3 Month Update — Tinnitus Got Better

Coming up to two years, not much new to report. Tinnitus still fluctuates over longer periods of time (I get long stretches of very low tinnitus and then a stretch where it is a bit louder). Mostly it moves in a certain loudness range up and down, so it does not surprise me anymore.

I went to my first wedding last weekend. After reading up on weddings here on the forum, I was afraid they were terribly loud. Luckily this one was very nice, mostly the music was just very low in the background, so it was just people talking and laughing. My phone measured the volume at around 60-80db at the reception, where I put my foam earplugs in. No big change in my tinnitus, a small spike when I came home but that happens always when I drink a bit.

I still use foam earplugs for a lot of stuff like the gym, restaurants and longer drives, so no changes there. I feel like my tinnitus is not improving much anymore, but it could also be that it just goes way slower now. Will see what the third year brings.

 

The more it fades, the slower it tends to fade. This is consistent with it fading at a constant rate. Initially 1% was a lot. Now that it is low, 1% of a small number is small.

 

Hi @Deamon22,

It’s good to hear that you’re doing well. You mentioned in your original post that you drained your Eustachian Tubes initially, how did you do that?

 

@Deamon22 -- I watched a youtube video recently where a guy showed how tires get drier and noisier as they age. He demonstrated how buying a new set of tires lowered decibal readings from about 75 to around 65. I believe he also used a "tire conditioner" of some sort to keep the new tires from drying out. Doing this every few months can apparently extend the life of tires by 2-3x. and I guess keep them quieter at the same time.

 

I used this video, however I could not say that it really helped.

Drain Eustachian Tubes in 60 Seconds (Sinus...

 

I just put on some new tires, my car is not really noisy, but I mostly wear them just because I try to cut out avoidable noise. And having driving noise for a few hours at least for me seems not really necessary. But thank you for the advice.

 

3 Years

Damn, time flies. Not much changed since my last update, lately I struggle a bit more than before, I wear foam earplugs a lot more and I am generally a bit afraid to do things. My tinnitus does not fluctuate too much anymore, it stays mostly in a certain range. While I am doing ok all in all, I feel like I am living on eggshells, and that sucks.

 

You are really lucky that your tinnitus is not so loud. I mean you can´t even hear it in the night so you should feel blessed.

Many other people are dealing with it worse... Just don't get anxious about it... it´s really faint in your case.

You can live a normal life.

Enjoy.

 

Unfortunately, not hearing it at night was just in the beginning, so around three years ago, when it fluctuated a lot. I still get sometimes a night where it is low but it always comes back to baseline. Nowadays I hear it mostly just indoors when it is quiet, but at night it is clearly there.

I absolutely know that I am lucky, but I am also terrible afraid of it getting worse, so I constantly tiptoe around everything and use foam earplugs a lot.