This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz
by Florian Frank.
Original Post: I recently lost my hearing
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Yesterday evening I was listening to some music with my ear phones on. Suddenly I lost my hearing on the right ear! This was quite a shocking experience. I felt a prickling sensation in my ear - or was it more like a feeling of fullness? Unfortunately It was also too late to bother a doctor immediately about it.
First I don't think, that I am much of a hypochondriac, but I started worrying that all my years of listening to loud music had finally caught up to me. Did one of my ear bones break? - No, this couldn't be, because I couldn't hear anything on my right ear. I figured broken bones would make some noise even though not the ones I'd expect to hear. Or did I finally damage my choclea? This would suck, because there is not much one can do to repair it, except using an implant. I sure didn't want one if somehow possible.
I knew that it would be advisable to see a doctor the next day in case my symptoms were caused by Tinnitus. (I wasn't quite sure if I heard strange sounds in my ear or if it was strange, that I didn't hear anything anymore!) As far as I know as an interested layman, Tinnitus might be caused by impaired blood circulation in the inner ear. It's necessary to do something fast before irreversible damage is done to the sensory nerve cells in the choclea. I read somewhere on wikipedia, that in case of Tinnitus drugs are given (as pills or via infusion) to get the circulation going again. This has a high probability to stop or reduce the symptoms. Shit, I really didn't look forward to have needles peeked into my veins for the next two weeks.
In the wikipedia I also stumbled across "impacted cerumen" (yeah, it's ear wax) as a possible cause for hearing loss, and this would be my preferred diagnosis, because it's like putting ear plugs in your ears - except it's not that easy to pull them out again. I also learned that there are genetical differences between most Europeans and Asians concerning cerumen, that cause a different phenotype of cerumen: The cerumen found in most Europeans (or their ears) is much more humid and sticky (like wax), while most Asians have a drier and more solid form like sand. Interesting! The European ear wax is disgusting - is it possible to exchange it for the Asian stuff via gene therapy or something? I sure would want to buy that!
After googling about cerumen further, I found some pages, that gave the advise to pour warm olive oil into the ear to loosen the plug of ear wax and wash it out with warm water. I immediately tried that. It didn't work. Though it's a nice feeling to have warm oil in your ear - albeit quite messy. OK, maybe my condition wasn't caused by ear wax, or this method didn't quite work as advertised - at least in my case. So I was back to diagnosis again.
I found a hearing test in flash and tried it. First I put on my ear phones and selected a volume that was bearable and tried some of the frequencies. I heard them all, although my ear phones cut of the highest and lowest frequencies, but that was to be expected. This test wasn't that useful, because I still had the impression I only could hear on the left side. I used my volume control on the computer to switch the sound only to the right side: Now I didn't hear a single tone! OK, don't panic! I selected a much higher volume, it must have been 20db louder ore more and tried all the frequencies again. Now I could hear them all, though a bit more silent than on the left ear.
This result gave me some hope, because I inferred, that my sensory nerve cells in the cochlea must still be working (at least a bit). I've read that it's typical to loose hearing (in the inner ear) in the high frequencies first. The cells that are specialised for those are located on one end of the cochlea, for the middle frequencies in the middle, and for lower frequencies on the other end. So being able to still hear the full spectrum was a good thing. Maybe my problem was located in the middle or outer ear?
If I wanted to determine from which direction a sound comes in the future, I would need a hearing aid, because it was quite confusing to hear a silent sound on the left side, which was actually a much louder sound on the right side of my head. Hey, it wouldn't be that bad, hearing aids are pretty small these days. Can one plug a digital recorder into them? That way I could finally record anything I hear and never again forget anything. There must be an advantage to carry one, no?
I continued to surf on the interwebs and found a hearing test, the
Rinne Test, that was invented by Heinrich Adolf Rinne, a German medical doctor. With this test you can figure out if the hearing is impaired because the air conduction of sound through the outer or middle ear doesn't work anymore or if the sensory perception of sound in the inner ear (cochlea) stopped working. It's quite simple: First you strike the tuning fork on a table and set it on the bone behind the ear (bone conduction of the sound), while starting to measure the seconds until you don't hear the fork's sound anymore. Then you hold it in front of the ear (normally you should hear the sound of the fork again) and also measure the time until you don't hear the sound anymore.
You should always hear the sound much longer in front of your ear compared to the time you could hear it through the bone, because ear form, eardrum, and ear bones work as an amplifier for the tuning fork's sound. If you don't hear it longer, there must be a problem in your middle or outer ear. If you have problems hearing the sound via bone conduction and air conduction you might have a problem in the inner ear. By measuring the time you can even compare your hearing ability to other people's ability. This is a simple, but quite fascinating test: Dr. Rinne can be proud on the fact, that he had such a good idea. Unfortunately I couldn't find my tuning forks in the mess at my home.
The test gave me the idea to tap on the bone on the left and right side of my skull and compare the sounds. I couldn't make out any difference between both sides. The Rinne test would have been better, but I thought perhaps this was a reason to believe that I might suffer from impacted ear wax, although my problems started while I was just listening to music with my ear phones and they came rather suddenly, which is a weird coincidence. With this thought I went to bed.
The next morning (I still couldn't hear a single tone on my right ear) I visited a otorhinolaryngologist in order to finally find out what was wrong with my hearing. The medic gazed into my ear with an otoscope and said: It's all full in there! Then he took a strange devise that consisted of a bowl and a tiny showering head and told me to hold the bowl next to my ear and started pouring warm water and foam into my ear, then even more water. Then he asked, if I had signal again. Wow, he's so funny! I could have been deaf! Yeah, I could hear again! Healed! After just 3 minutes...
The reason for my hearing loss, was impacted cerumen after all. I was really relieved about this solution. I immediately told him about my new knowledge concerning differences of cerumen in Asians and Europeans, but he hadn't heard a word about it, and only said he rarely treats any Asians in these parts of the woods. Why do I always have the impression, that after googling I know more about their area of expertise than my doctors do? I hope, he doesn't send some Chinese or Vietnamese patient to the university clinic because of dry cerumen, after I told him this new research result. At least I hope, that he googles about it at home! ;)
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