Ever-Changing Tinnitus: Varies in Different Positions

Hi everyone, I have been lurking around on here for the last coupe of months but finally decided that I would like to tell you about my own experience with Tinnitus. Like so many of you, I also find it quite hard to cope from time to time.

So, a little back story before my real question. I suddenly started hearing sounds in my left ear around the 20th of November 2018. Around ten days prior to that I had been at a concert where I made the mistake of not wearing any hearing protection (I usually take very good care of my ears except for this one time). However, I did not experience any Tinnitus immediately after the concert. As mentioned, it was not until around ten days later that I came to notice it, which makes me unsure of whether the concert was really the onset of my Tinnitus. In the days following the concert I also listened to music on low volume using headphones (I am usually afraid of damaging my ears with headphones and therefore almost never use them). The headphones could be the culprit, but all in all I am not sure if my Tinnitus is even noise induced.

At the beginning I was terrified. When the Tinnitus started I was experiencing a very stressful period in my life but I don’t know if the stress alone could be the cause. I had a bad panic attack on the same night that I first remember noticing the Tinnitus but I don’t remember if the sounds started to appear afterwards or if I went into panic because of the sounds I was hearing. I went to see my doctor after a couple of days and she told me that I had quite a lot of earwax which she suspected to be the cause - unfortunately, cleaning my ears didn’t help at all. My doctor told me everything else looked fine and that the pressure in my ears was normal.

Now, around 3 and a half month later, it’s still here. I only have Tinnitus on my left ear (although sometimes I have a very light sound almost like in the middle of my head or close to the right ear which doesn’t bother me as much). I often have a feeling of fullness in the ear and it often pops and makes quite a bit of cracking noises. The volume of the Tinnius on my left ear is very low and from the start I have only been able to hear it in a completely quiet room. It sounds mostly like a hiss and luckily it can be masked quite easily. I know that many people have Tinnitus that is SO much worse than mine and that makes me feel like I should not have the right to complain. However, my Tinnitus still effects me so incredibly much emotionally and I have cried so much these pasts months. Tinnitus is the last thing that I think about when I go to sleep and the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning. I try very hard to change my thought pattern but it is so difficult to do.

During these last months I have also been to my dentist to check if any dental/jaw problems could be the cause and I have been going to a physioterapist a couple of times to check for any neck issues. Maybe it helped a little but not much. I have also tried taking many kinds of vitamins and monitoring my eating but my eating habits don’t really affect my Tinnitus. In late February I finally had the chance to go to an ENT but unfortunately he has not been able to give me an answer. I had a hearing test done which showed that I have no hearing loss (I have however read many times on here that the tests are not always reliable). I just had some blood tests done a few days ago but they also turned out fine and at the moment I am scheduled for an MRI scan in April. My ENT told me that three months of Tinnitus is not a long time and that there is a good chance it will go away, so I try to keep my hopes up and stay positive.

What seems strange to me is that my Tinnitus is always changing in volume. It has done so from the very beginning but there is not really a particular pattern for when it changes. It is not just my perception of my Tinnitus that is changing but really the sound itself. It changes so much in volume depending on if I stand up or if I lay down - and how I am laying. Often when I lay down on my Tinnitus-ear the sound becomes much quieter and sometimes even disappears completely for as long as I stay in somewhat the same position. The same sometimes happens if I lay on my other side, so it is hard to figure out a particular pattern. Last week it was very quiet every night when I went to sleep laying on the Tinnitus-ear but now a few days later the overall volume of my Tinnitus has gone up again.

Some other random stuff that I have figured out is that I can also nearly make it stop completely if I pull my ear upwards and/or outwards with my fingers and hold it for a while. And if push my chin inwards towards my neck with the palms of my hands the sound intensifies - and when I let go, the sound stops for a second and then I hear it coming back like the sound of a fizzy soda. All this seems so strange to me, but I don’t know if this is normal for many Tinnius sufferers.

My post is quite long but what I really want to know is whether any of you also experience that your Tinnitus changes this much when you switch body positions? I don’t know what to make of the many changes in my Tinnitus.

On an endnote I would like to mention that I had my first experience with Tinnitus around the age of 14 which is now more than ten years ago (I’m 25 now). That time it was because of loud music from headphones, hence why I still have a fear of headphones and loud noises to this day. As I remember it now, the sound was quite consistent - and only on my left ear just like now. However, with time it went away and until my recent experience with Tinnitus I haven’t considered myself a Tinnitus sufferer for many years. So I guess I need to remember that it is possible to get better and maybe this could give a little bit of hope to some of you as well, even though it can be hard to stay positive at times.

 

Correct, those test belong in a museum of infamy.

Tinnitus is a neurological response to a loss of hearing, it doesn't have to onset immediately after a concert. Mine took about 3 days after a horrible acoustic trauma.


Hope this video can explain tinnitus a bit better.

Roland Schaette talks about tinnitus research...

 

Thanks for responding and the useful video, @Contrast . I always had the idea that Tinnitus would develop immediately after an acoustic trauma but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

 

Your case is similar to mine, I too got tinnitus from acoustic combine with headphones at lower volume, headphones at lower volume can cause tinnitus, there are so many on the forum who has gotten tinnitus from the headphones at lower volume.

Btw I am 14 months in, my tinnitus is lower now, my personal advice is don't go to any loud places even with earplugs. Don't lose hope it can get better.

 

I also hear the crackling sound, I don't get it why, the crackling sound is there even after 14 months of my own research, maybe it happens because of ETD or damaged ears.

 

You are very lucky that your tinnitus is very low, but always remember it can easily become loud even with earplugs.

 

But not always, some may get because of ear wax, inflammation, there are so many under-reported people who have got healed.

 

Mine developed 3 days after a botched dental extraction a number of years ago (dentist never accepted responsibility). Like most people my tinnitus and hyperacausis continues to fluctuate but has become less troublesome over time, I can have days, and on rare occassions even whole weeks when I don't notice it. Everyone one is different though, you may wake one day to find that whilst it may not have gone it no longer interferes with your life. Good luck

 

Like permanently louder?

 

Yes.