From Spasms, to Clicking, to Hyperacusis, to Tinnitus

Hello everyone!

My name is Samir, I am 31 years old and I have tinnitus.

I started having problems with tinnitus very recently, but I suspect I may have had it for a longer time and it only recently creeped up to my consciousness. I think it's my hearing that has worsened over time due to loud noises which has resulted in tinnitus. Several sources on tinnitus also suggest that it is a symptom of an underlying disease rather than a disease in itself. I suspect I have a hair cell loss at the high frequencies.

Since I started searching the web about tinnitus I have found a lot of useful information, links and engaging discussions about this dreadful condition here on Tinnitus Talk. So I decided to join the conversation and share my story. So here I am now.

In my case, the ringing actually started around the same time as I was reading and learning about tinnitus. The mere act of reading and then worrying about having tinnitus may have helped bring it up to my conscious mind. This is also something I read about on these forums and other sites. The human mind is clever and sometimes it can be vicious like that.

For me, the problem is only with the left ear. My right ear was and still is not affected by this. In July of 2016, I started having trouble falling asleep or being woken up by a pulsatile sensation in my left ear. It was a pulsatile sensation, and it was periodic. It came and went, and then came back again. It could last for 2 or 3 seconds at a time, then go away. Only to return again a few minutes later. It made a whooshing kind of sound, but it was not as much of a sound as it was a sensation of movement in the ear.

As I recall, I have had similar symptoms with my left ear several years ago, but I never gave it a lot of thought and I was not bothered by it. Or so I thought! As I rolled the tape back so to speak, I started to realize that I have had frequent headaches not too long ago, and there was one period where I would often wake up at night. But it was not a pronounced problem. Many medical conditions are like that, they tend to develop slowly over time. It was only in July 2016 that I became aware that I may have a serious medical condition with my left ear and I started seeking professional help.

I suspected that my eardrum or some muscle was causing the sound and the pulsating sensation. I knew that it was no ordinary tinnitus, because I think most people alive today have experienced "ringing in the ear" at some point in their lives, and so have I. That kind of tinnitus usually lasts for 2 to 5 seconds and then fades away peacefully. Several months or even years can go by before you experience that kind of tinnitus again.

I have also read that tinnitus can manifest itself as a low pitched sound, like growling, and not just as high pitched sounds like ringing, whistling and squealing. So I was becoming increasingly worried that it might be a more serious form of tinnitus, the kind you occasionally read about in newspapers.

Prior to this, I was exposed to a high pitched noise from a faulty sound card in my computer. It had something to do with drivers and bad interference isolation. Whatever! This might have been in February 2016. But it was not the first time I was exposed to this dreadful noise. It had happened at least three times before in year 2015. This is it! This is my main suspect now. Like I said, I think I may have had some early stages of tinnitus for a long time, mostly due to listening to loud music. But the latest development is highly likely due to the faulty sound card.

I think the sound card issue started with the release of Windows 10! "The best Windows yet"... or something. It scared the hell out of me the first time it happened! It was very loud! I don't remember if I was listening in through the speakers or not. But I clearly remember one time when I was using my Sony earbuds. I totally freaked out when that noise unexpectedly went through my head! I remember jumping out of my chair and quickly pulling the earbuds out of my ears. The same thing happened with the Sony earbuds at least one more time. What's worse is that the Sony earbuds are the kind that goes inside your ear canal! I also had my AKG headphones on once and I threw them off of my head!

The very last time this happened I did not have my AKG headphones on. They were connected directly to the sound card and laying on the table. So when the noise striked I decided to record it for the records. So I picked up my phone and recorded a few seconds of it. I can upload it if someone requests it, but I think you guys have enough of noises of your own. The recorded sound was around 6 kHz.

I started my investigation by going to the local healthcare center. I called in the day before but I didn't get an appointment to see a GP. They asked me to come in just to do an ear flush. I didn't expect this to help but I went along with it. I met a nurse who had to call in a GP to check my ears. Maybe nurses are not allowed to check for ear wax? Maybe she did not receive training for using the otoscope or she just wanted to consult a senior GP. Maybe she wanted to be sure I did not have an ear drum perforation. Flushing an ear with a perforated ear drum would probably not be the smartest idea. Whatever the reason, I found the whole situation strange and unprofessional.

