Vacuum Cleaners and Blower

My cochlear hydrops started really bad last Aug/Sep. By the grace of God and the help of Dr. Gacek, I have had an almost 100% recovery from the horrible clogging, ringing and hissing tinnitus, echoing hyperacusis and occasionally light-headed, slightly dizzy feeling.

It took about 6 months of slow recovery once I started on acyclovir (and especially after I switched to valacylovir) to get to almost back where I was before all this started, with very mild hissing type tinnitus that is completely gone many days and very mild the other days. I also have the slightest hint of a tiny bit of fullness in my bad ear on some days. I can tell a difference between my left (bad) and right ear if I compare how a phone or headphones sounds in one vs the other, so I know there is hearing damage, but it doesn't really effect me at all as far as speech recognition and my good ear seems to compensate for any deficiency on the left. Hopefully over time my hearing may recover somewhat.

Anyway, the weirdest thing happens to me whenever I use the vacuum cleaner or the blower. I always put on noise canceling or construction level protection earmuffs on when i use the vacuum or blower, but I always have a slightly clogged ear after and sometimes it will make tinnitus slightly worse.

Any idea on why this happens? Is this an excuse for a maid and a lawn service lol?

 

Glad to hear from you June. I've read your story several times and it seems similar to mine (except for what happened to your other ear originally). I always suspected an allergy component because I got my attacks always around late summer/early fall. I tested highly allergic to several things endemic to my area (including ragweed) so I started on immunotherapy about 3 months ago. I hope it helps as it did for you.