4 1/2 Months, and Often I Forget All About It.

My T started after persistent noise problems at work, and I was pretty frantic for a while even though it was not so loud that it prevented me from sleeping. (It's high-pitched ringing, about 6750 now though I think it was much higher in the beginning.) I'm chronically under-slept, though, so maybe it would have kept me awake if I were not always really tired by the time I got into bed. Or maybe I was avoiding going to bed until I was really, really tired - because I did not want the T to keep me awake.

The work I do requires concentration, doggedness, sometimes creative problem-solving, and often heads-down-don't-bother-me analysis. I was distraught when the T hit, because I felt that all I could do was lightweight stuff that didn't really require many brain cells to fire. I just could not do the hard part of my job. I did file a workers' comp claim, saw an audiologist who said "stay out of noisy environments and come back in 6 months if it's not gone", and mostly worked from home where it was quiet until the problem construction stopped. I managed to skid along without getting fired, and was able to do some of the harder stuff by taking more time to do it.

I started tracking days where it was quiet (which I still have, LOTS of them!) and days when it was not so I could try to form some idea of causality. Not a lot of luck, except that aerobic exercise definitely makes it better though not immediately. Maybe it just makes me so tired I fall asleep like a log, so I don't care if it's ringing or not. One thing that almost always TRIGGERS it for me is a nap in the evening! If I fall asleep for an hour sitting up, like in a chair, I almost always wake to ringing. Weird. I don't track it any more; I think I learned enough from the month or two where I kept that diary. I do note in my sleep app (Sleep Cycle) if there was ringing when I went to bed, or not. Therefore I can related a night's sleep to ringing.

I began using AudioNotch immediately, simply because it was an easy, non-invasive therapeutic activity that I could perform easily. I know myself - I'm very cheerful normally, and I am a control maven, so when I take steps to make something happen my brain very happily helps me believe it has happened. I use the notched tracks whenever I am in a noisy environment and need noise-cancelling earbuds.

I'm going to get custom earplugs too, and damn the expense. I have had several long days on planes recently, and even though the Bose QC-20s are very comfortable, they are not really all-day comfortable for me. Planes are very noisy! I need an alternative and have very small ear canals. So I'll go to the doc and get the molded earplugs.

SO, the upshot: I am working out a LOT, which makes me sleep deeply; eating healthy; protecting my hearing, as I did not experience hearing loss; and slowly getting back to the point where I can do the high-concentration work I need to deliver. The T is not completely gone, but its frequency (ha ha) is less and it has become a slight annoyance instead of a giant PITA.

I hope that this can help someone here on the site. It was both comforting and scary to read a lot of the posts here the first week, but since my symptoms were not as severe as many people's, I kept reading. I'm at the point where the T could in fact disappear without my realizing it for days, or maybe even weeks. If that happens I'll come back and let you know.

 

Im in almost 2 month. Hope u completely cure. Thanks for your story.

 

Of course, the day after I wrote up the above, my tinnitus came back. Then Friday night I went to a wedding, where the music at the reception was naturally pretty loud. So I'm back on AudioNotch right now, trying to get it to ease.

Not giving up hope though!

 

Hang in there Nancy.

I am almost at 3 months and going to start working out again tomorrow. I noticed that when I stop my T spikes especially if I overeat.

 

Last night I did an hour of aqua aerobics at a fairly good intensity level, and during the day I did about 2 hours of AudioNotch. This morning when I woke it was absolutely quiet.

I'm going to keep testing this combination, because it's worked before. If I knew for a fact that chlorine + elevated heart rate + AudioNotch would result in a quiet day the next day, I'd be a daily pool visitor. It's easy enough to listen to AudioNotch while I'm working; I use the beach, stream, wind tracks notched at 6750 which seems to be where my sound is now.

Finding something that reliably quiets the sound would be gold! especially aerobic exercise, since it's good for this aging body anyway.

 

Nancy, what is your experience with AudioNotch? Do you really get results?

 

When I stop working out and start overeating, I get a distinct spike in my waistline too!