u/Maruashen

Hi,

Yesterday (May 17) at 12:04 PM, I suddenly developed a clogged/full feeling in my left ear together with a massive spike in tinnitus. It came completely out of nowhere while I was lying in bed scrolling on my phone.

At the same time, I noticed a very clear change in hearing in my left ear. Sounds like touching blankets and pillows sounded different and muffled compared to my right ear, especially higher frequencies. I was not deaf by any means, but my ear felt very muffled.

I do get short episodes of ear fullness + a loud tinnitus tone 1–2 times a week in either ear, but those always disappear within 10–40 seconds. This time, the symptoms lasted.

After around 2–3 hours, the fullness very slowly started improving, and over the next 7–9 hours my hearing gradually recovered. By the time I went to sleep, the fullness had improved by about 80%, but the tinnitus was still screaming loud.

Now, around 24 hours later, my hearing feels almost back to normal (maybe 85-90% restored), and the tinnitus has also improved somewhat compared to yesterday, though it is still louder than my baseline.

I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar. I have ETD since an acoustic trauma injury 16 months back, which basically means my ears click everytime I swallow. Some days are better then others, but my ears click very much.

Have anyone experienced something slightly similar?

Hi,

Yesterday (May 17) at 12:04 PM, I suddenly developed a clogged/full feeling in my left ear together with a massive spike in tinnitus. It came completely out of nowhere while I was lying in bed scrolling on my phone.

At the same time, I noticed a very clear change in hearing in my left ear. Sounds like touching blankets and pillows sounded different and muffled compared to my right ear, especially higher frequencies. I was not completely deaf, but ear felt like I had water in it.

I do get short episodes of ear fullness + a loud tinnitus tone 1–2 times a week in either ear, but those always disappear within 10–40 seconds. This time, the symptoms lasted.

After around 2–3 hours, the fullness very slowly started improving, and over the next 7–9 hours my hearing gradually recovered. By the time I went to sleep, the fullness had improved by about 75%, but the tinnitus was still screaming loud.

Now, around 24 hours later, my hearing feels almost back to normal (maybe 85-90% restored), and the tinnitus has also improved somewhat compared to yesterday, though it is still louder than my baseline.

I’m wondering how this kind of progression should be interpreted, and whether this could still be sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) despite the partial recovery.

I know steroids are often recommended quickly in suspected SSNHL cases and that early treatment is considered important. It’s now been about 24 hours since onset.

How would you interpret this kind of progression, with gradually improving hearing but lingering elevated tinnitus?