Question: I woke 3 days ago with no hearing in my left ear, except for blaring, nearly unbearable ringing. If it's something that will go away, I can suck it up, but I'm afraid it is or may lead to permanent hearing loss. Some things to note:

-I'm a 35 year old male, obese, with moderately high blood pressure (currently). I'm not on any regular medication.

-There were no warning signs of any sickness or hearing loss the day prior

-My wife starting feeling sick around the same time, and has since been diagnosed with bronchitis/early pneumonia (she gets this about once a year)

-I've fairly regularly (once every year or two) dealt with a plugged ear, that may last a couple days. I believe in the past this has been more outer-ear related and has gone away within a couple days.

-Those past issues felt and sounded very different than this time. In the past I could still hear myself swallowing, and if I were to tap my ear for instance, it would be a loud muddled, under-water kind of sound. If I tugged my ear it would perhaps crackle or otherwise adjust my hearing.

-This time there is no sound whatsoever when I tap my ear, and I only hear swallowing and other internal sounds in my other ear. It reminds me of if I had shoved my head into a loud concert speaker (which I didn’t)—essentially no sound except ringing.

-Yesterday my other (right) ear started being very sensitive to higher-pitched sounds and has pressure behind the ear. Because of this (and some scary reading on the internet) I decided to go to the doctor.

-The Urgent Care physician was able to see my right ear drum, but had to remove some excess wax in the original and more worrisome left ear. After doing so, there was no change at all in my hearing ability.

-My nose is not at all stuffy, and other than pressure in my ears and a couple headaches (which have gone away with ibuprofen), I don’t have any cold symptoms.

-He suggested it is likely a drainage issue in my middle ear, and prescribed real Sudafed and Afrin.

-After taking Sudafed last night and starting Afrin this morning, there have been no changes to hearing in either ear. I’m feeling a bit nauseous, but that may be from swallowing drainage.

-My main (and only, really) concern is permanent hearing loss if there’s a misdiagnosis. I’ve read online about permanent loss for viral infections that go too long without being treated, and I’ve read that draining a middle ear could take a month. I’m not comfortable with being half deaf for a month in order to find out that I’ve missed my window to head off permanent damage.

-I’m also concerned that Afrin and Sudafed negatively impact high blood pressure, and I read online that high blood pressure is a potential cause for hearing loss.

Please help!
~XXXX