Hi! I'm Matt and Here's My Story

[Matt9]

Hi everyone
My name's Matt.

I'm from Italy, so sorry if my English is not perfect.

I have tinnitus and moderate unilateral hearing loss since April 2016, was coping pretty well with it until last weeks.

I was working as a bartender at a wedding party and it was pretty loud.

Next day I started to feel my ears closed and maybe my T increased, but I can't remember this clearly.
I also felt like I got a cold.

So three days later I took medrol and NAC and went to sleep. That night was HELL, I had a terrible sore throat, ear pain, screaming T and flu-like symptoms.

I went to ER and they told me to stop using medrol and almost 12 days ago I got visited by an ENT and made an audiogram, showing my hearing hasn't got worse.
They found I had rhinitis and prescribed me Aerius and Nasonex for 15 days.

My cold symptoms improved, but 5 days ago I went to another ENT and got my ears suctioned, it made a loud noise and my T spiked a bit.
That night I was also forced to go to a club.
Music was LOUD and our table was right under the speaker. I wore earplugs for the whole night, I stayed in the club for about 3 hours.
Even wearing my foam earplugs I found that basses was shaking my head and made a distorted sound in my damaged ear.

Next day I was scared to death and started to feel my T louder and high pitched. So about 40/45 hours after the club I took medrol again, starting with 16 mg.

Next days not only my cold got even worse, I think due to immunosuppressant effect of the drug, but my T also changed and became very loud and intrusive.

Today my cold is almost gone, I got cough and runny nose sometimes but I'm still taking Aerius and Nasonex. Last days I tapered down medrol to 12mg , 8 mg, 8 mg and last night 4 mg.

My T has not returnes to baseline yet and I really can't figure out what's happening and I'm afraid this is a permanent spike.

I also don't know if my spike is due to cold, loud music exposure or medrol (sometimes it spikes tinnitus temporarily).

What do you think?

 

[Matt9]

Hi everyone,
my name's Matt and I'd like to join this board.

I'm from Italy, so sorry if my English is not perfect.

I developed hearing loss and tinnitus about 1,5/ 2 years ago, along with vertigo which then went away.
Don't know exactly what caused all this issues, maybe a virus, maybe the antidepressants drugs I took for my OCD or loud music exposure in my teens day.

After a thraumatic onset and seeing a lot of ENTs I was coping pretty well with my hearing loss and my T wich in the first months was a barely noticeable hissing.

Today things got worse and I'm having trouble with a massive spike (wrote a post about it yesterday in support folder)

I want to thank all of you for the support you give to eachother and I hope I'll be able to help someone as well.

 

[jer]

I am sorry to hear about your massive spike. I have had several of those. I would like to tell you that most of them have not been permanent. Also, be aware that it could take months (I have had one only subside after about 4-5 months) for these spikes to go.

 

[Matt9]

Hi Jer!
Thanks for replying me.

How's your T going atm?

Strange fact mine is becoming also much more reactive and higher pitched than ever, kinda scared about this, is it a bad sign?

 

[Greg Sacramento]

@Matt9 I have loud pitch ringing and severe hyperacusis, but today I'm having a massive spike. I wish that I could post today and talk to others, but I can't. My spike may be due to not using my sound machine since I got up 6 hours ago.

I hope your spike calms down soon. Bless everyone here.

 

[.bill]

Cold and flu can cause t to spike ear suction is bad if you dont put ear drops in to soften the wax for five days prior to having it done. I take no medication for to help my T. Seems I can get along ok but thats just me

 

[Matt9]

Hi Bill
I'm glad you can cope with your T even without medications!
But how can I know if my spike is permanent?

 

[jer]

I feel the following. You are treating your tinnitus way to casually. You have moderate tinnitus now, but if you are not careful you will end up with tinnitus that will be so much worse that you won't even believe it. You NEED to start taking your hearing protection seriously. You have to start learning the things you can and cannot do. Clubs, listening to music on headphones and working loud weddings are probably some of them you should try and avoid AT ALL costs. And did you really not have a choice to go to the club or did you friends "force" you to go?

