It's been a long wait from my first symptoms to seeing this specialized ENT surgeon, so I was very much looking forward to (and feeling anxious about) this appointment.
There's a lot of good news here:
First of all, he is a fantastic doctor who is thorough and confident, and he explains everything in such detail.
Secondly, he explained what surgery might be considered, how it's performed, and how it would help.
Thirdly, he also explained why surgery is not the best idea right at the moment, especially since the hearing aid is working very well for me.
Now, of course, the bad news:
He diagnosed something called Otosclerosis. It is a disease of the middle ear that causes abnormal bone growth resulting in the stiffening of the Stapes bone in the middle ear. This causes conductive hearing loss and commonly causes tinnitus and dizziness. There are various potential causes but, in my case, the assumption is that mine is from autoimmunity.
When I had my first audiology report in 2023, this disease is what was suspected. The manner in which my left ear was losing hearing, the tinnitus, and some dizziness, were all classic symptoms. Then my CT scan was done and this ENT said that it is very evident that I have abnormal bone growth in there. (For bad news, this is simultaneously good news because it is very clear what the problem is).
There are several things that give me peace of mind.
1. There is nothing that I did to cause this, and there is nothing I could have done to prevent this.
2. Hearing aids are a very straightforward (although expensive) way to get around the hearing loss. Other types of hearing loss (like sensorineural) are much more difficult to navigate with hearing aids.
3. I don't have to try a new medication, I don't have to start on a new diet, and I didn't even have to mull over deciding whether or not surgery would be worth it. There's nothing I can do to slow this particular disease and the doctor was very clear that surgery at this juncture would be far too risky, and we will just keep an eye on things and re-evaluate in a year.
4. This disease is slow progressing, so it *shouldn't* progress to the cochlea (if it does at all) for decades. Either just hearing aids or surgery should alleviate 70% of the hearing loss.
Then there are a few things that suck:
1. I will never know what the sound of silence is like again. The tinnitus will likely never be rectified.
2. I will never be able to go back to natural hearing at normal levels. Even with surgery, the goal is to only have mild hearing loss. So my right ear, which also has mild hearing loss and tinnitus, is now the best I will ever hear again. It's still great, by all means, but that reality is a bit of a bummer.
3. Having both ears now involved means I will also eventually need a hearing aid for my right ear. It has been nice to only require an aid for the left. Hopefully it will stay that way for a few years, but the likelihood is low. And really, needing hearing aids is kind of a bummer.
4. I think it would be easier to accept some of these issues if I wasn't still in my 30s. I mean, technically Otosclerosis hits at this age or younger, so this particular one is on trend. However, with the other issues that I have (the geographic atrophy, cataracts (super early stages), and double vision, the spondyloarthropy and arthritis, the angioedema, the inflammatory bowel disease, the psoriasis, raynaud's, hashimoto's, hell even the migraines), it definitely feels early. And overwhelming.
So a great appointment but a new diagnosis.
Here was my audiology report from last week:
Essentially this shows mild-moderate hearing loss in the left ear (blue line) and mild hearing loss in the right ear (red line). The lower frequencies are worse than higher frequencies (which is classic for Otosclerosis), so men's voices, mumbling, and whispering are more difficult to hear. The little brackets are where my hearing improves when they bypass the middle ear with bone conduction, showing major improvement with an aid (and why the hearing aid works so well).
That's about all that I understand well on my report. :)
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