I have recently had an hearing check up as I suffer from tinitus with a little deafness after each episode.
The tests shows that the main tube between the ear and nose is blocked and I have lost a small percentage of hearing, which I won't get back but will get worse over time regardless of future treatment.
My thoughts now, as I have been congested for many years along with being bunged up sinus wise, is it worth me progressing with the treatment? Also what would be the long term damage, if I ignore future treatment as I am going through plenty already.
Apologies for the error, it's not cardiovascular, but hearing and sinus/congested.
Is there an audiologist at the hospital who can advise?
I have not been to an hospital about this but I did go to an ENT surgery, who told me what I have past on to you. He just looked into my ears and said that there is no infection but hearing was reduced due to the fact that I kept missing some of the conversation.
You imply you had your hearing checked , but then say he only looked in your ear? Also what you are saying doesn't quite add up. A small % of hearing loss shouldn't impact on your ability to hear a one to one conversation (although "small %" is subjective).
If your hearing is sufficiently poor to impact on conversations I'm surprised you were not referred to audiology department for a proper assessment. Certainly when I had an infection and glue ear etc I was referred for a number of the pre / post treatment.
Some audiology services also offer support for tinnitus, but there are not that many specialist centres, however a hearing aid can help some people with tinnitus.
I will mention this to my GP at my next appointment. I think that I knew in my mind that something didn't seem right especially when I told him that everything seems muffled when I am listening to conversation. All he did do was to look into my ears and said that there is no sign of an infection.
OK, that's already good that your GP has identified that there is no sign of infection....so now you need to tell him that conversation is muffled.
This I will do along with what happened at my recent appointment with the ENT clinic.
Is this in the UK?
Did you get an audiogram? They would have played beeps in your ears and asked you to indicate if you could hear it and drawn you a graph (sorry if that is obvious, but to be clear).
The reason to see an audiologist is they can perform an audiogram and ask some key questions to understand more about your hearing loss and offer advice.
If it is age related hearing loss it tends to be progressive and won't get better, but the sooner you are informed and getting proper advice, the better you will cope with it longer term. This includes adapting to hearing aids etc should you need them.
There are a number of potential problems and solutions and it doesn't sound like you have received a great service, or they haven't explained it to you in a way that you can understand.
Your GP should get a letter about your referral and treatment (assuming this is the NHS and it's doing it's job correctly). You could ask your GP to help you understand, explain your concerns and find out if you had an audiogram. If not ask for a referral to audiology.
I shall be doing this already at my next appointment. It seems to me that all that was done was a look in my ears, no infection and the doctor in question just said verbally that I had some hearing loss and then sent me on my way and he was going to write to my GP and to prescribe medication for me to use. I was in the consultation room for about five minutes.
Thankyou, for your help and feedback and will be chasing it up.