Hi, I Need Help and Support

Hi everyone,

I’m gee and I’m 19 years old, just started uni and WAS the happiest I’d been in ages. I suffer from depression and anxiety awfully bad and it seems to effect my everyday life. On Sunday night I noticed my ear felt full and blocked and I could hear a hissing, I noise I knew too well from two years earlier after seeing an AC/DC tribute..tinnitus.

Immediately I began to panic and cry, it wasn’t awful and it was standable but it scared me so much. Since it’s been worse and louder, due to my ears being blocked I’m assuming. I’m terrified.
I went to the doctors yesterday and they have booked me in for a wax removal as he thinks this is what has bought on this terrible bout. I’ve been reading online how this has WORSENED some people and that has scared me further, I’m afraid and I’m depressed.

Is there anyone out there who has beat tinnitus after having syringing done? I’m petrified, doc said it should be fine and that the tinnitus should return to a stable level after removal.
So random it’s came on, I’m absolutely devastated.

 

It is important that you apply eardrops, 3x a day for 7 to 10 days to each ear to fully soften the wax before it is removed at ENT. Common methods used to remove the wax are: Microsuction or irrigation/syringing. I strongly advise you not to let anyone remove the wax until you have used eardrops/olive oil eardrops in the manner I've mentioned before having it removed, as sometimes problems can occur.

Exposure to loud noise can make tinnitus worse and headphone use. I advise you not to use headphones even at low volume. Please click on the links below and read my articles that you might find helpful.

All the best
Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

 

@1975geo My first onset of tinnitus was from ear syringing. I had a very loud severe buzzing. After 3 years, it dropped to moderate/severe or from a ten to about a six. A six would match the sound of a loud refrigerator. When it dropped to this level I hardly ever focused on it and I was able to go on with my life.

I believe that because my T was so severe that when the drop happened to moderate/severe, I loss all fear. Subjective T usually will improve. When having age degenerative diseases, it's more complicated.

My ear syringing was improperly done and was repeated several times. Yours might go to a low level very quickly with proper wax removal.

 

Thanks guys, it’s driving me nuts, I haven’t been this close to suicide in an awfully long time sorry to be dramamtic

 

Insist that they remove your wax manually. This means they use a wire loop tool to scrape the wax out. Syringing (pumping water into your ear with a metal syringe) and microsuction had caused some people's T to worsen in a significant way, it makes sense not to take that risk.

I think it is a good sign that your initial sound is a hiss. I began hearing a hiss after months of healing. I think there is a high chance that your T will fade even further and that you will hear silence once again. Once you have tinnitus, there is a high probability that your ears have been compromised. I hope you will try to stay away from loud noises.

 

Do You know if nurses really the GP can do manual wax removal? Would definitely prefer this, it’s so loud it’s disruptive

 

Only have an ENT doctor do it. Regardless of what statistics are given from hearing sites on ear wax and syringing it amounts to the experience of the person doing the procedure.

 

I had a huge wax buildup which was partially removed by my ENT using a tool manually, then he prescribed me ear drops for a few days which cleared up my ears.

 

Was the ringing gone or mostly unnoticeable after this?

 

Whether the wax is removed manually using a curette, or it is done by microsuction or irrigation is used, all these procedures carry risks. It is important to use eardrops in the manner I've stated. 3x a day for 7 to 10 days prior to having the ear wax removed.

I advise you not to insist on having the earwax "manually" removed because this carries a lot or risk more than microsuction and irrigation. People have contacted me to relay this and I will paste a link below from a member of this forum that had the wax manually removed and now has problems with tinnitus.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-still-feels-clogged-a-bit-and-muffled.21654/

I have had microsuction 3 times and irrigation 3 times without any problems. My tinnitus can reach severe levels and hasn't changed. If it is possible I advise getting the earwax removed at a hospital ENT clinic.

All the best
Michael

I asked my ENT consultant which is the safest method of removing earwax and she said Microsuction.

 

Hi Michael, I’m absolutely petrified, the noise is a lot quieter than what it was before but still very noticeable, I’m going today to the docs to get wax removed, I’m so so scared but I know I need to put my trust and faith in them wish me luck

 

You have every right to be concerned when people that have had tinnitus for a few months and are advising you incorrectly in my opinion. I advise you to take the advice of your healthcare professionals and don't approach them with an arrogant attitude and demanding or insisting on anything. Microscution done at an ENT hospital is the safest method. I don't advise you to use a clinic that advertises on the Internet. Speak with your family Doctor/GP and take his or her advice. I have had tinnitus many years and correspond with a lot of people that have tinnitus and had had earwax removed.

Use eardrops as I've indicated and follow the advice given by your GP.
Try not to worry you'll be fine.
All the best
Michael

 

Hi Michael
Just hand my left ear syringed (the one with awful tinnitus) and everything seems louder but the tinnitus has stayed more or less the same. My right ear now feels blocked but it could be that my left was so blocked

 

Also, I have had this less than a week, is there a chance I will fully get rid of this?

 

There is a high chance that in 3-6-12 months you will hear silence, or that at least your T will fade.