Since I had no appointment, the GP just did a quick check of my ears with the otoscope. There was no obstruction she said, no ear wax build-up, it all looked clean and there was no eardrum perforation or any other sign of structural damage. So I didn't need any ear flushing. The GP recommended me to go to a private audiologist office to have my hearing checked because the waiting time is much longer to see an ENT specialist at the local hospital.

I went to the audiologist. This was at the end of July and I did the standard hearing test. The audiogram showed normal hearing levels across all frequencies. All except for the left ear at 6 kHz! I had a mild dip there. It was at 30 dB. For the right ear it was at 5 dB. All other marks on the diagram were above 20 dB.

With the audiogram in hand I went back home feeling bad for possibly inflicting a hearing loss on my left ear. On top of the problem with my ear, I was concerned for a family member who had fallen ill. This was not a good combination. I started feeling anxious and depressed. I was no longer my old self. I later learned that anxiety induces tinnitus, and vice verse.

I was becoming a nervous wreck. I had trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. I could wake up 5 times during the night, having difficulty falling back to sleep again each time. Sometimes my hands were cold when I woke up during the night, and I shivered, even though it was not cold in the room. As a result I was always feeling tired in the morning. As I slowly began to accept the situation, my anxiety started to wear off, but the pulsatile sensation in my left ear did not stop.

At one occasion when I was about to brush my teeth for the night I saw in the mirror that my left ear (pinna) was twitching. It was moving up and down involuntarily. It did so a couple of times, with pauses, and then it stopped. This was an interesting observation. I had never seen any of my ear do that. It strengthened my original hypothesis that the pulsatile sensation and the whooshing sound was caused by muscles. I started reading about muscle spasms the next morning and learned that there are in fact two muscles in the middle ear (tensor tympani and stapedius) that can start twitching (myclonus). I was positive I had found the cause of the pulsatile sensation and the whooshing sound I was hearing at night.

What made things worse is that one day I had this strange sensation of vertigo. I had never had any balance issues in my entire life, I had perfect balance. But it was not as if everything was spinning around me and I had to hold on to something, which how many people describe their experience with vertigo. I had no problem standing tall and steady, or standing on one leg, walking, running, jumping, etc. It was more like a false sense of motion! I started to freak out again! I had no idea what was happening to me. But this thing thankfully stopped after about two days.

I made an appointment at the local healthcare center for a second visit in August. This time I met with a GP right away. Or so I thought! I later learned that he was an intern, a post graduate physician with a medical degree but not a fully licensed GP. Nevertheless, he showed true professionalism and he showed genuine concern for my well being. So much so that he did thorough tests of my ears, eyes, mouth, neck, etc. I don't even know all the tests he did. He was a freshly trained physician, so I guess he was going straight by the book and the training he received at the medical school. I wish more doctors were like him! He then ordered a blood test at the lab, and even blood pressure monitoring which I never had done before. He also remitted me to the ENT clinic at the hospital.

The blood test results came in and everything looked good. Then I went to the center again to have a monitoring device put on me for blood pressure monitoring. This is a device I had to carry on me for 24 hours. He ordered this because he wanted to rule out hypertension. I had difficulty sleeping with that thing on me. But I saw it through, and the results came in normal. Meanwhile, the pulsating sensation of my left ear had completely stopped.

I got an appointment to do a new hearing test in October of 2016, at the ENT clinic this time. I saw an audiologist and did the test. The new audiogram looked better than the old one. The 6 kHz mark in particular was a lot better for the left ear. It was above the 20 dB threshold for normal hearing. That was surprising to me. I spoke to the audiologist who did the test and we talked about tinnitus in general terms, and the kind of support and treatments that were available. I had not developed tinnitus at the time for the visit. I no longer considered the ear spasms that I had to be tinnitus. Since it took me 3 months to get to the ENT clinic I had really nothing to complain about, because my original symptoms had subsided.

I don't recall if it was right before or after the second audiogram that I started hearing clicks in my left ear. So while the ear muscle spasms (or whatever it was, guess I'll never know now) had subsided, I had developed a new ailment. It was a faint sound, and it sounded like a very small bone or a tree branch being broken off. It was a faint, but sharp sound. It was enough to make me uncomfortable and disturb my sleep at night. It would click, then pause, then click again after a few seconds or even minutes. It was very sporadic, irregular. I still have this now but it is much less frequent. Several hours or even days can go by before I hear it again. I have no idea if it's in my mind or if it has to do with the ossicular chain. That's the type of thing you would want to know.

