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?

[Plotloss]

Have you had a cold or tonsilitis recently?

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

[JakeR]

you could try a sinus decongestant from the chemist??

[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

[hugo a gogo]

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

[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.

[Munter]

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...

[agric]

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

[TedMaul]

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!

[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.

[agric]

Just the other week I was applying some 'earex' or some such over the counter
de-waxing thing to my earoles, and thought I'd do the deaf one first as it seemed churlish now not to,
anyway
I moved onto the working ear and apparently displaced a large clod of something or other
rendering me utterly deaf which was slightly off putting for an hour or so

I sympathise entirely


( &no, I dont fancy the head-vice-scrape route either

[OllieWinchester]

I had a bout of deafness in one ear, but it was brought on by submerging my head under water in the bath, you know how it normally clears and sort of pops when you bring your head out? It didn't, but only in one ear. The strange thing is, it was definately an 'underwater' sort of deafness, so not like yours. I'd give some warm olive oil a go, feels pretty scummy dripping down your face though.

Doctors are quite averse to syringing ears unless there is no other option as it then needs to become a regular occurence.

[tubbystu]

It does sound like you just need your ear syringed.

They may tell you to use Earex (or whatever its called) to soften the plug for a few days. Both myself and my old man suffer this and need to have one of our ears done every five + years or so. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it - just one of those things. I do use olive oil applied soaked on the tip of a tissue in an attempt to prevent it but this doesn't really seem to do too much in reality, long term.

The best bit is just as the syringing washes the plug out and you can hear clearly again - it is truly a wonderful feeling. You no longer feel wooly headed and you just feel better and walk "taller" as your natural balance is returned too.

Certainly in our cases the nurse & Dr seem to have no real issue with it needing to be done when required, particularly as we now know to do the Earex thing for several days before making the appointment and getting it done same day or so.

If this is your problem I wouldn't worry too much. You might be mutton in one ear for the rest of the week until they wash you out. Its not painful and the result is immediate.

[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?

[TedMaul]

tubbystu said:

The best bit is just as the syringing washes the plug out and you can hear clearly again - it is truly a wonderful feeling.

It is a great feeling, although one time I drove to surgery in my mums 1983 Talbot Horizon. On way home aftyer syringing I was convinced the car was going to explode as I could hear all the tappet noises 200% louder than before. A really, really horrible noise!!

King Herald said:

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

I was about 19/20 at the time and couldn't believe the pain... even worse than 'chap in a zip incident' a few months later... T'was a bad year...

[stifler]

I had pretty much the sme thing a couple of months ago. My little girl decided to cry and scream right down my lug'ole. it rendered me deaf in my left ear for a 24 hr period and left it ringing for a couple of days after. I went to the doctors and he said that I had loads of wax built up in the right (my good one!!) ear and that I had fluid behind my left ear drum. He reckoned that my eustation (sp) tube was blocked on the left side and he gave me a nose spray to try and clear it. Just after I left the surgery I sneezed and the left ear whistled like normal so it can't be the eustation tube as that is obviously clear. I havent got around to going back to see the doctor yet, but I should as my hearing is worse if anything.

[Poledriver]

PARDON?

On a serous note, I have had this a few ties, and it has cured itself after a short time!

[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.

[tonyvid]

TedMaul said:

King Herald said:

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

I was about 19/20 at the time and couldn't believe the pain... even worse than 'chap in a zip incident' a few months later... T'was a bad year...

[thunderbelmont]

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)