Going deaf in one ear randomly?

RacherBunny

RacherBunny

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has anyone gone deaf in one ear randomly?

i've been trying to list all my concerns with my hearing for my doctor appointment and i've noticed that randomly my hearing completely goes away in one ear (usually my left, which is weird because i feel like i can hear better out of my left).

the hearing comes back after a few minutes, but it still freaks me out a bit.

i don't think loud noise is the problem because it still happens even when there is only minimal background sounds (fish tank or tv on in different room).

:ty: everyone!
 
I don't recall ever going deaf on a temporary basis. I have had hearing loss-first one ear and than both- almost 50 years. I have been bilateral DEAF since December 2006.
Did your Doctor have much to say on this situation?
 
yea, it's a bit irritating. my left ear just randomly goes deaf. all i hear is louder ringing.it lasts a few minutes and then my hearing comes back and the volume of the ringing goes down...

i don't see my primary care doctor and audie until mid-december, so i won't find out until then :(
 
Actually, that happens to me , and then a sustained beep in the ear ending in pain.

It's from nerve damage with me. Or so the doctor told me. I got that after I was sick with Ramsay Hunt.
 
Racher, your post got me curious. I googled "fluctuating hearing loss" and got a lot of results. Apparently there are a lot of possibilities -- I know that is probably what you don't want to hear.

I also know that isn't exactly your symptom -- but I didn't get good results when I tried to google "hearing off and on" or "random hearing."

I saw in your other thread that you are going to see an audiologist before you see an ENT (or an otoneurologist who is an ENT with additional specialized training in the ear-brain pathway). I think that is a good idea. There is a limit to how much an ENT or otoneurologist can diagnose with just their eyes and an otoscope. They would send you to an audiologist as a first step anyway because the full battery of audiological tests will either pinpoint what the cause is or let a good audiologist know what furthur diagnostic tests are needed.

I think the only exception to that would be if your primary physician sees that your ear canal is plugged with wax or other debris. My understanding is that audiologists are not allowed to remove that, so they would send you to an ENT to take care of that.

If you have patience for deciphering long medical words -- you might want to check out the abstracts at Home - PubMed - NCBI

Good luck!
 
Hi RB,

It sounds like you might have tinnitus (ringing in the ear). I have it too--also in my left ear. I've had it since I was a kid. For me, it starts randomly with a low tone that grows louder until it's almost unbearable. Then it just goes away and I can hear external sounds again. For me it happens once a week, or once every two weeks though in some people it happens more often or sometimes continually. I'd ask your ENT if it was a possibility....
 
RacherBunny said:
has anyone gone deaf in one ear randomly?

i've been trying to list all my concerns with my hearing for my doctor appointment and i've noticed that randomly my hearing completely goes away in one ear (usually my left, which is weird because i feel like i can hear better out of my left).

the hearing comes back after a few minutes, but it still freaks me out a bit.

i don't think loud noise is the problem because it still happens even when there is only minimal background sounds (fish tank or tv on in different room).

:ty: everyone!
Click to expand...

I have had the same fluctuating in my left ear too. It comes and goes every few minutes. This is a new phenomenon for me. I had a progressive loss from birth to 20, then it "peaked" at that point. Now, 20 years later, my left ear is changing again. Not sure what it's about, but I do also have a broken aid (unrelated) so it was in at the audi's to be fixed, so when I go to pick it up, we are going to run a hearing test on that left ear. I will either need to get a more-stronger aid for that ear, or maybe go without altogether. I'm basically hearing nothing out of that ear these days. So be it. I'm quite deaf, how much deafer can I get? :lol:
 
AlleyCat said:
I have had the same fluctuating in my left ear too. It comes and goes every few minutes. This is a new phenomenon for me. I had a progressive loss from birth to 20, then it "peaked" at that point. Now, 20 years later, my left ear is changing again. Not sure what it's about, but I do also have a broken aid (unrelated) so it was in at the audi's to be fixed, so when I go to pick it up, we are going to run a hearing test on that left ear. I will either need to get a more-stronger aid for that ear, or maybe go without altogether. I'm basically hearing nothing out of that ear these days. So be it. I'm quite deaf, how much deafer can I get? :lol:
Click to expand...

