Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Hearing Loss


FYI, I have had sleep apnea which I did not have treated for several years.  I struggled with using the CPAP machine, and continue to do so.  I'm not overweight, and walk and swim, and was in big time denial.  Unfortunately, I recently developed unilateral high frequency hearing loss (everything from upper midrange on up), and tinnitus on that side. The loss is irreversible; I'm hoping the tinnitus will diminish. My guess is the repeated lack of oxygen damaged the hearing apparatus.  Needless to say, it's upsetting, since my retirement plan (in 3-5 years) was to sit home and play guitar, buy a new turntable (maybe a Rega 6 or 8), speakers (maybe something like the Buchardts or update my Vandersteen 2s), integrated amp, transport and DAC; clean all the used lps I've bought in used record stores over the years (I live near Revilla Records and The Princeton Record Exchange in NJ); and listen to my collection of 5-6 thousand carefully curated CDs and LPs that I've aquired over a lifetime. (I kept all my original lps, plus many recent Blue Note, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, etc. reissues, and 40 years of collecting rock/jazz/americana/folk/blues/country/broadway/vocal/classical cds, including many early ones from Germany and many signed by the artist at small and medium sized concert venues).  So, best to get proper treatment if you have this disorder!

kb54

Showing 1 response by vonhelmholtz

@blisshifi 

Juan..you made my day.

I was born with constant fairly loud bilateral tinnitus and selective narrow band loss.  The fact that you can be so right on with your listening observations brings to light a great point.  For me, I have never heard music or anything else like others do.  I rarely understand lyrics, but I still have the ability to compare what I hear And I even get the benefit of being able to enjoy Korean singers like IU.  Especially IU... hate her girlie genre..but love her voice and good looks.  I'm partially deaf, not deaf and old but not dead.

Anyway, Juan..appreciate your guidance and @kb54 I Also have sleep apnea and use a cpap...there are so many health benefits to getting this sorted out.  Mine is structural..but kindof use to the cpap.