Hi, all. Starting my 33rd year with tinnitus. It's a club none of us wants to belong to. But I have also been in the cancer club and survived, so in comparison, tinnitus seems a lot more tolerable. But it wasn't always that way. When I contracted a flu virus at age 33 when I was pregnant with my fourth child, after three days I found that I had lost my hearing in my right ear and was left with a terrible high-pitched ringing sound, plus vertigo. The flu went away, the vertigo went away, but the tinnitus didn't. I had a healthy baby boy, which helped me cope a bit better with the tinnitus as this blessing took my focus away from the ringing. After several visits to ENTs and hearing specialists and finally realizing there was no cure for the deafness or tinnitus, I just lay on the bed crying uncontrollably. How was I to raise four kids, help my Mom who was dealing with my Dad who had a brain aneurysm that left him very brain damaged, be an encouragement to her and my Dad when I was so down, and be all I needed to be as a wife and mother? For those of you who have tinnitus, you know how the onset can feel devastating.
But with the help of my Christian faith and the grace of God, I forged ahead and life went on, despite tinnitus and its minute-by-minute annoyance, and despite the single-sided deafness. I did suffer from depression that developed from a mixture of hereditary factors, as well as the tinnitus, the deafness, witnessing my Dad's life with brain damage for 25 years, my Mom's struggles with Dad at home and later in the VA nursing home, having a son with drug problems and defiant out-of-control behavior, having a benign irregular heartbeat that was miserable, and then getting breast cancer at age 48. It was not easy. But my faith gave me hope (there will be none of this in heaven!), and my husband and others were a support network that really stood by me.
In 2008 I was able to at least find some relief from the deafness by getting a BAHA (bone anchored) hearing aid. It involved the surgical implant of an abutment behind my ear, and after a healing period I was able to attach the high-powered hearing aid which transmitted sound via the bone to my good ear. It's not perfect, but it helps a lot to "hear" sounds on my right side and to better make out what people are saying. As many of you may know, the tinnitus also makes it hard to make out what people are saying since that head noise tends to compete with the sounds coming in.
So I wish to encourage those of you who have just joined the "club." There is life after tinnitus. You learn to cope, and everyday life blocks out the tinnitus as it takes your focus off of it, if you let it. You have to try to not focus on the noise, hard as that may seem. In time, it happens. I've dealt with this thing for 32 years, and I can smile despite it. The Lord gave me the strength to endure, and He sustained me, or I wouldn't be sane and writing this today. I have learned to count my blessings and to know that "it could always be worse."
For those interested, there is a therapy out there called "SoundCure Serenade" for tinnitus. It can only be tried by people who still have fairly good hearing in the tinnitus ear. Unfortunately, the ENT told me it would not work for me with my deafness. I don't know the success rate, but it's worth checking into. Here is a link. Best wishes and God bless!
http://www.ttsrelief.com/tinnitus-t...zMfdofrmGR-NyoYPzU5cq7TUQU17SKWLBmBoC90_w_wcB
But with the help of my Christian faith and the grace of God, I forged ahead and life went on, despite tinnitus and its minute-by-minute annoyance, and despite the single-sided deafness. I did suffer from depression that developed from a mixture of hereditary factors, as well as the tinnitus, the deafness, witnessing my Dad's life with brain damage for 25 years, my Mom's struggles with Dad at home and later in the VA nursing home, having a son with drug problems and defiant out-of-control behavior, having a benign irregular heartbeat that was miserable, and then getting breast cancer at age 48. It was not easy. But my faith gave me hope (there will be none of this in heaven!), and my husband and others were a support network that really stood by me.
In 2008 I was able to at least find some relief from the deafness by getting a BAHA (bone anchored) hearing aid. It involved the surgical implant of an abutment behind my ear, and after a healing period I was able to attach the high-powered hearing aid which transmitted sound via the bone to my good ear. It's not perfect, but it helps a lot to "hear" sounds on my right side and to better make out what people are saying. As many of you may know, the tinnitus also makes it hard to make out what people are saying since that head noise tends to compete with the sounds coming in.
So I wish to encourage those of you who have just joined the "club." There is life after tinnitus. You learn to cope, and everyday life blocks out the tinnitus as it takes your focus off of it, if you let it. You have to try to not focus on the noise, hard as that may seem. In time, it happens. I've dealt with this thing for 32 years, and I can smile despite it. The Lord gave me the strength to endure, and He sustained me, or I wouldn't be sane and writing this today. I have learned to count my blessings and to know that "it could always be worse."
For those interested, there is a therapy out there called "SoundCure Serenade" for tinnitus. It can only be tried by people who still have fairly good hearing in the tinnitus ear. Unfortunately, the ENT told me it would not work for me with my deafness. I don't know the success rate, but it's worth checking into. Here is a link. Best wishes and God bless!
http://www.ttsrelief.com/tinnitus-t...zMfdofrmGR-NyoYPzU5cq7TUQU17SKWLBmBoC90_w_wcB
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