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Rafe wrote: ↑Sat May 23, 2020 2:38 pm TAM, prayers sent.

I never even realized that was a thing, that without some sort of injury or concussive damage you could just wake up one morning with that kind of hearing loss. That's extremely scary. I am now officially an insomniac.

I hope the prognosis is all wrong and that you wake up tomorrow to realize that hearing in your right ear returned just as suddenly.

Thank you brother, but my right ear is just fine. It’s the left ear that got KO'd.

I’m like you. I never realized that this was a thing, without there being either an obvious injury of some kind, a stroke (which is a type of injury after all), or an obvious disease with other symptoms. I still haven’t had a single moment of pain or other symptoms. It’s just weird.

I'm sorry to read this TAM. Keeping you in my prayers for a miracle of healing.

The Annoyed Man wrote: ↑Sat May 23, 2020 5:39 pm

Rafe wrote: ↑Sat May 23, 2020 2:38 pm TAM, prayers sent.

I hope the prognosis is all wrong and that you wake up tomorrow to realize that hearing in your right ear returned just as suddenly.

Thank you brother, but my right ear is just fine. It’s the left ear that got KO'd.

Oh thank goodness! See? One prayer already answered! Now I just have to get to work on the other ear...

Praying for you Chris my brother. Lifting you up to the unlimited physician for healing!

Eddie

wow, I missed this when I was on the other day!
Chris, this is terrifying! I will definitely be praying! and I agree that if you are going to lose your hearing, the tinnitus should go away too, it's only fair.

Chris, you are most definitely in our prayers. Father, watch over Chris and, if it is your will as the Great Physician, return full hearing to him. Until your will is revealed in this matter, continue to bless Chris with your Peace. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

I have a progress report.

The day before yesterday, I noticed a couple of times that when one of my grandkids' voices hit a certain volume and pitch, I could detect it as a thin buzzing noise in my left ear. There was no speech recognition, just a buzzing, but I could hear the noise....faintly. And then yesterday, while driving to my ENT doc's office to have my hearing retested, I found that I could hear some of the bass notes from my car stereo in that ear. They still sound muted and buzzy, but I can hear them!

On the hearing re-test, I could actually hear some of the tones in my left ear .... again, not clearly, but I could hear them. I've shown some improvement at the bottom and upper registers, but only a little bit in the middle registers....which is where most human speech occurs. My doctor called it a "marked improvement" so that’s good news. I’ve been up-rated from "profoundly" deaf, to "moderately to severely" deaf in that ear. It was enough of an improvement to warrant another injection of steroids and further retesting, so that was good news.

Going forward, I have an appointment for a 3rd hearing test in 2 weeks. At that point—if there has been further improvement—he’ll give me a final third steroid injection and then a 4th hearing test a week or two following that. He said that 3 times is about the limit of how many times he can administer a large dose of steroids like that without beginning to play hobb with the rest of my hormonal system. So, whatever I can get back by the end of the final retesting period, that’s what I’ll be living with going forward—assuming that there’s additional improvement between now and two weeks from now. If there isn’t any, well.....

Hearing aids.... My doctor said that for a hearing aid to be applicable, there has to be some speech recognition in that ear. As of right now, I don’t have any speech recognition on that side. I can hear indistinct buzzing and thumping noises if they’re in the right register and they’re loud enough. So that will have to improve to a point where I can at least vaguely understand some speech in that ear before he'll prescribe a hearing aid for me.

I so appreciate your prayers, and thank you to all of you for your generosity in that regard. My prayer going forward is for continued improvement; and if not a for complete recovery, then at least for enough recovery to the point where a hearing aid makes sense.

Thanks again to everybody.

Glad that there is improvement and praying that this treatment plan works beyond expectations.

Prayers that you get significant improvement, Chris!

That is encouraging news. I will continue my prayers for improvement and complete recovery.

hey! that's awesome news! right now though, it's probably a bit of a bother, sort of like when a nerve is regrowing after an injury, but it's really good news!

Prayers redoubled for the (left, right, left...yes!) left ear. Don't want to make that same mistake twice.

And it's odd the doc called you "moderate." You've always struck more as the "profound" type.

In all seriousness, based on what you wrote earlier and what Googling I did, that even a tiny bit of hearing has returned seems like a very, very positive sign. Prayers lifted and fingers crossed.

I am glad there was at least a little improvement. We are still praying for you and your dear family.

Continued prayers Chris!

Glad to see progress is being made.

Praying for you TAM for continued improvement.