I think it was in November that I started experiencing what I would describe as some type of hyperacusis. I had no problem hearing the TV or other people talking in a crowded room. But sometimes I would get the similar pulsatile sensation I had experienced before. It was causing me discomfort. I suspect it was triggered by certain frequencies in the environment.

In mid December of 2016 I started hearing a faint but constant ringing in my left ear at around 6 kHz. I tried to pinpoint the frequency and 6.1 kHz is the closest I could get. It's just above 6 kHz. It was faint at first, but then it got a bit louder. Now instead of the clicking sound which had almost completely subsided I had to endure the beeping. I fell into despair and I started to become anxious again. I think my anxiety was triggered by the tinnitus itself this time. My best guess is that my brain was trying to compensate for what now seems very likely a loss of hair cells around the 6 kHz point.

Several weeks have passed since the onset of tinnitus, and the sound has changed in color and intensity several times. From a sine type of ringing sound to a suiting faint white noise, then back to ringing again. The intensity has decreased over time again. Also, when I woke up at night sometimes I would not even hear it. I think I did not hear it at all for a day one time. Then it came back again. I am currently not bothered by it as much as I was before.

When I spoke to the audiologist at the ENT clinic in October, she asked me if I wanted to see an ear specialist and I said yes. I wanted to go to the bottom of this. I wanted to rule out all treatable underlying diseases. If tinnitus was all that remained, then so be it! I would have to learn to live with it I guess, like everyone else. There are options like CBT therapy, but I don't think my tinnitus is that sever. I am still waiting to see this ear doctor who is said to be specially trained at diagnosing and treating tinnitus patients. I should have an appointment by the end of January of this year.

So I went from ear muscle spasms, to ear clicking, to hyperacusis at certain frequencies or sound level intolerance, to minor or mild high pitch tinnitus. I just hope it doesn't get any worse.

I don't know how these tinnitus ratings are done, what they are based on. But I don't think I suffer as much as many of you on these forums do. Subjectively, on a scale of 0 to 10 I would rate my tinnitus as a 1, or a 2 at most. But we all think that our own suffering is the worst. It's a human nature! I can only wish that none of us had to endure this dreadful condition.

So there you have it. That's my story. But the story is not over just yet. I hope to see a successful end to it and report about it in the positiveity thread. I wish the same for all of you out there.

I feel relatively good at the moment, I feel like myself again. More or less! I have seen better days and I have seen worse days. I am kind of in the middle right now. I am slowly starting to come to terms with this ailment, in my own unique way of course. I am not bothered by tinnitus as much as I was when it first started in December. As I recall, the pulsatile tinnitus I had in July marked the worst period for me. Followed by the onset of ringing tinnitus. The clicking was not a pleasant experience either but it was less bothersome.

I have learned a lot about the ear and how hearing works. I have a better understanding of tinnitus now. I now have more respect for sound than ever before. I have a completely new view on sound and the importance of hearing. As the old saying goes, you don't know what you have until you loose it! What I found most interesting is how hearing can affect your emotional state.

I am not done investigating my left ear just yet. As I said earlier, I want to rule out all the most common underlying conditions that can cause tinnitus. Receiving a through medical investigation by a highly trained specialist with a lot of experience of this type of ailment is not offered willingly. It's something I have to insist on.

In the long run, I strongly believe that a cure and relief for all tinnitus sufferers will come. It has been long overdue for sure. It may not come as a single solution for all of us at once, since it is a complex problem with several different causes and manifestations. It will more likely come in stages. But there is definitely a lot of promising research and new findings concerning hearing in general.

I like to think that once the stone has been set in motion it will only accelerate from that point forward. Once the first medicines that target hearing problems like tinnitus have been released to the marked, new ones will follow. New scientific discoveries, innovations and technological advances are constantly pushing the limit of what's possible.

Also, I think the medical sciences will be hard pressed to come up with new solutions and remedies for hearing problems in not too distant future. In this highly automated, machine controlled and increasingly artificial existence we call life, we are constantly being bombarded with sounds. It's not just any sounds, like those of birds singing in the trees, or those of crackling log fire at a cold summer night in the wilderness. It's the artificial sounds, the man made noise of loud machinery and failing computer components. In fact, the way we go about respecting nature we should be thankful if there are any birds left in the wild for our children to learn to listen to.

