I don't know what is happening with me
Hey all, I have been going through a lot since the past 2 months, but honestly I think this started back in 2023.
Around mid August 2023, I woke up one day feeling like my right ear was not like before, like slightly muffled or less natural. It was devastating because my right ear had always felt like my “good ear”. I went to an ENT and did a hearing test, but it came back normal. I was extremely confused because something clearly felt different.
Over time I developed this coping mechanism where whenever I went outside, I would pinch my nose and suck air inward to reduce background sound and make conversations easier. Weirdly it helped, and life became manageable again.
Then around 15th February this year, things got worse. Suddenly I felt like I had to put effort into understanding speech, especially softer speech or conversations in noisy places. I started my first job on 26th February and was terrified about how I would manage conversations and my career.
I went to another ENT. They found wax in my left ear, cleaned it, and did another hearing test. Again normal. Around 10 dB across frequencies in both ears. I was shocked because my hearing absolutely did not feel normal, especially in noisy places like cafeterias.
30th March: another hearing test, again around 5–15 dB.
18th April: after a cold, another ENT found mild conductive hearing loss in both ears, worse on the left. At this time my left ear genuinely felt extremely blocked, like cotton was stuffed in it. I was prescribed mucinac and told to do Valsalva many times a day.
Eventually I felt like Valsalva slightly improved the left ear muffled feeling. Then on 2nd May I had another hearing test and it was again normal, around 5–10 dB.
At this point I completely stopped trusting audiograms and started feeling like maybe I was “cheating” the tests somehow.
Then on 3rd May while coming home from office, I suddenly got a loud low-pitched tinnitus in my right ear and everything went quiet for a few seconds. It recovered quickly, but afterward I felt like my right ear became slightly weaker permanently.
Did another audiogram on 7th May. Again normal, 5–15 dB both ears.
Since then I’ve had multiple transient tinnitus/muffling episodes. Initially everything felt shifted toward my right ear, but now everything feels more centered or even slightly shifted left.
Then yesterday (16th May), while out with friends wearing earplugs, my right ear suddenly muffled again, but this time without tinnitus. Afterward it never fully felt the same again.
The weirdest part is:
- speech in quiet at home is mostly okay
- but soft speech, speech from another room, or people talking while facing away is harder
- noisy places are difficult
- music feels flatter and distorted at higher volume
- bass/ambience/warmth of the world feels missing
- everything sounds like I’m listening through phone speakers sometimes
I also now have high-pitched tinnitus in both ears.
Another important thing:
- I constantly do Valsalva / ear popping throughout the day
- I can trigger clicking sounds in my ears/jaw
- there is also a low motor-like hum sometimes that changes with pressure and often disappears after naps/sleep
I genuinely don’t know what is happening anymore. I’ve had multiple normal audiograms but my hearing perception feels completely altered and my quality of life has dropped massively.