[rainzen]

Hi!

Ok so I'm pretty freaked out right now.
I was born with deafness in my left ear due to a facial birth defect (my ear didn't fully form and it didn't open and the doctors never wanted to open because really I had about 5% hearing and they figured if they opened it, I'd lose that 5%).

So now I'm in my mid 20's and suddenly I'm having hearing problems with my right ear that started about a week ago.
It started with what I figured was ear was build-up, started with a bit of muffled sound, figuring it was just ear was I simply used a special ear was bulb and tried to flush out my ears with water but nothing helped.

So I went to my doctor yesterday and he took a look and said he sees no signs of infection (remember he can't look in my closed left ear only in my good right ear) nor does he see any ear was build-up.

So the hearing has gotten worse, I can hardly hear the phone ring any more and am really struggling to carry on conversations with people. It's not just the muffling and what feels like "echoing" but there's always sound in my ear, always hearing this very super low pitch "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" that increases and decreases with the noises around me. Again it's really low pitch but constant and that with the "muffled" feeling, I feel like it's blocking out the ability to hear.

I have NOT attended a concert of done anything that would be considered a traumatically loud noise in a very long time. I went to a few concerts in my late teens, early 20s but that was all at least 3 years ago and at half of those I wear ear-plugs.

So here's my two biggest questions.

Does that muffled low pitched constant "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" sound familiar to anyone? Any idea what that would be?

Secondly, I DO listen to music / audiobooks every night to help me go to sleep (my mind is too active). Could this problem be caused from always having sound around me and never sleeping in the quiet? :eek: I sure hope not!

Thanks for any help you have.

~Rain

[homebirthmom]

Wow, I don't know what to tell you really aside from this; get your doctor to give you a referral... as most insurances will require one... to and ENT(ear, nose and throat) specialist. You definitely are describing a problem I think needs attention.
With this additional hearing loss, it may be time to start thinking about alternate ways of communication. I don't want to scare you if you haven't already thought about it, but it is possible that you will lose your hearing. I certainly hope you don't, but it definitely appears that that is what is happening.
And in case your communication is limited to learning sign language, or writing notes... remember this...
Sign language is an absolutely beautiful way to communicate. I learned to sign when I was just 10 years old, as I have a deaf friend. And it's actually fairly easy to learn.
Good luck, and please keep me posted on what happens.

[rainzen]

Thanks.. yeah that is my fear. I mean I'd surely rather go deaf than blind but I also have visual problems and this is just super depressing. I mean in the long run I could learn to cope with deafness, just like everything else in life, but UGH!

One plus is that I too have always been very fascinated by ASL. Actually as a child I wanted to be a teacher for deaf students. However due to a VERY severe wrist injury in 6th grade that left me with chronic pain, I had to let go of that dream.

So now I have that chronic pain in my wrist to think about when I think about becoming deaf. *sigh*

My GP gave me a referral to a ENT specialist and I will be seeing him on Tuesday.

I will let you know how it goes.