carrspaints
Registered
Hi guys, I am following up on a post I made back in 2005 regarding my sudden hearing loss during a dive. 6-years have gone by and I'm really just trying to find out if anyone has experienced what I have, if there have been any developments in understanding or remedying SHL or SSHL, anything that may provide me with a new avenue to persue.
6-Years on from this incident and my hearing remains unchanged, no improvement. My story follows below, I have cut and pasted the same posting I made back then to give you a history of what occurred.
"2005 - I am certified but this was only my 12th dive. I have always had problems equilising ear pressure on decending and sometimes have pushed it when I shouldn't have, i.e. lived with the pressure pain. I sometimes suffered slight hearing loss but nothing major...usually just water in the ears and hearing returned to normal within a few hours.
On this particular dive, I did not experience much of a problem with equilising. Everything seemed 0kay, just slight pressure. About 5 minutes into the dive, I had a sensation of hearing a loud "buzzing" sound (not ringing) that increased in volume and pitch and then died away. I can only describe the sound as almost identical to a lawn mower engine increasing in frequency until the pitch died away. This lasted about 8-10 seconds. I knew something wasn't right as that sensation or sound wasn't one I have experienced before. It wasn't imaginary, it was a real motor-like sound. I carried on with the dive, as there was no pain associated with this, no dizziness. I kinda thought....we'll it's probably like previous dives...nothing to worry about.
When I surfaced 30-minutes later, I was stone deaf in my right ear. I mean stone deaf, not a sound. I was also very dazed....but not dizzy. Kinda similar to a concust or semi concust feeling. That has improved, but 4 weeks later and I still feel a bit dazed. Balance is fine.
Long story short, I went immediately to an ENT specialist in Cancun (I was on holiday in Mexico). He did various test with a tuning fork, headphones, that lamp gadget they use to look in the ear, plus an ear pressure test. He concluded that I had acute hearing loss in the right ear and that the "prognosis was not good". :icon10: :icon10: He suggested I may have suffered a viral infection, a spastic nerve?, or a blood clot that restricted or shut down blood flow to a vital part of the neural hearing system. I am almost certain that my problem is directly related to barotrauma of some description and tried explaining this to him....he seemed to doubt my thoughts. I certainly doubt his.....too much of a coincidence with the problems I have always had with equilising on dives.
I was placed on drugs that included a steriod (Prednisolone 5mg) and hyperbaric chamber treatment to increase oxygen to all parts of the body (not to treat decompression sickness). No improvement.
4 weeks later and I'm back in the UK. There has been slight improvement in hearing over the 4 weeks but as good as useless. With headphones on, I can hear heavy base and drums but distorted and increasing volume seems disproportional to the increase in volume I get in my good ear...i.e., I get about 20% volume increase total in my right as opposed to 100% in my left. I cannot hear anything above 250hz...so no voices, no nothing except for deep, deep tones and they are faint. I cannot make out words when people speak, even when a mobile phone is pressed to the affected ear. I can hear that people are speaking, but since all mid and high range frequencies are gone, it sounds more like rumbling than words.
If anyone can share any information on probable causes, or has had a similar experience, I would be grateful to hear from you. I am especially interested to hear from anyone who had experienced this "lawn-mower" like noise directly before the hearing loss. I'm convinced that barotrauma has damaged something .... that this is not a viral condition. By the way, I had a MRI scan done and the ENT fella called to say "good news, all clear with the MRI"
Any help would be gratefully appreciated"
My hearing is exactly is it was 6-years ago. I understand that this almost 99.9% means it will never improve but I am an eternal optimist and hey, if you don't fight these things, keep abreast of technology, developments, well then it's 101% certain it'll never change. No harm in following up so hope you don't mind me checking.
6-Years on from this incident and my hearing remains unchanged, no improvement. My story follows below, I have cut and pasted the same posting I made back then to give you a history of what occurred.
"2005 - I am certified but this was only my 12th dive. I have always had problems equilising ear pressure on decending and sometimes have pushed it when I shouldn't have, i.e. lived with the pressure pain. I sometimes suffered slight hearing loss but nothing major...usually just water in the ears and hearing returned to normal within a few hours.
On this particular dive, I did not experience much of a problem with equilising. Everything seemed 0kay, just slight pressure. About 5 minutes into the dive, I had a sensation of hearing a loud "buzzing" sound (not ringing) that increased in volume and pitch and then died away. I can only describe the sound as almost identical to a lawn mower engine increasing in frequency until the pitch died away. This lasted about 8-10 seconds. I knew something wasn't right as that sensation or sound wasn't one I have experienced before. It wasn't imaginary, it was a real motor-like sound. I carried on with the dive, as there was no pain associated with this, no dizziness. I kinda thought....we'll it's probably like previous dives...nothing to worry about.
When I surfaced 30-minutes later, I was stone deaf in my right ear. I mean stone deaf, not a sound. I was also very dazed....but not dizzy. Kinda similar to a concust or semi concust feeling. That has improved, but 4 weeks later and I still feel a bit dazed. Balance is fine.
Long story short, I went immediately to an ENT specialist in Cancun (I was on holiday in Mexico). He did various test with a tuning fork, headphones, that lamp gadget they use to look in the ear, plus an ear pressure test. He concluded that I had acute hearing loss in the right ear and that the "prognosis was not good". :icon10: :icon10: He suggested I may have suffered a viral infection, a spastic nerve?, or a blood clot that restricted or shut down blood flow to a vital part of the neural hearing system. I am almost certain that my problem is directly related to barotrauma of some description and tried explaining this to him....he seemed to doubt my thoughts. I certainly doubt his.....too much of a coincidence with the problems I have always had with equilising on dives.
I was placed on drugs that included a steriod (Prednisolone 5mg) and hyperbaric chamber treatment to increase oxygen to all parts of the body (not to treat decompression sickness). No improvement.
4 weeks later and I'm back in the UK. There has been slight improvement in hearing over the 4 weeks but as good as useless. With headphones on, I can hear heavy base and drums but distorted and increasing volume seems disproportional to the increase in volume I get in my good ear...i.e., I get about 20% volume increase total in my right as opposed to 100% in my left. I cannot hear anything above 250hz...so no voices, no nothing except for deep, deep tones and they are faint. I cannot make out words when people speak, even when a mobile phone is pressed to the affected ear. I can hear that people are speaking, but since all mid and high range frequencies are gone, it sounds more like rumbling than words.
If anyone can share any information on probable causes, or has had a similar experience, I would be grateful to hear from you. I am especially interested to hear from anyone who had experienced this "lawn-mower" like noise directly before the hearing loss. I'm convinced that barotrauma has damaged something .... that this is not a viral condition. By the way, I had a MRI scan done and the ENT fella called to say "good news, all clear with the MRI"
Any help would be gratefully appreciated"
My hearing is exactly is it was 6-years ago. I understand that this almost 99.9% means it will never improve but I am an eternal optimist and hey, if you don't fight these things, keep abreast of technology, developments, well then it's 101% certain it'll never change. No harm in following up so hope you don't mind me checking.
