Diagnosed with ETD (Type C, -208 pressure) but experiencing sudden 90% hearing drops. Cochlear Hydrops?
**Hi everyone, I’m dealing with an incredibly frustrating diagnostic gray area and I'm hoping someone here has experienced something similar. My doctors are stuck on one diagnosis, but my symptoms tell a different story.**
**Here is what is happening with my right ear:**
**The Middle Ear / ETD Symptoms:**
**Constant popping and crackling whenever I yawn or swallow.**
**A stubborn, ongoing feeling of "trapped air."**
**My tympanometry test confirmed severe negative pressure (Type C curve with -208 pressure).**
**Because of this, my ENTs insist it is strictly Eustachian Tube Dysfunction.**
**Out of nowhere, my hearing will suddenly drop by almost 90%.**
**This extreme drop lasts for about 1 to 2 days.**
**After the acute drop, my hearing stays at a 30% to 50% loss for months at a time.**
**Eventually, my hearing returns to completely normal for a while (I once had a 10-month stretch of normal hearing), only for the cycle to repeat.**
**I do not have any vertigo.**
**Since none of the maximum medical therapies are working, it feels like I am dealing with a "double hit" of severe ETD combined with Cochlear Hydrops, but my doctors won't look past the ETD.**
**Has anyone dealt with this specific overlap of ETD symptoms and extreme, fluctuating hearing drops? If pills and sprays completely failed for you, what next-level procedures (grommets/tubes, balloon dilation, inner-ear steroid injections) finally broke the cycle and gave you relief?**
**Any advice is hugely appreciated!**