Check out the studies on pages 1, 2, and 4 of
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/

 

Thankyou, this gives me a lot of hope x

 

Make sure to protect your ears from loud sounds. I would stay away from events like concerts. During the first year, you might even try to avoid moderate noises (e.g., hair dryer, blender, vacuum cleaner), to give your body a chance to recover.

 

Thanks bill! I’ve been really down about this but fin stay strong and realise my life is more than tinnitus I can beat this x

 

ALSO is it normal for one ear to feel less clogged than the other as it is completely clean whereas the other has only some wax ?

 

I would have preferred to see you get both ears syringed as this will keep your auditory system in balance. I suggest that you get your right ear syringed too but remember to use eardrops for 3x a day fo 7 to 10 days. Hopefully your ears will return to feeling normal.
Michael

 

I did ask but nurse insisted on only one due to other not being so bad, and also unsure if my ear is infected, seems it could be but they couldn’t see infection with all the wax, phone someone on the non emergency service and they said to get some pharmacy drops for my ear x

 

HI guys, a slight update
It’s quieter than before but definitely still there, is this a good sign that it is quieter?
Also since having I syringed I’m a bit more sensitive to sound but I’ve been told this is normal as they ear canals have been blocked for so long.
Haven’t had the chance to get ear infection drops yet but hopefully will either today or Monday.
I’m 19 and don’t want this forever, I feel far too young, I’m definitely going to fight for my right for silence

 

Hi, another update
I went to the emergency Department today freaking out, panicking this would never go.
Saw an emergency doc who told me this was most likely to do with being so ill with cold and flu recently and that my sinuses are blocked
She recommended nasel drops rather than spray as the spray can have an adverse effect (addition pressure to sinuses) she said this should help the tension in my head and ears and the ringing most likely will stop
However, she said she wouldn’t promise
She also said being young and this not being noise induced is a good sign and be permanent T is largely in older adults or people who have noise induced T.
She checked my ears, both healthy and so is my hearing
So now it is the waiting game, I’m scared but I’m willing to fight for my silence
Hope you’re both well and whoever else reading this also x

 

Hey Gee, there is every chance that your T will get quieter or go away completely. In fact it sounds like the likely outcome, but waiting is certainly hard.

You mentioned that you have had depression and that the T can push you toward feeling suicidal - which seems to be a common experience - when my T started one of the very first things I thought was that I could understand how this can push people to the edge like that.

I'm not an expert and am not going to pretend i have the answers for you, but i can tell you that i strongly believe that T thrives on anxiety and depression. That is to say I think whatever the initial cause of the T anxiety and depression can make it worse, or maintain it. One of the really unfortunate things about this is that i think the T can become a trigger for the anxiety and low mood and thus create its own kind of vicious cycle.

So what i wanted to say to you was hang in there, and in the meantime be as kind to yourself as you can, think about your wellness, do things that are calming and that you enjoy (e.g. I find swimming calms, sometimes even temporarily stops my T) and if you are not already perhaps you can seek out some emotional support such as talking therapy. Universities often have very good counselling services that will give you a contract of sessions for free. This is a very valuable resource as private counselling can be expensive. I'm not trying to single you out here by making this suggestion, I happen to believe that most people can benefit from talking to the right therapist, and maybe you've been down this path already, but if you haven't, or if you are not at the moment then perhaps you can think about doing yourself this favour.

Good luck with it.

H x

 

Thank you so much heather, I hope you don’t mind me asking but how did you contract your T? (Sorry for making it sound like a disease, no idea how else to put it!)
Also, today is the first day this week I have washed my hair, smiled, laughed, didn’t hear my T for just a moment when I was outside and walking around and I went for a meal with my boyfriends family (had to put my plugs in a few times as it was so loud? Ears still sensitive from yesterday’s syringe, so weird how much it was blocked before!!)
It’s the first day in this almost week I’ve had T that I felt hopeful
I know this doesn’t always last but I’m hoping I’m lucky and it gets better
However, even when my T does get better or go completely I will definitely continue to raise awareness for T and keep pushing for a cure, it’s amazing how many people are unaware this exists!
Hope you’re well heather, thank you for your words of hope and advice, it means a lot x

 

Yes, it is a great sign that it is getting better. The worst outcome is when it is relentlessly at the same level, and never changes.

If you continue going to loud places, you will reduce the probability that your T will fade, and you will increase the probability that it will get louder.

If I were you, I would stay away from loud places (and even from moderate noises like that of a vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, and blender) for at least a year, to let my body heal. This forum is full of horror stories of people finding out the hard way that ear plugs will not always be enough to protect you.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/earplugs-muffs-give-very-little-protection.21737/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-much-worse-after-club-despite-wearing-solid-35-db-custom-earplugs-—-im-at-my-wits-end.15744/#post-186018

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/bad-spike-not-subsiding-after-loud-bar-—-despite-wearing-properly-inserted-earplugs.20675/#post-239000

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...t-an-acoustic-trauma-shock.18964/#post-219363

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...le-in-real-life-situations.19067/#post-220314

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/33-decibel-earplug-not-protecting-from-sound.22151/

I could go on and on and on (provide links to more horror stories where people found out the hard way that it was a bad idea to rely on earplugs), but you get the idea.

