My Story on Sudden Deafness ( SSHL)

Sudden Deafness...Whats that? Well to tell you the truth I never heard of it even though I had a hearing loss all my life.

Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSHL), or sudden deafness, is a rapid loss of hearing. SSHL can happen to a person all at once or over a period of up to 3 days. It should be considered a medical emergency. A person who experiences SSHL should visit a doctor immediately.A doctor can determine whether a person has experienced SSHL by conducting a normal hearing test. If a loss of at least 30 decibels in three connected frequencies is discovered, it is diagnosed as SSHL. Thats all know so far about Sudden Deafness.

This is my story about my sudden deafness-
At the end of Sept 2008 I woke up on Saturday and my right ear felt different then usual. It was popping like when ur in an airplane or elevator. It was an awful experience. It make me kind of nauseous.. I let it slide like I usually do when it comes to my hearing loss. I went out Saturday all day and night came home went to sleep wokeup on Sunday September 14 the date I will never forget because it was the first time I couldnt hear at all in my right ear. I starting to cry.. and then immediately called my ENT whos known me since I was a baby. He knows my ears like back of his hand. I went in that same day as a "Medical Emergency".. we talked and then he did a hearing test on me.. he couldnt believe what has happened. He has retested me again just to make sure because he was unbelievbly shocked because I went to him last month and my hearing decreased but wasnt like this at ALL! So he was right we go back to his office and saids hes prescribing Prednisone which is a sterioid i have never been on before. He said he wants to try and see if we can get my residual hearing back.. he say " it may or may not come back" we will give this a shot. I said okay whats there to loose. He called my mother yesterday and said on tuesday he wants to see if it improves if not i have whats called " Sudden Deafness" i cried and panic because i didnt know what to do or think.. at that moment. He also said he gets 1 patient a week that has this similar situation. I was shocked. I just sat there and I said this cant be. I thought i miss understood my mom and she wrote WEEK on paper. I went back Sept 24 and Sept 29th. Still my hearing in the right was the same. Doctor said presidone wasnt helping after i gained about 10 pounds and it made me fall asleep everywhere i mean everywhere from in the shower, just sitting at the computer. I was mortified. He said " he doesnt know what to do" he knows about my recent health problems since this pass year. He doesnt reccomend the CI because " I CAN COMMUNICATE WELL" okay hes right I can get by because I was trained all my life to lip read I was in therapy 24/7 and I mastered it when I was a little girl. SO WHAT? I cant HEAR? Thinking about it... even if i had hearing in my right mod-severe like i did i heard somethings but I dont know whats its like to hear WATER,TV unless its blasting on volume 100 etc. So I miss out on alot and now that i have 1 ear to rely on its becoming more and more stressful today is October 13th! Im struggling and its a shame it really is im pushing myself to try and hear with this one ear and I cant do it. It is really devasting. I go back to the ENT/AUD DEC 1ST! Who knows whats going happen. Im deaf in my right ear.. and I wish this was all a dream. I am the only person in the family with a hearing loss so talking to them ofc they dont understand because they dont know what its like because they never experienced this before. Thats my story on Sudden Deafness! For people that just recently experienced this like me PLEASE DONT TAKE PRESIDONE! ITS AWFUL. I know my doctor was trying to help but really if 90% of the people it dont help then why GIVE IT TO ME? My luck ofc i didnt get anything back.

SSHL people - Please go to the doctor IMMEDIATELY DONT WAIT 1-2 weeks.

Thats it for now-- Ill be back on December 1st for the update.