Hi everyone-

It's been a while since I posted a new topic but we just got home from the ENT's office and found out that my husband, Don, has nerve damage in the left ear (side he received radiation on) and has a permanent 50% hearing loss. He has also had bad luck with the tube they put in to relieve the pressure and now has to have the tube removed. Has anyone had this problem?


Lorie, wife/caretaker
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hubsand diagnosed Stage III left side tonsil cancer 8-7-03, 35 radiation treatments/6 chemo treatments. Clear CT scan 12/2003

Unfortunate, but not the end of the world.. I have since a young man been hard of hearing. My wife says it is selective, I hear what I want to hear. Hearing loss is not a laughing matter. But now with technology it is managable.
Darrell

Hi Lorie,
I had hearing problems for quite a while post Tx but they sound different from your husbands and they have resolved themselves to my pre Tx state.
Since I had a tonsil cancer also I guess I should feel grateful that the nerve damage was minimal. Being a lifelong musician I have hearing damage anyway. I know that my hearing losses aren't that high but 33% wouldn't surprise me. I do have constant background noise (ie Tinittus). Sometimes it seems worse than others.

Did he have IMRT or XRT?

Gary-

Looks like he had a treatment similar to yours. IMRT x35 and 6 Cisplatin chemo treatments. They were done at concurrently....radiation Mon-Friday for 7 weeks and chemo on Fridays for 3 hours.

They are telling us that the radiation is what damaged his inner ear and permanently damaged the nerve.


Lorie

Lorie, I also had concurrent radiation (48 rounds) with 4 Cisplatin chemo treatment. Although it was stated in my consent form that one side effect of treatment to head and neck cancer was hearing loss, my oncologist told me that in my case,since the area of radiatio was not very near the ears, such side effect was unlikely to appear. In fact, I heard some unpleasant sound for quite a while after treatment, sound like a train passing near me or a bell ringing. Such sound occurred several times a day and lasted for a few weeks. Then it graduallly disappeared and now my hearing is back to normal.I was quite worried at that time.For nasophargyneal (?sp) cancer patients, they have a higher risk of hearing loss. A friend of mine who was diagnosed with this cancer at almost the same time as me found out after 1 year of treatment that his left ear is gradually losing function. He just received about 30 rounds of radiation treatment, no chemo.In your husband's case, it is important to protect the ears from further damage. Watch out if travelling by air can pose a problem.

Karen.

Karen-

Did you ever hear anything that sounded like a constant dial tone? He says he hears that quite often.

Do you know what we can do to protect his hearing from further damage, aside from staying away from loud noises? Like what in specific should he do when flying? We are planning a trip to Florida in August.


Lorie

Lorie, it was not like a dial tone that I heard but a buzzing sound for a few seconds then stopped. It could appear for about 20 times a day. Sometimes I heard a sound like a door bell ring and I rushed to answer the door. In fact the sound didn't exist. Other than these, I didn't hear anything queer. As for flying, it is the air pressure that may have bad impact on hearing. I think the doctor should know better about what can be done to prevent further damage. My friend got some medicine before he flew to London but I have no idea what it is. He told me later that he didn't have problem flying in the plane for 12 hours. Just a precaution.

Karen.

The "dial tone" sounds like a variation of tinittus which is simply ringing in the ears. Sometimes it's like static or "pink" noise.

He should take a decongestant or antihistimine prior to flight. That often helps. I am not sure that flying would exacerbate the damage in any case - but the decongestants might add a little comfort level. Drinking a lot of water in flight is a good idea also - there is very low humidity in aircraft.

Hi Lorie, I fail every hearing test now. I get
tested at work every year, I can't remember the
percentage of loss. I wear plugs and ear muffs
all day anyway.
I also have 24 hour a day popping in my ears
caused by radiation damage to the eustachian
tubes. The doctor said to get used to it, it's
not going away. I'm getting used to the popping
noise but I haven't been flying yet....don't
know if I will have problems with ear pressure.

After two Cisplatin treatments, I experienced significant hearing changes, which prompted the chemo doc to switch me to other meds. My heariing returned to normal. This doc told me that he had one patient long ago who suffered profound hearing loss after Cisplatin, and that some people are more at risk of this than others. The other meds caused me to lose my hair, but it grew back and I can hear a pin drop, so I think that was a pretty decent trade. Bottom line - there are options to Cisplatin if one experiences hearing changes during treatment.

Thanks everyone. I'll make sure I ask the doctor about the flying issue. Hopefully a simple decogestant will be good enough. Thanks also for the hint about the lack of humidity in the plane.

Don, my husband, does have a serious problem with the popping noise. He says when it pops he can hear but then it closes back up again in a minute or so, or when he swallows. We thought that was probably due to the fluid in his ear right now because of the infection that clogged the tube that they put in his ear. He is scheduled to have the tube removed on May 20th and we were hoping the popping noise would stop after that healed. It will be a bummer if he just has to learn to live with it...however I guess that is a small price to pay to be cancer free.

Thanks again.

Lorie