And please be careful with ear suction. This has caused a lot of trouble for people in the past. I always just get it done manually now. So much better!

 

[Matt9]

I feel the following. You are treating your tinnitus way to casually. You have moderate tinnitus now, but if you are not careful you will end up with tinnitus that will be so much worse that you won't even believe it. You NEED to start taking your hearing protection seriously. You have to start learning the things you can and cannot do. Clubs, listening to music on headphones and working loud weddings are probably some of them you should try and avoid AT ALL costs. And did you really not have a choice to go to the club or did you friends "force" you to go?

And please be careful with ear suction. This has caused a lot of trouble for people in the past. I always just get it done manually now. So much better!

Yeah I wad forced to go, and I though I would be fine with earplugs.
I was so wrong..
I know for sure I'm gonna take it more seriously from now on but I can't believe this will be my new T level, it's LOUD

 

[jer]

@Matt9. Don't ever give in to peer pressure of your friends again. Explain to them what you have, how it affects you and if they don't understand, they are really not your friends anyway. Friends care about you and try and help you to make sure that you are okay. Unfortunately you will loose some friends because of this condition, as you will not be able to do certain things that friends groups revolve around. you will have to kind of live your life like an old person until they come up with a treatment/cure.

A lot of sound spikes usually settle back down. Let this be the warning so you need to NEVER mess up in the future again. Also, I saw that you took a lot of medications. You need to be ultra aware that a lot of medications can also hurt your ears because they are ototoxic. Make sure you always check if these medications are okay. Even then they can still sometimes cause reactions even if they are deemed safe. So when you think that something had a reaction just stop and talk to your doctor about it. (Don't just Stop in lieu of actual medical advice though).

 

[Kolisar]

@jer is correct. Do not give into pressure from friends, you need to protect yourself. And, if they give you a hard time for not "going along" because you are trying to keep yourself from harm, then that are not really friends.

But how can I know if my spike is permanent?

Unfortunately, there is no way to know other than wait an see what happens. I had a spike a few years back that has not gone a way, yet I also had new tones (morse-code like) that appeared a coupe weeks ago and were gone in two days. Unfortunately, the best thing you can do it not to stress out over it and see what happens.

I'm sorry, I wish I had a better and more definitive answer for you.

 

[Matt9]

Never though I will end up being a young old man haha
Well I hope this spike will settle back.
Atm my ears feel like they're irritated and achy, even normally not so loud noises drive me nut!

 

[Matt9]

@Matt9 I have loud pitch ringing and severe hyperacusis, but today I'm having a massive spike. I wish that I could post today and talk to others, but I can't. My spike may be due to not using my sound machine since I got up 6 hours ago.

I hope your spike calms down soon. Bless everyone here.

Hi Greg thanks for replying

Did your spike subside?

 

[Greg Sacramento]

Thanks @Matt9 My T goes from severe to catastrophic with severe headaches. How are you doing?

 

[Matt9]

Before the spike i was coping pretty well with the hissing!
Now I have LOUD sounds and some new tones along with dizziness and ear ache! I can't sleep no more and I'm kicking myself for going to that f*****g nightclub!
Hope it will settle down

 

[Matt9]

Unfortunately, there is no way to know other than wait an see what happens. I had a spike a few years back that has not gone a way, yet I also had new tones (morse-code like)

How did you get that spike?
I'm also experiencing a morse code like sound in my good ear but it definitely doesn't bother me at all, it's kinda low

 

[Matt9]

Ok now I'm really scared. I'm feeling very very dizzy and numb, my T is LOUD and my ears feel full

 

[Kolisar]

How did you get that spike?

I have absolutely no idea what caused it.

 

[Matt9]

Hi everyone

Last days I posted about the spike I'm suffering. I was hoping things started to get better but unfortunately it seems to only get worse.

Today a new tone added. It sounds like a constant eeeeeee instead of the hissing I'm used to.
During these days I wasn't exposed to very loud sounds, only maybe traffic noise and a loud bang my guitar made hitting the wall yesterday evening.

This new sound bothers me way more than ever!

Should I retake prednisolone?

Please help me I'm afraid this spike will be permanent!