One morning this past March, I stirred from slumber convinced that someone had snuck in overnight and packed my ear with Jell-O. Still drowsy, I registered that the fullness seemed to extend horizontally toward the window, some six feet away. I sat up, thinking this would bring some sense to the situation. It did not. I later learned that I had experienced “unilateral sudden sensorineural hearing loss,” commonly known as sudden deafness. There are an estimated 66,000 new cases in the United