my Dr. The prednisone is being used as an anti-inflamation drug. It is a steroid of some type. I wonder if I will get muscles It makes me sick to my stomach for the first hour after taking it, then I develop inappropriate happiness, what I mean is I giggle over the silliest thing. My wife thinks it is kinda cool. This is day two of taking the meds, no improvement yet, but I hope it changes as I hate hearing the world in mono.

Oh and the med is in pill form.

I may have got the 20% out of 100,000 wrong.

 

[saturn1bguy]

I awoke a few days ago with a funny weird feeling. It was kinda like vertigo. I walked around for most of the day knowing something was not quite right, but I just could not figure out what was wrong. At this point I realized my hearing was gone in my left ear.

The planned treatment is Prednisone for two weeks. I have a 35% chance of permanent hearing loss.

So I am wondering. Will a hearing aid help if my condition persist? 70 dB sounds like a lot for a small device. What is the typical amplification of hearing aids?

Been there, done that (happened at age 35, overnight).

The two weeks of Prednisone gave marked improvement, and after the treatment subsided, so did the improvement. The hearing loss for people who incur this is typically permanent. And hearing aids will not help. Also, the ringing is called is called tinnitus.

My doctor, a renowned specialist, and House trained, diagnosed cochlear hydrops. They don't know what causes it, and typically cannot fix it. Meniere's patients can often find relief from the vertigo symptoms by draining fluid from the cochlea (Al Shepard had this done).

There may be subtle differences from patient to patient, but for me, they diagnosed marked hearing loss at several of the test freqs, which is where the ringing usually occurs. My doc stated that his belief was that a virus, lying dormant in my inner ear for who knows how long, was somehow triggered, flaired up and caused swelling about the auditory nerve, and when it subsided, the damage was done. Hearing gone due to nerve fibers too far distressed to recover, and a replacement ringing at those freqs.

I hope yours works out better. (Although luckily, mine is better than many others.)

Good luck with this,

 

[Mikebits]

My doctor, a renowned specialist, and House trained

lol, House trained. Reminded me of this.

**broken link removed**

Our original diagnosis was wrong. Sorry about the loss of feeling in your lower extremities, and the constant twitch in you left eye. I am sure the sensation in your right arm will return, but the good news is, we figured out why you lost your hearing.

 

[saturn1bguy]

lol, House trained.

It's good to see you still have your humor I was pretty nervous about things back then. (Now I just put up with it...)

Grep Wikipedia for "House Ear Clinic."

 

[k7elp60]

Sorry to hear about your hearing loss. I know how you feel. I have permanent loss of hearing in both ears. At 1100 Hz my hearing is about 10db below normal. At 6000 Hz it is very close to 70db below normal. Between these two frequencies are the voices of children and women. I wear hearing aids that help a little. If the child or woman is speaking fast or is not speaking clearly I don't understand much of what they are saying. Females with an accent are even worse.
I have built a hearing amplifier that uses a SA571 speach processor that helps when I am watching television, but at present because it has a microphone I also hear noises in the room as well. I am working a an infared transmitter and receiver to solve the microphone problem. If I were to turn the TV sound up so I can hear well, it would be to loud for my wife.

 

[Mikebits]

Between these two frequencies are the voices of children and women.

Hmm, I could see some benefits here. J/k

I am sure that much hearing loss must be horrible. My good ear is not so good as I lose 20dB after 4KHz so I know what you mean about hearing a womans voice. If I plug my right ear, my left ear sounds like a audio file sampled at the wrong rate. Just some scratchy nonesense.

I may have to ask you for you TV amp circuit soon

 

[ericgibbs]

hi Mike,
Sorry to hear about the deafness and ringing problem.

I have had tinnitus since the 1980's damaged my ears while playing with a SMPS.
Doctors say it cannot be fixed, suggested I join the 'Tinnitus Society'.
I didnt bother, decided to live with it.
Some of the drugs suggested to relieve the problem had nasty side effects and only worked while you were taking them.

IIRC 'hero' also has the problem.

 

[Mikebits]

Thanks Eric, maybe someday all of us could get together and yap about things. I am sure no one would get a word in edge wise, but would it really matter as we would never notice

 

[dknguyen]

That sucks. I didn't know that there was something out there where you could lose hearing over such a short period of time. I have pretty sensitive ears and a lot of noises bug me and hurt my ears. I think I also used to have a tinnitus-like condition there I hear a tone every now and then, or the sound of air escaping in my ears. THere are also times when something in my ear just pops and suddenly everything sounds so much clearer as if my ears cleared up, though I have no idea what this is. Also, certain sounds like two plates hitting each other as you stacked them, my mother and sister's voice just hurt, and my even my violin!

