Dealing with sudden hearing loss in one ear

Hey loopers,
I recently went to see me GP when my left ear started to bother me after spending a few days practicing some fretless bass using headphones. I have been dealing with this problem for 40+ years ever since I damaged my eardrum water skiing way back when I was still a young man. There was a small tear that never healed completely, but it has never been enough to affect my hearing much. It acts up from time to time and usually resolves on its own just by stopping using the headphones for a while. I guess I was being a bit impatient and I thought that, as I have had to do before a few times, I went to a doctor to see if the problem was just too much wax buildup in my ear.
Instead of seeing the doctor I was seen by a nurse practitioner. He reached into my ear with some kind of a small spoon like device and pulled a large chunk of wax from the inside of my ear. As he was doing so I commented that what he did hurt, and then I noticed that there was blood on the chunk of wax and on the device he used to remove it. He said "that's not really a problem, it happens sometimes". My hearing did not get better, in fact it got worse. He then went and got a pump type spray bottle like one you would use to spray window cleaner or something and filled it with cold saline solution.
He attached a short bit of tubing to the bottle with a small jet nozzle on the end of it and proceeded to pump this solution into my ear until fluid was running out of my nose and down my throat. As soon as he did this the room began to spin. I could not stop my eyes from moving rapidly back and forth and I told him to stop. It took several minutes for the spinning to stop at which point he came back into the room and told me that he was going to send me to an ear nose and throat specialist.
I waited for 4 days and still no call from them or the specialist, so I called one myself and made an appointment the next day. They checked my ear and told me that I now have a hole in my eardrum that will require surgery to repair. I cannot have the surgery at this time because I have recently had a major heart procedure and as a result am taking multiple blood thinners or anticoagulants.
I did some research into the issue and found more than 15 sources that say DO NOT do what this guy did. And of course he and the clinic responsible is refusing to admit that he or they did anything wrong...
I guess this has left me with a very sour disposition as this rant should attest. I can't play music anymore because everything just sounds like the speakers are submerged in a puddle of mud. Playing fretless bass is out of the question because I cannot hear the notes clearly enough to know if I am on pitch, and I really can't stand out of tune anything, guitar bass or otherwise... Trying to get an attorney to take on a medical facility for such a "trivial" matter is not going well.

Thank you listening to my rant as I have nowhere else to voice my frustration...

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phew, tough story...
Ears are so close by the brain, whatever goes wrong there is gruesome, I've had my share of that. Fingers crossed it will get better soonish!

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So sorry to hear about your terrible experience with the medical professionals and you loss of hearing. In my opinion it is definitely gross medical negligence and I don't think for one minute it is a 'Trivial' matter!! I know for a fact you are not supposed to have your ears syringed. if you have hole in any of them or are suffering pain.
I had my ears syringed with the solution and half way through I felt this searing pain. And the nurse said why didn't you tell me you had pain in your ears. I said I didn't know until you syringed them. Ever since I've had terrible pain coming intermittently on and off from about five years ago. And my ears keeping going deaf. I do hope yours get better enough to play your lovely music again at least; Or even a full recovery BooDoggie. Good luck

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I too am very sorry to learn of your experience...

I too am starting to have a serious hearing problem and your testimonies, to you and BooDoggie, lead me to think about avoiding the treatments you are talking about.

Thank you for your testimonials.
Ray

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I have been playing bass in bands since 1974. Most were always loud. I also worked in the autobody repair business for about 10-12 years which again caused a lot of damage. According to my hearing tests every frequency above 2khz drops off drastically to near 0 at 8khz. every bit of research I could find recommends that you DO NOT irrigate your ears if you have ever had any kind of damage such as surgery to repair a ruptured eardrum, which I have... But that being said seeing a qualified ear nose and throat doctor should be safe and can even be beneficial for most hearing issues. They even tell me that I could recover most of my issues with hearing aids. Sadly though the good ones are really expensive.

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Sorry to read about your problems, hope it will somehow will get better. Many people in my age suffer from hearing problems, I started to wear ear plugs whenever I go on my motorbike for many years now as my hearing was also affected from years for loud bikes and loud music. Earphones and guitars are dangerous to the hearing for sure.

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What a sad story BooDoggie. I have tinnitus, hyperacusis and hearing loss after running my own one man bodyshop for 8 years but fortunately I don't have a hole in my eardrum.

I have made a good discovery lately that expensive well balanced headphones allow you to hear everything clearly at very low levels. If your hearing does recover it may help. The trouble with hyped headphones, which most are, is the hyped frequencies can mask what you want to listen to so you turn them up to be able to hear around the hype. That's my theory anyway. They are Neuman NDH30 if anyone's interested.
Funny what we let a GP do when in our hearts what we really want/expect is to be referred to a specialist. They must be trained to exude "I know what I'm doing" so you let them because it's difficult to say no without appearing insulting.

Specialist can present the same problem - I was "this close" to being banned from my local hospital for attempting to discuss a future operation they wanted to do. When the surgeon eventually calmed down, during the ensuing conversation it transpired that I was the first person EVER to try this with him - he reckoned most people simply don't want to know and prefer to trust that the doctor or surgeon knows what they are doing.

Not me - I have previous for this with another surgeon who after admitting that only 2 out of 10 simple cases of a new op he wanted to do had worked and mine would be the most complex he'd attempted and thus almost guaranteed to fail - still wanted to do it. He was amazed that I'd read up on the op from it's inventor and even watched a video that showed the important things to ensure it would work. My surgeon thought he knew better and one key thing he would ignore. I didn't have that op. A friend of my wife's did - she was a young woman and after 6 botched ops was bedridden in her 20's. She'd simply gone along with everything.

In the UK we have a thing called "patient choice" which in reality is far from it - you want a second opinion? Fine - but to get one you have to abandon the first team with no going back before you get one... or of course get your wallet out.

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Sorry to learn of your hearing loss.....I was just thinking to myself Im done using headphones...Got a ringing but it may just be congestion...just in case though I have abandoned headphones an keep speakers very low when recording....Hearing is important...f headphones....I do wonder if they make headphones that are hearing safe? who knows....

Best wishes for you're hearing issue...I hope it gets better and heals.

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