3 Month Update — Tinnitus Got Better

Hey everyone, I know 3 months is a short time and maybe next week I'm back in the support forum asking for help. However, since my tinnitus is now very quiet/silent for the last 2 weeks I wanted to share a bit of hope for the newcomers.

Quick backstory, I got my tinnitus on one night together with a bad cold. However, since I had some episodes of mild hyperacusis prior to the tinnitus maybe it was because of my car accident with head trauma 1.5 months earlier. But of course it could also be long time noise exposure. I have a bit of an allergy problem (no idea what, still need to do the allergy test) so my nose is always a bit stuffed.

I tried some supplements but none did anything noticeable (Nicotinamide Riboside had no effect and N-acetylcysteine spiked my tinnitus for some days). So I stick to the basics I already used before tinnitus (Magnesium, Omega-3, Vitamin D3).

The only things that noticeably helped my tinnitus was some osteopathy treatments for my neck, jaw and facial muscles and a nasal spray together with draining the eustachian tube. And i also changed my mattresses.

My tinnitus was always mild for the last 2.5 months (could hear it at night, in the morning or with earplugs) but nonetheless it created me great distress and a lot of anxiety. However, the last days/weeks I don't hear it anymore at night at around 30-32 dB in my bedroom. Normally my tinnitus was the loudest in the morning after waking up (like a boiling tea kettle), however now I don't hear it in the morning anymore without plugging my ears in my silent bedroom. So I'm pretty confident that it will go down further with time.

So today I'm feeling happy enough to write a small success story I hope it can give at least to the newcomers some kind of hope.

PS: I nearly forgot, I use ear plugs most of the time I'm around loud noise (driving, restaurant, gym etc.). I didn't go to any loud clubs or bars since tinnitus.

 

Nice!!! How about hyperacusis? Did you have reactive tinnitus to noise?

 

@guybrush333 I think I don’t have any hyperacusis at the moment (or at least I don‘t notice it). The only thing that sometimes bothers me a bit is if I make really really loud noise with dishes. But it doesn‘t hurt or anything, it just isn‘t pleasant to hear.

Before tinnitus, after my head trauma, I had a bit of hyperacusis, but only for certain sounds (sometimes I had to turn down the car radio, the gym felt to loud). As soon as I got tinnitus, the next day I had real hyperacusis where I couldn‘t watch a YouTube video on my phone at night. Then the day after that, hyperacusis went away and never returned. So yeah, a bit strange...

I had something similar to reactive tinnitus for a while. When I heard loud rain, waterfalls, loud wind or a river I always felt like I heard something like a whistling. But it wasn‘t my tinnitus because when I plugged my ears I didn‘t hear it. So maybe some kind of sound distortion? No idea tbh. But that also got better, now I just notice it very rarely.

 

4 Month Update

Of course my tinnitus unfortunately came back for a bit after writing my three month success story, however since a few days it has again vanished completely. Right now I hear nearly nothing, even with my ears plugged in silence.

Something like a wind sound seems to be still there, but if you would have asked me before tinnitus, I would have said that's silence. Maybe I already had some very mild tinnitus before, who knows.

I pray that it stays like this.

 

Congratulations! You seem to be making improvements, I hope it gets lower and lower to the point it is gone, good luck and cheers

 

Wind sound that you hear is can be blood circulation in vessel. Nothing is silence in body @Deamon22

 

Thank you Me too, I really hope after 1-2 years it will be gone completely.

 

Could be, I can‘t quite grasp it what it is, I also couldn‘t tell the frequency. But to be honest, if I can‘t hear it in my silent bedroom then I don‘t even care

 

Give it some time and take really good care of your ears and you'll get there, good luck

 

Will do so, thank you so much.

 

Hoooray =D

So glad you are better, let's hope it stays away forever and ever

 

I really really hope so, this shit is like a big looming shadow that follows you around every moment you‘re awake. And my tinnitus was always mild, so i can‘t even begin to imagine the hell that severe tinnitus must be. I really want to see a real treatment in the near future. No one deserves this.

 

This thread makes me feel better. I’m currently almost at 5 months and was similar to you. Although recently I got the flu and I feel like I’m at square one. It got much worse... do you mask or do you think you habituated

 

Well I had a few setbacks since writing my post, but I had also long stretches of near silence. I just masked when it was bad, 95% of the time I sleep in silence luckily. Right now I can even sleep ear on the pillow without hearing anything.

But I know how lucky I am and I also know how fast it can change. I am afraid of getting the cold/flu because my tinnitus actually started with a cold. So yeah, not looking forward to that.

Did yours started to improve again? Mine actually started together with a cold/flu/allergy.

 

I think I have something like tonsillitis not really the flu but def giving me a pretty big spike. Mine started with acoustic trauma but I believe became so persistent with anxiety. Anyway I'd hope I'll be fine after I recover.

