I use a simple dial tone test every day. My bad ear hears a different tone than the good ear when I am in an episode. I have cochlear hydrops by the way. the interesting thing is that in the mornings, the pitch will be higher for the bad ear but n the evenings it will be lower. I wonder if others do a similar test with similar results. It's interesting why it fluctuates. Part of me wants to be hopeful that the hair cells are not damaged but maybe under pressure.
That is definitely interesting. I will have to test my bad ear and see if I get similar results. I am currently in the middle of an episode (I also have Cochlear Hydrops) and probably will be until I give birth due to bad fluid retention. I was on the phone yesterday and tried to hold the phone up to my bad ear and the person on the other end sounded like they were underwater.
I did much the same thing when I was suffering symptoms from my CH. The pitch and tone of a dial tone of a dial tone sounded different in my good/bad ears. I would notice the dial tone changing with the level of fullness and my perceived hearing loss. I was shocked (and so was my ENT) when my hearing came back completely after being on AVs. The first indication I had was on my third day on AVs my hearing improved such that I could hear a breeze in my bad ear - hadn't heard that for months. Long story short, at least for me, fluctuating hearing loss didn't mean permanent hearing loss - I guess my hair cells are tough little buggers. Kind Regards, Colin
My ear/hearing seems different in the mornings and evenings, as well. I also have cochlear hydrops. I lost most of my hearing in the lower frequencies last summer. By January most of it had come back except for a mild loss in the lowest frequency. Still the tones are slightly different in each ear. And also vary sometimes in the affected ear, even when I can hear them. I am not sure why but can only assume it is pressure/variations in fluid.
This is an interesting thread, I was diagnosed with mav in January and have been on nortrytoline, this has sorted my headache symptoms but I am now left just the ear symptoms, fluid in my right ear, fullness etc I don't have hearing loss in that ear but I have had sound distortion on one occasion, I find that if I ding a glass next to my bad ear, there is a delay then there will be a squelch in that ear, this is possibly down to the hydrops, it is really frustrating having that fluid there and it makes concentration difficult
It was hearing the dialling tone wrongly that first alerted me to the fact that the hearing in my bad ear had changed, and I often check it like that now. I've not yet noticed any fluctuation though, I first noticed a change a few days after my first bad vertigo attack, and it has got worse since then but there have been no points when it's become better. Have I just not waited long enough do you think?
Sometimes I am not sure if my hearing is starting down the path of distortion or if it is just the soundtrack on the TV being weird. The dial tone is a good test. Even subtle distortions will cause the dial tone on my phone to sound significantly different between ears.
