Why are you deaf?

shy2precious said:
Sensorineural hearing loss...unsure of what triggered it.
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This is the boat I'm in right now (learned all this a couple weeks ago). I was kind of disappointment when they told me they had no idea what might have caused my hearing loss, and then slightly unnerved when they told me HAs won't get me speech discrim back. I think I want to know a cause mostly so I can know how it might progress.

Mostly now though, I've just accepted the case where I lose all my hearing (even though that might not happen, but they couldn't give me odds...) and I'm learning how to manage that.
 
If you guys (Nic and Shy) are just now coming into hearing loss, you might have Meniere's. But a doctor should have been able to tell you that.
 
AlleyCat said:
If you guys (Nic and Shy) are just now coming into hearing loss, you might have Meniere's. But a doctor should have been able to tell you that.
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For me, 2 years ago I had my first audiogram and had significant hearing loss in one ear, with the other only having minor. They did an MRI to rule out a tumor. Since then I had another audiogram (2 weeks ago) and my bad ear is a lot worse and my good ear is a bit worse too. Prior to the first audiogram, I did notice my hearing had declined a bit, but I ignored it. The first one was when my wife made it more clear to me that I just wasn't hearing so well anymore. It was then that I admitted to myself my hearing was actually getting bad. Since the most recent audiogram, I've admitted to myself that my hearing (or at least speech discrim) might go away completely.

Meniere's was a concern of mine. My dad suffered from Meniere's along with serious bouts of vertigo when he was a bit younger than I am now. He only experienced problems in one ear, had some sort of surgery that fixed the vertigo problems but he has hearing loss in the one ear (not sure how severe). I know Meniere's can/might be genetic.

My ENT knows the family history, but said she couldn't say definitively that Meniere's is the cause of my hearing loss. I've had no dizziness issues, and as far as I can remember my hearing hasn't come and gone. She told me those 2 symptoms would point to Meniere's, but I don't have then. She rambled off a bunch of potential causes from autoimmune diseases, to viruses, but basically said they can't really do anything to help and had me schedule another hearing exam a year from now.

Currently my right ear is a -lot- worse than my left. My speech discrim with my right is gone, my left is ok, but in noisy environments or with soft spoken people I struggle. Since learning all this, I've enrolled in an ASL course with my wife, turned on closed captions when watching TV (this made a pretty big impact on how much I enjoy TV), and I'm figuring things out. I'm lucky to have a career where my hearing isn't vital, and I'm confident they'll accommodate me where I work.

So overall I'm not terribly worried. From everything I've read here and elsewhere, losing my hearing doesn't have to be bad. It'll just mean I can't hear anymore, but life will go on. One advantage I've already realized is that when I sleep on my good ear I'm not easily woken by noise anymore.
 
I was born hard of hearing due to high temperature and not only that at same time both of my ears didn't exactly grow - in other words you could say I have no ears but I do have one tiny hole in my right ear which that what made me "hard of hearing" instead of "Deaf" although I consider myself Deaf even I can hear a bit in my right ear, er... Right side of the face. Only can hear sounds (especially if it is high pitch sounds) but can't understand speaking voice.
 
For me it's either the very high fever I had at 18 months old or the streptomycin, erythromycin or any of the other -mycins I was given when younger. I have SSD.
 
Stuckinthemiddle said:
For me it's either the very high fever I had at 18 months old or the streptomycin, erythromycin or any of the other -mycins I was given when younger. I have SSD.
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Yup, I join you, my deafness was from an illness and subsequent doses of one of the mycin antibiotics.
 
Who is to say? I had the fever and the mycin drugs, tubes in my ears, head bounced off floors from falling, etc. Hearing in my right ear is almost 100% gone. I still have about 60% hearing in the right ear. Some days the tinnitis and recruitment are more than annoying.

My brother is profoundly deaf. We do not live near each other. As far as I know there is no deaf community in my county, or any where within 50 miles. It is really difficult to find other deaf-blind in rural America because of HIPPA patient confidentiality rules. Some days it is just a pita to me to be me. :D
 
Unsure what caused it, not on the family that I know of but born with bilateral high frequency hearing loss, orginally moderate, last hearing test results were boosted up to moderate-severe (left) severe (right).

~☆°Gypsy°☆~
 
Sorry, I haven't had much sleep, pulling a split shift. Caz, I have symbols on my phone's keyboard that I use. :)

~☆°Gypsy°☆~
 
Nobody knows why I'm partially deaf. (I still don't know how to identity myself - deaf or HOH. :P) As far as we know, I have possibly been born with a hearing loss. I wasn't officially diagnosed till the age of three and a half.

My mom thinks maybe trauma before birth or the birthing process (my doctor took me away from her and gave me back to them nearly a day later with no explanation...). But we have no idea. We do know it's not genetic, so I won't create a deaf dynasty or anything, thought it'd be pretty cool if I could...

I don't think too much about what caused my hearing loss. I don't care. It doesn't matter anyway because I am DHH and that's all. :)
 
Born profoundly Deaf, rubella related. The more I read about adjustments to being late deafened, or hoh, the frustrations that people go through, etc., the more blessed I feel to have been born without hearing. I think it would be awful to be part of the hearing world and then lose that.
 
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