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SSHL recovery timeframe

at what point does a person with diagnosed SSHL, who has already been treated with oral steroids and tympanic injections of steroids, give up hope of experiencing any further hearing improvement?
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Avatar universal
Mikecee,

Did you recovery from your SSHL?  I am dealing with exact same thing.  Had this for over a week now and been doing the 60mg Prednisone and hearing is starting to come back after almost two weeks, but high frequency sounds are distorted, plus constant ringing.  Had two inner ear injections as well.  Hoping to beat this but extremely frustrating.  Hard to concentrate on phone calls.

Thanks, BrianB
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1580703 tn?1651904887
I did high dose prednisone and ginko, NAC, vitamin E and C and antivirals had a lot of improvement in speech comprehension but still can't understand people.  I haven't tried aldosterone, but I can only get florineff right now which seems like it might increase aldosterone.  
I was prescribed long courses of antibiotics for asthma (quackery) and an infection and accidentally took too many antibiotics and lost my hearing immediately after.  now I'm horrifically crippled and handicapped and don't know if I can even work
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Avatar universal
thank you so much for your history and findings.  How long does it take for you to recover completely? I mean till 95% recovery?
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Avatar universal
Hi Barena, I'm sorry for your hearing loss.  Are you completely deaf, then?  Mine was also assumed to be viral in cause.  Do you remember if you had a particularly stressful event in the days or weeks before you lost your hearing?  I did.  I went completely deaf in my right ear on 3/15/15 and also lost all sense of feeling around my ear, which has since returned.  The next day, I was terribly dizzy and threw up for hours, as you did.  I had 3 injections in my ear, plus oral steroid that first weeks.  About a month after it happened, I began to regain a tiny bit of hearing but there is so much distortion that it isn't what I'd call useful hearing.  The distortion makes things sound very high pitched and tinny.  The further away the sound is, the more distortion there is.  I also have constant tinnitus (buzzing) in that ear.  I went to two doctors and found there isn't really very much they can do about SSHL.  I'm hoping the distortion heals because I think a hearing aid would then work to help enhance the small amount of hearing I do have.  I'm still having balance problems, although not nearly as bad as the first few weeks.  I lose my balance very easily now.  Thank you for sharing your story.
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Avatar universal
I had hearing loss as well. It actually happened while i was using my cell phone. The noise in my ear sounded like and engine turbine like i was sitting on the wing of a 747. Then after hearing that for two hours it stopped and went to a hissing sound and i completely lost my hearing in my left ear. My ENT was hesitant to give me a steroid injection and urged me to wait another day to see what happens. When I went to work the next day I was working at my desk and as i got up to answer the phone I felt dizzy and had an attack of vertigo. Then I couldn't move without throwing up for two hours. I couldn't drive and I went immediately to the ENT whereupon he gave me the injection into my ear. And then started me on a a steroid pack. However I believe I was too late with the injection and since then i had another injection at the University of Pennsylvania along with another pack of steroids two weeks later. None of this has worked and I lost 60 deciblels of hearing. Had an MRI, a CAT scan and several hearing tests as well as a test for Meniers. I've been to two specialists and one general ENT and they all have diagnosed it as idiopathic hearing loss. They mostly sway toward it being of viral origin. That was in April of 2013 and I still hear hissing and I'm deaf in my left ear still. However comforting it is, I enjoy sharing my story and reading yours. Good luck to everyone.
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Avatar universal
This is just an update.  You can see my post of Mid-Dec. 2014 in which I had SSHL during the night with no other symptoms of any kind. I had immediate treatment from an ENT that day of the usual protocol of corticosteroids both in pills and through the ear drum. I also had an MRI of the brain and ear canal which was negative.  Unfortunately as of mid Aug. 2015, there has been no improvement in my hearing. I am providing a site which I found useful in that it provided information on the type of testing you can expect after suffering SSHL.          http://otosurgery.org/2008_NEJM_RAUCH_SSNHL.pdf
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