Another One Bites the Dust?

this text is somewhat haphazard, apologies for that.

on the evening of august 11th i got that ringing in my right or left ear that you get from concerts. but i was at home all weekend (i.e., minimal sound disturbance), so i went back to sleep. the next day it started after noon and hasn't stopped since.


i went to gp, ent, neurologist. conclusions: general blood test is alright (albeit folate levels were high, bilirubin was just a littlie higher than the normal levels), minimal hearing loss, space orientation is fine. started doing physiotherapy due to the stiff neck (stiff per their words... i don't really feel any stiffness that much but i do spend 70+ percent of the day behind the pc). "we don't know the reason. gotta learn to live with it." yeah... really got the feeling that they just don't care. i was prescribed prednisone (60/40/20 and so on) but i stopped it after day 5 because the weakness it'd caused to my legs was alarming. i felt as if the weight of my body was too much. legs felt really brittle. and i'm a freaking paranoid, so i quit cold turkey (but i'd asked the ent beforehand, she said it was ok, as it'd been only 5 days of 60/60/60/40/40). haven't had a panic attack in a long time, like maybe 2-3 years, but after quitting prednisone shtf really bad the day after haha.


i doubled down on vitamins and minerals: vitamin d, magnesium, b12, omega 3 (i'm one of these but the test didn't show any deficiencies, although haven't yet tested vitamin d). i'm also taking some ginkgo but the general consensus here is that it's useless.


also i'm trying to reduce the stress, as prior to t, like 7-15 days before, i'd read stuff about the state of the planet. it is so focken bad that my stress level had reached 200%. before that, i was stressed due to unemployment, and before that a stressful job, and before the university. all stress and no success makes beach house susceptible to weird ringing...

it is really quiet early in the morning when i wake up. throughout the day it picks up its usual loudness. sometimes it's quiet even throughout the day but i don't know, maybe i'm somewhat used to it now and the loudness hasn't decreased at all... i think physiotherapy has some effects but it may be subjective, as i want t to be stemming from the back problems that can be fixed.


the worst thing, mentally, is the feeling of helplessness and loneliness. because nobody can get inside of your head to somehow help. i myself am sort of alone but i rarely feel loneliness. this stuff not only adds the latter but plain exacerbates it to the point of "shit, there's no one in my life." so i started reaching out. and it turns out, unsurprisingly but still a tad disappointing, that i don't really have that many a friend.

i give it to t for one thing: it made me prioritise. other than that, can someone turn it off please?

this past month my health went down. the weakness from prednisone in my legs has lessened but ankles still hurt, can't really run. my eyes are bloodshot, hair is thinning out (as in, an individual hair is thinning out, and the one that grows after it is also thin and easily falls out). i wonder if this chain of deteriorating health was caused by prednisone and/or quitting it without tapering since the bloody thing is suppressing the immune system. gonna have to check cortisol levels, i guess.


thank you for reading

 

It sounds like you were already familiar with ringing, from concerts. Over time, this can lead to hearing loss and/or tinnitus. Sometimes, all it takes is a single exposure to very loud noise, to cause damage, and concerts have been known to do this. As it's only been about five or six weeks since the tinnitus started, you stand a very good chance of real improvement, if you take measures to reduce your risk of further damage by protecting your hearing, when necessary. General health and lowering of stress is also important.

 

haven't been to a gig in a long time, since march to be precise. but i am using metro, where it can get from 70 to 80+ db. skipping it for now in favour of tram but sometimes it's just as loud.

thank you for replying.