[fjrabon]

So recently I had this weird feeling in my right ear and I immediately knew something was wrong. It felt kinda full and I got some pretty intense tinnitus. It happened over a period of roughly 2 hours. I put on some music and realized that I couldn't hear cymbals out of my right ear. I then went to this site: Equal loudness contours and audiometry - Test your own hearing and realized in my right ear, I couldn't hear anything above 6k. Everything sounded dead. My first thought was "crap, now I guess I have to sell off all my headphones."

Luckily it was just temporary. I talked to my audiologist and apparently this type of thing is a total mystery that nobody has any idea why it happens. It was scary. Music sounded totally dead in my right ear, everything kind of sounded like Skullcandy headphones in my right ear and imaging was totally off.

Anyway, its gone now, although I still have some tinnitus in my right ear that wasn't there before. The audiologist said that might go away, it might not.

One thing, even though my audiologist says that it probably had nothing to do with volume levels, I am going to start being a LOT more careful with my hearing. I don't want to lose high frequency hearing, because music SUCKS without it. I'm never going to concerts without musicians earplugs again and I'm going to resist that urge to "turn it up, just for a couple of songs."

I don't want it to sound like I'm permanently wearing skullcandys.

 

[swbf2cheater]

Good god, sir. You've given me nightmares for the rest of my life.

 

[nycdoi]

seriously.. permanently wearing skullcandies are too extreme... couldnt you use something like roll off trebles of se530?

 

[fjrabon]

I'm not an emotional guy, but I literally was on the verge of tears. So yes, Skullcandies was an apt description of the sound and the feeling.

 

[dorkvader]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swbf2cheater /img/forum/go_quote.gif Good god, sir. You've given me nightmares for the rest of my life.

I felt the same way after having read this. I'm happy I like to listen to my headphones os the quietest volume possible.

As I read down the post, my eyes got wide, and I did break out in a cold sweat, just a little. Now I must calm my heartrate or I'll never get to bed.

I almost can't decide what's worse: going completely deaf, or having it so that everything sounds terrible.

Stay safe out there.

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjrabon /img/forum/go_quote.gif everything kind of sounded like Skullcandy headphones in my right ear

I think your whole post was overshadowed by this single statement.

 

[fjrabon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dorkvader /img/forum/go_quote.gif I felt the same way after having read this. I'm happy I like to listen to my headphones os the quietest volume possible. As I read down the post, my eyes got wide, and I did break out in a cold sweat, just a little. Now I must calm my heartrate or I'll never get to bed. I almost can't decide what's worse: going completely deaf, or having it so that everything sounds terrible. Stay safe out there.

The most frustrating part was this was and still is such a mystery. Sudden hearing loss is a total mystery in the medical field. The craziest part was that I had only listened to light classical music for the previous two days. It had nothing at all to do with mistreating my ears.

My 16k and above hearing is still like -25 dB right now in my right ear, but luckily that doesn't affect music all that much and its likely to come back. It makes things sound a TINY bit off, the highest notes on a piano sound a little dead in my right ear, because they are missing some upper level harmonics, but hopefully its back to normal within three weeks (the audiologist says there is a 90% chance it will).

But the good thing is I realized how much high frequency hearing loss kills music and it reminded me to not dare do anything that would endanger it. When I was missing 6khz and above, I literally couldn't hear cymbals in my right ear. Not to even mention that I was missing harmonics on everything but bass notes.

 

[alysony]

I had something like this 2nd year of grad school. Basically one moment I went from hearing perfectly fine to the next both ears felt like something had been injected into them (anyone who has had ear moldings knows the feeling I'm taking about. Then the worst tinnitus ringing I had ever heard. I went to the doctor and my hearing had been cut in half. I had crappy insurance so I could only go to the on campus doctor. I finally decided to spend some real money and went to a proper ear nose and throat doctor. Glad I did, turns out I had a nasty ear infection that was missed. After about 10 days on antibiotics my ears popped, I screamed, and suddenly I could hear again....although at the time it felt like a curse.

 

[artforme]

One of my friends had an ear infection, and lost his hearing in one ear... total bummer for real...

 

[alysony]

yea I thought I was going to go deaf, I even started to do research into cochlear implants, my hearing was that bad. I'm realy glad I got a second opinion though.

 

[fjrabon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alysony /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had something like this 2nd year of grad school. Basically one moment I went from hearing perfectly fine to the next both ears felt like something had been injected into them (anyone who has had ear moldings knows the feeling I'm taking about. Then the worst tinnitus ringing I had ever heard. I went to the doctor and my hearing had been cut in half. I had crappy insurance so I could only go to the on campus doctor. I finally decided to spend some real money and went to a proper ear nose and throat doctor. Glad I did, turns out I had a nasty ear infection that was missed. After about 10 days on antibiotics my ears popped, I screamed, and suddenly I could hear again....although at the time it felt like a curse.

yeah, I had the feeling like something injected into my right ear feeling. Though apparently that just came from my brain thinking something was in them because the high frequencies had been cut.

I'd say you're lucky to at least have an identifiable problem. Doctors really know very little about hearing problems compared to vision problems. Like the doctor discussed various treatment options I had that ranged from steroids to antibiotics to injecting oxygen. And none of them had really been clinically proven to be any better than just doing nothing and hoping it comes back. And they were all based on wildly different theories on what causes sudden idiopathic hearing loss (which is just a fancy name for sudden hearing loss where we can't identify the cause).

 

[dorkvader]

Yes, I was looking up what "idiopathic" meant just the other day. Fun stuff. I'm glad you're on the road to recovery. That reminds me to take my hourly music break. I'm certainly not taking any chances right now. I hope your hearing returns in full, otherwise you'll have to wait for us to learn how to stimulate the brain directly, which may take a few decades or so.

 

[fjrabon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dorkvader /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, I was looking up what "idiopathic" meant just the other day. Fun stuff. I'm glad you're on the road to recovery. That reminds me to take my hourly music break. I'm certainly not taking any chances right now. I hope your hearing returns in full, otherwise you'll have to wait for us to learn how to stimulate the brain directly, which may take a few decades or so.

It's basically completely back now. everything is normal up to 16K-20k, which is cut by about 9 dB in my right ear now. And that's not a big deal because most people can't hear 16k as well as I could before anyway. It still kind of throws imaging off on really high piano stuff and cymbals sound very slightly off, almost like the old drummer's trick of putting a big wad of gum on them to deaden very bright sounding cymbals. but more or less things sound normal. Unlike when it first happened and I literally couldn't hear a hi-hat at all out of my right ear.

 

[Junliang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alysony /img/forum/go_quote.gif I had something like this 2nd year of grad school. Basically one moment I went from hearing perfectly fine to the next both ears felt like something had been injected into them (anyone who has had ear moldings knows the feeling I'm taking about. Then the worst tinnitus ringing I had ever heard. I went to the doctor and my hearing had been cut in half. I had crappy insurance so I could only go to the on campus doctor. I finally decided to spend some real money and went to a proper ear nose and throat doctor. Glad I did, turns out I had a nasty ear infection that was missed. After about 10 days on antibiotics my ears popped, I screamed, and suddenly I could hear again....although at the time it felt like a curse.

EEEEKKKK !!!!!

 

[gknix]

Wow that's scary...but talk about scary..I'm only in my mid 20s and I can't hear 13k already..I tried some hearing test :/