Sudden Unilateral Low Frequency Hearing Loss?/Distortion and Tinnitus, Doctors Not Helping
UK, NHS
25M, audio engineer/producer for 7+ years. Always wore ear plugs in loud places, kept volumes safe, took breaks and good care of ears.
Timeline
- Wed 23 Sept: Sudden low pitch tinnitus (300Hz) and some fullness in right ear. Hearing seemed okay, thought maybe ear infection, took break from music.
- Sat 26 Sept: No change to tinnitus, or fullness, tried headphones and immediately noticed something was very wrong between 20Hz - 300Hz. Left ear was fine. Right ear, everything around and below 300Hz sounded smeared and lacking fullness, like half the frequencies were missing (sort of like "comb" filtering if you know what that is). Bass/Sub bass sounded distorted, making my ear flutter/spasm and had almost no pitch. Kick drums sounded hollow with no punch. Right ear was sensitive and got sore quickly after short quiet listening session.
- Mon 28 Sept: Read about Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSNHL), and how it's an emergency. Went to A&E, they only looked in my ears, asked about symptoms and whispered something in each ear I had to repeat, which confirmed the right ear was worse at hearing. Doctor spoke to on-call ENT then discharged me and told the hospital would arrange a hearing test and ENT appointment "tomorrow".
- Wed 30 Sept: Still haven't heard from hospital. Went to GP, mentioned SSNHL and the 72 hour treatment window, said it's been nearly a week. No tests, told to wait for the hearing test, ENT appointment, "could take a few weeks". Thankfully hospital finally called me later that evening and booked audiology and ENT for Mon 5 Oct...
- Mon 5 Oct (Audiology): Pure Tone Audiometry and Tympanometry. Left ear fine, flat line. Right ear: 10dB HL at 250Hz, 10dB at 500Hz, 5dB at 1kHz, normal 2-4kHz, 10dB at 8kHz. Tympanometry normal. No wax or infection. Told my hearing is "completely fine", no hearing loss. Okay, I understand if it’s within normal range, but there’s a downward trend from 1kHz to 250Hz that definitely wasn’t there before (I immediately noticed when my music sounded different), and my worst frequencies seem to be below 250Hz where they don't even test.
- Mon 5 Oct (ENT): Again mentioned all symptoms, asked about Endolymphatic Hydrops, Acoustic Neuroma and everything else matching my symptoms. Got "see how you feel, come back if it gets worse" and "people get used to tinnitus, you are probably just extra sensitive to changes because you are an audio engineer". No explanation, no further tests despite a lot of symptoms matching Endolymphatic Hydrops specifically. I suggested an MRI or CT and was told there’s no reason for one at the moment. Said I was very worried though because my right ear sounded really bad despite all the tests looking "normal", managed to get follow up appointment with ENT on 19 Oct, nearly 4 weeks after it started.
What it’s like: I can hear all frequencies, they just sound wrong, like reverb on every low frequency in my right ear. Low end completely spaced out, smeared and lacking tonality, like a tin can, and any music no matter how quiet causes soreness and fluttering/spasming. Music on headphones sounds completely unbalanced, louder in left ear, and some things that are meant to sound mono, sound stereo now because of the massive difference in "timbre" in each ear. I can’t judge the stereo field anymore, and the bass is basically gone. I can barely work, music makes me physically uncomfortable.
Where I’m at: Over 2 weeks later, right ear is not getting better or worse, but my mental health is spiraling though. Feel completely dismissed by all doctors, tried to summarise in this post but the amount of pushing and fighting I had to do just to get someone to have a look at what's wrong made me feel mentally unwell. The only tests so far were a look in the ear, a "whisper test", Pure Tone Audiometry and Tympanometry. Pretty sure Weber and Rinne tests should have been done but no one bothered?
What do I even do at this point? What could cause symptoms I'm experiencing? Why is no one worried or offering any treatment at all? What tests should I ask for?
Scared my hearing is going to get worse now because no one has done any treatment.. I'm just constantly panicking 24/7 now, just want to know why and what's actually wrong