Technology can be used for good or for evil. The choice is ours. It can be our salvation, or our own destruction. I am pro technology, pro innovation, pro science. But it has never been more important to pay respect to nature, and to take high responsibility when innovating and doing scientific research. Sheer greed has to take the back seat. Our own well being and the well being of nature which we all are part of needs to come in first. We have a lot to work on there.

Enough of my complaining and preaching for now. To all you tinnitus sufferers out there, hang in there and have a happy new year!

 

Yes, I am pretty sure I have TTTS. It is no longer as sever or as frequent as it was in July of 2016. But I do get the fluttering or pulsating sensation and a whooshing sound in my left ear every now and then. Strangely it only happens at night when I'm lying in bed and trying to sleep. It wakes me up at night, and it's now accompanied by this subtle ringing in my left ear. Either one or both of these are disturbing my sleep. I'm not sure which one brings on the other symptom.

I usually don't feel any pain in my ear. But there have been times when I have felt like a sudden and sharp pain in my left ear. It would only last for less than a second and then go away to almost never return again. I felt that only a couple of times. This was before the onset of the ringing in the ear which started only in December. I haven't felt that sort of pain for some time now. But I do feel like the tensor tympani muscle is tense. It's like that almost all the time, some days more and some days less. Even when I feel good and relaxed. I don't have control over it.

I also believe I have misophonia. Because my outer ear sometimes flexes when someone opens a door to a room forcefully. It's like a microscopic freak out... or something. I don't exactly jump out of the sofa, but I can feel the outer ear move. Like on a rabbit! It's a psychological thing for sure.

What I experienced as hyperacusis might as well been some kind of sound distortion induced by the TTTS, or the other way around. I know I could hear well, and my hearing was not muffled but something was bothering me about the sound and I could not put the finger on what it was. It could be just other people talking in the room, there was no loud music playing or anything like that. I no longer feel this discomfort, or it's not as pronounced so I don't notice it.

I received an appointment for the ENT doctor yesterday. I will see him at the end of January this year. I am hopeful that he will diagnose me with something that is easily treatable. The worst thing about my condition right now is the emotional effect it has on me and that I often feel very tired in the morning. The ringing in my ear is not as sever as what many of you experience every day, I'm sure of it. But nevertheless, it's not easy to deal with. I just hope it doesn't get worse.

I might actually have TMJ as well! I can feel and I can clearly hear a dull sound as I open and close my jaw, it sounds like two bones moving against each other. It's interesting because it's only on my left side. There is no such thing on the right side. When I take my left hand and put two fingers right in front of the ear and apply only a little pressure I no longer hear that sound. What's more alarming is the loud and sharp bone like clicks I heard on two occasions when I yawned and opened my mouth real hard. It really scared me the first time it happened. I never had that happen to me before. TMJ, dysfunction, dislocation... whatever you want to call it... something is not right with that left joint.

I don't know exactly when or how I got it, but I have developed unilateral nasal polyposis. These ailments usually develop slowly and for polyps there is no clear pathology. I went to the healthcare center and complained about a stucky nose on the right side. I usually sleep on my back and this prevented me from breathing easily which affected my sleep. They sent me off to a private ENT doctor and he told me I had a small polyp on the right side. I have been taking Nasonex for this since February of 2015. I have been taking it for nearly 2 years now, bilaterally, 50 µg in each nostril every day. I increase it to 100 µg when needed, but I try to keep it at a low dosage.

The reason I mention polyposis is because I have been rinsing my nose each night before bedtime. It may or may not have to do with my hearing problem. But the nose, throat and ear are connected through the Eustachian tube. Maybe I am just imagining things, but I may have ETD. I sometimes feel as if my ear drums slightly pop when I yawn.

Taking Nasonex and rinsing the nose for 2 years may not be advisable in the long run to treat polyposis. I no longer have problems breathing at night since I started taking Nasonex. I have only had a mild worsening of the condition in October of 2016 if I recall correctly, and this lasted only for 2 or 3 days. But I have been to the ENT clinic about this to have my sinuses checked. It's the same hospital clinic that I will be visiting about my ear problem in January. They took a tissue sample and they said it was not malign. I have also done a CT scan. I'm awaiting the results and a counseling meeting prior to sinus surgery.