Hearing Improvement & fullness after radiation?

[producer]

Hello, id like to hear from anybody who's hearing actually improved following radiation (long term)?  I met somebody in hospital yesterday who had a 20db PTA improvement following CK (3 sessions 18 Gy). His treatment was 2.5 years ago.

Also does the fullness in the ear improve once tumor dies and/or shrinks?

chris

[PaulW]

I am 17 months post treatment.
Before treatment I had the fullness in the ear, I could hear soft sounds OK but loud sounds were the same volume, which was damn quiet.
My hearing was -30db and is now back to -20db. Thats within normal range
The numbers really dont measure the amount of hearing improvement.

The ability to hear louder noise sound is where my big gain has been.

To explain this. Imagine your friend is at a rock concert and he is giving you a call on the phone.
The band is about to start  but all is pretty quiet, you can hear them clearly on the phone. The rock concert starts, its loud!. But no matter how loud it is where your friend is, the volume coming through the phone is roughly the same. This is what it was like with my bad ear.
I could hear quiet sounds quite well, but when the rock band started there was no real volume change.. Just a sensation of pain on the eardrum.

In anything but quiet environments my hearing was pretty much rendered useless in one ear, as there was very little volume coming through one ear. But in very quiet environments it was OK

The fullness is gone, my hearing remains normal, the sensation of volume is also back.
I hope it stays this way, and that I can be writing something similar in 5 years from now

[producer]

Thats an interesting variation on hearing loss Paul, thanks for sharing.   My hearing loss is fairly 'straight forward' at the moment, a very deep 'V'dip between 1.5khz and 6khz.  I am able to hear hi-hats and cymbals etc, and have good bass-low mids but not much midrange.

It would be amazing to actually have any improvement at all although I understand this is very uncommon.  Thats why I thought Id ask to see how many people have experienced an improvement.


chris

[lholl36233]

Hi,

My hearing has improved since I had proton radiation for my left side temporal bone hemangioma.  While my right ear is pefect, I'd call my left ear good.  That is a vast improvement over non existant.

I'm due for a hearing test in the new year.  I'll be sure to post the results.

 

[sunfish]

About 21 months after CK, my hearing in my AN ear is about the same as it was pre-treatment.  Significant high frequency hearing loss.  I feel blessed that my hearing has been preserved thus far, although I still struggle with this disability.