Deaf ear turned echoey?
Posted , 2 users are following.
So for the past 6 days my left ear has been partially deaf, and the past 4 days an ear infection.
The amount of sound I can hear in the ear has been fluctuating from little to loud.
Last night my hearing either came back completely or I didn’t notice the deafness, but this morning it came back. An hour ago my ear went all echoey and loud for around 20 minutes and now has gone back to being half deaf.
Any idea what’s causing this? Surely an ear infection wouldn’t mess around my ear so much? It’s never done this before
0 likes, 13 replies
pistal666 Guest
Posted
When your hearing goes from quiet to loud, do you hear a slight "crackle" or "Pop" then it sounds like fluid in the Middle Ear, but the good news is that the fluid will be draining through the Eustachian Tube. During an infection, not only is there the swelling, narrowing some workings in the Ear, but the fluid needed to fight, Mixed with the Infection, thickens any fluid that needs to be drained. So I hope that's what I hope is happening to you. Do you get many Ear Problems, Are you on any Meds for the Infection. Do you know the cause of the infection (Swimming/Loud Concert/Bad Flu/Cold)? Hope your Feeling a little better, stay away from Headphones for a while
AL
Guest pistal666
Posted
I have to say when the echoing and loudness happens, it feels like it’s liquid in my ear but it’s almost impossible for that to have happened because I only got a tiny bit of liquid (if any at all) in my ear the day before it went half deaf (I had a shower).
The switching between deafness and then to echoing and loudness is happening a lot and it’s fairly annoying, especially when we were coming back home in the car and I already wasn’t feeling great.
A whoops I made is that I have been using headphones, but not earphones until today. I didn’t see the problem with headphones until now, so I really hope it hasn’t caused any damage to my hearing. Earphones I stayed away from for more obvious reasons.
pistal666 Guest
Posted
The problem with headphones is the way it covers the Ear causing heat and moisture (more fluid) helping the infection grow, but it's cool you are giving them a break. Your perforation on the Drum certainly will not help. I myself have just have an op to correct a troublesome ear. There is a chance debris collecting in the Ear, causing infection called a cholesteatoma. How old are you and when did you Burst the Drum? Funnily enough, when you have a shower/swimming, it's not Water going in the Ear causing problems, but water going up the nose when you jump in is the main culprit. The infection causes the fluid that's in your middle Ear. Do you have a cold or flu like symptoms?
Guest pistal666
Posted
I have had a sore throat for the past three days too. This morning it actually woke me up because it was painful, but was better after I had a drink of water (but for the other days, that wouldn’t make a difference).
Guest pistal666
Posted
Went to the doctors today and was lucky enough to see my GP. He said my ear was very inflamed and that it wasn’t a surprise I couldn’t hear much out of it.
I had had a CT scan a year ago and they never told me anything other than my ear was fine. However, when the doctor was looking through the notes it said I had a diagnosis of cholesteatoma from the CT scan and something else that I can’t remember.
And now that I realise, I should have gone to the doctors sooner. My ear has been leaking on and off since September but only once or twice a day and not necessarily every day. The fact that I disregarded it probably didn’t help with what’s happened now.
He’s prescribed me with Gentamicin 2 drops 3x a day for 7 days but told me that I might have to have the operation I was suggested to have (I previously declined to because I had had no ear infections for years before this August, which was after my last appointment, and had felt the risks outweighed the benefits).
He said it should work after a few days but I should keep on the tablets for the full 7 days anyway (which I was obviously going to do anyway). So hopefully it should be all fine but we’ll wait and see
pistal666 Guest
Posted
LOL, That's really weird, I had that operation on Tuesday. It was called a Mastoidectomy and Tympanoplasty. The Op is about 3.5-4hrs. I wish I was offered that at 18. You should chase this up if you are always getting infections and problems. I'm hoping it sorts it out a bit. Is it just your one Ear? The risks of the op have really reduced since even over the last Year. Anything you would be worried about?
