My hearing in my ear goes funny at times, but this only happens every once and a great while. It’s like something plugs up / blocks the hearing for a brief few moments or seconds. (10-15 seconds perhaps) It doesn’t fully stop all hearing, just kinda alters it / slightly covers up sound.
It just happened this morning, but that last time it has happened was, maybe 2-3 months ago. I’m not sure what is really going on, but it doesn’t seem to be a major issue, just that it’s kinda weird.
I’m just curious on what this issue might be caused from.
:dubious: Has anybody ever had this type of issue before or experienced this?
Well, yeah… I used to feel like one or both of my ears were plugged (typically, only one). I’d use the, hell I don’t remember the name of it. It’s when you hold your nose closed with your fingers and try and blow through your nose. It’s meant to equalize the pressure.
Sometimes that would clear it up, but most often not. It would just go away on its own after a few seconds, usually.
Ok, now I don’t really mean to worry you but… I’m going to worry you. That happened to me one night. I tried the equalization and it didn’t work. After a minute when it didn’t fix itself, I tried calling a phone-in nurse at my insurance company, who advised me to use a warm compress on my ear (which didn’t work). The next morning I woke up and my ear still felt the same, like my ear was plugged. Coincidentally, I went to listen to a video on my computer with headphones. And realized I was completely deaf in that ear. Long story short: went to my doctor, went to my ENT, lost my balance system, took a year before I could return to work full time.
So the bottom line is, sometimes this plugged feeling is caused by something minor, but sometimes is presage of sudden hearing loss. So get thee to a doctor and have it checked out.
PM me if you want more detailed info on what I went through.
It could be just wax that has shifted inside your ear canal. You may just need it syringing out.
This happened to me once about two days before Christmas. My hearing in one ear suddenly went all muzzy and I was quite concerned. I went into the doctor on Christmas Eve, and he was very dismissive. He said that the nurse was not there that day to do the syringing, and I should come back a few after Christmas, when they re-opened. I got pretty annoyed and said I did not want to go tall through the holiday unable to hear properly, so eventually he did it himself. It took about two minutes.
I’ve had the same happen to me, several months apart. There will be a kind of shift in pitch or frequency or whatever until it stabilizes along a log curve. It always felt to me like some kind of brain auditory retuning. It’s more noticeable in low noise environments. It’s not about being clogged or a pressure imbalance, for me at least. I have very good hearing otherwise.
The most likely culprit is wax buildup. That’s pretty simple to take care of by a doctor - you can get stuff at Walkgreens, but I’ve never known that to work. In your case with such minor issues it might be worth trying. I used to have an issue with that recurring but its stopped in recent years for some reason. I do notice occasional minor changes in the hearing in one ear - the best I can figure is that it is humidity related.
Does hearing fade away over five seconds, then fade back in to full volume after another five seconds? And sometimes there’s a whistle/ringing in your ears as it happens? I’ve had that for decades (well, it only happens every year or two.) Seems definitely neurological. Probably it’s described in literature on tinnitus.
I get that too. My mom has/had tinnitus so I always thought it was maybe related or that I had fucked up my hearing with walkmans. (I hear fine otherwise)
I’m not so sure that you do know that. It’s almost certainly the most common reason for even brief and infrequent hearing blockage. Having said that, it’s probably not anything to be concerned about at the moment, and not a big problem to be dealt with should it start to get worse at some point.
I am not a Doctor. I wouldn’t make a convincing Doctor in am-dram.