Lost hearing over night.

[Redneck in training]

While working in Texas I had mild flu symptoms about three weeks ago. Had runny nose, sneezing and coughing. Bounced back to normal four days later. Two or three days after that I woke up in the morning and had no hearing in my right ear. You need to clean your ear wax I was told. So I went to Walgreen's bought the ear wax cleaning kit and removed pretty good blob of ear was from right ear. Still no hearing. By that time is Friday afternoon. Since no improvement by Monday morning I walked in Audiologist that offered ear wax cleaning. The lady looked in my ears and said they are perfectly clean and I should see ear doctor. She was very nice and called one of the larger ENT clinic in the area and made me an appointment for next day morning. Doctor said that it is viral infection and the immune system while trying to kill the virus makes that worse inflaming the inner ear. The treatment is high dose of steroids. I got two injections in my ear week apart and and I am on 20 mg Prednisone till Tue next week. I had two audio test since the event. Initial in Texas and second home in Iowa. There is only very small improvement in hearing on my right ear. I can hear sound only very close to pain level. I also have deafening tinnitus in my nonfunctional ear. The doctor said that I should have come the morning I discovered hearing loss to have much higher chance of recovering hearing. Guys do yourself a favor, do not take chances, if you notice change in hearing, don't assume ear wax obstruction but assume the worst scenario and see ear doctor right away. Preferably younger doc who does ears only. Otologist. Older docs let nature to take care of it. That was the advice I got from the first doctor Texas. I have never heard about this infection before. The TX doc said he gets about two cases a week.
My wife is type A person. Her patience level is just short of 2 seconds. I am afraid she is going to divorce me if I keep asking: "What did you say." or ignore her. :laughing:

 

[Looking4new]

My ex-wife always said I had selective hearing when ever she was yakking. She was right, but I heard her perfectly when she said, "I want a divorce".

Ears are like eyes, they are the only ones you get. Look after them.

 

[oosik]

I'm just now getting over a case of viral ear infection in my right ear. Caused infection in ALL sinuses on my right side. My family DR of 35+ years was so glad I came in early. I guess another couple days delay on my part would have ment a hospital stay.

I've always had selective hearing but learned very soon on in our 46 years of marriage - when the wife speaks, I better be listening. I think she enjoyed giving me knuckle bumps. She said Norwegians always seem to be hard headed - my response alway was - "say what".

 

[jimmyj]

I've had the same problem. A few years ago I had a TERRIBLE sinus infection and ever since then I keep having hearing loss episodes. The high dose prednisone worked, but it scares me that one day the hearing just won't come back. I caught a sinus cold last week and had to fly, a terrible combination, and I'm still completely deaf in my right ear. I'd never heard of this until a few years ago and now it seems to be happening to all sorts of people.

 

[newbury]

Also - as you get older your life style may change.
Concerning ears and hearing.
Up to about age 50 I had not had any professional ear cleanings. But every summer I had spent significant time swimming so my ears got annual "clean outs" naturally. Then my back went and I spent about 2 summer months laid up before I got surgery. When I came out of surgery I was almost deaf. I complained immediately but the doctors took a quick look and said something must have happened during surgery, sorry. They saw no excessive wax or any infection. So being the type that puts up with almost everything if I can muddle by I put up with being slightly deaf, and the family put up with the shouting and cranking up the TV for months.
Until I was on an airline trip, and BAMB my hearing cleared up for about an hour due to air pressure. Went back to the doctor who looked at my ears and said they looked normal but he referred me to the Audiologist (Kaiser so I couldn't go directly without referral). Went to the Audiologist, they said the ears looked normal, no excessive wax, but they would test me. So after about an hour of testing both ears they agreed I was almost deaf and would prescribe hearing aids but one lab monkey decided they should clean both ears first.
Well they ended out mining enough wax to build candles. One piece they had was about half an inch long. Several of the staff gathered around to look at the amount. They said it was extremely rare to have ear canals that deep.
But they had not warned me of the side effects. To this day I remember the loud sound my corduroy pants made as I walked.

Since then I've tried to keep them flushed out but it seems every couple of years I have to do a "deep cleaning".

So in summary - if you have ear problems get them checked. But if there is no infection etc. get them cleaned, but it may take extensive cleaning.

 

[Thomas]

The older we get we need to pay a lot more attention even to little warning signals,for our heal time a lot longer if were lucky compare to when we were whipper snappers.