Getting Worse

i'm new to this forum. i have had tinnitus for 25 years. i am in my sixties. in the last 3 or 4 months the tinnitus has gotten very severe. i hadn't been to a ear specialist for at least ten years, so i went again hoping that something new has come out. the doctor ordered a MRI which i got. Doctor called me yesterday and said everything was normal, which i suspected. i have it in one ear, the right. it's so bad now that i've started smoking again and i hide it from my wife. it makes me feel like crap. i've recently had to take ambein to sleep at night. can ambein make the tinnitus worse? i've told my wife about my problem and she says she understands but by the look on her face i can tell that she really doesn't know how bad it is. to think that i have to deal with this increased level for the rest of my life makes me depressed. i am almost totally deaf in my right ear. does anyone have a similar case?

 

Have you been offered a hearing aid to amplify sounds and ears checked for wax build up...lots of love glynis

 

As @glynis said, maybe you should get your ear wax out and look for a hearing aid. Maybe that's why you hear it now louder because of the hearing loss, it is like when we plug our ears we hear it louder, but when we unplug them, we perceive it less because of the outside noises.

 

wax cleaned out of ears. the doctor explained hearing aid(s). one in each ear. the ear that has the tinnitus transfers noise to my good ear. but i will still have the high ringing. that's what i don't want. i even went so far to ask the doctor if i sign a patient consent form can they operate on my tinnitus ear and make me completely deaf and remove the ringing. she said no, and stated that could make the tinnitus worse. pretty desperate.

 

You can try at least and see, maybe you will have some relief. Maybe you can try trobalt? You can ask your neurologist about it, there are some persons who found relief from using it. See retigabine thread with users experience. We are in a delicate situation and we should try everything... I think you can give a try for hearing aids, if you will hear better you can use mask noises that will cover your tinnitus.

 

I take ambien often, it's my escape from T and it makes no difference to my T volume or pitch.

 

I hope you get some relief with your hearing aids.
I have digital hearing aids with a masker setting and they do help to amplify external soud to mask my tinnitus and if their is no external sound I can change to white noise...lots of love glynis