Hearing loss issues

Amanda Hughes5 said:Hey Ugly....it's me, 🙂
First off... seriously, thanks a million for all the replies 👍

I'm rocking a Unitron Moxi right now, in my left ear—that's the weaker one.
Before this, I was using a Widex CIC 2, an in-the-canal style.
Honestly? Neither of them has done it for me. That first one was tucked deep in my ear, fully digital, but every single time I spoke or even just chewed some food, the thing would practically jump out of my ear. A total disaster. I was hearing sounds I’d never heard before in my life, but as far as actually understanding what people were saying? Zero. Zilch. And to top it off, after every two words, I had to physically shove it back into my ear with my finger 😠
The second one is behind-the-ear, also digital (it adjusts its own volume based on the environment), with that thin little wire running into the ear canal ending in the attachment that delivers the sound.
But... my speech comprehension is still basically non-existent if there's any background noise, or if I'm stuck at a table with three, four, five, or more people (I usually just tune out immediately because I can't keep up), or even when watching TV (I can't even follow movies from the old US regions)... and honestly, the sound was better with my old device 🤷—cleaner and sharper. Look, let's be real... I spent a ton of time over at Microton trying to dial in the perfect volume level for that specific device... but we just couldn't get anywhere near it 🤷
And you know what the absolute worst part is? The folks over at Suvag told me this device was 100% perfect for my specific issue ☕ so I really don't get it—how can someone claim that's the case when it's their entire career, yet after wearing it for just two or three hours, I'm convinced it's actually worse than my old setup 🤷

It feels like I'm reading my own thoughts here... how bad is the damage, exactly? I mean, what's your actual hearing threshold?

Peter Cooper5 said:Finally, let's get into this, because honestly, it’s such a struggle finding anyone who actually gets what I mean when I say, "I'm out in public, everyone is talking, but I can't understand a single word they're saying." 😬 It’s basically the same deal for me—I have a hard time following conversations, especially if someone drops a fancy word or some slang that isn't used much. Then you’re just sitting there praying they’ll repeat themselves. And honestly? I’m kind of terrified about what happens when I eventually have kids. I don't want to be that parent constantly asking my own child to repeat themselves i980239483'2 times, especially since I barely catch what kids are saying as it is. For me, it's a mess; I've got nerve damage from an insanely high fever when I was just a few months old.

Yeah, I find kids the hardest to follow too. And honestly, men's voices are just as bad for me because their voices tend to be so high-pitched or squeaky, making them almost impossible to understand.

Jesse Sanchez90 said:Why is that? 😕
It sounds like a classic case of sensorineural hearing loss.

Have you had any professional audiological evaluations done yet? 😉

Yeah, I have. But man, it’s been five years already, so I guess I’m heading back in sometime this week.

Hey everyone,
I’m looking for some insight regarding my sister. She’s 26—still so young—but things have been rough since she got married and had her first kid about five years ago. Her hearing started acting up in one ear, and now she’s already relying on a hearing aid, but the real kicker is that it’s starting to fade in the other ear too. It’s incredibly frustrating because it seems like the weather actually plays a role; if it’s cloudy or overcast, her hearing just tanks, and she deals with this constant, maddening ringing in her ears.
We actually went through a lot of trouble to find a specialist over in Germany for a consultation and some laser treatments, but even that doctor couldn't give us a straight answer. He couldn't provide a solid diagnosis or explain why she’s losing her hearing this way. It feels like everyone is just throwing out guesses and theories, but nobody actually knows what’s going on. It's exhausting to watch.
If anyone here has dealt with anything similar, or if you know someone who has gone through this exact kind of thing, I would be so incredibly grateful if you could share your experiences. Honestly, any bit of information at this point is better than nothing. Thanks so much in advance for the help. 🙂

Hey there. It’s tough... mostly older folks deal with this—people getting up there in years. Hmm... I don't know...
I read somewhere a long time ago that if someone loses their eardrum, they lose their hearing too.🤷
Maybe my sister should see a few more doctors... specialists! That way she might get some actual advice and probably end up knowing a bit more...👍

Chris Diaz said:Hey there. It’s tough... mostly older folks deal with this—people getting up there in years. Hmm... I don't know...
I read somewhere a long time ago that if someone loses their eardrum, they lose their hearing too.🤷
Maybe my sister should see a few more doctors... specialists! That way she might get some actual advice and probably end up knowing a bit more...👍

Yeah, we really ought to pick the brains of a few more doctors who have actually dealt with this before. She's already seen a couple, but our local options here in the States are pretty limited—that's exactly why I'm out here asking for advice. If you happen to know a specialist in the US or even abroad who could give her a solid diagnosis, that would mean the world to us. We're willing to try absolutely anything at this point; we're just running out of ideas.
Thanks anyway.

