Question: Hi. I am just curious about something, and this will be a long story.

This past year I had 3 reoccurring episodes of "sudden hearing loss" with no vertigo in my right ear. The first time I had it, I just woke up with it. I went to an ENT, and I got a hearing test done, and some other tests as well, and it showed no measured hearing loss in the normal ranges, and that my nerves were fine. While indeed I didn't go deaf, but my hearing did feel muffled, and my ear felt like it as clogged. ENT didn't see any thing physically wrong with it, and called it idiopathic SSNHL. Gave me prednisone which I responded well to, hearing went back to normal in 3 or so days. 7 months later I had another episode (same symptoms), so I went to the ENT again. This time I didn't get any test done, and was prescribed Prednisone again. In about a day, my hearing came back and everything felt normal. 4 months later, which was last month, I had it again. But this time it was a little different. I didn't really noticed it until an hour later I woke up from a nap.

I went to an ENT (a different one from my first 2 episodes, due to location) the next day, and he said he didn't see any infections and what not. He told me I might have Cochlear Hydrops or Meniere's, and put me on prednisone. However while on prednisone, my symptoms didn't improve, but rather I developed a severe tinnitus. I went to get an audiogram, some 5 days later, but they didn't measure anything strange other than a particular frequency in the mid ranges being lower than rest. That very same day, my hearing and T got worse, and I started to hear distortions. At the same time I was also on a higher dosage of prednisone. A few days later I had a day where my Tinnitus died down to almost nothing, and my hearing felt almost fine again, but about 24 hours later it reverted. While I felt like the prednisone wasn't working, I forced tapered, and after I was done tapering, my hearing came back again, and it's been that way for some 3 weeks now. However I still have a very mild tinnitus in my ear (I can hear it usually in a relatively quiet environment, it's like there are 3 sounds, 2 beeping ones with different pitch, and a ringing), but the sound is very different from my severe tinnitus (buzzing). Also it should be noted 2 days prior to my current recovery, I did have a massive migraine, but there was no vertigo or dizziness, although I did feel nauseous. I credited as withdrawal from prednisone since I quickly dropped the dosage for a force taper. This episode lasted about 2 weeks.

So here is the deal, while I still don't know what really caused my problems however, the idea that my previous ENT told me that I might have meniere's really hit me hard, since I had 3 episodes of supposed SSHL. As mentioned before I didn't have vertigo during the hearing loss episodes. But in between the 2nd and 3rd episode there was a time I had a bit of dizziness for a night, but I had no hearing loss or tinnitus during that, and it was really mild. But this was at about 2 months before my 3rd episode.

Anyways, do I really have meniere's disease or did my ENT only say that because he had no idea what is going on? I am actually anxious, and scared recently because my last episode really traumatized me, since I know meniere's is a progressive degenerative disease that, if I have it, might put me into a state similar to my last episode of SSHL. And also can a non-noise induced tinnitus get worse after riding an airplane for some 6 hours?

I can't provide any copies of my hearing exams.

However the audiologist reported Findings as: "Pure-tone test results indicate essentially normal hearing sensitivity, with a mild hearing loss at 8000 hz, left ear, and a mild low frequency sensorineural hearing loss, risng to normal hearing sensitvity, right ear. Speech recognition ability in quiet was excellent, bilaterally, when speech was presented at an average conversational level"

As for the typical meniere's symptoms. I had no vertigo associated with onset of SSNHL. Tinnitus gradually got worse the longer I was on higher dosage of prednisone, however aforementioned, my perceived hearing loss seemed to return to baseline, with tinnitus changing to something else (much more quiet, and different pitch). As you said it might be an early form of meniere's which is why I am anxious.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback, I only wanted an opinion of another ENT to see what illness plagues me. If I do have meniere's, I hope I would go on a remission for the next 2 decades starting now, at least by then there might be proper treatments to reduce the worse of the disease.

Thanks for the advice.

As for medication goes, I have yet to have vertigo attacks, so I don't think I need betahistine at the moment. I did lower my salt intake considerably as well.
I also take a blend of vitamins, and gingko biloba supplements. I just hope due to my young age the disease itself goes into spontaneous remission for a while after changing these factors.

Regards.

One last question, is possible that cochlear meniere's disease or rather syndrome is caused by an allergy to certain substances? For example, so far my episodes are irregular, but every time these episodes happens, I often have changes in my diet, often for the worse. Sodium level is not managed as well. I did read up some research, and they say there are a series of potential causes of Meniere's which include Viral, auto-immune, and allergy as one of them. I am just curious about your opinion.