Hello all, 20 years old IT student from Germany here. TL;DR at the bottom.
I just signed up and am writing this because I am really starting to freak out here after combing through the internet for any information regarding my symptoms, and for some hope, I must admit.
This gets pretty long I think, but I would really appreciate it if someone could make any sense of my last couple of weeks.
About 6 weeks ago I first read about my incoming built-in orchestra. "Well shi*t", I thought, "I really can hear a noise." A slight, high-pitched buzzing in the middle of my head. I recently got new in-ear-headphones which I had to test thoroughly on my way to work for a week. That means I possibly cranked them a bit louder than I did my old speakers. But they never hurt.
I abstained from them for two weeks. I almost forgot about that noise of which I was sure I always had anyways. After those two weeks I used my headphones one last time, with a little less volume, and I noted a little pain in my ears. In my stupidity I listened to them 2,5 hours that day overall. The Two weeks prior 1,5h a day for five days, which I also did for three years now on my way to and back from school (in half-hour sessions). Not fully cranked to max, but not really quiet either.
I had a little incident that day, where I made the volume go way up for a second or two, but I got no reaction from my ears.
On that monday I used my earbuds that last time, and on the weekend my ears started hurting, especially when I put some bass on the 2.1-subwoofer in my room. The pain was in my ears and the sides of my jaw. I also had a burning sensation in my ear canals. I also started to freak out about the tinnitus I always had. I got better at noticing it. Or it got louder, I don't know. I thought it was just an infection and it would pass.
The burning and pain passed for the most part by monday, and my noise sensitivity decreased some, too. Maybe a week later however I noticed some other sound exclusive to my left ear, kind of an electric noise, which came when sitting down in front of the PC at work and went when leaving. I thought it was some computer fan in need to be oiled. But the sound got louder and more intrusive by the day, and two weeks later it has gotten to the point where it's almost always there (on some mornings I could hear it ramp up). And it reacts to sounds. That means it gets louder when there's noise around me, predominantly things like fans or air circulation systems. It is almost like it's trying to compete.
That was last week's status. Last week I also went to an ENT who could only detect slight hearing loss in the lower frequencys (at ~100Hz i think) in my left ear. He also prescribed me prednisolone for three days and Gingko for ten, both of which didn't make a difference. My ears started hurting again for two days last week, like on that weekend three weeks prior. On one night I woke up with something akin to a smoke detector going off in my left ear, which wasn't there when I woke up again in the morning. How I could fall asleep with that awful beep I don't know.
Now on the current week the electric noise is changing by the hour. It can sound like crickets or a quiet sports whistle, or it sounds more high-pitched like a running vacuum that's behind two doors. It isn't a constant tone, more like morse-code. And by now I can hear it almost everywhere. It reacts and gets louder than cars, fans, even the shower can't trump it. When there's no noise it's relatively quiet but very intrusive and it honestly will probably drive me insane sometime.
At first it was in only in my left ear, but sometimes it's in both (middle of my head) and today it changed completely to my RIGHT ear for an hour or so. Unpredictable.
I also woke up to an awful ringing (or chirping) sound which subsided for the most part (i think, i hope!) thankfully.
As I said, I perused the internet relentlessly, and under all these nightmare stories which I'm both scared and fascinated by, I found out about T related to TMJ and jaw clenching and tension in the jaw, neck and back. I can control the bussing, hizzing aspect of my tinnitus with jaw and neck movements, but not the electric noise. I'm getting a jaw splint on monday next week, because there's much tension there. I also noticed some pain in my jaw, neck and upper back which also gets worse every day (coincidence or causality???).
The noise sensitivity persists, loud sounds are not necessarily louder, but more uncomfortable. A relatively loud external beep made my left (maybe also right) ear hurt and even close up on thursday. Getting earplugs now.
I am really REALLY hoping I don't have permanent (noise?) damage or something similar and all my symptoms come from jaw clenching and/or neck- and back problems.