 

[ericgibbs]

That sucks. I didn't know that there was something out there where you could lose hearing over such a short period of time. I have pretty sensitive ears and a lot of noises bug me and hurt my ears. I think I also used to have a tinnitus-like condition there I hear a tone every now and then, or the sound of air escaping in my ears. THere are also times when something in my ear just pops and suddenly everything sounds so much clearer as if my ears cleared up, though I have no idea what this is. Also, certain sounds like two plates hitting each other as you stacked them, my mother and sister's voice just hurt, and my even my violin!

hi,
You can get such effects if you get ear wax, your Doctor could tell you very quickly if this is the cause,
treatment is just a ten minute syringing, usually done at the local hospital.

A strange question, when you hear a 'sharp' unexpected noise do you see any effect in yours eyes, like a pattern etc.?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

 

[dknguyen]

hi,
You can get such effects if you get ear wax, your Doctor could tell you very quickly if this is the cause,
treatment is just a ten minute syringing, usually done at the local hospital.

A strange question, when you hear a 'sharp' unexpected noise do you see any effect in yours eyes, like a pattern etc.?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

Nope, I do not see what I hear.

 

[Hero999]

An ear infection, drugs can often be to blame and sometimes tinnitus can come and go for no reason.

I have slight tinnitus but it normally doesn't bother me much accept when it's quite at night and I'm trying to sleep.

Changes in air pressure can cause your ears to pop like taking off or landing on a plane. I imagine that the air pressure changes quite quickly where you live which probably causes it.

 

[k7elp60]

hi,
You can get such effects if you get ear wax, your Doctor could tell you very quickly if this is the cause,
treatment is just a ten minute syringing, usually done at the local hospital.
url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia[/url]

I have a lot of ear wax build up so I have learned to clean my ears myself.
I get a syringe designed for that purpose from the drug store. Use a solution of warm water(about a cup + 1 tablespoon of white vinegar) about once a month.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I have a lot of ear wax build up so I have learned to clean my ears myself.
I get a syringe designed for that purpose from the drug store. Use a solution of warm water(about a cup + 1 tablespoon of white vinegar) about once a month.

Don't do both ears from one side!

 

[AllVol]

Thanks Eric, maybe someday all of us could get together and yap about things. I am sure no one would get a word in edge wise, but would it really matter as we would never notice

Well, mark me up as a potential attendee. I have been losing hearing in my right ear for the past few years, a result, I think, of a very severe virus attack. It's no fun. In fact, I have the same sensations as most of you describe.

There are some wonderful hearing aids on the market now. I was tested for one recently, and the technician was able to program a unit based on the computer results of the test. Man, could I hear! Until she told me the price, anyway. $1700 US! For one ear! That's more than this poor American can afford, especially one on a fixed retirement income.

I did try an inexpensive amplifier, which is better than nothing, but of course it amplifies everything, including what you would rather not hear.

With our collective (perhaps I should just say your) knowledge, we should be able to solve this problem for ourselves. I've heard direct contact with the bone behind the ear holds promise.

If you want me for anything, just yell. LOUD!

 

[saturn1bguy]

There are some wonderful hearing aids on the market now.

That's good to hear, certainly. Hearing aids can assist when hearing diminishes with age, or other effects that affect the sensitivity of the hair cells in the cochlea.

For those who have have lost their hearing in the fashion as being described here, however, i.e. overnight, typically the auditory nerve has sustained irreparable damage, and thus no hearing aid will ever help because it's not the sensor that's necessarily damaged, but the "wiring" between the sensor and the brain, if you will.

This is sort of where cochlear implants come in...

 

[Mikebits]

Wow, this is amazing stuff. cochlear implants. I doubt my VA would cover this sort of thing however.

**broken link removed**

 

[Mikebits]

Well, I have been on the meds for 3 days with no improvement, so I am losing faith in the treatment. What is really driving me nuts is the constant tinnitus as it makes sleeping difficult. My typical humor is now being replaced with other emotions. I am not sure what they are but my jockularity has somewhat dimensihed. I guess I was in the denial stage and now I am in the reality stage. I guess it could be worse, but this still sucks.