I seem to have gone sort of deaf in one ear.

[King Herald]

Saturday morning I noticed my hearing felt a little vague in my left ear, like something was sort of blocking the sound from getting to it. It now seems to have gone very deaf.

I can't get to see a doc until tomorrow morning. I tried soaking it in the bath, squirting some warm water into it with a syringe, but it still feels like something's blocked it up.

Anybody have any quick cures for unidentifiable undiagnosed deafness?

[King Herald]

Plotloss said:

Have you had a cold or tonsilitis recently?

Could be ETD, does everything sound like you're underwater or is it 'proper' deafness?

Nope, no colds at all. No underwater sound either, like you get when you're flying. I can still hear a bit through it, but nowhere near as good as normal.

I had a medical last month, for work, tested my hearing, same results as two years ago.

What is ETD?

ETA: I've tried the 'holding the nose and blowing hard' to try and pop the ear, but makes no difference.

Edited by King Herald on Monday 20th April 09:44

[King Herald]

hugo a gogo said:

I had that a couple of years ago

came on very suddenly, completely deaf in one ear

went to the docs and got (what felt like) about 40 gallons of warm water syringed through my lugs, he then pulled a big plug of waxy crap out, then did the same in the other ear for good measure

I asked him how i could prevent it in future, he said nothing you can do really, you shouldn't poke stuff ( cotton buds etc) into your ears though if you can help it

I generally don't clean my ears with cotton buds, but I do wear ear plugs on my bike. There's no pain, just the numbness/vagueness of no hearing.

I hope the doc can see something obvious on the morrow.

[King Herald]

agric said:

Without 'hearing' in that ear,

Do you have tinittus instead ?

I lost the hearing altogether in one ear, and overnightfollowing a stroke,

And its been replaced with ringing instead.

Fortunately my brain blocks it out and I don't think about it much

I suffer fairly horrible tinnitus anyway, so this 'cotton wool' emptiness in that hearing quarter is filled with tinnitus now.

TedMaul said:

Munter said:

I understand (and i'm no expert so do some more research), that a few drops of Olive oil can be used to "soften" the wax in the ear. Thus making it more likely to come out on it's own when you submerge your head in the bath...

Does sound like OP has glue ear and above will sort it out. Worst case, a week of olive oil drops and an ear syringe.

To the OP, do get it looked at. I had it once and nurse refused to syringe ears until i had used drops for a week. Then ear became infected and I ended up at out patients have my ear canal scraped out - they locked my head in a sort of vice to stop me squirming. The pain was unreal, worse pain I've ever had in my life. Elephantine sized painkillers did nothing!

I'll see what the docs says, appointment at 9:30am. I was thinking of dumping some warmed over olive oil in, but best to let the doc eyeball it first.

I don't like the idea of ear canal scraping.

[King Herald]

Doctor tells me he thinks I have an inner ear infection, because the bad ear drum is matt/opaque looking and the good ear is the healthy shiny sort of appearance. He's given me Amoxycillin for a week. I hate taking antibiotics unless really really necessary, but I'm not exactly in a position to argue I guess.

The ear canal is clean, spotless in fact, he said.

Sound about right, inner ear infection?

[King Herald]

Well, it is getting a bit better, but hearing is still not right yet. The doc told me it could take up to four weeks to get totally back to normal, so I assume he knows the score.

Or he is fobbing me off.

I fly to the USA on Tuesday, for work, so I may pop back to the doc tomorrow and ask him to have another quick look, see if anything has change inside my lug 'ole.

[King Herald]

thunderbelmont said:

My GP once said, don't stick anything smaller then you're elbow in you're ear - you'll do damage!

As a tinnitus sufferer myself, for those younger "know alls" WEAR HEARING PROTECTION IF YOU ARE IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE THE SOUND LEVEL IS ANYWHERE NEAR 100dB OR ABOVE.
(the namby pambys say 85dB(A) which is about half as loud as a TVR)

I was told that your hearing can be damaged anywhere you need to raise your voice to hold a conversation.

I'd be interested to know what the inside volume is on most passenger jets, as they are unbelievably loud when you actually have a good listen to them. I use noise reducing headphones, just to make it possible to listen to the movie or music without having the volume cranked right up.