will a laby stop the sound of your own voice in bad ear?

Pupper! Missed you!
I found that tinnitus was better after my labyrinthectomy, and it probably would have lasted had I not developed scar tissue. I’m not sure what you mean about the honking of your own voice?

 

Sorry, Pupper, I don't know the answer to your question. Just wanted to say it's good to see you posting again. How are you doing?

 

I’m going to guess yes, but I don’t know. Looks like we both took a break from the board. Welcome back. Sounds like you are unlucky enough to have a voice that reverberates in your own ear. Sometimes this happens to me but it’s rare. I’ve been having some unusual hyperacusis lately with my latest flare up. I’d be curious to know the answer from someone who can say for sure.

 

I dont know but that was my most upsetting symptom of cochear hydrops, although roaring tinnitus and other strange hearing issues were a close second. Antivirals, specifically acyclovir, fixed me right up, that is over a period of weeks and m9nths. I did notice improvement in the autophony in a few weeks. Another member taught me that i could stop it briefly by pulling on the earlobe of that ear while i talked. This was very handy if i just really needed to shout at someone for a minute.

 

The answer is yes it will stop the sound of your voice vibrating , dishes clanging , and your heart beat . The laby fixed all hyperacusis for me .

 

Pardon me for jumping in here, but will a laby get rid of the tinnitus and pressure from fluid? I'm seriously considering one and hoping it will. Been on JOH for 4 months now and no improvement, started AV's a couple of weeks ago. I'm gonna give those a few months with the JOH, but my doctor suggested this and at this point, I'm giving it serious thought.

 

The laby has nothing to do with the brain. It is ear surgery.

I have zero pressure or any other symptoms, except I have a little bit of tinnitus that I can hear at night in a quiet room. It is ever so slight. It may increase a little bit in a noisy place but never a problem.

Go to the best surgeon you can. I recommend large nationally ranked teaching universities/hospitals.

 

I wish it got rid of the fluid pressure! I'm still a human barometer. It stopped my drop attacks, which was all it was meant to do. Anything else is a surprising, added bonus. I DO think, however, that had I not experienced scar tissue, the tinnitus would be better, but I'm not positive. I can say I had a brief honeymoon period of four months(?) in which the tinnitus was practically nonexistent. This was about the time when the scar tissue started, and now I'm back to presurgery levels of tinnitus.

 

My oto told me the vertigo and drop attacks would end and anything else that might subside would be "icing on the cake". I still experience tinnitus daily and occasionally I will have fullness. All greatly improved with surgery but not gone.

 

Ugh ......I was hoping for "oh yes, all tinnitus will stop for sure!" I should have known better.....this constant ringing is starting to drive me crazy though. It literally never stops for me....the only thing that changes is the loudness, and most times its loud enough to affect hearing in my good ear.

Pupper, I'm getting to the point where I'm a little more than just curious.....I'm about to the point where I'm just about to say take it all, take the whole damned ear out....I'm about plain sick of it all, the endless pills, constant ringing, pressure, vertigo, headaches.......the doctors say they are trying to save what little hearing I have, but honestly IMO there's just not enough good hearing left in that ear to worry about it, and with the tinnitus its about zero anyways. Some days its all I can do to just smile and go to work and interact with people at all........It's wearing me down and I'm sick of it.........

Sorry.....just frustrated.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Can I ask a sort-of related question? To those of you considering a laby and ESPECIALLY to those who have had one... is there a reason you would jump (or did jump) right to a surgical laby and not try a chemical one -- using gent shots? I'm still in the grey period trying to see if my shunt surgery was a success.. or not... but in past discussions with my dr, he uses a progression of interventions from least invasive to most. Tries to avoid unnecessary extreme intervention. First the non-surgical interventions... then shunt... then gent shots... then in extreme cases a laby or VNS.

So I am wondering why you'd skip over the much less invasive series of gent shots (either low or high dose -- maybe you start with low and if that doesn't work, switch to high) before going into surgery. With the high dose, my understanding is it's essentially a "chemical laby".

 

I'll be interested in the results of your test, so please let us know.

I've done a little testing myself, nothing as serious as what you're going to do, but plugging my bad ear at different times during the day while I'm doing other things (mostly watching TV, or listening to some music) and I've observed no noticeable difference in hearing.

 

PleaseNoDizzy, for me it is simply the most recent recommendation from my doctor. When and/or if, I get to that point I'll be having a much more detailed conversation with him about it, but honestly I sort of just dismissed it when he said it and told him I wanted to try AV's first.

Pupper, I also wanted to add to my previous comments about testing hearing.....I feel like I could hear a lot better if the ringing wasn't as bad, so even the tests I've done (and likely the tests you are going to do) are tainted by the tinnitus itself. It just seems like a constant struggle to ignore the tinnitus and ALSO listen with my good ear AND filter everything through the ringing. Still interested in your results though.

 

That actually reminds me of something my doc said a few months ago. He kind of wondered out loud, when I once again didn't respond to steroid injections, if some Meniere's ears (the round window specifically, I think) are too "scarred up" for the injections to pass through. He wasn't basing that on any hard evidence -- either on me specifically or Meniere's patients in general -- but just kind of threw that out there. When he went in and did the shunt, he also bathed the sac in steroid meds. I'm wondering if that was the first time those meds "got through" to the other side. But yeah, if that were the case, and injections of any kind didn't work, then certainly a surgical laby would be in order.