I apologize, this is long....
A little over a month ago I went to the walk in clinic due to my ear feeling odd, not pain, but plugged. I was also dizzy and having balance issues. The NP felt my issues were due to a little wax build up and cleaned my ear out. She stated it looked like I had some fluid in my ear, but that it didn't appear to be infected. She gave me a 5 day prescription of Prednisone.
After I was done taking that, my ear felt the same so I went to my regular doctor. She also stated she felt there was fluid in my ear still. She gave me a 7 day prescription of Prednisone and had be do nasal rinses, Flonase, Benedryl at night, Zyrtec in the morning.
After that 7 days, my ear was even worse. The pressure was worse and I had started to have a ringing in my ear. My doctor gave me a prescription for an antibiotic, which didn't do anything, but she wasn't sure what else to do.
I was able to get into an audiologist (ENT is months out) and had my hearing tested. My left ear is normal, but my right ear had moderate to severe hearing loss of both low and high frequency, the middle frequency was normal. My ability to discriminate words was also lower in my right ear. She said I have sudden sensorineural hearing loss. She stated she doesn't think there was ever fluid in my ear, but that both the previous doctors were seeing some scar tissue that can look like fluid. She stated she would speak with the ENT and he would decide if my appointment date for mid July was okay or if he wanted to see me sooner.
Within an hour the ENT office called and stated he wanted to see me the next morning. He also didn't feel that there was ever fluid in my ear as well. The ENT stated the hearing loss could have been caused by a virus, but he wanted to rule out a tumor. I am scheduled for an MRI with contrast next month. He seemed to imply it probably wasn't AN, but was doing an MRI just in case. The more I research, the more I wonder if he was downplaying the possibility. He gave me a 14 day prescription of much higher dose of Prednisone. I have 1 more day of that and it's done nothing.
My symptoms:
Hearing loss of low and high frequency in the right ear, I suspsect it happened much earlier than the last month. For at least a year I've gotten irritated with my husband because I claim he's always mumbling. (I can't really find anything that talks about losing both low and high)
Tinnitus in the right ear (constant)
Pressure in the right ear (pressue is always there, severity changes)
Numbness in the right check, corner of my mouth, and along the jawline (Intermittent)
Balance issues/dizzy feeling (Intermittent)
I know these symptoms could be any number of things and the only way to know for sure is an MRI, but the wait is killing me. Am I being overly paranoid?Has anyone had these symptoms and it turned out to be something else?
