Hi Everyone,
I wanted to post an update on this thread just incase anyone else ever has a similar issue in the future.
After my Class 1 Initial Audiogram fail, the Dr referred me to a private ear nose and throat specialist. The ENT couldn't see me until this morning, so in the mean time i'd been using Otex just to make sure my ear wasn't full of gunk that could be causing a problem. I also went to my regular GP who had a quick look in my ear but couldn't spot any problems.
Fast forward to this morning and my visit with the ENT. The Dr was very friendly and after a few general health questions, gave my ears a thorough inspection. Apart from a small bit of wax that they sucked out with their fancy machine, they could see no issues either so sent me off for another audiogram.
This audiogram was similar to the one at the initial class 1. After that, they used some probing device to check the middle part of my ear. Then I had to redo the audiogram with the addition of a bone hearing device behind my left ear, while they played varying levels of white noise in my right (good ear). After all that was done, they checked my results and found that my hearing loss was only at 500hz (middle c on a piano i'm told) with a threshold of 30db. Luckily for me, the CAA's guidance is maximum of 35db so hopefully i've just scraped through! I won't relax until I have a Class 1 in my grubby little mitts though.
The ENT couldn't give me a reason for the hearing loss at a specific 500hz frequency. They reckon it might be something I've had from birth and just lived with happily oblivious to it. After my initial failure, I was worried that I might have damaged my ears myself from loud music in my younger days or even just from flying about in a noisy old Cessna. They said that this wasn't the case as noise related hearing loss tends to be in the higher frequency ranges first.
Anyways, hopefully it's all worked out okay. If anyone else finds themselves in a similar boat in future, don't be too alarmed by the ENT. The person I saw was super helpful and did everything that they could to help.
Next step for me is all the fun of ATPL ground school and what i imagine will be a sturdy invoice from the ENT.
Happy landings everyone!