Sudden Hearing Loss and Impact on Music Enjoyment

@sameyers1 Thank you for your detailed and well thought out response. I really appreciate it. When I first read your post, I was so hopeful that HAs like Widex might be able to improve my situation. I understand it would never be like listening naturally but at least there was some hope. It was a little shocking to know that the issue is much deeper. Basically, my word recognition is so bad that HAs will be of no help. They will only amplify the distortion. I still want to give them a shot -- even if they don’t improve word recognition, I’m thinking if they make listening to jazz and classical better than now, I will take my chances. Let’s see.

Folks, I've read everyone's responses twice now. I'm sorry that I might not be able to respond and thank each one of you individually, but please know that I'm incredibly grateful.

arafiq - While losing any part of our hearing is a shock and a disappointment, it is also something that we adjust to in rather short order.  20+ years ago I was diagnosed with a cholesteatoma (a noncancerous, destructive skin cyst in the middle ear) resulting in 5 corrective surgeries leaving me with a severe hearing loss in one ear. Hearing in the higher frequencies is most difficult.  I do now wear a hearing aid in that ear only.  In selecting speakers, I may have leaned towards speakers that others might describe as bright as they accentuated the sound where I have a deficit.  This in no way hinders my listening enjoyment as this is now how I hear.  I will often seat myself off center when listening to offset my unbalanced hearing. My hearing aid also has a setting for music listening which allows me to experiment for optimal enjoyment.  So, in summation, while your hearing loss may change the way you listen, it should not prevent you from continuing to enjoy listening to music.

@arafiq 

I am really sorry to hear about your situation. I know time has passed since this all started and that is not ideal but there are doctors that deal specifically with this sort of thing. If you have the ability to do so, it would be worth your while to check out  the House Ear Clinic in Los Angeles or the Ear Medical Group in San Antonio, Texas where there is a great otolaryngologyst named Dr. Susan King.  I had a similar situation to yours many years ago with something called “Cochlear Hydrops” that caused sudden hearing loss. I did the inner ear injections, steroids etc. I was also given a medication called methotrexate that was at one time a chemotherapy drug. This medication given in small doses performs like a steroid but without the downside of taking steroids.  As a result you can take it longer. Because of the small doses you don’t get typical side effects that one would associate with chemotherapy. Through all of these efforts I was able to get back a lot of hearing in my affected ear. I was fortunate that most of my hearing loss was in lower tones which is helpful since bass is omnidirectional; it is hard to tell where it is coming from or on which side you have a deficiency.

I know your situation is probably different but I still think it would be worth your while to seek out a specialist for advice.  There is a lot of work being done on inner ear issues these days and there are many more advances since I started having issues.

Best of luck to you.

Unfortunately, it seems that hearing aids are off the table given my poor numbers. No too keen on CORS, BAHA, or cochlear implants. Looks like I'll be listening from one ear for now.

I will reach out to a few neurologists at the UT Southwestern by way of reference from another friend who's also a doctor. They might be more knowledgeable than the ENTs around here.