CPAP and hearing loss help

I have been on cpap at a low pressure around 8 for three years. Four days ago I woke up and couldn't her anything in my left ear. I called an ENT doc and will see him in a few days. I have ringing in the left year as well. Can only hear a bit of very high pitch sounds, no pain just deafness. Pretty scary. Any ideas or help?

Thanks Rich

Pretty scary indeed! I don't have any ideas, but you did the right thing scheduling an appointment with the ENT! Perhaps someone else here has experienced something similar.

Good luck!

I know how scary it is, because I have been through it. I lost the hearing in my left ear back in Febuary. Since starting bipap I have been getting alot of head cold/allergies. One day my ear just clogged up. So I went to the ENT doctor, they ran a test. He said I had lost total hearing in my left ear, and there is nothing he can do about it. He blamed it on my Diabetes, but I have wondered if my machine and all that pressure(22/16) played a part in it.
Hang in there, good luck

Dixieblue

Rejlaw, try humming a note. Can you hear it in your left ear? Does it appear louder in your left ear than your right? If the answer to both questions is yes, that's great news. Because the ability to hear yourself hum in the bad ear is suggestive of conductive hearing loss, usually temporary, frequently caused by either wax buildup in the outer ear canal, or fluid buildup behind the eardrum. (Called serous otitis media)

rejlaw wrote:I have been on cpap at a low pressure around 8 for three years. Four days ago I woke up and couldn't her anything in my left ear. I called an ENT doc and will see him in a few days. I have ringing in the left year as well. Can only hear a bit of very high pitch sounds, no pain just deafness. Pretty scary. Any ideas or help?

Thanks Rich

Rich, how old are you? If you are over 40, it is natural for you to begin getting hearing loss, although you may not have noticed it because it was gradual, and your other ear is fine. Are you in a work environment where there is a lot of continuous noise? That good be the problem too. I started getting hearing loss at least 20 years ago, when I noticed I didn't hear the alarm, when lying on my side. Now I am legally deaf in both ears, but they more or less compensate for each other, but I noticed a year ago that I couldn't hear cell phones ring on TV, just all these people answering their cell phones when it didn't ring! And I was beginning to misunderstand words in conversation, much less having to have the volume on the TV set at 50.

I now wear two hearing aids and it is like night and day how much I can hear now.

And no, I don't think wearing an APAP has worsened my hearing, just being in a noisy environment and getting older.