So I woke up last Monday with very little hearing in my right ear and thought I’d share my experience in case anyone ever experiences this.
When I woke up the previous Monday I noticed that I couldn’t hear well out of my right ear. I didn’t think much of it and thought I just slept on it funny. Throughout the day it didn’t really improve very much. On Tuesday I started to become alarmed as I realized around noon that the hearing loss was actually quite severe. There was very significant tinnitus, and worse than that I would say that I had less than 50% hearing in the ear. If I covered my left ear the room lost all of it’s ambience. There was very little high and what came through was basically muddy middle tones. If I tried to have a telephone conversation on that ear the room had to be extremely quiet and I could probably pick up most of the words being said at full concentration.
The scariest part of it for me wasn’t just the fact that it might affect my ability to mix and master music, it’s the extent to which sound helps you create and maintain an awareness of what is around you. I did some research and saw that I had almost all the symptoms of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSHL). When I went to the doctor he didn’t see it as an emergency and wanted to make a referral for a specialist that could take a few weeks to get into. I told him that my research online stated (which I’ve since learned that many doctors don’t like) that the timeframe on beginning treatment could be a real issue. I talked it over and he suggested I go to Emergency.
Went to the hospital, doctor on staff was even less helpful. He basically told me he could refer me to a specialist but I wouldn’t be given any type of priority and would have to wait. I went over the same things with him that I did my family doctor and he had no concern about the timeframe and no intention of giving me a perscription for steroids (which is the recommended perscription for this). I told him that I did not want him to make that call and wanted the specialist to make that decision. He said he’d put a call in.
Paged the specialist, emerg. doctor talks to him about 20 minutes later and I hear him say to the specialist on the phone “look you just tell me what to do and I’ll do it”. The specialist tells him to give me the perscription. It’s scary because if I didn’t push for it, and if he didn’t get the right guy on the other end of the phone I may have not gotten the perscription. While he gave it to me he gave me attitude and specifically felt the need to point out that the specialist told him that the timeframe doesn’t matter, but that there was no harm in starting treatment immediately. Obviously I don’t believe this for one second, and it was clear that the specialist told him to give me the perscription and he was trying to save face because he flat out refused it to me, and otherwise I wouldn’t have received it had I not forced the issue.
Fast forward to today. The hearing loss has very significant lessened, and I am so thankful. I still have some tinnitus in my right ear (but then again I always probably had some just from my youthful clubbing days). I have an appointment with the specialist in early April and will be doing a hearing test and find out what I’m working with. I can tell though that even if it’s not 100%, it’s very close and I am fully able to hear out of it again.
You really don’t appreciate your health, or in this case your hearing until you are missing it. I feel so fortunate because it’s mostly come back, and even with that, it was only one ear. The scary thing is that for a significant number of people, this sudden hearing loss can strike and it’s permanent. If it ever happens to anyone I suggest you get in there and do whatever it takes to get a perscription and start treatment. It may be that my hearing would have returned even if I had not taken the perscription, but is that something that anyone would want to take a chance with? Had my hearing not improved it would have caused a tremendous impact on my life in so many ways. I don’t know if anyone else has ever experienced this but thought I’d share my story online.
As one last note, there is one other thing that happened to my ear recently that could have also caused it. I have an emu 1820M soundcard. When my computer goes into sleep mode and then I turn it back on the soundcard drivers some times break and cause a loud crackle. When this happened recently I reset the E-mu soundcard drivers to try to stop the crackle. When I did this in February I had headphones in my ears and wasn’t paying attention or thinking about what I was doing. When drivers reset it pushed the mixer back to 0db from the -40db which I usually have it set at. Combine this with the fact that the drivers didn’t reset properly – my headphones were filled with white noise at a rediculously painful volume - AND, it was earbuds I was wearing at the time. That was not fun.
In short, I really don’t know if my hearing loss was caused by a virus, or if it was a result of sound trauma. Perhaps I will find out, but I’m telling all the folks in this forum (because I know everyone here really values their hearing) – you really should appreciate and protect your hearing. I love loud music and pounding bass, but I had my scare, and I probably will be much more protective of my hearing in the future. Maybe this story will help someone some day - that would be my hope. I just consider myself very lucky for getting it back, and hope it stays that way.
David
I always have those in my pocket next to my wallet and cigarettes 
