Sudden hearing loss and RA

[Elmo333]

Hi. Has anybody ever had SSNHL (sudden sensorineural hearing loss)? I woke up last week completely deaf in 1 ear. I got an emergency ENT appointment and had various hearing tests and given the above diagnosis. It is quite rare and the cause is often never found. If not caught early it can be permanent. Consultant has put me in 60mg steroid and go back for repeat tests next week. He said there’s a small chance it could be linked to RA.

[Hidden]

This a new one on me. THE DISEASE JUST KEEPS ON GIVING. Hope they can sort you out. Must unbalance you only having hearing on one side.

[Elmo333 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you. I’m very thankful that I do not have the vertigo which often accompanies it!🙏🏻

[charisma]

Hi Elmo, no never heard of that although we do have teeny tiny joints in among the bones of the ear.

The only example I know of is a lady called Sue Thomas who suddenly went deaf at the age of two or three.

There was a very good TV series based on her life en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue...

I hope the steroid prescribed does the job for you since there seems to be a chance with early treatment. There’s no end to the surprises with RA. 🙂

[Elmo333 in reply to charisma]

Thank you for replying. It has made me better understand how isolating it must be to have severe hearing impairment. I’m hopeful that the steroids will work x

[Mmrr]

Elmo333, I experienced a temporary hearing loss of around 24 hrs when taking hydroxychloroquine. It was a frightening experience.

Glad it was caught early for you.

[Tiverland]

Yes. I have been attending ENT some 50years regular. ( not linked to RA) so know the staff pretty well. Diagnosed with RA almost a year ago. I am deaf in one ear but cannot wear an aid. I too lost my hearing due to RA. But was in no pain . It’s inflammation of the inner ear bones. Cannot be seen by a GP only by consultant or ENT Nurse via there special “ microscope eqp. I was told to take Naproxen to help with inflammation hearing comes back when inflammation has gone down.

Just another thing we have to contend with.

[Hidden]

Yes, it happened to me ten years ago. I was working on the computer and I suddenly went slightly dizzy. Then I realised I was completely deaf in one ear. As I have had quite a few ear infections from the time I was a child, I just assumed it was another one, although I had never felt as deaf as that before.

The following morning I went to see my GP and it was a locum who was not very good and said that I should wait to see what happened and if I was still deaf in about two weeks they would refer me to the ENT dept. I was very unhappy about that and went down to the A & E at the hospital. Things were no better there as I saw the nurse there who told me that a doctor would only see me if my ear was bleeding and that I should return to my GP and ask to see another one. I went back and was told there were no appointments left but that one of them would ring me later that day. One did ring me and told me off for trying to jump the queue and that I was making a fuss about it.

I got referred to an ENT doctor who gave me lots of tests and found that the nerve in my ear had died and said that the time span when I should have been properly treated for it had gone long ago. He then referred me to a rheumatologist who eventually diagnosed me with RA etc. To give him his due my GP did apologise to me over what had happened.

People ask me why I don't wear a hearing aid, but they don't seem to realise that for a hearing aid to work, you need to have some degree of hearing and I don't have any at all so a hearing aid doesn't work for me. I even had one very silly person ask me why I didn't have it syringed so that I could hear properly. It all makes life hard as I can't tell where a sound is coming from, get dizzy occasionally and often mishear things. It was a terrible thing to happen to me as I am very musical and love both listening to and playing various instruments myself, but now everything sounds flat and I have (in other words) lost my stereo.

I do hope they are able to save your hearing Elmo and please do let us know how things go for you.