Day One - November 17, 2024

Prior to this date, I could hear normally.  At age 62, I was starting to say "what?" a little more often, but I didn't notice it too much.  I heard fine and never gave it much thought as most of us do when nothing is wrong.

On a Saturday evening, sitting in the living room with my family, I began to hear some odd "beeps" and asked my husband what that sound was.  He and my son didn't hear what I was talking about, and I realized I was the only one hearing it.

The beeps sounded like Morse code and I heard one beep with each syllable someone spoke -or which I spoke. It was very disturbing, and I thought maybe I was hearing things from having spent a lot of time that day playing Beat Saber (yes...don't laugh!) 

I got in the tub to relax, and didn't hear any more beeps, but I noticed that when I rubbed my hand on my right ear, I heard a hollow metallic sound, like someone was scraping the inside of a pipe.  Again, it was disturbing and I didn't know what to make of it. I went to bed, but slept uneasily until I finally put on my sleep headphones to listen to some soothing cricket sounds.  As I listened, the input on my right ear sounded tinny and scratchy but I figured that with the cheap headphones the speaker on that side was shorting out. (When you're not EXPECTING this to happen, you miss all the clues!)

I dozed off listening to my white noise, and then woke up about an hour later and realized I was hearing nothing from the right side at all.  Thinking the right speaker had gone dead - although I had a gnawing suspicion which I didn't want to entertain - I turned the headphone around to test it in the other ear. When my left ear heard the sounds perfectly from the "dead" speaker, I felt like ice water was running down my spine.  I sat bolt upright in bed (it was 2:00 am at this time) and snapped my fingers near my right ear.  Nothing.  I heard nothing at all.  My ear wasn't "stuffed up" or blocked, it was completely dead - like someone just cut the wires, and everything was gone.

Although I'd never heard of SSNHL, I was afraid that this sudden deafness might indicate a stroke so I woke up my husband to take me to the ER.

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At the ER, they were also concerned about the possibility of a stroke, so I was put through all the tests to rule it out.  I had labs, an EKG, an MRI and a CT scan. There was no indication of a stroke, and no abnormalities on the scans.  The ER physician diagnosed me with labyrinthitis (an infection of the inner ear) in spite of the fact that I didn't have one of the primary symptoms which is vertigo and dizziness.  He never even mentioned anything called sudden sensorineural hearing loss.  I was discharged with instructions to follow up with an ENT and sent on my way...