THMPING NOISE IN EAR

[oldbuddy]

Reading the many comments on this apparently common problem has made me feel MUCH better.  Three years ago experienced an attack of SSHL (Sudden Sensenorial Hearing Loss)  in my RIGHT ear.  To my memory it began with "noise" - but I don't remember if it included "thumping".  Six hours later - after consulting my MD, who checked me out for a stroke, I discovered that my right ear was "dead"!   I began to experience a wild attack of  vertigo and spent the next five days on my back in the hospital. Hearing never returned, so when I began to experience the thumping noise in my LEFT this morning, I checked out this site.  NO ONE stated that their thumping lead to SSHL!   BP and heart rate perfect, so I can relax and not worry about going totally deaf!.

[Nancy T]

Sorry you did not find a hearing aid to help. Keep checking back with an audiologist periodically; the technology and types of devices are advancing all the time. I've heard of new CROS devices that supposedly work lots better than the old ones, the TransEar, etc. although the only one I've tried has been the Baha, which works great for me (and my insurance paid--though I had to switch insurances!). No more constant turning the head, "what? what? what?", doing the "one-ear do-si-do" when out walking with someone, etc. All that is manageable in everyday life, but not hearing on my left was difficult in my workplace, which is really why I wanted the Baha.

I did indeed suffer an increase in dizziness when I sneezed and damaged my ear. I'd had low-level dizziness/motion sensitivity for many years, including a big dizzy attack 16 years previously, but the constant low-level dizziness got a lot worse and had a new element of positional dizziness after the sneezes. Not a heavy-duty attack that landed me in the hospital or bed, but a definite change. It returned to baseline in a few weeks, but then I had worse trouble a couple months later, just a lot of motion sensitivity, fog, some BPPV, etc. I now attribute the whole dizziness thing to migraine activity.

May you, too, live long and prosper! :)

Nancy

[oldbuddy]

Sorry that you had it too, but apparently you fortunately did not experience the heavy vertigo attack with it.  I did check out how a hearing aid would help but the tests were not impressive.  And the only one that helped at all was hugely expensive and not worth the investment.  Now I just say "Sorry. Didn't hear you!, if I'm on the wrong side.  I do re-balancing exercises every day too.
Thanks for the suggestions.   Prosper and live long........

[Nancy T]

Yeah, SSHL is weird, mysterious, and who ever heard of it before experiencing it!? Certainly not me--or, apparently, the two PCPs I saw, who blew it off as wax or Eustachian-tube dysfunction. Not diagnosed until a month later.

Anyway, glad your recent ear-thumping stopped. Perhaps it was myoclonus or stapedial spasm; try Googling these.

I have not heard of any association between the thumping and SHL, but I sure don't blame you for being worried about it. Hopefully you do not have some systemic problem that puts your other ear in danger. Ear problems can be notoriously hard to figure out, as you know.

Did you get any kind of hearing aid? I got a Baha three years ago and love it!

Good luck,

Nancy

[oldbuddy]

The causes of our one-ear deafness apparently are much different.  There was no type of trauma in mine (except walking nine holes of gollf in the AM). It was diagnosed by doctors as SSHL (Google it for more info) and has no treatment - medical or surgical - to correct it.  When the thumping began yesterday, i simply feared the onset of another SSHL attack.  The thumping stopped after my workout and lunch.  Fine today!  

[Nancy T]

Is the thumping noise constant or intermittent? Does anything you do trigger it?

Did they speculate on a cause for your hearing loss?

I went deaf suddenly (from sneezing that probably triggered an inner-ear stroke, that's the best theory) 12 years ago in my left ear. Right ear is fine.

I had some very strong thumping in my RIGHT ear for about four days, several years later. But that was clearly triggered by tipping my head to the left or lying on my left side, which provoked an attack of benign positional vertigo (BPPV). Somehow that caused a short circuit on the opposite side, causing the thumping in my right ear for the (short) duration of the BPPV attacks. No explanation from the docs at all.

I don't suppose you've had anything similar?