Guest pistal666
Posted
What I meant about the risks outweighing the benefits was that I’d have a week/two off college and work (I can’t remember how long my grandma, who had the same op, had off work) which obviously isn’t good, and just the general risk of hearing loss, which I do understand is unlikely it was just that so was the first op I had (a grommet) caused my ear to be perforated, which was unlikely too. Just those things for something that stopped causing me problems seemed a no brainer in decision making.
I do think I’ll have it now, but I’m just worried too. My grandmother got really sick from hers and from the anaesthetic and general ear ache etc (without going into too much detail).
I went years (around May 2012-August 2017) without any ear infections whatsoever so it’s only just all started up again. And when I was having the ear infections between November 2011 and April 2012, I don’t recall going deaf in the ear because of them.
I think one of the strangest things about this time is that I just kinda knew that the amoxicillin wouldn’t work, and I have a funny feeling about the drops too but I hope I’m wrong.
A lot of ifs and buts really. How was the operation for you? Did they say how long the recovery time was or anything?
pistal666 Guest
Posted
They say it's three weeks recovery, (well three weeks until they take out the packing). Normally you are in and out in the same Day. I had to stay under supervision ward because of past heart problems, but I was out the following day, then out Driving and doing stuff on the third. The funny thing about Hearing is that it's all relative, in general, without any pain, hearing changes can be small, and when a Doctor asks how your Hearing is,......what do you compare it to? When you said about the risks, I thought you meant the risks off having or not having an op if you were diagnosed with a cholesteatoma, and what could happen if you got a nasty Mastoid infection. I can understand your concerns as your Grandma got sick after, but I can assure you that if you can get it done now, and the perforation in you Eardrum has not healed itself, get it done, could save you years of reoccurring infections that could damage your Hearing, or worse.
Guest pistal666
Posted
I think the ear infection has cleared up a little, but a problem with taking drops is that you cannot tell if the discharge is the drops or actual discharge! Also in a fair amount of pain during/after the drops.
Hearing is still switching too, but the differences aren’t as significant. I highly believe that it’s because it’s normal for me now.
Either way I still have a few more days of the drops so it could get better or could get worse. Won’t bother seeing the doctor on the Monday again though because I’m more hopeful this time that it’ll get better itself.
pistal666 Guest
Posted
Guest pistal666
Posted
They’re labelled as ear/eye drops and I happened to read the instructions that came with them and it said: “do not take this medicine if you: have or suspect you have a burst ear drum, if you are being treated for a problem with your ear”, but since the doctor prescribed them I’ve been using them anyway, but it may explain the pain they’re causing (not much, it’s just for a little while after putting them in my ear that I get pain in and around the ear).
I took a hearing test on my phone using AudioMeter2 App during one of the times where I appeared to hear everything properly, and for most of the sounds I was averaging Perfect in my right ear (the good one) but mild loss in my left one and borderline moderate loss for one of the sections of sounds.
Today my ears started off feeling like it’s have pressure when doing stuff sometimes. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing? It’s annoying for certain! (in the past I’ve had several of these episodes, but worse).
Still discharging, but again I can’t tell if it’s the drops or discharge (I’m leaning towards the drops, as there’s a lot of it sometimes).
Didn’t discharge overnight last night (the other nights I’ve had a bit of cotton wool in my ear to prevent it leaking after the first night of drops) which is a good sign.
I think the infection side of things is possibly over, it’s just the hearing loss and the ear pressure now.
Going to still continue with the drops either way and see if the hearing side of things gets better.
If it doesn’t, then I don’t know what to do as when the deafness first started I was told I would have to see a nurse rather than a doctor, and that it’d be a week (originally two but my father argued that it was too long a wait - I couldn’t call because I was at college, otherwise I would have accepted the two weeks).
Guest
Posted
I have a pre-paid 3 month medicine thing now so if I need to go back I don’t have to worry about the costs as such (I’m already on two other medicines but only recently had to start paying).
pistal666 Guest
Posted
I hope it is on the mend, fingers crossed and you'll be back to normal soon