My Tinnitus Story

Hello, my name is Michael, aka Uncle Rocker, and I've lived with T since 2000. I won't bore you with the details except that between playing the guitar and loving hard blues rock and heavy metal, I apparently did myself in. I normally wear earplugs whenever there is loud noise, and dampen tissue paper and plug my ears if I don't have plugs on me.

I think the one thing that has kept me from going nuts is psychologically thinking that the high pitched whistle in my ears is the sound of the overhead lights at work, etc. I initially sought out assistance in dealing with this, but realized there doesn't seem to be any proven method of reducing it (despite what all the scam ebooks say), so I learned to live with it.

I'm now 45, and last weekend the T got significantly worse. Instead of the high pitched ringing, I now have a whooshing/whirring sound in my left ear that oscillates in pitch with every step that I take. *sigh* I guess I'll have to learn how to live with that as well. From reading other's stories, my loud T could be worse, perhaps a lot worse. I recently had a freak case of Bell's Palsy, and while this didn't happen at its onset, I wonder if it has anything to do with it, as the new T on top of T is on the side of my head that has the remnants of BP.

Anyway, that's about it for now. There's some guy named "Engineer LA" or something to that effect that is mentioning some non classical causes that I may try, but the first thing I need to do is find an INCREDIBLE ENT in the San Jose California area that may diagnose that I have an inflamed eustachian tube. Any hints anyone?

Thanks,
Uncle Rocker (Michael)

 

Welcome to the board Uncle Michael. I'm sorry to hear about your Tinnitus getting worse. It sounds like your taking it one step at a time and are trying to manage to it the best that you can.

I would say try seeing an ENT and go from there. Maybe they might be able to take a look and see how everything looks regarding you ears.

Out of curiosity, did you just wake up one day after your bought of Bell's Palsy and noticed this increase in your T?

 

Hi kmohoruk, thanks for the welcoming. No, the increased T did not happen immediately from the onset of BP. Although I could tell there was something going on with my ear, as if muscles/tubes were not closing properly, as when I sang, even without a mic, it would give my left ear a dull ache. That doesn't happen anymore, but I notice the new condition anyway. I get sinus infections a few times a year, so while I didn't have any noticeable infection right now, I wonder if my general sinus condition brought this new phase on.

I want to go to an ENT, but a top notch one.. not one that will take a quick look, and then test my hearing. I will refuse a hearing test, because that is not what I need. I need someone to look at the eustachian tube and see if it is even mildly irritated.

Cheers,
Uncle Rocker

 

Welcome! Guessin your T was originally noise induced.. Do you still play guitar? In the 15 years youve had it, has it gotten worse after continuing to play?

 

I have had tinnitus since July due to losing the hearing in my left hear suddenly possibly due to a virus. Started as high pitched ring then cicadas now more codes beeps

 

Hi there, yes, I still play the guitar and am trying to release a CD. My house looks like a guitar store. I think my tinnitus has gotten a little worse, and I need to have the new issue in my left ear looked into. If I were a smart guy, I'd probably just listen to baroque music at low volume and focus on that style of guitar. But, per my namesake, I'm a rocker!

I'm used to the ringing, it is the new condition that has me freaked.

 

I'm getting a CT scan and MRI tomorrow. I hope they find something fixable wrong with my ears...

 

Best of luck man. I see a Pantera concert was the cause of yours. Never got to see them I'm afraid, they were due to play in 2001 in Dublin but as is know known although they were in the country, they broke up around that point.