I've heard from other folk's experience and also my own experience one time that if you have a sudden change in hearing loss its recommended to see an ENT or neurotologist immediately (same day if possible). Depending on your other symptoms and history its likely that doctors will opt to try a short treatment of drugs to preserve your hearing, but there's only a short window of time to do this.

In one of my cases, I got steroids and the hearing in my right ear which had droppred significantly went back to it's prior level.

I know not everyone here cares about losing more hearing, but its important to make sure that the hearing loss isn't connected to something that needs to be treated medically or surgically. (Not to scare anyone, but tumors are one thing that needs to be ruled out.)

Even if you are already very deaf, you may be getting more helfpful info about the environment than you realize (traffic noise, etc.)

Alleycat, if you told your audi that you've had a sudden change in your hearing and he or she didn't recommend that you get it looked at by an ENT right away -- then its very likely that your audi doesn't have your best interests at heart.

It happens sometimes that a professional will care more about his/her bookings than your health. I had an ENT one time who didn't care about my symptoms and was not willing to either work me into his schedule or refer me when I had an emergency. He either wanted me to wait, for quite a few weeks actually, til he had an opening or just let him prescribe something over the phone without seeing me. I dropped him and found another ENT who had what I considered a more professional attitude. *

I do hope you decide not to wait.




* More detailed version of that story: I had a sudden drop in hearing, my original ENT said (through) his secretary that he didn't have time to see me and my appt. was in two weeks, when I protested and asked for a referral instead, she came back on the phone letting me know that he would call in a steroid prescription for me. I said I didn't want a prescription over the phone without an examination first and told her that it wasn't her fault but to let him know that I thought he was unprofessional and that I was no longer his patient.

I got in to see another ENT later that day and IIRC I had an infection even though I didn't have any pain. What I do remember for sure was that the ENT did not prescribe me steroids. Those things are not suppose to be prescribed like candy -- jeesh!
 
Bottesini said:
Actually, that happens to me , and then a sustained beep in the ear ending in pain.

It's from nerve damage with me. Or so the doctor told me. I got that after I was sick with Ramsay Hunt.
Click to expand...

Are you sure it's not the battery in the HA dying? :giggle: Just kidding.

My one HA has been acting up recently where it will cut off for a few minutes then come back on.
 
for me, it's not really fluctuation. it doesn't happen all the time, just randomly every once in a while. like maybe 1-3 times a month at most.

pain isn't associated with it.

i was thinking it was tinnitus, because of the ringing, but does that include the "going deaf in the ear" thing? i have the ringing before and after the the going deaf, it's just worse during the deafness episode.

the ringing i usually have most of the time, sometimes i don't notice it, but i still think it's there i'm just ignoring it.
 
LoveBlue said:
Are you sure it's not the battery in the HA dying? :giggle: Just kidding.

My one HA has been acting up recently where it will cut off for a few minutes then come back on.
Click to expand...

:lol: Not. I am one of the lucky few who has a good Naida experience.
 
Bottesini said:
:lol: Not. I am one of the lucky few who has a good Naida experience.
Click to expand...

I've had pretty good experience with my Naida's too. It may be because I rarely use the dehumidifier I have (I only have the bead type...too cheap to buy the better kind). I did change the filters the other day, but did not change the ear hook (with filter) because it's getting hard to get the tubing off the hook. Guess it's time to replace the tubing. I don't have my own tubing, yet. My audie was supposed to let me know what size, etc I could order, but we both forgot the last time I was in to see her.
 
RacherBunny said:
for me, it's not really fluctuation. it doesn't happen all the time, just randomly every once in a while. like maybe 1-3 times a month at most.

pain isn't associated with it.

i was thinking it was tinnitus, because of the ringing, but does that include the "going deaf in the ear" thing? i have the ringing before and after the the going deaf, it's just worse during the deafness episode.

the ringing i usually have most of the time, sometimes i don't notice it, but i still think it's there i'm just ignoring it.
Click to expand...

I think tinnitus and fluctuations in hearing are considered completely separate symptoms.
 
