TBI hearing loss and ataxia

[ltttsmith]

My 18 year old son was in a car accident 4 months ago.  He was in a coma for 4 weeks and was in inpatient rehabilitation for another 7 weeks.  This was at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital and the J. Paul Sticht Center in Winston Salem, NC.  His biggest issues as of today are hearing loss, trunk ataxia, gait and left shoulder/arm tremors.  We had ENT test all they can for hearing and they say his hearing works normal.  My son describes what he hears as muffled.  If he can read your lips he usually can understand what is being said but other than that he can hear one word at a time.  We finally got to see his neurologist yesterday and told him that his nose also has been running for months.  We now have him scheduled for an MRI to check for cerebral spinal fluid leaking.  If he does have leaking, how many of his issues could be effected by this?  I also wonder about side effects from his medicines causing any problems.  He is currently taking Caridopa-Levodopa 25-100 mg (2 per day); Aricept 5 mg, Namenda 2 – 5 mg (2 per day) and Propanoll 20 mg (2 per day) and we have no idea if any of this is doing him any good.  Any comments or insight to this situation will be appreciated.

[ltttsmith]

We are now taking him off all meds.  We have not noticed any deline in his memory or anything else.  I was hoping that taking off the meds may help with his tremor or hearing, but all that seems to be the same too.  Does anyone know the name of the hearing test mentioned above?

The MRI did not show a CFS leak but there still may be one, his ears always have lots of wax and his noes runs a clear liquied very oftem.  I love my son and just want him to reover from some of these challanges.  He is trying very hard to walk and making progress but very slow.

[wantababy2love]

I had a TBI last September and I have trouble hearing too.  Certain pitches hurt my ears and certain things are hard to hear.  It depends on the volume, pitch, and texture of the sound.  Also, if I am stressed out or confused it is harder to hear.  It is a very strange thing.  I heard of a special hearing test (still waiting to take it) that is specifically designed for people that have suffered a TBI.  I forgot what it was called cause my memory is bad but it exists.  It is different from a regular test. The medications helped me but I got off of them as soon as I could. Medicine slowed down my mental progress because it always had me sedated or in another world.