Sudden Sensorineural Deafness

Saw an audiologist and an otologist at the California Ear Institute in San Ramon this afternoon for a battery of fancy tests.

The audiologist’s tests determined that my eardrum is fine (ruling out a decibel trauma, a.k.a. rock ‘n’ roll, as the culprit). Apparently, the issue is that the acoustic nerve isn’t sending the auditory messages it receives from the eardrum onward to the brain. This condition is called Sudden Single-Sided Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSSSHL, for “short”), and i’m told it has at least 100 theoretically possible causes, all of which are rare and not well understood by modern medical science. “You would have to pick something rare and arcane,” said my understandably concerned (and famously astute) mother.

More tests to be done to narrow the possible causes (starting with MRI and blood work).

But my attitude about it is simple: whatever it is, it’s all just energy, and energy can be worked with, so i intend to bring it back into balance. Maybe the hearing can’t be restored, but at least whatever imbalance caused it might be corrected. I’d certainly like to keep the hearing in my left ear, which is feeling more precious (and more vulnerable) now, and i do believe diet, meditation, and other lifestyle choices can go a long way to restoring and preserving balance…