Hearing Loss

[dizzygirl]

hi.. i went to the ent this morning.. and had a hearing test done.. uhm it showed that i have approx lost 1/3 of my hearing in both my ears...the ear dr thinks that it is from a estation tube problem... and a combonation of my chiari..

so the ent gave me a few option 1. i could go to the surgery center and be put under anestesia and have teh tubes put in

2. have it done in the office

3 shoot straight for the hearing aides

SO I decided NOT to do anestesia b/c sedation takes me several days to recovery from.. i didnt want to deadl with worsening pots symptoms on top of everything else..

and i certainly dont want to get no hearing aides yet.. geez im only 25!

so i had 1 tube put in today and i will go back in 3 weeks and get the other tube put in my other ear...my lord the expereince of having a tube put in awake was not pleassant! they lept sunctioning.. and it felt like they where going to suck my eyeball out thru my ear with that thing... and the suctioning was making feel like i was giong to faint...So i decided to wait on getting the other ear done.. i dont think my body could have handled suctioning thru both ears in one day!

So im wondering for those of you with tubes in.. how long before you stopped feeling yucky? ie dizzyness...general yuck feeling? feverish around the and behind the ear?

i think i did the right thing not doing anestesia.. and im praying that my hearing will come back so i dont have to get hearing aides... maybe now i can stop say HUh what did you say? r WHAT?? why are you whispering

[flop]

Linda, what sort of "tubes" did you have put in - was it a grommet?

I hope you recover quickly from the procedure and your hearing gets better with the treatment.

Flop

[Sophia3]

Dizzy

Re: your chiari. i was talking to an old friend of mine who has had several correction chiari related surgeries. Did you know the Cleveland Clinic is doing it with a one inch incision? MUCH easier recovery.

Anyway, I just wondered if you were leaning towards surgery, could you wait until then to see if that helps your hearing? I can't remember things from one day to the next so sorry if you addressed this elsewhere.

[MightyMouse]

I had tubes put in both ears, in the office, just about a year ago. It was a disorienting experience, the local anesthetic in my ear drums really hurt, and then the wooshing sound and dizziness took about two days to pass. Now I'm so glad I have them as it's really meant that I've not had a major sinus infection or ear infection in a while.

Nina

[ajw4790]

Wow, that sounds.... well not fun!

I hope it works for you.

So, they are supposed to increase hearing or are they helping to fix something that helps hearing?

I am not familiar with them.

[Maxine]

Dizz,

How are you feeling today? I'm sorry you are having to deal with more problems. I'm praying that your full hearing will be restored, and you don't have any permanant hearing loss.

Sending you a big fat hug---------------------------

Maxine :0)

[Rachel]

Linda,

I'm sorry you're having more difficulty with hearing. Do your doctors have any good advice about what the best course of action would be considering all of your health issues?

I was thinking the same a Sophia - perhaps it would be best to wait until after surgery (if you go that route) and see if that helps your hearing at all.

A doctor of mine once told me about a girl who had hearing loss, but once they fixed her spine issues, her hearing returned. I believe she was actually deaf. I'm just wondering if there could be a connection for you with your hearing loss and all of the many spine issues you're having.

I certainly hope you can find something to help you.

All the best,

Rachel

[dizzygirl]

thnaks all.. my ear is feeling a bit better today.. and im slightly less yucky feeling...Im not looking forward to getting the other ear done.. But im noticing a considerable difference in my hearing after the tube is put in in my right ear...

for example.. my kitty gorgeous george.. I always thought that he had a really soft MEOW.. and that you could not hear him purr.. litttle did i realize that gorgeous george DOES infact meow quite loudly.. and he purrs SOO loud that im amazed that this is the first time i have heard his motor running!... he is so cute he has been an extra snuggle bunny since yesterday..

UHm Im really hope that i have good improvement in my other ear.. and wont have to entertain the prospects of hearing aides any time soon.. i go for another hearing test in roughly 3 weeks... to see how the right ear is doing....

[DavidH]

I thought maybe my problem was unusual, maybe not. My ENT just dia me with menieres. Classic sym. The treatment for menieres is just the opp of NCS.

No salt cut fluids. Crazy life. I have gotten the major sym of ncs undercontrol thanks to the meds. Now comes this insane menieres. I can without fail tell the diff

from the sym of ncs and the sym of menieres. I surely must have angered the Gods in some way!!

