Getting my mojo back

Hi everyone, as you know, recently has been real bad for me, my recent dental work was so noisy, it flared up my tinnitus, and I thought it was time for a trip to Mexico for the seconal (o.d.) - so i treat my ears just like you would a broken bone: do not put any weight on it until healed, and then start out slow - so i wear a noise cancellation headset plus mp3 a lot, even if in the cafeteria, hallway, outdoors, etc. It is my personal belief that ears are not intended for the Industrial Age, and all industrial noises and anything similar was not intended for our hearing. So for yesterday, I just puttered around the house, did a bit of cleaning, played chess with friend, cooked dinner, but allowed absolutely no noise - just pink and white noise at modest levels. I cranked up my mp3 slightly, to try to start getting over my hyperacusis. This method requires a lot of patience - but finally last night I went to bed at 10, got up at 12 midnight or so, took only one more med (not 3 that i have avaialable), and i didn't get up till noon. Also my tinnitus seems obviously much less fainter. It feels like i have my mojo back -
I compared my friend's tinnitus - he worked in the steel plant, and his hearing loss is slightly worse than mine, and the pitch of the tinnitus is almost exactly the same 4120 vs 4090, and the degree of tinnitus is similar, or possibly a bit worse in my friend - who "just ignores it" - so i am thinking i should be able to get better bit by bit -
my new med is called lyrica or pregabalin - is used for pain, epilepsy and sleep. some studies show epilepsy and tinnitus to be similar with preventing of tinnitus with mouse being given anti-epileptic prior to noise exposure. A lot of my gried is not sleeping, so the lyrica is good for me in that aspect.
So this is now 3 1/2 weeks after my bad dental experience, and by using appropriate meds o.k.ed by my doctor, to get sleep, and treat my ears just like you would a broken bone, I feed like I am getting my mojo - my tinnitus is lessening, the horrible screeching character has disappeared, it is a high pitched 4090 tone, and a lot of the buzzing, ringing, scintillating effects that i was putting up with have resolved.
I am also using the CR NM when I'm at work in my office. I am not sure if the tones are good or not, but they did not hurt, and I'm gradually getting better. When I have the NM in my office plus white noise, I find it is very difficult to be aware of my actual tinnitus - it seems to blend into all of the background, but when trying to sleep the tinnitus is more intrusive - at bedtime i am using white and pink noise, rainfall sound etc, set to a kind of quiet level so it is just less than the tinnitus.

 

thanks, it makes such as difference to my well being - before i was so depressed etc., now i'm like a new person. I can match the loudness of the tinnitus to my mp3 player - last week the volume on the mp3 was level 5, where today, the mp3 is level 4, which means tinnitus is probably about 3 db quieter, plus it is a lot less "intrusive" and annoying.