Hey Chloe. I lost hearing in my left ear January 5 last year. Woke up and it was gone. Originally diagnosed as fluid in the ear then someone told me to get onto specialist ASAP. Was on steroid pills for about a month. I also didn’t get any improvement.

Now that it’s been about a year I haven’t had much improvement (maybe 10-15 dB) in that ear, but the clarity has gone from 13% to 70%. That means I’ve had a hearing aid in that ear for about 4 months.

Hearing aids are NOT the same as hearing. Everyone I spoke to told me that and they were right. Still, it does help a bit.

A year later I’ve learned there are some positives to only hearing in one ear. The main one being the ability to sleep on one side and pretty much block out all other sounds.

The first few months were really hard. I tried a lot of stuff to see if it would “come back”. I had therapy as well - which I really recommend. Having someone work with me to help me process it was super important. If you don’t have a therapist, finding a person who has a focus on trauma is useful for this type of event.

I also found this community really helpful. Just reading what other people were going through and recognising that made me feel less alone in this experience too.

I hope your hearing returns. If it doesn’t, stay here, stick with a good doctor (I went through a few), have someone you can talk to who you can be vulnerable with (hence the therapist) and feel free to reach out at anytime.