Sudden Hearing Loss

Dear Ask The Doctor: Am 54 year old male. I am diabetic (under control) and take metforminn for it. Last week I felt ear pressuere in my left ear for a couple days then a hiss and then I lost hearing in that ear comleterly. I went last Friday to my primary care physician. After examinig me, he told me that the good ear drum is bulging and the bad ear had a big piece of earwax lodged against the ear drum. He cleaned the left ear and gave me amoxicillin 500 mg to take 3 times a day for 10 days and told me to buy Mucinex-D (12 hour) to take for a couple of weeks to dry up any congestion. He told me not to expect to get my hearing any time soon and that it might take up to one month. By the way I don't feel dizzy or have verigo type symptoms. I am worried because after taking the amoxicillin and the Mucinex-D for 4 days I still hear nothing in my left ear except the annoying hissing. Please advice. Sam

Dear Samir: You primary care physician is treating you for an ear infection and rightly so. However, I am inclinded to think that your eardrum has ruptured as a result of this infeection. Thus I urge you to seek specialist care. Also, given the fact that you have Diabetes it is best to treat this infection as aggressively as possible, which may require intravenous antibiotics. See an ENT specialist as soon as you can.