Sudden sensorineural hearing loss

Barbaraek

A few weeks ago my husband was fitted with hearing aids and things were GREAT! He was hearing better than he had in years...or at least since the Cisplatin accelerated his hearing loss. He was no longer asking people to repeat everything, no longer leaning in to hear people. The bluetooth directly to his mobile phone was working perfectly...

and then the other shoe dropped. He woke up feeling like one ear was "stopped up" maybe plugged with wax, or full of fluid. A visit to the ENT showed neither, but a hearing test showed a significant sensorineural hearing loss on the left side. So frustrating! It was like finally getting prescription eye glasses and being able to see and then having them taken away. He was so discouraged.

The ENT is puzzled. A little bit of reading reveals that 80% of sudden sensorineural hearing losses cannot be attributed to a specific cause - they are "idiopathic". Could it be from the chemo? radiation? a virus? a brain tumor? The good news is that we went to see an ENT right away and started a course of oral steroids (Prednisone) and eardrops. If we waited we may have decreased our chance of regaining any hearing. With the steroids and eardrops it may come back to some degree over the next two weeks. I surely hope so. In the meantime we will wait and see if the medications help. Hubby is scheduled for an MRI/CT in January as part of our new monitoring schedule...but if the hearing doesn't return they may schedule one sooner, if only to rule out some kind of acoustic neuroma.

So far no tinnitus or vertgo...just a sudden significant unilateral hearing loss. Prayers please - that whatever caused it goes away and that some hearing returns.

Barbara

wmc

Sorry to hear that........

Very sorry he has hearing loss. I am glad he doesn't have tinnitus. Over the yeary working around machrinery I have a 50db loss in one side and 40 bd in the other, but the tinnitus is what really gets to me at times. It is always there and some tines seems to be louder. I have it in both ears and even when I listen to music with headphons I still hear it. Will hope and pray the steroids help him get the los back.

Bill

phrannie51

Crap! If I was going to pick a culprit...

I'd pick rads.  The gift that keeps on giving.  You never know, either....which way it's going to go.  I woke up one morning, and my ear felt like it was stopped up....and I had tingling in the outer ear.  Of course that sent me into orbit with fear.  When he tested my hearing, it was fine....so he pushed up my CT/MRI, and he was nervous (he told me that later).....and there was nothing untoward going on at all.  Part of the "mystery of treatment".  My ear has felt plugged ever since, and that's been 1 1/2 years ago.

Praying and sending positive thoughts that the steroids and meds kick in, and this is a blurp in the post treatment timeline.

p

MrsBD

Prayers

I'm sorry your husband is experiencing another setback and I'll continue to pray for both of you.

hwt

MrsBD said:

Prayers

I'm sorry your husband is experiencing another setback and I'll continue to pray for both of you.

sorry

Hope he regains his hearing loss. I had cisplatin and radiation 3x. No hearing in left ear but hearing in right ear is phenominal. 

corleone

That’s a bit strange.

That’s a bit strange. My hearing loss was clearly caused by cisplatin, the second day after each session, hearing dropped significantly (high pitch sound affected mostly). On the other hand, this March (about 2.5 years after treatment) I had a similar loss (with same sensation that the ear was full of liquid). Turned out it was serous otitis. That got infected and I had an infectious otitis media in both ears. My hearing came back slowly to the level prior to otitis, but now I am struggling with bouts of vertigo and dizziness (getting better though).

 

 

Barbaraek

corleone said:

That’s a bit strange.

That’s a bit strange. My hearing loss was clearly caused by cisplatin, the second day after each session, hearing dropped significantly (high pitch sound affected mostly). On the other hand, this March (about 2.5 years after treatment) I had a similar loss (with same sensation that the ear was full of liquid). Turned out it was serous otitis. That got infected and I had an infectious otitis media in both ears. My hearing came back slowly to the level prior to otitis, but now I am struggling with bouts of vertigo and dizziness (getting better though).

 

 

We went to the ENT right away

to rule out fluid in the middle ear or impacted wax. No dice....everything looked fine. We are chalking this up to idiopathic etiology - which is a fancy way of saying "we can't explain it." Hearing does seem to be returning slightly so hoping that it will continue to improve.

 

Barbara

wmc

Barbaraek said:

We went to the ENT right away

to rule out fluid in the middle ear or impacted wax. No dice....everything looked fine. We are chalking this up to idiopathic etiology - which is a fancy way of saying "we can't explain it." Hearing does seem to be returning slightly so hoping that it will continue to improve.

 

Barbara

Hope so

Let's hope it gets better. Way too many have had hearing loss from chemo and even radiation. Head & nack is said the second worst treatment to go through. I hope they can fine an alternate treatment that does not take the hearing and teeth and bone. All we can do is pray for a breakthrough.

stephenaudrey

I had radiation to the left

I had radiation to the left side of my face and chemotherapy with carboplatin.  They told me I would lose my hearing in my left side - its not totally absent but its pretty bad.  What surprised me was that I lost a good deal of hearing in my unaffected side.  I have to watch tv with captioning now and I get the subtitle glasses if I go to a movie.  I got a new hearing aid which helped a lot.