Someone asked what caused my deafness.....

When my mother was pregnant, she had rebella (german measles) which was a viral infection of my auditory nerve. Last summer, I had a hearing test and it revealed that I have lost more "hearing". About ten years ago, I used to have 30 to 50 decible loss but now I am about 70 decible loss. I was diagnosed with MS in 2002 which therefore I may have had MS a few years prior to 2002 which probably first came in the late 1990's. Therefore, this is about ten years and the experts can't tell if its related to MS or simply my auditory nerve damage I was born with just got worst. Either way, to me, nerve damage is nerve damage and that I am going deaf someday. Hearing loss caused by MS is most likely due to inflammation and scarring around the eighth cranial (auditory) nerve where it enters the brain stem.

Multiple Sclerosis Researchers throughout the world now agree that acute, inflammatory, demyelinative lesions of the auditory pathways in the brain stem may cause acute hearing loss in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). Although it's uncommon, a hearing deficit does sometimes occur during an acute MS flare-up.