I hope that this will be my first AND LAST post to this board. If you are coming here with similar symptoms, please get them checked out, but also please know that the odds are in your favor!
My story (sorry for the length!): About 20 years ago while camping, I lay in my sleeping bag marveling at the total silence of the wilderness. Then I rolled over... Suddenly there was a cacophony of crickets! I quickly realized that I could not hear high frequencies out of my left ear. I could still hear lower frequencies, so I didn't worry about it. As a college student, I didn't realize that this was something I should have had checked out right away. Years later I did mention this to my GP at the time, and she said it was nothing to worry about.
The hearing in my left ear very gradually got worse over the years. I have no problem with phone conversations, but sometimes I have to turn my head when people are whispering or speaking very softly. Then about two months ago, at age 41, the tinnitus in my left ear started very suddenly and has not stopped. Sometimes it sounds high-voltage electricity, sometimes it's a pure high-frequency tone, and sometimes it sounds like someone is letting the air out of my brain. But it just doesn't let up! It was at this point that I hit the internet and got very scared. It seems that every medical site is telling us that unilateral tinnitus is a red flag symptom. Yikes!
I went to my current GP who said my ears looked clear and referred me to an audiologist and an ENT. I had to wait a month and drive 90 miles for the ENT. (It would have been a minimum 4 month wait to see anyone closer.) My audiogram looked exactly like the typical AN audiogram: the left ear was consistently about 20 dB worse than the right until the high frequencies where the left ear graph plummets, and this hearing loss was at the nerve level.
As you all know, the next step is an MRI. They did it without contrast but assured me that the machine they have would pick up even tiny acoustics. Two days after the MRI, the left side of my upper lip started feeling numb like I'd just had dental work done. Oh no, another AN symptom! Well, the numbness went away to be replaced by a cold sore, likely stress-induced. It's the only time in my life I've been happy to have a cold sore!
At any rate, the MRI came back completely normal. The ENT said that the tinnitus is due to the hearing loss, and that could could be due to any number of things. I'll go back to the audiologist in 6 months, but right now it's not bad enough for a hearing aid.
If you've read this far, thanks for reading, and I hope your MRIs look good, too!
Many, many thanks to all of you who have shared your stories. They made my long wait (2 months between onset of tinnitus and receiving mri results) much more bearable knowing that even if they had found something, it wouldn't be the end of the world.
LizzieLu
