Hearing loss...is it sudden?

[Rivergirl]

Just wondering if the hearing loss is gradual or one day you wake up and its gone.........and what does it feel like while it is going, trying to get some validation on my decreased hearing.  I feel like I hear out of my right side as if in a tube and the pressure changes feel like they are hitting a nerve sending what I call a brain shiver.
Thanks for your help.

[iluuvpups]

I think at least a good part of my hearing loss was sudden.  I always used my left ear to talk on the phone.  Suddenly, I couldn't hear what people were saying.  At first I thought it was a problem with the phone or my headset.  So I bought a new headset and an amplifier.  I don't know what prompted me to try to talk on the phone on my right side, but when I did, I realized that it wasn't the phone or headset.  It was my left ear.  I wasn't hearing so well on that side anymore.

Prior to my translab surgery, I could still hear at least some on my left side.  Since the surgery, I have no hearing on the left side at all.  I'm still grieving over this.  I was at a restaurant with friends last night and was very disappointed that I couldn't hear a lot of what was being said.  I did a lot of nodding and smiling because I get so tired of saying "What?" all the time.  I'm considering the Baha, but not sure if I'll be able to get one since I still have a tumor in me and may have another surgery in my future.

[leapyrtwins]

River -

I think it depends on the person.

I remember sitting at my desk at work one day and just out of the blue realizing that I couldn't hear as well as I used to out of my left ear.  I had a sensation in my ear like you sometimes get on a plane - where your ear feels full and you think it just has to "pop" and everything will be back to normal.   I thought I was getting a head cold or a sinus infection and that was the reason for my "plugged" ear.

A short time later my phone rang and I picked it up and put it to my left ear like I routinely did.  Although I could hear the person on the other end everything sounded muffled.  I thought it was strange, but again attributed it to a possible head cold or sinus infection.

I have heard of other AN patients who lost their hearing more gradually. 

Maybe I did too, but just didn't notice it until that day in my office (?)

Jan

[mk]

Hearing loss can be sudden or gradual.
The sudden hearing loss can happen virtually instantaneously - one minute you are fine, and the second you feel that your ear is plugged and your hearing greatly diminished. Or it may happen overnight and once you wake up you realize you can't hear anymore. The phone test is the fastest way to confirm this - I could barely hear the tone when this happened to me. Also, things continued to deteriorate quickly during the day to the point where most hearing, and all word recognition was gone.
This is the type of loss that may be reversed with steroids.

 The gradual hearing loss creeps up on you, and it is hard to keep track of because it happens so gradually, unless you do a consistent hearing test (I access my voice mail and try to listen the messages). I don't really think that anything can be really done to reverse this.

Marianna

[Syl]

My hearing loss was sudden. It was fine one moment then I sneezed & the tinnitus began. Then I noticed the feeling of fullness in my right ear. Not too long after, the dizziness & vertigo began.

Syl

[Jim Scott]

Cindy ~

As previous posters have stated, AN-related hearing loss can be gradual or quite sudden. My hearing loss was very gradual, probably over 5 years time, maybe more.  I started out with excellent bi-lateral hearing and didn't notice the gradual loss in one ear until around 2000.  Like many others, I realized that I was 'favoring' my right ear when using the phone. Eventually, I had to admit that I really couldn't hear much out of my left ear and attributed the loss to my age and the fact that, as a radio broadcaster for 25 years, I had tight-fitting earphones next to my ears that were usually quite loud.  My wife (a paragon of logic) questioned why, if that was the cause, I was only losing hearing in one ear. I shrugged it off and said I was just happy I could still hear out of one ear!   I rejected her suggestion that I see an ENT because, I said, he would just tell me I was deaf in one ear, and I already knew that.  She didn't push the issue and frankly, I adjusted quite well to my unilateral hearing situation and no one ever noticed, or if they did, no one ever mentioned it to me.  Finally, other symptoms (loss of the sense of taste, loss of equilibrium, intermittent stabbing pain on the side of my head, fatigue) drove me to consult my PCP and he referred me for an MRI - and the rest, as they say, is history. 

So, my hearing loss occurred at a glacial pace, others lose their hearing much faster and some, almost instantaneously.  There is no 'pattern', although simply holding the phone to your 'bad' ear and seeing whether you can hear the dial tone (this doesn't work on a cell phone because they have no dial tone) is an 'amateur' test that anyone could do.  Then, if you suspect you may be losing hearing in one ear, a hearing test with an audiologist is the best way to be sure. 

Jim

[jaylogs]

For me, it was gradual...at first I attributed it to the tinnitus that I had for a couple of years...but then the hearing started getting worse and it wasn't until after the real bad dizzy episodes that I went in for my first exam (and ultimately discovered I had AN). So reading the previous posts I guess it's up to the person and where and how big and how fast the AN is growing.
Jay

[Lizard]

Mine was also gradual, and I didn't give it a second thought until they found the AN, then I realized I favored my other ear for phone conversations.  Otherwise, not so noticeable.
Liz

[HeadCase2]

  My experience with hearing loss on the AN side was that it was fairly sudden.  I noticed a sudden odd feeling in the AN side hearing and then hearing dropped dramatically over a two week period.  It was accompanied by distorted hearing in the AN ear in the upper ranges, with crackling noises in the AN ear in places with noise, like the shower.  This was in 1980, and it was misdiagnosed as hearing loss due to noise exposure.  The ENT didn't believe my description of sudden hearing loss.
  I think hearing can drop off over time or suddenly, and then a person can notice it suddenly, like when an undiagnosed AN patient uses the phone and notices that they can no longer understand the phone conversation on the AN side.
  One of the main indicators of a potential AN is sudden one sided hearing loss.

Regards,
  Rob

[Raven]

I woke up one morning and it was gone.........really, I had perfect hearing the day before and woke up and lost all of my hearing in my left ear overnight. When I say all of my hearing, I mean all of it, I could (and still can) just barely hear a dial tone if I hold the phone up to my ear. Went on steroids for two weeks and it didn't help at all, the MRI showed bilatteral ANs.

John

[Funnydream]

Just wondering if the hearing loss is gradual or one day you wake up and its gone.........and what does it feel like while it is going, trying to get some validation on my decreased hearing.  I feel like I hear out of my right side as if in a tube and the pressure changes feel like they are hitting a nerve sending what I call a brain shiver.
Thanks for your help.

When I lost my hearing all the sudden. Tinnitus kicked in and I had a full feeling in my ear. I went to the net and people with regular hearing loss. Like from load noises. Said they felt full ear and tinnitus. The way I understand Tinnitus from the net. Is your brain is turning up the gain to hear better and the ringing is a result. If you put a ear plug in your good ear you will hear a faint ringing. Atleast I do. Everyone I talk to says they hear the faint ring if they put on ear plugs.

[Rivergirl]

Thank you all for sharing your hearing loss, I think I must be of the gradual loss, suppose this way your body adjusts and it is not so profound.

[Syl]

I'm grateful that my hearing loss was sudden. Had it been different, I might have taken longer to go to the doctor.

Syl

[Barb909]

My hearing loss has been happening really gradually, over about 5 years. I noticed it first when watching television...always asking "What did he just say?", and at meetings at work, with about 14 folks around a table. The tinnitus started a few years ago, but is now 24/7 and I wonder if all that noise keeps me from hearing better....? There is a lot of racket in there!!

First 6 month MRI and hearing tests tomorrow afternoon - will be nice to find out the real measure(s) at this point.

Barbara

[leapyrtwins]

HIJACK ALERT!

Barb -

hope everything goes well today.  Please update us when you know anything.

It was great to meet you in Seattle.

Best,

Jan