Sara's Garden

Reviews

• ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  Ten months ago, I was diagnosed with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) in my right ear after a series of bad colds. Unfortunately this diagnosis was made very late — nearly two months after the initial auditory loss. My primary-care doctor missed the original diagnosis ... so when I finally went to an ENT, he was frustrated and concerned — because early treatment improves the ultimate prognosis. So my ENT immediately put me on oral steroids, a diuretic, and a course of intratympanic (through-the-eardrum) steroid injections. After this multi-mode treatment, most people who are going to get any hearing recovery do so within one or two weeks. However, my audiogram two weeks out was strange — with two modes of hearing loss apparent — and showed I had almost no recovery with none at the key 6,000-to-9,000-Hz range of frequencies where my SSHL was severe. The prognosis in people like me who show such little progress is very bleak. At this point I was so desperate that I’d read online about European lines of treatment for SSHL, and decided I would pursue them. One such treatment is hyperbaric-oxygen therapy. While many places in the greater-Cleveland area and Ohio have hyperbaric-oxygen chambers to serve burn victims, none would allow me to receive treatment due to insurance limitations — save for Sara’s Garden. After my ENT cleared treatment and Sara’s Garden put me through a series of tests, I went to Wauseon, Ohio and stayed for a week of chamber “dives” at their facility. At the following audiogram with my ENT in mid-April (about 9 days after my final session at Sara’s Garden) I had almost full hearing recovery. My ENT was surprised at my hearing’s response to the treatment and postulates that my inner ear benefitted from the hyperbaric-oxygen therapy both mechanically (from the pressure that alleviated hydrops I had) and neurological (to help nerves and membranes begin healing). Even now when I think of Sara’s Garden and the little town of Wauseon, I am moved by how much I owe them. Words fail to describe my profound feelings of thanks to Sara’s Garden.
  By Elisabeth Eitel Young, December 04, 2017

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