Unfortunately, no🤷
I suppose some doctor might be reading this
😢

Where are you guys located? Which ENT specialist was your sister seeing? Shoot me a PM 🙂

If anyone is looking for some insight from a patient who has "been through the ringer" with all this, feel free to ask.
I’m in my early 50s, and until about two years ago, my hearing was absolutely stellar. Then, life happened—I had a nasty fall from a height resulting in a severe concussion, which unfortunately led to a fractured cochlea due to a temporal bone fracture. Since then, my hearing has been pretty much gone; according to the clinical findings, I’m down to about 4% in one ear. At first, I tried using a standard analog hearing aid. It did enough to "boost" the sound, but the quality was terrible and incredibly dynamic. Little things, like the tapping of a fork on a plate, were just gratingly irritating.
Eventually, I decided to invest in the most advanced digital option available, the Oticon Epox WP, complete with a Bluetooth streamer for phone calls. It cost me about $2,300 out of pocket, and after a few fine-tunings, it was more than satisfactory. I used it for about a year. On the recommendation of my specialist, I took the advice to get a cochlear implant, because apparently, that tiny bit of residual hearing I had left was destined to vanish quickly. Now, I am "satisfied" with my Cochlear implant. Why the quotes? Well, because it’s just not quite what it was before, you know?
I still have my hearing aids on hand if anyone is interested... Ask away, because I happen to be quite well-versed in electronics and IT.
While I have you, let me ask something: What do you all know, or what are your experiences with, the "system" or the legal regulations regarding repairs, servicing, or replacing the external speech processor for a cochlear implant? (I heard there might be some changes coming to the regulations this year.)

Perhaps there might be some updates regarding age-related hearing loss...

Betty Myers67 said:Hey everyone,
I’m looking for some insight regarding my sister. She’s 26—still so young—but things have been rough since she got married and had her first kid about five years ago. Her hearing started acting up in one ear, and now she’s already relying on a hearing aid, but the real kicker is that it’s starting to fade in the other ear too. It’s incredibly frustrating because it seems like the weather actually plays a role; if it’s cloudy or overcast, her hearing just tanks, and she deals with this constant, maddening ringing in her ears.
We actually went through a lot of trouble to find a specialist over in Germany for a consultation and some laser treatments, but even that doctor couldn't give us a straight answer. He couldn't provide a solid diagnosis or explain why she’s losing her hearing this way. It feels like everyone is just throwing out guesses and theories, but nobody actually knows what’s going on. It's exhausting to watch.
If anyone here has dealt with anything similar, or if you know someone who has gone through this exact kind of thing, I would be so incredibly grateful if you could share your experiences. Honestly, any bit of information at this point is better than nothing. Thanks so much in advance for the help. 🙂

It might be worth reaching out to a specialist clinic like Mayo Clinic... they really are the gold standard for people dealing with what I've been going through and what your sister is facing. Over these last five years since my hearing started fading, I've gone down so many rabbit holes—neurological tests, immunology, genetic screening, brain MRIs, CT scans of the temporal bones, even blood work for viruses and Lyme disease... and nothing ever turned up. By the technical definition of hearing loss, I haven't looked into how noise or stress might be playing a role, though since I work in such a loud factory environment, I highly doubt the noise is the actual culprit. My advice for your sister would be to make sure she gets all those specific tests done if she hasn't already, and then maybe just invest in some high-quality hearing aids and get on with life... and of course, she should definitely fight for every single one of her rights.

I really hope that I was able to help out a little bit...

Hi there,
Lately, loud noises have been really getting under my skin—especially those higher frequencies. Whenever they hit, I get this strange drumming sensation in my ears... I’m not quite sure how else to describe it, honestly.
I haven't noticed any actual drop in my hearing, but I’ve been reading stuff online suggesting that hearing damage is often much harder to detect than people realize. It seems most folks don't even notice anything is wrong until the discomfort actually starts bothering them.

To be fair, I’ve always had a bit of a habit of blasting music through my headphones—which, yeah, I know, not exactly the smartest move, and I’ve only recently started becoming self-aware about it 🙂—so I can't help but worry that I might have already done some damage.

Now, is it possible that this sensitivity could be caused by something else entirely, given that my hearing itself feels fine? And if it *is* damage, I wonder if things will just keep getting worse over time, even if I finally decide to quit the loud music for good?

I’ve also dealt with a massive drop in my hearing over the last five years. It runs in the family—my mom struggles with it, and my brother sits at about 45 dB while I'm down at 75 dB. Everything was perfectly fine until about five years ago when my hearing suddenly plummeted, and this unbearable tinnitus kicked in. I actually went through some blood work, and apparently, complications from newborn jaundice and some other issues left their mark on my hearing. I can't tell you exactly how much I lose each year, but I head to the ENT every six months to get checked out and track how fast the decline is happening. Unfortunately, there isn't a cure. All I can really do is stay careful, keep up with my vitamins, and stay active with sports and exercise.

Amanda Hughes5 said:Hey there...