[Lukkychrm42]

Hi there,

I had three sets of tubes as a child due to recurring ear infections. I now have nerve damage hearing loss of 30% in both ears.

I have never been told that tubes were an option to deal with the hearing loss- I had hearing aids that I wore in high school, but I didn't like them, so now I am just careful about sitting up front for lectures and feeling comfortable asking for repetition.

That's interesting about the correlation with Chiari... I know that mine is due to the chronic ear infections (from age 2 weeks, common with EDS), but it'd be really cool if they can treat the Chiari and some hearing will return!

I can't believe you had them put in while awake- all of mine were done in surgery in the hospital (though probably due to my age). I had the vacuuming done too many times to count while growing up. I definitely preferred te allergy shots and such!

I've only had maybe 6 ear infections in the past ten years, with 2 recurring ones from swimmer's ear while I was on a diving team.

I still have the hearing aids, but since it's moderate hearing loss and not severe, it definitely doesn't impact my life as severely as other health issues any more. I mean, I'll have to get my eardrums replaced someday, but I haven't had ear surgeries since age 9 (ear drum burst, then cystectomy from patch).

Anyway, hearing aids aren't bad. Nowadays they're small enough that they're hardly noticeable.

Good luck with either them, the new tubes, and potential Chiari treatment!!

[dizzygirl]

lukkycharm-- this is my third time around with tubes as well... I had them in at about 5 and 9.. and i was put under as well then.. But this time around..

I opted to have it done in the office.. b/c i thought pots wise.. i'd like to avoid something will make me feel cruddier....I too have had problems with bad ear infections since as far back as i can remember... when i was 9 i got asevere ear infection in my left ear..and the ENT (acutally the same one i saw teusday:) ) had to surgically remove the tube.. OUCH that really hurt....

I hope that my hearing returns as well...

[Patricia Gallup]

My daughter gets tubes in her ears everytime she flies and when her allergies are bad about twice a year. She has eustucian tube disorder due to POTS and EDS and had chronic ear and throat infections as a child that have completely stopped since getting the tubes in.

She gets them in office, no anesthesia, absolutely nothing but alcohol to sterilize her ears which makes her dizzy only during the procedure due to the smell. If this is so painful I would highly suggest a different ENT as she's been doing this over a decade and never has pain or prolonged problems after insertion. And even insertion is not "fun" for her but no big deal anymore as they bring her such relief a few minutes of pain is nothing compared to not having the tubes.

She also has about 30% hearing loss but no reason was given for this. I'm glad you decided to try them dizzygirl as I believe I suggested them to you before as they have been such a Godsend to my daughter. Hope they work for you.

I wonder why they are only doing one at a time? My daughter doesn't think they'd have any effect on her if she only had one since it's an equal problem in both ears.

[flop]

Hi,

I've done a bit of searching and think I now understand the different types of deafness that are being talked about.

There are 2 types of deafness - conductive and sensory. Normally sound waves enter the outer ear, go down the ear canal and cause the ear drum to vibrate. The eardrum transmits the vibrations via 3 tiny bones to another membrane, that then passes the vibration on to the cochlea which is full of a special fluid, the waves that are created in the fluid make tiny hairs vibrate which then produce electrical signals that go via nerve cells to the brain to be turned into the sounds that we hear.

In sensory hearing loss the deafness is caused by damage to the nerve cells going from the cochlea to the brain.

In conductive hearing loss, the sound waves are prevented from travelling to the cochlea.

The middle ear is normally filled with air, it does secrete small amounts of fluid that drain away down the eustachian tube (connects the middle ear to the throat - this is why sore throats and ear ache often occur together). If the eustachian tube gets blocked then the fluid can't drain away and it builds up causing the middle ear to become full of thick fluid. This stops the tiny bones from moving properly and sort of dampens the sounds heard. Putting in T-tubes or grommets allows the fluid to drain from the middle ear via the outer ear (takes over the job of the eustacian tube), so if fluid is the cause of deafness then tubes should restore hearing almost immediately.

I couldn't find anything about chiari related deafness but I guess if the chiari malformation is causing compression of the nerves that carry the electrical signals to tell the brain to hear sounds, then decompressing them might improve hearing if the nerves hadn't already sustained permanent damage.

There are tests that the ENT doctors do to tell the difference between conductive and sensory hearing loss, if it is sensory then tubes wouldn't help.

Flop

[ajw4790]

Thanks for clarifying Flop, that makes a lot of sense. I just hadn't put it all together!