My husband has bad hearing and refuses a hearing aide. He sometimes suddenly loses his balance and falls flat on his butt. Any advice?

PS: no his speech was normal

I always drive when I go with my husband bcuz he weaves and sometimes doesn’t make good decisions while driving. I don’t like him driving at all but he insists. I don’t go with him when he does drive. I can’t get him to go to urgent care but as I said he will go to his doctor. I’ll try to get his doctor to see him sooner. He hasn’t had any spells that I know of since that day he fell 3 times. He does have a history of wax buildup and his doctor once before said my husband loses his balance due to hearing problems possibly. He has only 40% hearing in left ear...right ear better at 60% I believe. My husband doesn’t recall passing out. It may just look like it to me but honestly it appears he momentarily passes out. I will go with him to doctor this time for sure.
My husband says he doesn’t feel dizzy when he falls. He just suddenly loses his balance and hits the floor pretty hard. One time this last Valentine’s Day, I kissed him and he suddenly fell to the floor. I screamed in fear. And he got so mad at me. I should’ve called 911 then but he seemed ok just as suddenly as it happened. And most the time he is ok. I just don’t know when the next episode will be. So I will get back to you on how this turns out. He is so stubborn...always so macho. He’s only 70 yrs old (looks good for his age). Thank you for responding and giving advice. I will be more proactive from now on.

My dad gets vertigo attacks and also wears hearing aids. He complained the hearing aids weren’t working well. Finally he saw a nurse practitioner who flushed his inner ears with warm water. A fascinating yet appalling amount of ear wax came out. Now his vertigo has become infrequent and he can hear if he wants to. We keep an eye on his ear canals. He’s always had a lot of earwax. Some people just do.

I would also try to get him to the doctor faster than next week. He could be having small strokes. Or maybe his ears are filled with wax and he's having balance issues because of that. There are a ton of possible reasons - some of which need immediate attention. Call his doctor and try to get him in today or tomorrow. Or go to urgent care.

What did he say about the incidents? Did he feel dizzy before falling or after? Did he know he appeared to pass out? Was his speech affected at all? When you got home, did he seem OK? Is he OK now?

I agree. It could also be an inner ear problem causing loss of balance. My mother suffered from vertigo, which causes loss of balance and dizziness. Ear infections can do this as well and if he has pain in his ears, the hearing aids may be very uncomfortable.

Judi, with 3 falls in a row, then passing out for a second, I wouldn't wait to see the doctor next week, I would be at the front door of an urgent care. Let them run some tests.

There are dozens of reasons why a person would fall.... being dizzy.... drop in blood pressure.... glucose drop... etc.

I hope your husband will allow you to accompany him and tell the doctor what you are seeing. It might help if you write it out so that nothing you want to bring up is forgotten, you could also hand you note to the doc if you aren't allowed into the appointment. And he could be falling due to blacking out momentarily, please tell me your hubbie wasn't the driver!!