Jazzberry said:
I've heard from other folk's experience and also my own experience one time that if you have a sudden change in hearing loss its recommended to see an ENT or neurotologist immediately (same day if possible). Depending on your other symptoms and history its likely that doctors will opt to try a short treatment of drugs to preserve your hearing, but there's only a short window of time to do this.

In one of my cases, I got steroids and the hearing in my right ear which had droppred significantly went back to it's prior level.

I know not everyone here cares about losing more hearing, but its important to make sure that the hearing loss isn't connected to something that needs to be treated medically or surgically. (Not to scare anyone, but tumors are one thing that needs to be ruled out.)

Even if you are already very deaf, you may be getting more helfpful info about the environment than you realize (traffic noise, etc.)

Alleycat, if you told your audi that you've had a sudden change in your hearing and he or she didn't recommend that you get it looked at by an ENT right away -- then its very likely that your audi doesn't have your best interests at heart.

It happens sometimes that a professional will care more about his/her bookings than your health. I had an ENT one time who didn't care about my symptoms and was not willing to either work me into his schedule or refer me when I had an emergency. He either wanted me to wait, for quite a few weeks actually, til he had an opening or just let him prescribe something over the phone without seeing me. I dropped him and found another ENT who had what I considered a more professional attitude. *

I do hope you decide not to wait.




* More detailed version of that story: I had a sudden drop in hearing, my original ENT said (through) his secretary that he didn't have time to see me and my appt. was in two weeks, when I protested and asked for a referral instead, she came back on the phone letting me know that he would call in a steroid prescription for me. I said I didn't want a prescription over the phone without an examination first and told her that it wasn't her fault but to let him know that I thought he was unprofessional and that I was no longer his patient.

I got in to see another ENT later that day and IIRC I had an infection even though I didn't have any pain. What I do remember for sure was that the ENT did not prescribe me steroids. Those things are not suppose to be prescribed like candy -- jeesh!
Click to expand...

Thank you for your post.

I may not have elaborated enough on my post. Right now we are rather assuming the fluctuating we are noticing may be related to the broken aid (I did say earlier unrelated yes, but I didn't elaborate) -- the broken aid is digital, and the settings (programming) was transferred to computer and then transferred to the loaner. We are hoping that is what we are seeing in the fluctuating, that the settings/programming is/are not right. The timing of the fluctuating is coincidental with the hearing aid breaking. So we'll wait until I pick up the repaired aid, have it re-programmed, and do a hearing test all at the same time and go from there. So that's why we're not sure what all this is all about. If it does turn out that it does not seem to be the aid but actually my hearing, I will see an ENT to rule out any critical factors.
 
Idiopathic Sudden Sensory Hearing Loss

Idiopathic Sudden Sensory Hearing Loss

For those of you who are experiencing sudden hearing loss, google “ISSHL”. This is a known condition and there is a lot of research being done on it, mostly in Europe. Also, in Europe, there seems to be a *cure* for tinnitus. It is done with exposure to frequencies and then pressing one the vagus nerve. Google +tinnitus +vagus As for me, I have lost most of the hearing in my left ear and now the right ear is losing frequency ranges just like my left ear. I have at appt at Stanford (Palo Alto, CA) in a month.
 
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mine is pretty much the same but instead of it goin at random times it goes when i suffer a blow to the right side of my head, it tends to go deaf slowly and returns within a day or 2 or if i have a bad landin when doin parkour and sets off my tinnitus to a higher degree, its temporary but very annoyin, i thought i was the only one with this

this started when someone in my secondary school decided to smash the right side of my head on a concrete wall... since then, everytime i get a blow to my head, i got deaf temporarily in my right ear
 
I finally found a thread about this! This is something that has started happening to me. My hearing will drop down to a barely anything and then my tinnitus will suddenly become so loud as if the volume of it wa9s turned up high I can't hear anything over it. It lasts for a few minutes then stops. O have fluctuating hearing loss and mostly my left ear(worse ear) is affected but this hearing dropping out is starting to happen to my right ear also.
 
I sometimes have that. I asked, and was told that it is part of the ear's adaptation to barometric pressure changes, and nothing to worry about.
 
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