Does Your Hyperacusis Vary Day-to-Day?

Hey Team H,

My personal analysis of the situation is that on some days my ears are over-sensitive, my perception of tinnitus and external sound is louder and the pain is more prevalent. On other days the tinnitus is still audible but not overwhelming, external sounds feel normal and I have little if any pain. I have been unable to point to any particular reason why some days are better than others. I figured driving my car to and from work was the problem. To so some extent it may be, yet I have had a bad weekend two weeks ago where my ears were acting up and oversensitive, yet I was just staying in a quiet bedroom at home playing video games with sound at a low level.

On the better days I am able to concentrate and don't notice my T unless I stop to listen for it. On the bad days I am unable to concentrate and feel like putting my head through a wall. Can't give you an accurate pattern other than to say it's like having 2-3 bad days followed by 2-3 good days on repeat.

Does anyone with hyperaccusis experience something similar?

 

I wouldn't say I have h but I do have some sensitivity and yes I experience the same exact thing. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to it that I can figure out. Although I will be closely monitoring my diet just to see if sugar or salt or something may be the culprit for me.
Are you doing any trt or anything such as pink or white noise?

 

Some days My hearing is quite clear, and the T is s soft, fine whine, then other days the HF sounds are so extreme I can't focus on anything else, and the T becomes like an eternal glasscutter. TRT and similar has achieved less than nothing. I can find no rhyme or reason either, diet, alcohol, drugs (legal), rest, stress.....nothing. Do any Australians here know if we have at least one actual Otologist in the country who knows about more than just external canals?

 

My T varies, my H is pretty constant. My H seems to calm down though after a few minutes in a high noise environment, it is high pitched noises when the background noise is low that causes problems.

 

Does sudden HF noise over-activate an already hyper-primed/threshold-reduced stapedius muscle? If there is a bed of other sound under it does the muscle not respond with the same intensity? The more I read, the more I'm convinced that hyperacusis is actually a different complaint to tinnitus, that just happens to accompany it often, for mechanical rather than chemical/electrical reasons. I know that discussing stapedotomy/tensorotomy seems to be a taboo on these forums, but don't these procedures have potential to spare a lot of suffering, if proper assessments for suitability can be devised? Am I under some sort of fundamental misapprehension here?

 

Wondering the same. I think you are right on.

 

You mean surgery?

 

Mine does vary from day to day.

 

Yeah surgery. Its been done. There isn't much literature on the subject, but some published articles I've seen are pretty positive. Other, more anecdotal reports I've seen are kind of mixed, so I'm not suggesting we all rush out and grab the nearest laser cutter/scalpel whatever...but it could be that something like this though in its infancy, and with proper criteria for determining eligibility needing to be developed, could offer some promise for at least some of us. Another paper I saw claimed success in reducing hyperacusis through round and oval window reinforcement (without proof of dehiscence). They believed that the procedure insulated the cochlear from extremes of sound, but I'm really not sure of that one and I haven't seen more than the one paper on the subject, Nevertheless they did it on two people and claimed successful remission of hyperacusis for both. I guess for most of us, just finding an ENT who knows what hyperacusis even is is hard enough let alone finding the needle in the haystack that's even heard of the existence of surgical options, let alone knows how to determine who is a candidate. There are potential side effects though, that can probably never be reversed as these muscles didn't develop there for nothing, hence why I emphasize criteria for eligibility would be needed. Also, I'm not talking about tinnitus here, just hyperacusis.

 

@PaulBe

The round and oval window procedure have been discussed on this site in different threads. I've been in contact with Dr. Silverstein too and his goal is that this procedure will be an accepted and widespread treatment for H. He is doing a study right now and is looking for more people with H who wants to do the procedure.

http://www.earsinus.com/inventions-and-procedures-developed-by-herbert-silverstein-m-d/

 

I have very bad h for the past 3 months and just getting worse to the point thats my shoulder pop would spike my t from the H ...i feel like i have super hearing from it as i hear everything in the house from my room

 

Lapidus, were I in America, I'd be there tomorrow.

 

yeah me too @PaulBe

 

Both my T and H vary from day to day. It really puzzles me as to what affects it so much? I have tried so many different things to help with no results.

 

You know Lapidus, I just looked through my files and I actually have the Paper on Silverstein's two cases. There needs to be a lot more work before I'd take it too seriously, but I don't doubt for a second he's onto something important. I would travel if need be. I think within standard medicine and research, too much stock has been put into complex observations of process and effect (nerves, electrolytes etc) as somehow being causes. but relatively simple potential mechanical causes haven't received the same attention. When I read talk of how small and difficult it is to work within the middle ear, and I think of some years back, medicine bragging to all and sundry about doing open heart surgery on a foetus in-utero, and I just think thanks a lot medicine (though not as politely as that).

 

Yes, indeed. I guess that's why he is doing a larger study now.

If you look at the thread about the procedure on the H network here: http://www.chat-hyperacusis.net/post/hyperacusis-surgery-7084386
You'll see that the user Olms had a primitive form of this surgery done years ago with some paper material instead of skin tissue, so the basic idea isnt new. And he claims it worked but only temporarily because the paper isnt permanent like skin tissue is.

 

I remember that now. There was another poster, Carol, who talked about it but didn't follow up. I wonder if maybe she was the woman referenced in the Paper? I do wonder why we don't hear more about this from other quarters? I guess its very early days.

 

Yeah that is correct. Carol is one of the two patients mentioned in his paper. Yes it's early days and Dr. Silverstein is doing this alone. However, according to him this procedure is very basic. It's an outpatient surgery and should be easy for any ENT to perform. After all, ENTs are surgeons not just regular doctors. So I guess other people could have this procedure done by any ENT really if they provide the information to their ENT, maybe even let their ENT contact Dr. Silverstein if there are any questions. Just a thought.

 

Mine varies day to day i have good and bad days.
Also i have days near cure.
When iam taking corticosteroids my H is none existent also T is minimal to 0.
But corticosteroids have serious side effects

 

You might have some etd check it out !

 

When I have bad sound intolerance my ET (all mine is left side only) crackles and pops like mad, as though whatever is happening is effecting middle ear ventilation.

 

I'm going to change my response to possibly. It varies, just not as much as my T.

 

I wouldn't dare, since one possible cause of H is a general anaesthetic that's me not daring to go under again.
I have surgery in January and now having shocking H.

 

Did you have any hearing issues before the surgery?

I'm wondering what drugs you may have had while under.

 

I had tinnitus, no H that I know of, but I was very well habituated and living normally could cope with supermarkets, small cafes, even MacDonalds. I have had no noise exposure this year either, so the reasons seem to be medical to my mind.

 

Friends uncle, after liver surgery (if I remember) and general anesthetic, got rid of t, after 20 years. Doctors said that it could be related just to anesthetic...

So confusing everything, and so different from person to person :/

 

H varies from day to day-sometimes it varies from hr. to hr.
It worst than the T!

 

Its so maddening. All the variables!