Hello All, Tinnitus, No Hearing Loss, Figuring It Out

First, thank you all for participating in a forum like this, whether you believe it or not hearing other peoples' stories (the good and the bad) provides information to people looking for answers. I know focusing too much on it isn't good for adjusting, but to those who have lifelong conditions, I really applaud you for helping others cope, it gives people hope. I may or may not be on here consistently depending on how I am doing emotionally, but I would like to introduce myself and log my story in case in helps someone in the future.

My name is Heather, I am 37, live in Long Island, am a new stay at home mom with a 7 month old and 3 year old. I also have a 19 yr old and 14 yr old from a previous marriage. Stress doesn't begin to cover my life right now, mostly due to child raising (my oldest is into some worrisome stuff). I don't listen to loud music, but have screaming children and am directly under a flight path that we're trying to get changed with the FAA.

Some history: I've had very very brief moments of vertigo (1 to 2 minutes) my whole life but have never been diagnosed. I have an anxiety disorder and used to be very agoraphobic. I am a former patient of Dr. Hubbard, he has posted on here before - I can verify his authenticity and expertise! Great guy, great therapist. The CBT did wonders for my anxiety and phobias. The more anxious I am, the more noise irritates me. At a peak of one of my panic attacks, it took a couple of weeks for sounds to sound normal. I was very bothered by some of the letter blends, particularly hearing words spoken with D and B sounds. When the anxiety came down, so did the noise irritation. I believe anxiety very much contributes to noise perception, having experienced it first hand.

Current situation: I first noticed the ringing about a week ago. However, I don't know when it actually started. We've been using the air conditioner, which is very loud, all summer, and most of the fall since my husband snores loudly and it helped me sleep. About a month ago I started hearing music and voices when the AC was on. Turned it off, but kept hearing buzzing. I attributed this to several electronics in my room which I began to unplug. Since I thought I solved it, I'm not sure when I noticed that the high pitched ringing/buzzing was actually coming from my left ear, it also alternates with crackling, especially if I'm in the rocking chair. My right ear alternates between loud rushing, water through pipes, or leaf blower sounds. It was very loud last week. I had a hard time concentrating. I did notice that my facial muscles were fairly tense as I tend to chew my lip and cheeks and eat popcorn every day. Since I stopped those habits, the volume has gone down.
Other stuff: I have TMJ (not treated) and 2 impacted (sideways) wisdom teeth on top. The left one juts out the most but neither have broken through the gums. I had a very bad cold in December last year. So bad I couldn't breathe for a week out of either nostril. I was also pregnant and had extra fluids going around. I gave birth in April, the labor was natural, and very quick - I noticed afterwards that my neck and ears were sore. I had another cold a couple of weeks ago when my toddler got sick. Also, and this may sound weird, but when I was pregnant my pelvis hummed, like it vibrated all the time, it was very annoying. I started taking magnesium/calcium supplements and it went away. So I've re-started taking those.

Yesterday I went to the ENT, everything looks fine. Tubes, hearing, fluids, etc. Nothing to diagnose except a severely deviated septum (surprise!) that I didn't know about. I've never broken my nose so I'm still wondering how that happened. He told me to take some Allegra D, and see if it clears up. We will see, I'm going to give it 2 weeks. I also need to see the TMJ dentist since I cannot open my mouth very wide, even to yawn sometimes because it hurts very much. I know TMJ is not always related to tinnitus, I'm worried that fixing that will make the T worse.

When my son was born I started drinking coffee regularly so my caffeine intake has increased. I also just realized that I've been using salicylic acid face wash for about a year now, every day. And one of the side effects is T. Great. So I'm going to discontinue that. I've had a lot of dental problems and have used NSAIDS for years. I do yoga pretty regularly, and will be going for some facial massages as well.

These are my factors and what I will be figuring out over time. I just wanted to post to see if there are any similar links for anyone else out there who has T without hearing loss or other health related issues. I will keep this updated in case anything comes together for me. I am aware that this may not solve itself, and I will be looking into donating and fundraising for T as I'm so surprised this has no cure but so many people suffer (especially our veterans!). Anyone looking into therapy, I really believe CBT has saved my life on more than one occasion. I have observed a few things: I begin looking for my T when it's not obvious. There is no such thing as real silence - even without T - machines hum, wind blows, people talk, etc. All normal and searching for perfect silence is not worth the stress, nor is it very likely to happen. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.

 

Made it!

Study has proven caffeine doesn't influence tinnitus

I doubt a face wash will be systemically absorbed in quantity enough to cause tinnitus.
Salicylic acid caused tinnitus is temporary also.

