Newbie. Had Tinnitus Since 2003

Hi, I am new to the site and been a tinnitus sufferer since 2003. After a short 1 hour flight to Amsterdam, the tinnitus started about 60 mins later and is still there today, 11 years on. During them 11 years I've flown about 3 times a year, mostly on short domestic flights. Never had any real further problems with it until 21 days ago (1 August 2014).

After a short 30 minute flight that evening, I wasn't aware of it at the time but looks like I didn't/couldn't relieve my inner ear pressure on plane's descent/landing. 60 minutes after landing, I was asleep for the night. Woke up, 6 hours later, the next morning with Otitis Media with Effusion (ear fluid). Sleeping overnight, the negative ear pressure sucked fluid from my ear walls into inner ear.

Symptoms: fullness feeling; on/off headaches; couple occasions of dizziness; but worst was a volume increase in my tinnitus. Have had two courses of antibiotics. Dicstaclor in week 1 and Amoxycillen in week 2. Have drank buckets of water because I read ear fluid can sometimes be sticky and needs hydrating. (I'm first to admit, I don't drink enough water daily and haven't done for years). That will/has changed.

The tinnitus is worst at night and morning when waking. Rest of the day I can deal with. During days 1-10 I had a weird pulsating noise in my right ear at nights and in rooms with people chatting any time of the day. The pulsating was mega-fast, about 20 times faster that the average heartbeat. Since day 11, that's kind of gone. I could write more but I'm aware I've written a lot. Has anyone had any bother regarding plane journeys and resultant tinnitus. If so, has anyone had the tinnitus problem on a permanent or temporary basis. If temporary, for how long? Cheers.

 

Hi scankaroo, glad you found us. I have no answer for you here, but I am sure someone will reply that has had a similar experience. In the mean time You might want to look around at the different forums, "Support" has a lot of good info there.

 

Hello and welcome!

I think what you describe is barotrauma...it's probably what started your T in 2003... a member here has T due to barotrauma, she is very active on here but for some reason, I seem to have forgotten her nickname...

it could be @Stina or @jazz I think...

Anyway, that member had an undiagnosed sinus infection which lead to barotrauma of her inner ear....and left her with T after she took a flight...

I hope you can find some answers on here...

Also, I want to add that if you've already had some changes to your T (sounds that disappear for example), this is kinda good news. It doesn't mean that it will completely go away but it may go back to the baseline you've had since 2003.

 

I think its @LadyDi

 

Hi SCAN,great to see you on site,no Jacqueline as yet,hope to see her soon,Steve's helping her out.
Any improvement now ,or still the same?yours might just go back,fingers crossed.
Now you know what spikes are,told you ,you'd find things out,you never knew in relation to this condition.
Had a good look at the threads ,interesting hey.
Best wishes Mar

Add on to Stena,yes think Di had this happen to her

 

@Stina, yes thank you!! that's @LadyDi

 

Hi all. Re: tinnitus it still only increases at night, and thats not because I'm normally in a quiet bedroom trying to sleep. I've tested quiet times in mid-afternoon for volume and its lower.

I think natural nighttime muscle tensing is a reason behind this. Overall, I could sum my current t issues as:

1 Sensitivity to loud noises, screams from kids, etc..

2 When that happens, I generally get a spike afterwards.

3 One or two blocked nostrils upon waking up.

4 Increased volume late evening/ overnight.

Gaud, if I could wave a magic wand