A Dromore man who suffered sudden unilateral hearing loss is urging others not to ignore sudden hearing changes.
Forty-five-year-old Mark Gracey – who is originally from Dromore – has been living with parents in Banbridge since his diagnosis of sudden sensorineural hearing loss left him “afraid” to live alone.
In the last six weeks, the lifelong guitarist, guitar repair hobbyist and music lover has been attempting to adjust to an entirely new world after waking on the morning of May 26 with sudden and complete deafness in his left ear.
Speaking to Armagh I, Mark detailed his experience: “I had been to concerts during that week but everything was fine. On the Saturday, I didn’t go out. I just got a pizza and watched a film and then went to bed because the next day was my daughter’s 13th birthday.
“There was nothing to worry about. I didn’t feel sick, not even a flu or anything and the next morning I got woke up by loud ringing in my ear and when I went to get up out of bed the whole room was spinning, my head was really heavy, I had no balance, I couldn’t walk or stand without falling about the place.
“I thought it must be vertigo. I had never had an ear infection or any problems with my ears, even with the music.”
Although he believed it to be no cause for immediate concern, after hours of laying on the sofa hoping for relief Mark’s increasing nausea and unabating deafness led him to call the out of hours doctor service at 11pm that night.
By the time his call was returned Mark says it was “three days later” and he was in Craigavon Area Hospital admitted to the stroke ward.
“The doctors checked me over with a few manoeuvres for people with vertigo,” added Mark. “They put me on a bed in the corridor and said they were sending me for a CT scan. I was left in the corridor all night on a drip.
“The doctor woke me up the next morning and said they thought I might have had a stroke so they sent me up to the stroke ward. Then, because it was a bank holiday they couldn’t do an MRI. There wasn’t anyone there to do it.
“Tuesday, I had the MRI and the doctors said they thought I had had a stroke event. They put me on blood thinners and whatever else then later on in the day they decided they didn’t think I had a stroke. They thought it was an ENT [Ear, Nose and Throat] issue and started me on steroids. I had to wait until the following day to go to ENT and by this stage I couldn’t hear at all.”
After having his ear syringed and a follow-up hearing test Mark was diagnosed with sudden sensorineural hearing loss – an unexplained and rapid loss of hearing that occurs either all at once or over a few days.
And, shortly after, he found out that he had been up against the clock the entire time.
Said Mark: “With this condition there’s only a small window they give you. If you don’t get your hearing back within two to four weeks then you’re basically stuck with it forever.”
He describes living in “fight or flight mode” since his diagnosis. As his right ear has becomes more sound sensitive he now finds everyday activities overwhelming.
“Even going into a shop is hell now,” said Mark. “The world around me is scary. My whole body is just in fight or flight and I hate being on my own.
“I was always a very social person, making people laugh and being at the centre of things. It’s just taken it all away, anything I’ve ever known. I’m afraid to go back to living in the house.
“The tinnitus has started and you think when people lose hearing they just aren’t hearing anything but I have a loud sort of jet engine sound. It’s just there all the time. I can’t enjoy TV, I can’t sleep. I can’t enjoy playing with my kids.”
The only treatment offered to Mark has been a two week course of oral antibiotics and a “salvage” treatment of inner ear steroid injections. While oral steroids have made a marginal difference, he said it’s “basically nothing”.
Mark’s next course of action is to try Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy – but the treatment isn’t guaranteed to work, it’s in Larne and it’s costly.
After a friend offered him £100 towards the cost of treatment, he was encouraged to start a GoFundMe page to help him gather the £800 needed to over an intensive 20 session course.
He opened the page and within 24-hours had received more than double his target from “brilliant” Facebook friends.
The whole journey has been incredibly difficult for Mark who has long battled anxiety and depression. Despite the incredible generosity of friends and perfect strangers, Mark can’t help feeling like a “fraud”.
He tries to remain optimistic and is supremely grateful for the opportunity to book treatment but he now also knows – that if all else fails – he will have a nest egg towards the cost of hearing aids.
However, more than anything, Mark wants people to know that sudden hearing loss is regarded as a medical emergency.
“People leave it too long. There’s a girl I know who has had no hearing for a month and she should have gone straight to the doctor. If your hearing goes – it’s a medical emergency.
“I think people need to be aware that if one ear goes out, you need to get straight to the hospital. I thought it would just be an infection but it was the day my life changed.”
You can make a contribution to Mark’s GoFundMe page here.
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