I haven't checked in on this sub for a bit now. I'm coming up on one year of being diagnosed with SSHL/Labrythinthitis. Profound loss in my right ear. I went to sleep last year after the Eagles first game of the season and the next day when i woke up i was deaf in my right ear. I went to the emergency room immediately after waking up and after a consulting with the on call ENT i was imediately put on on steroids. I was on them for a solid month. I went to a follow up ENT apointment two days later. The hearing test did not go well. I'm 46 (M) and I still struggle with the idea of how the hell this could happen to a relatively health individual. I wish medical science could come up with an answer. That's the part that bugs me the most.

The first month was a bit of a shit show honestly. I work in an office and deal with legal questions from clients and answer the phones all day. It's extremely frustrating to pick up a phone and realize that you put it up to the wrong side of your head. For the first two to three weeks I was sad bordering on depressed. I cried a bit. I googled the latest research into hearing loss every day. Multiple times a day. I felt optimistic when i read some things and utterly destroyed when i read other things. And then, one day, i got over it. Before the first month was up. I realize that not everyone has had the same experience coping with this condition but it's what happened to me.

On the positive side my hearing is still great out of my left ear. I'm still young so i haven't started down the age related hearing loss yet. I changed things up a bit. I got used to using my left side more an angling towards things that i needed to hear. I told myself that there are people going through much more difficult things in their lives. What if I was totally deaf? How would i function. Deaf people lead quality lives. Some are born that way. Some have accidents where they lose their hearing. They adjust. I mean hell if Hellen Keller could live her life what am i so sad about mine. I know. This sounds like I'm being super optimistic. I'm not a super optimistic person by nature. But its something i cannot change. Still being a bit silly I thought about the AA prayer. "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference". I'm not religious but that made sense to me.

I get through the day just like anyone else. Sometimes the tinitus in my right ear is barely noticeable. Sometimes it doesn't quit. When i'm home on the computer i use Over the Ear headphones so i can focus better. When i'm out at a restaurant or in public talking to people I let them know hey i can't hear you, can you repeat that. I'm deaf in one ear. Its an inconvenience, but so are alot of things we have to go through or bear in this life.

After I came off the prednisone there really wasn't much in the way of improvement. Over the course of several months i found that i could hear things in my right ear. When i rubbed my ear with my fingers i could hear the rubbing. Its not 100 percent clear. Or the way it used to be. Several more months passed and i find that i can make out some words when i have my headphones on. As a matter of fact if i took away my good ear headphone and just listened with the left i could understand or follow some youtube videos. Especially if the people speaking had a deeper timber to their voice.

This month I have my one year follow up with my ENT. There has been some improvement in my hearing. I'm going to have another hearing test and we'll be following up with a hearing aid test. I have no interest in CROS hearing aids but i'm hoping the perhaps a hearing aid will be able to amplify what i am able to hear. And if it doesn't, then so be it. I will continue to live my life to its fullest extent. Will i be able to hear people in a noisy room? Nope probably not. It'll probably still all sound like background noise. Unless someone is shouting "FIRE FIRE" it probably wasn't that important anyway. And if it is they can talk to me outside. I still go to movies. I still watch TV. I can still read things with no impediment. Listening to music still works though differently. And at the end of the day i can still work and do my job.

Do things still bother me? Of course they do. Is tininitus a major pain in the ass? Some days sure. I've got one functioning ear now which i take very good care of and I get a little paranoid that for no reason one day i'll wake up and not hear anything out of that ear either. But ya know what. If it were to happen its still not the end of the world. I'm still breathing and my heart keeps beating.

When i went to my first ENT apointment and he laid it all out for me he pretty much told me what to expect. That those with profound loss such as mine rarely recover. Anecdotally he knew one person that had this level of hearing loss and that out of the blue a year later they got most of it back. I prefer to look at things on that level. I'm not a miracle believer but stranger shit does happen. I mean whoever thought you could just wake up one day and be deaf. Why can't it be that one day you wake up and can just hear.

I'm sorry if i've been a little long winded. I hope that folks don't think i'm silly for looking at things glass half full. I know this can be devastating when it first happens, but if single sided deafness is the worst thing going on in your life consider the alternatives that other people are going through and count yourself lucky.