3 Months In: Tinnitus & Recently, a Surprise Guest, Eye Floaters

***I apologize in advance for this long post, but if you have insight, I would LOVE for you to read and reply***

HOW I GOT IT
Hey all! I have been lurking on this site for months, but I finally decided to post. Now that my tinnitus is officially considered "chronic", I should probably fully embrace the community. I am 29 yrs. old btw. I got tinnitus (I assume) from listening to earbuds non-stop at work and then getting in to my car and blasting music all the way home and then back to the earbuds. Pretty bad decisions all around. But, I had never heard of tinnitus before I got it. I thought the worst thing that could happen is, I lose a little hearing (small price to pay for someone as obsessed with music as I was). But, alas, the consequences were 1,000 times worse and I got this random unending condition.

WHAT I DID AFTER I GOT IT AND MY SYMPTOMS
My Tinnitus at first:
- 1st day it was in one ear, the next day in both and is currently still in both
- severe hyperacusis
- tons of ear, facial, neck and head pain
- burning ear when I listened for it in silence
- super loud
- light headed whenever I stood up

A couple of days after I got tinnitus, I basically lost it and my coworkers forced me to go to urgent care. I was prescribed prednisone and a Zpack and some nasal spray. She said I had an ear infection in my left ear and fluid in both and that it probably wasn't tinnitus. (riiiight) The side effects of the prednisone were horrendous. But, I wanted to get better so I finished it. I had horrible hyperacusis and extremely loud tinnitus at first. So I stopped doing anything involving noise. No music in the car, definitely no earbuds ( I threw them all away once I realized what I had. Btw it should be criminal to not mention this as a side effect on the earbud case), I barely even went outside without earplugs. I don't even put my phone to my ear till this day.

Aside from avoiding noises, I also got massages and that helped a lot with the pain. I exercised a ton and actually lost like 15 pounds. I ate only fruits and veggies, no coffee no alcohol. And I got obsessed with Julian Hill. He helped me hold on to my fleeting sanity. Him and my amazing family and friends. I have been to two ENT's and an audiologist. My audiologist said my hearing was 100% perfect. One ENT was apathetic and useless, the other said I might have TMJ due to the pain that resulted in my face after a loud noise. I have definitely had some jaw and grinding and cheek biting issues, but I'm not sure why I would have gotten tinnitus directly after listening to loud music if it was related to my jaw though.

RECENTLY
My tinnitus now:
- Developed noticeable eye floaters (like why? b/c T just wasn't enough! I swear, I'm like I guess I'll stop being able to taste or something soon. Lose all my senses)
- T is mild in the sense that it can be masked by city noise at work ( I work in the city so there is tons) and with a combo of an open window and the AC on at home
- Pain is 100% gone unless I mess up and hear something super loud
- T still in both ears
-still light headed when I stand up

Nowadays, my tinnitus has definitely dropped in sound (idk how to measure the noise, please let me know how to do it!!) and my hyperacusis is waaay better. I used to hear a loud noise and have pain throughout my head, my neck, and face, and ears for days. Now, it hurts a little but subsides quicker. Much less pain. The entire first month was just immense pain so I am happy that is over. I recently got a CT brain scan, so I will get the results of that soon.
And now here I am today. I am a lot more calm about it than I was at first. At first I just thought, "there is no way I am going to live with this, I am going to die" and I cried to my best friend and family constantly. And let me not lie, I'm still kind of there, but I have good days. Recently I drove to the beach and stayed for five days and when I got back and listened to my ears they were SO LOW. Like a level 2 (novice measure because I don't know how to quantify this). Unfortunately, I am currently in the middle of a spike due to noise and diet, but I am trying to get back on track.

QUESTIONS FOR THE COMMUNITY ** if nothing else please answer #7***
1. I hate to ask will it go away, because everyone asks that and if any of us knew....then we would know the results of our own fate as well. But is there still hope at the three months mark?

2. I have recently developed noticeable eye floaters (shoot maybe they were always there and people with T just go a little crazy and start noticing them...either way they're here and noticeable) is there hope for that going away? Some articles say they sink to the bottom of your eye over time.

3. How in the heck do I measure my T. I use this app called decibel X and I notice that my T is mostly masked when the room is around 59 decibels of noise. What does that mean about the level of my T?

