Interesting hearing!

[Cheryl R]

I went and saw my neurotologist surgeon yesterday due to have my hearing seem to vary day to day and some times of ear fullness.    Some days I have more difficulty than others.  Also how my own speech sounds can vary and is sometimes echoes or scratchy.            For the newbies,mid  fossa was done in April and I was almost completely deaf on my only good side due to NF2.   I unexpectedly had great improvement.       He does not know why having some difficulty.                 There is no fluid seen in the middle ear and to my amazement, my audiogram was improved since May.                I had 92% word recognition amd one frequency higher which I can now not remember.   It was 70% in May.     Very strange that being out with people can vary how I hear them.                 Some days tv voices are scratchy.         Hopefully will not become any worse.
I asked his opinion whether I might qualify for SSD and he thinks not by the hearing but possibly with balance issues.             So now to try for that and see what happens.
I well remember this day 7 yrs ago as I had just recently found my AN and set date for surgery so was very depressing time anyway and then to have such a horrible and sad event happen was very hard.                                                Cheryl R

[Raven]

Hi Cheryl,

After my 2nd surgery I was pretty much totally deaf. At that point if someone called me on the phone I could hear them perfectly in my right / good ear, I'm completly deaf in my left ear. Two weeks later I went to get my staples out on both sides, with no improvement in my hearing.  My Dr. said my right ear was filled with fluid and that it would clear up on it's own, come back in a month. I went back in a month and stll could not hear, it still had fluid in it. He extracted it, having a needle stuck thru your ear drum is very painful, but I had instant hearing in my right ear. On about 3 or 4 occasions since then my right side hearing has gone down a little but bounces back within 24 hours, I guess it is just fluid. If you had good hearing in both ears and one gets some fluid in it I guess you wouldn't even notice. On those 3 or 4 times it happened my own voice sounded differently and other sounds were different............very scary. Once in a while if I yawn or swallow my hearing improves just a tad, it is probaly the eustachian tube opening to drain the fluid. I can function very good considering being deaf in one ear and the balance issues............if I ever needed SSD it will because I'm totally deaf, I've experienced that for a about a month.......no fun at all.

Oh, one thing I did get out of all of this is handicap seats in the first row for all the Baltimore Ravens games..........

John

[Dealy]

Wow- what a bummer. I thought you were doingso well. Have you thought about a short course of steroids. JHH always but me on a 6 day course when hearing was bad. Just an idea. Hopethis works out for you. I have too use computer at work during break time. My hard drive at home crashed so I had a new tower processor ordered and am going to have to download all my previous data. Hoping I do not lose to much and e-mail etc. Good Luck-will be thinking of you. Let us know how you come out. Oh Raven. I cannot wait till my STEELERS meet your RAVENS. Thanks- Ron.

[Cheryl R]

HI Ron,        I am not real bad or even near what I was like pre-op.     Just curious that there is some decrease some days.    I have a little more ear fullness and voices I hear and my voice sounds more scratchy some of the time.    I wasn't having this feeling when saw them the end of May and started probably in June.        I was more concerned there might be fluid but they say no and 2 drs looked in.   No mention of steroids and since the hearing test came up even better than May don't think they are concerned.               I just have to watch it more careful with this darn NF2.             The ear popping I have evidentally isn't a factor either.           
         Life is all day by day.                                 Cheryl R   

[Raven]

Oh Raven. I cannot wait till my STEELERS meet your RAVENS. Thanks- Ron.

Yep, I'm with you, can't wait for Monday night! I will have a little spread of food and the surround sound cranked up...................so I can hear it better and get the full effect  Should be a good game, but with the Ravens defense bringing the relentless pain, I see Big Jen getting knocked out of the game..............Ravens 24 - Stealers 10

Take care Ron

John