Deaf/Hard of Hearing

...and about 40-50% deaf, with poor word recognition, in my left ear.

Prior to waking up deaf, I had perfect hearing in both ears. Now, I wear Phonak AudeoQ/BICROS hearing aids; primarily when I need to leave the house or talk to more than one person at a time.

I did the high-dose steroids for a month or so, but decided to forego the eardrum injections, after oral Prednisone caused all the skin to fall off the bottoms of my feet. I didn't think the potential damage to my eardrums was worth the risk; in the event that stem cell research might one day lead to a cure for damaged cochlear hair cells.

I'm still learning to adapt to being deaf. Besides the chronic dizziness and vertigo, I struggle with sound direction and spatial hearing loss. It's disorienting...and isolating. I don't feel safe anywhere but home, so I'm living a life of self-imposed exile.

I've also developed a severe hypersensitivity to certain sounds. The quietest sounds imaginable can make me jump. Just the slightest pop from the spit in my own mouth can sound as loud as a firecracker and make me feel like I'm having a heart attack. I have to keep background noise going at all times, even when I'm sleeping.

My brain is converting sound to my right ear, into head and body zaps. Sounds feel like waves of electrical shocks, through my chest and upper body...and head and arms. I wonder if this is what epilepsy feels like.

Did you end up doing the eardrum injections? Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss SUCKS.

TYY