4. Are there in-person support groups? If not, why not? We should all be meeting together and crying but also spurring each other on. The Bible says to encourage each other daily. And that is encouraged just for normal people without T haha so how much more should we do it?

5. Does anyone have noise induced T like mine? Not the "one time I saw a loud concert" noise induced. I'm talking the "Yea....I know exactly how I got T because I tortured my system with music" acoustic trauma. If so, has anyone recovered?

6. I am going to take a flight at 5PM today. Most people that don't have side effects from flying with T, didn't have noise induced T to begin with. Has anyone with my kind of noise trauma, flown this soon after developing T? Will my spike get worse?

 

I cant answer your question about flying. I dont think it would worsen though. I got eye floaters about 3 months in too. Our brains are rewiring and affecting how we process sensory input.

 

1) You have 1-8 months golden time period where T can reduce, after that it becomes very hard. You are doing really good for a newcomer. I expect your T to reduce further, H to disappear, and you to habituate. Notice you can habituate to mild T, nothing beyond that.
2) I developed black eye floaters since my T worsened in January. @Chad Lawton had also the same thing happen to him. He went to the eye doctor and his eyes were normal.
3) It means your T is moderate, my T is maskable at 70db
4) I dont believe in god or the bible. I am not sure about in person talk groups. I am sure you can find somewone in your area who has T to discuss the matter with your further.
5) This I cant help you with.

my questions for you

1) Have you done an audiogram? up to High frequencies?
2) DPOAE
3) Tell me more about your lightheadedness? This happens to me. I think its from the damage to the inner cochlea cells.

 

I always had clear eye floaters that I only saw when I looked at the sky. The rest of the time they disappeared. Once I got Tinnitus, the eye floaters appear everywhere and I now have dark ones as well. It has to do with visual snow syndrome and thalamacortical dysrythmia. I've grown somewhat accustomed to the floaters but the ringing is what still drives me nuts.

 

Same here. I have hyperacusis. I can get by with visual snow and black eye floaters. I just want T reduced and H gone.

 

I'm putting all my eggs in one basket and am betting on Frequency Therapeutics. I'll be very curious to see if they manage to restore hearing, what effect it could have on visual symptons such as eye floaters.

 

Same here. How much of your hearing have you lost?

 

Any advice on flying? My flight is in like 2hrs. I don’t have the special Peltor muffs. But I have 24dec noise reducing muffs and I have Eargasm earplugs. Is that good enough? I’m so scared I’m 10sec from taking the train back home

 

@dpdx is there really no way for T to fade completely? My only hope is mild T?

 

Sadly there is not. lets hope our T fades to a mild level. I been dealing with terrible tinnitus and bad hyperacusis. Still 0 improvement since January.

 

@dpdx what about the people on the success stories that say there’s faded?

 

Whose T has faded?

 

Hi.. Welcome ...
This site is for all tinnitus people to share information, getting support, venting their angers ... etc.
You can do whatever needed in this forums. God bless !

 

@dpdx

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/thought-id-post-after-9-months-for-new-sufferers.10784/

 

Rare. Usually but not always it fades to mild.

 

It has been less than three months since the onset of your T.

 

First of all - Congratulations! This is huge. It ought to continue fading.

You want to try to match the sound of your T to another sound. For example "the loudest (or the quietest) noise you can make by sucking air through your nose".

Daily/weekly fluctuations are irrelevant. What matters is the monthly trend and the global lows. It has been less than three months after onset, and you had already achieved a global low of 2. You are at a place that some people take a year to get to. It is looking good for you.

Too bad that I couldn't answer this earlier. In any case, a number of people who got their T as a result of an acoustic trauma had flown, and were ok afterwards. They had protected their ears and tried to sit towards the front of the plane, in an isle seat far from the windows. I am not sure whether they flew so soon after onset, but I honestly think that you will likely not get a permanent spike as a result of that flight.

Yes. See the multiple studies in many of the posts in the thread below
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/

It seems to me it makes more sense to look at the speed of recovery, and use that to forecast the chance of a future complete recovery. Your recovery seems to be progressing faster than the recovery of the people who ended up hearing silence again.

In case you haven't seen it yet, check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822