4 Months In with Tinnitus — Handling It Well, Yet Worried

Hello everyone, this will be a longer post but any insight, support or comment would be greatly appreciated.

English is not my first language so I apologize for any errors.

Firstly I want to say that everyone that is dealing with this is an absolute WARRIOR. Congrats to everyone for being strong.

My journey with tinnitus started about 4 months ago, I woke up one day and noticed that I had an almost inaudible ringing in my head. I thought at first that I was just too focused on silence but since I had extreme anxiety I couldn't not focus on it. The only thing I could connect with why I got it was micro suction that I had around 5 days before it started.

It stayed very low for the next month and in the meantime I went to an ENT that concluded inner ear infection and pressure in the eustachian tube. Cant quite remember if it was negative pressure or something but it was wrong, I think its called ETD. My eardrum was inflamed a little bit as well. Nothing too bad. I also had fullness sensation, and some pain, intermittently. ENT concluded no hearing loss (Did the test 2 times between 1 month.)

I was very happy actually because I thought that the microsuction didn't damage my ears and that it was just a coincidence. But I'm not so sure now.

Month 2-3 my tinnitus was unbearable. Constantly changing and much louder. At night it was like a train in my head. After that period my tinnitus died down quite a bit, around 60% I would say.

Currently it is at a bearable level. But I had fleeting tinnitus quite often and it never seems to just stay and settle down. Every week or so I get a new tone or a tone disappears. Gets very quiet or slightly louder. And the cycle keeps going.

Right now I have a few worries and thoughts.

Could the microsuction have damaged something even though infection was concluded?

Will it be permanent given the constant change in loudness, frequency, fleeting tinnitus etc?

If it were to stay like this, I would make my peace with it. Obviously some lifestyle changes but I would be able to live fully, even now I am somewhat habituated. I am just very afraid of it getting worse for some reason. I don't know how I would handle it. Currently it is very mild, only hear it in very quiet environments and before sleep.

Massive THANK YOU to everyone who read my post. I wish everyone all the best.

 

A lot of people have stories on here about microsuction / irrigation causing tinnitus, I would go read up on some of those. As for the second question, nobody can tell you for sure, but I can tell you this, it WILL GET BETTER. As long as you don't do anything to aggravate the tinnitus, it shouldn't get louder, I would start by analyzing EVERYTHING that you did that was different during those months of loudness and compare them to what you're doing differently now and start from there (for me it was PMO). I haven't been diagnosed but I do believe that I started getting some disorder of extreme anxiety, like maybe generalized anxiety disorder but more extreme anxiety?, and I know what you're dealing with the thoughts that it will become worse. I can't really help you with that because that's something you have to get over with it yourself, but I think I can say something that will help you. It's constantly following this week-long cycle as you mentioned, what's stopping it from continuining.

 

Thank you very much for your reply and input. I have also stopped P and M. Really grabbing at straws, anything that will help I will do.

I’m just worried if a 5 second microsuction of both ears could have caused damage even if it started a week after and ENT concluded no hearing loss. Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not.

I hope both of us and everyone can get free of this condition!