Hearing loss after viruses

[Ontheriverbank]

DD has speech and language issues, exacerbated by hearing loss. Kids came home from school with a virus which she picked up as a young baby and developed an ear infection. It was cleared with antibiotics and then we went into lockdown. During lockdown, she was on her playmat when I dropped a metal tray near her. She don’t flinch at the sound.
I’ve taken her to doctors for hearing and paid privately to have it checked. Private said it was ok. Periodically, I’ve noticed hearing loss and then it goes better again. She’s also had covid at least two times (I mention this as I have lost hearing in one of my ears from a covid infection).

We’ve just had the letter through saying she has failed every category on the school hearing screening test. We will take her for an appointment next week. However, it seems that her hearing gets affected every time she gets a virus and I feel powerless as she is in school which is obviously a conveyor belt of viruses upon viruses. Has anyone else had this issue? How do I try to minimise the impact of the school environment on her?

The school situation is unlikely to change, especially with the governmental push on presenteeism at all costs. This is the first holiday all year which hasn’t been marred by a school virus.

Have you got as far as an audiology appointment at your local hospital? This would be a good place to start if not. Ask your GP for a referral.

We did try NHS route, but appointment turned out to be on phone, where they wanted to make another phone appointment to speak to the baby. I’ve tried with GP who normally says it can take a while to recover from a virus, checks ears and says they’re a bit inflamed, but ok. Due to volume of viruses (I’m not kidding when I say I can count on one hand the number of weeks this school year where we’ve not had a school bug in the house), sometimes her hearing is ok after a virus, others it’s not. Her hearing does improve again, so it’s not permanent, but I also think it’s declining over time. She was beyond the reading and numeracy etc expected by end of reception before she started, but I wonder what she will be like when she has to learn things she doesn’t already know when hearing is an issue.

I’ll ask for a referral after appointment next week (we got a cancellation fortunately, but it took 2 years down several referral routes for a SALT appointment on video and another year for one face to face. The hearing screening took place in May or June and comes from the same place and the hearing letter was dated two weeks ago (same delay on letters as for SALT and then letter says to contact within two weeks - either deliberate or dodgy admin I’m unsure). We will try private again if need be.

I am a Teacher of the Deaf and I would really push for the NHS audiology appointment. I'm not sure if you mean that's where you had the hearing assessment done. I know it varies a lot from area to area but here I rate our local audiology really highly and would always recommend them over the private alternatives at least for the initial assessment. Once the GP does the referral you could always call Aud and say that you are available at short notice for a cancellation.

I will push, but it’s been over two months with a lot of chasing just to find out the results of the screening test. I’m lucky there was a cancellation next week and hoping that appointment will also start a referral process. The problem is there’s a high threshold to access any treatment (or seems to be). My own hearing loss after covid has been over three years and it’s just shrugged off. There are a lot of “pardons” in our house between me and my daughter!

Shrugged off by the audiology department? That's really bad and very different from our area. I'm sorry to hear that.

Shrugged off by GP and long covid clinic. I don’t think it’s permanent loss as I can hear for an hour or so every few weeks or so. Is very strange. I seem to get referrals for minor peripheral things (to me) in the long list of havoc covid has wrought, but not the things that are really impacting me. One GP suggested I tried doing the holding my nose thing and blowing! I’ll keep pushing for my daughter, but can’t afford private for us both (or even her really, but want her to take priority).

My experience here both professionally and personally is that the GP can be the hardest to get through. I would really push and insist on an audiology appointment - they're the experts on hearing and will know more than the GP so they may well have insight and ideas for both you and your DC.

My daughter had something very similar and still now she 14 suffers temporary loss with a cold/virus. She had glue ear determined by an audiology specialist and had grommets inserted under a GA. They fell out a few years ago now as she grew. We know she has very thin ear canals so swimming and flying can be a bit of a nightmare. Our GP was utterly useless thankfully we had private insurance. It’s awful how you have to push for treatment and answers.

If I get an ear infection, my ear swells shut on the affected side and I can barely hear, it's crap. There's also glue ear which you're familiar with, and finally there's CMV - children can be infected in the womb and develop progress hearing problems. Your daughter's dried blood spot from birth would rule this one out.

I don't think CMV is currently tested for routinely at birth in the UK.

Thank you. I will continue to push. It’s hard to know how long the delay will be - it’s not like you’re told at the beginning how long the wait is actually going to be.

I think there is a tendency to keep increasing thresholds to access help and a wait and see approach. I want to get it sorted and get her the help she needs. That may mean going private again, but I will push for nhs. Thank you for sharing about your daughter. I’m glad you were able to get her some help and sorry she still has some temporary loss after infections. How long did the hearing loss last after each cold/virus?

I also feel a bit despondent that a kid needs to sit in class feeling like crap but ticks the attendance box so that more kids/staff/families can feel like crap by the end of the week. For some of those other kids that can mean upping their asthma inhalers, for some it means they have less time with relatives, for some it means ill parents getting more ill, for some it means a longterm or permanent loss of health and quality of life e.g. long Covid, for some it means a hospital stay for them/a sibling, or another school holiday screwed, for some it means more susceptibility to other infections whilst their immune systems get messed up, for my daughter and others like her, it means hearing and learning loss. The push to spread some really horrible illnesses and lack of care about it (I include gp surgeries and hospitals in that) disgusts me. Tens of thousands of kids get long covid each year in England - that’s just one illness, yet children are allowed to attend when contagious. I’m digressing, but it’s just a bit of a mindfuck.

Update: at appointment we were told to use nose balloons. I’d never heard of them before!

Which appointment was this? That's Otovent - for glue ear.

We have these for flying! Really good but not a permanent solution keep pushing!!