1 Year with Tinnitus — Furious and Tired of No Hope from Doctors

I'm now 1 year plus ( began 8/26/17 ) living with high-pitch constant tinnitus in my left ear brought on by sound induced hearing loss from a gun shot.

Today was my 1 year check up with my ENT, and I have never been more angry then today. It feels like a total waste of my time and money going to see this doctor. I was almost to the point of screaming in my car on the way home it was so frustrating.

I've now had 3 visits with this ENT. The start last year, a 6 month follow up, and now the 1 year follow up today.

Each visit is exactly the same, I get a hearing test in a separate office, then I see the ENT afterward to go over the hearing results. And that's all he does, he describes the results as if I understand the technical lingo of frequency and decibel ranges from the results then uses a dictation machine to record his notes to a computer as if I'm not in the room.

He has never once offered to me any options for treatment without me having to pry it out of him through questions and things I've found online. The same goes for any odds of my tinnitus going away with my range of hearing loss or any recommendations health/diet wise to increase the chances of my ear healing.

He does have a go to line of calling Lipoflavonoid snake oil though, which is pretty obvious, and telling people to use white noise machines. Anything like retraining therapy, oxygen therapy, supplements, lifestyle changes, etc. I need to ask for and pry out of him before he rushes me out of the room. He shrugs everything off and calls it a lottery as if it's not even worth trying and has this air about him of being offended I tried to find information myself online.

My second visit 6 months ago, they didn't even do a hearing test. I think he forgot and played it off. You'd think they would want to see if it changed in 6 months? I was going to get a 2nd opinion then but didn't. I should have.

I don't know why I thought today would be different. In the back of my mind I knew it wasn't going to get better. But I went and had the hearing test last week then saw the ENT today.

After waiting 6 months, the appointment lasted maybe 5 minutes if I'm being generous. He started by commenting if my Tinnitus is improving. I said it's still just as loud and intense as since the start, and it is only getting better in the fact that I'm learning to try and ignore it as much as possible, otherwise I'd go insane. He was taken aback by that for some reason, and later on made a comment about not jumping off a bridge. That was really not funny and he knew looking at me I didn't find it humorous.

He then fell back on the same old dance and talked about the hearing test results again. I have a 4,000 frequency range hearing loss. My hearing improved 15 decibels (since last year) in my left ear. Good news? Maybe, he didn't say if that improves my chances for the tinnitus to go away. Then he dictated the results to his computer again and tried to say good bye and rush me out the door.

For the third appointment now I forced the issue to discuss any treatment or recommendations he might think I qualify for now. He says "I guess you could try retraining therapy" but offered no clue as to where or how to go about that. He makes a point to always be vague and acts as if trying anything else is pointless. He said retraining therapy doesn't really do anything to cure the cause of tinnitus anyway.

Then after all that, he looks at me and pauses for a second and says... "most importantly there's hope". And for some reason... this set me off. I was checked out then. Emotionally and physically. When he said Goodbye, I'll see you in a year, I didn't hesitate to leave.

The secretary up front checked me out and started to reschedule me for a year follow up. I had to ask after she scheduled me if they also want me to get a hearing test before coming in... She says to me "would you like to get one?" as if it was up to me? I said, if the doctor thinks I should get one, I think that is his decision? At this point, I'm just saying to myself... what the actual #$%! is going on right now... I rescheduled another hearing test and follow up a year from now. Odds are, I won't be going.

I said earlier I was almost to the point of screaming in the car on my way home. No, I definitely broke down and screamed in my car on the way home. I screamed "I waited 6 months for the same talk and a prescription of HOPE!". I just completely lost it and broke down. When a doctor prescribes Hope... I'm pretty sure that doctor thinks it's hopeless. These are doctors, not spiritual healers. I feel like I wasted a year of time I'll never get back seeing this doctor.

That's all the rant I have left for today. I'm just so tired of this. I know there's no 'cure' for tinnitus, and we should go to the doctor for check-ups. It just feels like I'm being scammed, but I'm doing so voluntarily. If there's no treatments... why am I giving my time and money to specialist to tell me the same thing over and over?

 

See thread... ‘all my doctors have given up on me I think I should too.’

I think you’ll find everything you need to hear over there.

 

Youre only 1 year in, please give it time. Most people will see their T fade over the years, hopefully that will be the case with you. Try not to get too stressed or emotional, as it will increase the volume of your T. In the meantime, try not to put too much stock into going to ENTs...there is no cure for T except for time and patience.

 

yeah doctors are just the tentacle tips of the giant medical industry machine squid that operates under government regulatory agencies and sale us big pharma products.