THIS can be a REAL culprit... Long time NSAIDs... not good...
What dose have you taken? Have you had any periods where you didn't take NSAIDs?

It is good you see a TMJ doc.

Sounds you have a lot of stress.... try to de-stress best you can... take vacations etc...

 

THIS can be a REAL culprit... Long time NSAIDs... not good...
What dose have you taken? Have you had any periods where you didn't take NSAIDs?

Thanks for reading and responding

Ibuprofen, Nabutemone, Advil, for long periods of time for dental issues years ago, and periodically for headaches. It is interesting that you say that because I had a bad headache last week (and huge heartache watching the election until the wee hours of the morning! don't judge me ) and took children's advil. I had pressure on my heart for a few days and that's when the T seemed to appear....I've had that reaction too when I was taking them for long periods of time.

A few years ago I realized I was gluten sensitive (negative for celiacs) and once I stopped gluten my headaches went away for the most part. I get them occasionally if I eat gluten by accident or don't get any sleep.

It is good you see a TMJ doc.

Yes I still want to go, just don't want exacerbate this.

Sounds you have a lot of stress.... try to de-stress best you can... take vacations etc...

My 7 month old is breastfed, I only get about an hour away from him as he won't take bottles. But I have started going on dates with my husband and doing things for myself lately. Thank you.

 

Hi Heather,

Welcome aboard!

You definitely need to take the medical route and visit the appropriate doctors in an attempt to get to the underlying cause of your ear ringing issue, in addition to addressing other health concerns!

 

Nice to meet you Heather, I am of the same age as you are.
I have suffered throughout tinnutis when I was really young, I lost all of my hearing when i was really young, but somehow in my teenager age it did bounce back, i was okay in classes too. I have not went throughout the entire marriage thing, was engaged twice, once when i was in college, the other was around mid 2010s, it was with my long term girlfriend of that time. But we broke it off. Never had children either. So cannot help you in that much either.
Though that is intresting that you have TMJ as well as Tinnitus too.

 

I heard of women having T after giving birth. That could be the possible reason. All the colds could be the culprit. The stress can be too. You should try counseling to ease the stress a little. Not because you need help with your anxiety, but just to have someone to talk to. It's hard raising children and having a lot of stuff on your mind. I'm sure an hour or so out your schedule wouldn't hurt. Try to do process of elimination to see the problem.

 

"I have suffered throughout tinnutis when I was really young, I lost all of my hearing when i was really young, but somehow in my teenager age it did bounce back, i was okay in classes too."

HI thanks for responding. this is interesting...do they think it has to do with hormones then? the body is so strange.

The kids are a blessing, they stress me out but I also have no time to obsess about the T which I think is quite easy to fall into. Are you dating? I've been married twice , spent 8 years single in between, it was fun but also draining as dating felt like a job!

 

That's what I'm doing and am also trying not to papay too much attention to it during the day. I did call up my therapist to set up weekly sessions again.

 

So, this past week I've done the following: discontinued use of my salicylic acid face wash (I used twice am and pm), it went down dramatically that first night of not using it. I'm avoiding advil and pepto which I used to take weekly. I've also been experimenting with soft foods, the T was down for 1 day and one night, so the next day I had a salad and it went back up that night. I think it is TMJ related, exacerbated by the colds, hormones from the pregnancy, and build up of salicylic products. The crackling has gone away for a week now, it's just the high pitched whine now and sometimes a very loud hum at night. Making a TMJ specialist appointment next Monday and going from there.

 

Just updating my thread.

High pitched hum is still present but has settled down a lot and doesn't bother me as much as before. It gets worse when my kids scream, or I over extend my neck or sleep funny.

Still not sure what the initial cause was but it doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. I no longer have a beeping sound which used to really bother me.

I've only seen a chiropractor once but plan to go back and see if going consistently helps. There has been a few times that it stopped briefly, mostly at night before bed, and it's actually better at night than during the day, I know it's usually the opposite.

I'll update again in a few months. I've been busy starting my own company and with my kids. But I do lurk from time to time and am rooting for all of you.

 

I think my neck could be causing some of my noise too but not positive. I had a recent chiro adjustment and I thought he said I had some movement in the C1-C2 area. I took some Robaxin after the adjustment and seemed good for awhile. Robaxin is a CNS depressant though, so that could be the reason. Going to try some physical therapy for my neck.

 

You seem very grounded and not letting it get to you which is 90% of the battle with T. I'm glad you've identified so many areas - I am kind of in the same boat in that I have very good hearing and T likely induced by stress. I haven't had any TMJ, neck, posture checks though. Really should do that this week. Hope your T continues to settle, God bless!