Crickets-Type Tinnitus for Years, Now a Ringing Sound Joined It — Hello from Texas

Howdy everyone. My name is Cory and I am a 50-year-old male who lives in Central Texas in the Austin area and I've had tinnitus since 2015.

I am not sure of the cause of my tinnitus, but I do remember the night it started for me. I was 45 years old. When I was sitting in my La-Z-Boy one night on the computer, just there in my living room, I started hearing what sounded like crickets. I remember shutting my computer and going outside and I couldn't get the sound out of my head and I've had varying degrees of it ever since.

I've been to an ear, nose, throat specialist who first said I had inflammation in my left ear where most of the sounds occur and she gave me an antibiotic. No change. Then she ordered a head MRI to check for any tumors. All clear there. The nurse even said I had a very healthy brain lol. I had tests for hearing loss. Nothing there. Then she wanted to do surgery with no guarantees, and I stopped going after that as she was just fishing.

Over the years I pretty much got used to it as it, for the most part, was medium to a low in frequency.

Sometimes it gets so low I can't hear it and I enjoy that for about a week or so and then it comes back with a revenge and I have to start all over again in getting used to it. There have also been times when it is quiet for a day and then the next morning I wake up to a loud whooshing sound that settles back down at a high cricket noise.

The shower makes for a good masking and I tend to take long showers on loud days.

Every time I think I have it pegged in terms of patterns and probable causes, it takes other turns.

I've noticed in the last week though a new sound has introduced itself, a slight distant ring that didn't use to be there, it was just cricket sounds. Now it is cricket sounds with a coming and going faint ringing sound in the left ear.

Sometimes my left ear feels full, which makes me think congestion, maybe earwax. I have had sinus infections in the past before I got tinnitus. I get really congested sometimes to where my equilibrium gets messed up and I get dizzy. I have bad motion sickness.

I sometimes wonder if it is inherited as my father and his brother have ringing in the ear too.

The human body is such a mystery and that is my story.

 

Welcome to the forum. It is likely you have some ear or sinus issues due to the fullness you feel at times. Infection of sinus or inner ears, ear fluid or wax build up, or ETD? Best to get an ENT to check it out.

Good luck. God bless

 

Have your doctors ruled out Meniere's? Or is the dizziness only when you have a respiratory illness?

As for the new sound:

Certain medications, such as antibiotics can worsen tinnitus. There are many on here who have had worsening from COVID-19 vaccines.

Or perhaps you have unknowingly exposed yourself to sounds above your tolerance threshold and normal wear and tear on your auditory system has caused an increase.

 

Man I just found out my mom has had pretty bad tinnitus for years. My wife covered her ears last night and heard crickets and said “wait that’s not normal?” Lol. My brother is getting worsening tinnitus from eczema. Tinnitus is just freaking odd lol.

 

Yeah, I had it as long as I can remember, but only heard it at night or while wearing my in-ear monitors. As soon as the mix came through my monitors though, I wouldn't hear it anymore.

 

What set off the bad tinnitus initially?

 

Not completely sure. I had moved, and with the pandemic, everyone was home 24/7. Noisy neighbor moved in above me, and I hate noise. So I wore my Apple AirPods Pros A LOT; watching endless amounts of TV, listening to music while I worked and cooked. I also always listened to music in my car extremely loud. I liked feeling the kick of the subwoofer. That paired with a decade of being in venues regularly playing shows and noisy practice studios several times a week probably put things over the edge. I was also really sick with the flu back in February 2020 which actually gave me asthma. I'm wondering if I might have had the flu AND COVID-19 at the same time.

 

Yes that could be what happened to you. I personally think you’ll get better over time.

 

For most of my over 5 years of tinnitus it has always been a medium to low level cricket or hiss sound that has been easy to live with for the most part, very easy to mask when out in about by just driving, fans, HVAC units, etc. I never gave it a second thought.

Once in a blue moon I would get a spike, but it would last no more than a couple of days before turning back down to normal or at least my normal that I was used to.

The last 3 weeks or so it has been more of the medium to loud level of hissing and it seems to be layers of noises, like a faint ring on top of a screeching intense hiss, on top a of clear hollow low tone which is the best of the three.

The ring usually fades away during the course of the day.

Two days ago the ring and screeching loud hiss slowly faded away and all that was left was the low tone that by itself went down to a minimum volume level. What a relief it was.

I remember I was just sitting listening to a sports podcast on the computer and the voices over the speaker were getting clearer, an oh what joy.

I went outside and walked around for hours enjoying the sounds of the wind in the trees and the sounds of nature, something I've taken for granted.

But during the night all the sounds came back with a vengeance.

Makes it hard to get used to when you get 3 or so days of loud tinnitus with 1 quiet tinnitus day.

I have been congested with full ears that are always popping when I swallow as well as my nasal sinus, which maybe it gets all stopped up again at night.

 

No offense but many people here would kill to have one quiet day every 3 days.

 

I went to an allergy doctor yesterday and talked about the fullness in my ears and could this be causing my tinnitus to get worse? He said that is a possibility, showed me pictures of the inner ear and how pressure can cause certain problems. It's possible I have Eustachian tube disorder.

Got an appointment a week from now to go back and do the allergy test to see what could be causing my sinus and ears to clog.

I just told him my tinnitus was always manageable for the time I have had it and recently it has gone up in volume.

He gave me a shot of a steroid (low dose), I can't remember the name of it, to give my ears some pressure relief.

I didn't feel anything in the ears yesterday in terms of relief, but today the ears are not as full, although they are still popping.

This morning I woke up to a stronger tone in my tinnitus, like a different frequency. The hissing is a full strong line tone in both ears. I wonder if the ZzzQuil I took last night had anything to do with this?

The positive is that it is easier to mask than the loud hissing I was having before. Maybe it gets worse before it gets better.