Even if those spikes end up being temporary, we are given a limited number of second chances. If one keeps being reckless, eventually a time might come when the spike won't go away...

 

Hi bill,
Please don’t send me horror stories!! I know it’s a reality for some people but the more I read the more I fall into a depressive state(
Also, didn’t realise the restaurant would be so loud
Spoken to a few people I know in “real life” (so unsure how to word things) and a lot of them have had T temporarily from illnesses, as mine definitely wasn’t noise induced. If it was I’d be a little less upset with the world and more upset with myself I think
I’m just trying to hold onto hope that it I’ll go or there will one day be a cure for T sufferers, as I said, this should be spoken about and cured by now
Thanks bill hope you’re well x

 

also, an update, it’s mostly a hiss in my left ear now whereas in my right ear it can sound like a static white noise sound and then a hiss, is this good and could this possibly mean it is improving?
I’ve had about 4-5 health care professionals assure me it should either go away completely or get so quiet I won’t be able to notice it
Also been told that because of my age I’m “lucky”
another thing, my right ear still feels blocked like there is pressure, will continue to take the nose drops

 

Hey Gee,
So glad you have experienced a few moments of happiness and hope that the realisation that you can enjoy your life whatever happens with you T gives you strength to get through this period.

In answer to your question, I don't know how i got my T, i think it may be connected to sinuses because prior to onset i had some episodes of very blocked heavy ears and when my tinnitus first came on it was coupled with eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD). I also think it may be partly psychological because during at least one of these bouts i thought 'i wonder if having tinnitus makes you feel similarly disconnected to those around you as i do now', and i also think its stress related as i had a physically and emotionally challenging year when this started. I've also had some weeks with a painful jaw - extremely painful, frighteningly so, and i lost some dental veneers - all of which led me to realise that i was holding lots of tension in my jaw and this may be the cause of the ETD and T, and i've sought help from my dentist and have a night-guard which i often wear but which sometimes stops me sleeping so i've not been brilliant with this. When my T is bad my neck is stiff and sometimes the T changes or evens quietens completely when i move my head around. Basically I think there may be a perfect storm of physical factors.

I think the ETD as well as the T may be stress related too, alongside the physical elements. T is strange because it is about our perception as well as something that is actually there (except for those rare cases of objective tinnitus though no medical professional has suggested how i could be tested for this so I'm assuming mine is subjective). I tend to think that stress and anxiety are experts at hooking on to existing physical problems and amplifying them - i'm not saying that people just imagine them to be worse than they are either, i think they can actually get worse - our minds / bodies are much more connected than we presently understand, in fact there's some pretty interesting historical reasons why early on medicine became separated from thinking around the mind / soul - but i feel myself digressing here!

I've only had my T for 6 months, it drove me crazy and to despair in the first 6-8 weeks. At that time if someone mentioned habituation I wanted to punch them, i wanted cure not habituation, now i understand that these are not mutually exclusive. I've already written a small essay in response to your question which demonstrates how much thinking us T people put into this stuff - and although its good to take charge of your health, not thinking might also be key to recovery. This is hard, even when i'm 99% focussed on something else there is usually still be a track in my mind that is hyper alert to my T, and i think this is often what sustains or heightens the T. I'm working on all of this, but that effort in itself possibly sustains and increases T, so i'm working on being more effortless in this (whilst being highly aware of the contradiction in that statement

On good weeks my T is intermittent, i can get patches of silence, or at least what to me feels like silence, then some weeks i feel back to square one - but i can tend to see triggers for this, such as emotional or lifestyle stressors and i'm getting better at having faith that things will resolve at least to acceptable levels soon enough. Basically I'm enjoying work, playing and laughing with my kids and enjoying doing stuff most of the time again now, and while i have some days of feeling less hopeful I refuse to give up hope and truly believe that i will come out the other side healthier, more grateful for life's happy moments, wiser and more in touch with how my body/mind works.

Hope i'm not sounding too preachy...and sorry for making this response so damn long!
H x

P.S. your latest update sounds super encouraging, i get static sounds mostly too, and have noticed a hiss prior to my T stopping.

 

Wouldn't you say that without those stories you would be more likely to expose your ears to noise, and as a result you would be more likely to write your own horror story, ending up with a deeper depression for a lot longer?!

Was it a high pitch tone early on? If so, then it is improving. If not, then it means your ears haven't been hurt as much as ears of some people here. Both a hiss and a static white noise are a lot easier to ignore than a high pitch tone. Mine began as the sound of loud crickets then eventually, as my ears healed, became a hiss. When I put on my Peltor muffs, I can hear a high pitch tone. This seems to prove that when a high pitch tone is quiet enough, we perceive it as a hiss.

It is true that the younger you are, the more likely it is that your T will fade. It is also true that T tends to fade for most people. This is assuming that you won't do anything to undermine your healing, like exposing yourself to noise.