So, I’m dealing with some massive hearing issues in both ears—specifically, my middle ear is pretty much trashed. I’m 37, and honestly, ever since I can remember (I had meningitis when I was four, and everyone says that’s the culprit), it’s been a struggle. The folks over at Suvag basically told me my inner hair cells are dead and there's nothing they can do about it 😢
My outer ear is also super small—like, when the specialists at Suvag saw my first device, they actually asked me who gave me that thing 😁 because they thought it looked like a tiny kid's model 🙄... even though it was custom-molded to fit my ear perfectly 😢)
The main issue, though... it's everything. There are certain sounds I just can't catch at all, others are muffled, and sometimes I can't even tell where a sound is coming from. But the absolute worst part? Understanding what people are actually saying. As soon as I'm in a group setting, I just shut down because I can't keep up with the conversation... or if someone talks from the side, it's game over. I find myself asking people to repeat themselves constantly (and 90% of the time, I get the tone right, but the actual words just don't make sense 😢)
On top of all that, I’ve got this constant chirping in my ears 24/7—it’s like being stuck in the middle of a forest full of birds in the springtime. It is TERRIBLE.
Slowly but surely, I'm losing my mind ☕
I laid all of this out for the team at Suvag, and honestly? Nobody gave me any straight answers. Like, WTF... if they can't give me answers, then who can?!?!
But the hardest part of all is having a little girl at home, she's only two and a half, and I have to ask her to repeat herself over and over again... it's such an intense frustration 😢

Does anyone know of any actual solutions for this? Maybe specialized clinics abroad or something similar? Any surgical options? Literally anything
I am more than ready to take out a loan and pay whatever it takes, because this is becoming brutally frustrating for both me and my family.....

Hey... I'm reading back through this old post of yours and honestly, it feels like I wrote it myself... how did you end up fixing your hearing problems in the end?

boldhound99 said:Hey... I'm reading back through this old post of yours and honestly, it feels like I wrote it myself... how did you end up fixing your hearing problems in the end?

I feel exactly the same way. 😢 It is genuinely, deeply frustrating.

So, my coworkers are basically being polite just because they can't deal with me anymore, but I keep bugging them about the fact that I can't hear a damn thing... and honestly, it's the exact same story once I get home...

I haven't seen anyone else discussing this on the forum...

I've been dealing with persistent ear infections for three weeks now.
It started three weeks ago in my right ear; my doctor prescribed some ear drops and Amoxicillin Pfizer, which I took for three days as directed. Then, last week while I was on vacation down in Florida, I went diving and ended up with an infection in my left ear. The pain subsided by the second day, but I made the mistake of jumping back into the water immediately, even though I was still finishing my three-day course of antibiotics. Now, two days ago, it happened for the third time—right ear again. I'm taking the medication, and while there’s no actual pain, I’m hearing this bizarre sound. It isn't tinnitus. Certain voices are becoming shrill, and since I work in music, I know what I'm talking about: all tones and music sound about a quarter-octave lower in my right ear. Since the left ear sounds normal, everything just sounds like an out-of-tune orchestra.
Does anyone have a logical explanation for this? It's incredibly distracting. Will this resolve on its own, or am I looking at something more serious?

Richard Sanchez79 said:I haven't seen anyone else discussing this on the forum...

I've been dealing with persistent ear infections for three weeks now.
It started three weeks ago in my right ear; my doctor prescribed some ear drops and Amoxicillin Pfizer, which I took for three days as directed. Then, last week while I was on vacation down in Florida, I went diving and ended up with an infection in my left ear. The pain subsided by the second day, but I made the mistake of jumping back into the water immediately, even though I was still finishing my three-day course of antibiotics. Now, two days ago, it happened for the third time—right ear again. I'm taking the medication, and while there’s no actual pain, I’m hearing this bizarre sound. It isn't tinnitus. Certain voices are becoming shrill, and since I work in music, I know what I'm talking about: all tones and music sound about a quarter-octave lower in my right ear. Since the left ear sounds normal, everything just sounds like an out-of-tune orchestra.
Does anyone have a logical explanation for this? It's incredibly distracting. Will this resolve on its own, or am I looking at something more serious?

I will share my own experience with you, and perhaps you can draw your own conclusions.
My problems started about a year after undergoing radiation for a brain tumor. I began losing my hearing. They actually had to patch the eardrum in my left ear because it had developed a perforation.
From the very beginning, my ENT surgeon insisted that I not get water in my ears when washing my hair or when swimming/diving. I use cotton balls in my ears and am extremely careful to ensure no water gets in.
Moisture is simply a breeding ground for bacteria.

Many people suffer from diminished hearing due to cerumen (earwax) that naturally accumulates. Over time, impactions form, and most people don't even realize it until they start having trouble communicating.
In my case, the issue is that my hearing aid pushes that cerumen against the ear canal, creating a plug. In those situations, even the hearing aid is useless... I'm stone deaf. 😁 I have a follow-up appointment with the ENT surgeon this Tuesday, and I'll be using Vasol to dissolve the buildup—which, for me, has turned into full plugs.
As soon as those plugs begin to melt, shift, or move, it happens—since you mentioned music—songs become completely unrecognizable. Certain tones become louder, while others vanish entirely (speaking specifically about the songs and music I listen to). If I were to play those same songs without knowing what happened, I wouldn't even be able to identify what I was "listening" to. It's a living nightmare. 😠
So, yeah, that's the situation.
Given that I've dealt with ear issues for years, it's not just the perforated eardrum, but also intermittent infections; I have a diagnosis of chronic otitis media. Honestly, the whole thing is just a complete mess.