Hello everyone!

Hi everyone! I'm a 20year old guy from Belgium, and i'm relatively new to T, and like most newbies so full of questions! I've been lurking around here for a little while but never found the courage to properly introduce myself, i guess im still in denial, and full of hope that it will clear up in my case. But let me explain.

I'm not sure when it all started, but i'm somehow convinced that i've had a very minor case of T for years, when it's absolutely quiet, like when you have headphones on and you aren't playing music, i've always heard some kind of electrical static, i always presumed this was normal for everyone, and never worried about it, after all it was so quiet that i could sleep and not hear it at all in "quiet" environments. Anyways it doesn't really matter, and im not sure if its somehow linked to the T i started experiencing some weeks ago.
So it really started somewhere in april, with more or less daily episodes in which i would hear that static a lot louder, combined with a high pitched ringing best described as the warm-up electrical sound an old CRT-tv emits. As unknowing as i was at that moment, i supposed my ears were overstressed because at the time i was exposed to constant loud but not harmfully loud sounds because of street works where i live, and thought it would pass away if i gave them some rest. But it didn't, until 3weeks ago, one day, the ringing was very frequent, and by the evening it wouldn't pass, that night, it was a very loud, as in louder than your speaking voice, high pitched whistle. That started to worry me a lot, and the next day it was quieter again but still continuously present, at still a disturbing loudness, and so i went to the doctor. He found some fluid in my right ear, but none in my left, which is strange as the ringing is more dominant in my right ear, but for sure also present in my left. Dx'ed me with ETD and Prescribed me some nasal decongestant and told me it would be better in a few days, yet i was still worried as i have had fluid in my ears once years ago, and the experience was way different. Anyways a week passed by, without any improvements, at some occasions the ringing became even worse! (it does fluctuate a bit from lets say 30%-100%), worried as i was because of reading nothing than stories on the internet where the T was permanent i wanted to get to the bottom of it and went to an ENT, she confirmed the ETD, and prescribed me stronger decongestants with pseudoefedrine and something for my allergies and told me it would pass away quickly. a small 2weeks later, the day before yesterday in fact, as there was still zero improvement, except from the usual fluctuation, it does get louder in the evening, and also has a peak in the morning, every time i come out of the shower, very strange, i went to see another ENT, which did the usual checkup an audiogram, also for higher frequencies which was fine, apparently in the 6000+ hz range i'm hearing 5/10db better than the average person of my age, and a pressure measurement which was also okay with a slight under pressure in my right ear, and she told me my T had nothing to do with the ETD which i'm having (my ears still click when i swallow, and occasional i do experience some funky pressure feelings in my ear, but they seem to become less frequent as time passes). She also suggested, as for the static part of my T that i'm hearing my own brain? What do you peeps think of that? It seems quite weird to me... She also couldn't say what was causing my T and sent me away with an MRI appointment in 2 months... Also, something peculiar all the audiograms i did showed a decrease in the lowest frequencies, 125-500hz if im correct, of about 10-20db, but as my T is very high frequency, this can't be related, right? Also my dentist mentioned to me that i'm a teeth grinder, something i suspected too, and when i move my jaw or chew on something it clacks in the right and sometimes in the left, could this be an indication of TMJ? and if so can it cause my T? I'm so confused atm because there are so many possibilities that could cause my T, and hopefully will make it go away when it gets solved, but the fact that it's a very high pitched whistling with static over it, and the fact that my ears feel like they feel when you have a temporary threshold shift when you go to a loud gig or something like that, and the fact that of the 3times i went to gig in the last half year, 2 of them were in the 2weeks before onset of the T, and they were very loud, keeps me worrying that it might be noise related? Is it possible that i have noise induced T without hearing loss, and the T only came on a few days later? Or do you people feel like it might still be ETD related?

A lot of questions for which i have no answers, anyways thank you all for reading my story, and any advices you can give!

greets chronicburn

 

Hello, hang in there, it will get better!

 

Thanks i hope so! i also keep hoping that in my case it's only temporary, but every examination by ENTs has only raised more questions, i also hate the fact that they keep brushing me off without doing all the possible tests, i'm really keen to find the cause of my T as it isn't an acoustic trauma most likely.

 

Thinking about you GOD BLESS..hang in there, stick with your doc..he knows best!