Dealing with Insensitive Doctors: Ototoxicity (Vancomycin) Being Brushed Off as a Possible Cause

I've had tinnitus since my early 20s (I'm now in my 50s) but I have been picking up new forms of and reasons for it along the way.

In my 20s I went to many loud concerts and after one in particular I was in the front row next to a speaker which was to my right. My ears were roaring for days and over time it got less noticeable but I still have it today. I never had a problem living with it because it's only noticeable when it's very quiet. I sleep with a fan on every night which masks it.

Due to my bruxism I have TMJ issues. I've been sleeping with a custom bite guard for almost ten years. I have clicking and popping sounds in both my ears with a very occasional morse-code type ringing in my left ear only. That, too, was never too bothersome since it's occasional and I can ignore it.

I came to Tinnitus Talk after I developed high-pitched tinnitus while taking oral vancomycin end of October and I still have it today. I had a hearing test a few weeks or so ago which showed mild hearing loss in my right ear only, so asymmetrical. The ENT was too busy to meet with me, I only saw an audiologist, but she reviewed my audiogram and told me over the phone about acoustic neuroma since my hearing loss is asymmetrical. Both she and my doctor are brushing off the vancomycin as a possible source. I do not want an MRI yet and made an appointment with a different ENT who specializes in tinnitus (or so his website says) and I'm meeting with him in January.

I have some days where the high-pitched tinnitus stops for hours and yesterday it was quiet all day! Today it's back making up for lost time. When it started out it "sounded" like it was in my head between my ears but not it feels like it's on the right side of my head, same side as the mild hearing loss. It's the same side that was facing that speaker at the concert. I could have had this hearing loss since then, right? But the high pitched tinnitus is new. How could it not be from the vancomycin?

I'm feeling frustrated and even abandoned by my doctor and the previous ENT. Why are they brushing off the possibility that I suffered from ototoxicity? My doctor has been pretty dismissive that tinnitus can have a large impact. I don't get it.

 

It's basically because they don't have it and think it's just a noise from what mentally unstable people are distressed.

I think many of them are well aware that they can't really help the patients with tinnitus, do the just belittle the problem as a nuisance.

Lots of them don't keep up with research and stuck in the Jastreboff-era.