 

Anxiety is terrible, i try now daily meditation with the headspace app to work on that aspect. Before my tinnitus i had terrible health anxiety for a few months so maybe that had also something to do with my onset ( together with my head trauma/cold or long time noise).

I‘m sure you will improve, is your nose still full? Maybe also your ETs are a bit full so maybe steam inhalation helps a bit

 

5 Month Update

Actually i did not think that i could write such good news but it is still getting slowly better. I had a strange spike in the middle of october for a few days where i felt like i was back at square one (even worse) but that resolved quickly and now, well, my tinnitus is again 90% of the time silent. The best news is actually that my tone in my right ear (tea kettle+screeching) vanished totally, i can barely hear it if i plug my ears in my silent bedroom. Anxiety reduced together with the volume a lot, i still worry sometimes about the future but i try to be optimistic.

 

Yeah I'd still avoid loud places man

 

Yea of course, ear plugs are my best friends now Probably i'll never go to a concert or club again=(.

 

I would LOVE for my tinnitus to be gone 90% of the time! Some days it is better and then for no reason I can think of, it's loud for 3-4 days. I just don't get it. I am wondering if and overload of phlegm and mucus (sorry, tmi I know but I'm desperate for info) and coughing a LOT -- that I have had for a very long time off and on contributed to the tinnitus. Because sometimes in bed, I can hear clicking in there and pinging... and my ears always feel FULL when the T is going.... like there's fluid in there, but I got checked by a NP and she didn't say anything... I just don't know. Then there'll be a day when it's nearly gone for much of a day or so.... and my ears feel NORMAL... does anyone else have this situation? I'm 62 years old so it may be just age related but I still can't believe this happened to me of all people.

 

Since it has been now a little over a year I thought I'd give a short update. I know that my story will be no help for long time or severe sufferers so please bare with me, this is more just an update for for the new members and people having mild*ish* tinnitus.

Actually I am doing very well, the last time my tinnitus was even remotely bad was somewhere around March or so, and there I had just a mild spike for one or two days without any reason. Nowadays I don't hear my tinnitus 95% of the time, basically just when I put in foam earplugs or put my head on the pillow. I still have some degree of fluctuations, some nights it is a bit louder, some nights nearly silent, but most of the time is a background hiss that lets me sleep in silence without a problem.

Since onset I never went to any loud events, I use foam earplugs for the gym, longer car drives, restaurants, quieter bars and so on. I don't even get much of a spike anymore after going to the gym with earplugs, it feels like it kind of stays the same most of the time.

I still hope with more time it will fade even more.

 

Congrats man. I am so happy for you. I pray that I get to that point as well. Some portions of the day it gets low and I feel like maybe I can deal with tinnitus but then it always gets bad again. I'm at 4 months and I know it's still early.

 

Did the actual volume of your tinnitus reduce? About how much would you say it has reduced since the beginning? What would you say it is on a scale of 1 to 10?

 

Yeah, the volume reduced. Mine was never really loud, I would say at most moderate so I could hear it in my office with low background noise? I would say at worst a 3, now it is mostly a 0-1. It is hard to describe, the biggest change actually is in the morning, in the beginning I always woke up to a pretty loud tea kettle tone, that is gone since a few months after onset. And slowly slowly I felt like also my normal tinnitus reduced to more like a hissing.

I always felt pretty bad for needing support on here, since a lot of people with worse tinnitus seemed to manage it better then me, but i have no idea why i suffered so much.

 

That's great news. Keep doing what you're doing and hopefully it fades all the way! It DOES happen. Lots of luck.

 

@Deamon22 Even though your tinnitus is really low, is it still somatic? Can you still change the sound by moving your neck?

 

Yes, I can create a completely new louder tone by turning my head all the way to the left. Not so much when turning to the right. I also get a loud hiss when pushing my jaw forward. I had this since onset.

 

@Deamon22 I acquired Somatic tinnitus 3 weeks ago from a chiropractic neck adjustment, and somehow your story encouraged me a lot. I too can generate a new high pitched hissing when I turn my head to the extreme left or rotate my head to the left and bend forward.

May I know if your somatic tinnitus when you turn head all the way to the left resolved too?

My somatic tinnitus sometimes becomes pulsatile, and I find that this has provoked a general tonal tinnitus which my brain isn’t able to cancel out. In the past, any tonal tinnitus I have do not last more than an hour and my brain will always be able to cancel that out easily. The real culprit for me is my somatic neck movement induced tinnitus. If this resolves, I am confident that any non somatic tinnitus will be easily cancelled out.

 

My somatic tinnitus did not resolve, although that was never too bad, I hear it mostly just with earplugs in and my head tilted all the way to the side, so a very unnatural position. Unfortunately i have no experience with pulsatile tinnitus, so i can not help you there.

 

Thank you @Deamon22, I guess it depends on whether one’s somatic tinnitus at resting position is bothersome. You are very lucky