TL;DR
- used new earbuds for 5 days, 2 weeks later for 1 day, hissing noise that was always there i think
- 6 days later ear- and jaw pain & burning, especially from low frequencys,
- 1 week later cricket-like noise in morse-code-like intervals in left ear,
- crickets react to sound, get louder with noise, but only for the duration of the noise, "competing"
- last week ENT found only slight hearing loss in low frequencys in my left ear
- this week crickets change ears sometimes
I hope this post isn't too long or detailled, but I can really make no sense of this and the thought of it never going away and living a whole life with this is worrying and, frankly, sickening. I can't even listen to my music anymore the way is used to
I have some other minor auditory symptoms, but this already long post would become a novel.
For everyone who reads all of this, a big thank you, even if you have nothing to say about it.
I just signed up and am writing this because I am really starting to freak out here after combing through the internet for any information regarding my symptoms, and for some hope, I must admit.
This gets pretty long I think, but I would really appreciate it if someone could make any sense of my last couple of weeks.
About 6 weeks ago I first read about my incoming built-in orchestra. "Well shi*t", I thought, "I really can hear a noise." A slight, high-pitched buzzing in the middle of my head. I recently got new in-ear-headphones which I had to test thoroughly on my way to work for a week. That means I possibly cranked them a bit louder than I did my old speakers. But they never hurt.
I abstained from them for two weeks. I almost forgot about that noise of which I was sure I always had anyways. After those two weeks I used my headphones one last time, with a little less volume, and I noted a little pain in my ears. In my stupidity I listened to them 2,5 hours that day overall. The Two weeks prior 1,5h a day for five days, which I also did for three years now on my way to and back from school (in half-hour sessions). Not fully cranked to max, but not really quiet either.
I had a little incident that day, where I made the volume go way up for a second or two, but I got no reaction from my ears.
On that monday I used my earbuds that last time, and on the weekend my ears started hurting, especially when I put some bass on the 2.1-subwoofer in my room. The pain was in my ears and the sides of my jaw. I also had a burning sensation in my ear canals. I also started to freak out about the tinnitus I always had. I got better at noticing it. Or it got louder, I don't know. I thought it was just an infection and it would pass.
The burning and pain passed for the most part by monday, and my noise sensitivity decreased some, too. Maybe a week later however I noticed some other sound exclusive to my left ear, kind of an electric noise, which came when sitting down in front of the PC at work and went when leaving. I thought it was some computer fan in need to be oiled. But the sound got louder and more intrusive by the day, and two weeks later it has gotten to the point where it's almost always there (on some mornings I could hear it ramp up). And it reacts to sounds. That means it gets louder when there's noise around me, predominantly things like fans or air circulation systems. It is almost like it's trying to compete.
That was last week's status. Last week I also went to an ENT who could only detect slight hearing loss in the lower frequencys (at ~100Hz i think) in my left ear. He also prescribed me prednisolone for three days and Gingko for ten, both of which didn't make a difference. My ears started hurting again for two days last week, like on that weekend three weeks prior. On one night I woke up with something akin to a smoke detector going off in my left ear, which wasn't there when I woke up again in the morning. How I could fall asleep with that awful beep I don't know.
Now on the current week the electric noise is changing by the hour. It can sound like crickets or a quiet sports whistle, or it sounds more high-pitched like a running vacuum that's behind two doors. It isn't a constant tone, more like morse-code. And by now I can hear it almost everywhere. It reacts and gets louder than cars, fans, even the shower can't trump it. When there's no noise it's relatively quiet but very intrusive and it honestly will probably drive me insane sometime.
At first it was in only in my left ear, but sometimes it's in both (middle of my head) and today it changed completely to my RIGHT ear for an hour or so. Unpredictable.
I also woke up to an awful ringing (or chirping) sound which subsided for the most part (i think, i hope!) thankfully.
As I said, I perused the internet relentlessly, and under all these nightmare stories which I'm both scared and fascinated by, I found out about T related to TMJ and jaw clenching and tension in the jaw, neck and back. I can control the bussing, hizzing aspect of my tinnitus with jaw and neck movements, but not the electric noise. I'm getting a jaw splint on monday next week, because there's much tension there. I also noticed some pain in my jaw, neck and upper back which also gets worse every day (coincidence or causality???).
The noise sensitivity persists, loud sounds are not necessarily louder, but more uncomfortable. A relatively loud external beep made my left (maybe also right) ear hurt and even close up on thursday. Getting earplugs now.
I am really REALLY hoping I don't have permanent (noise?) damage or something similar and all my symptoms come from jaw clenching and/or neck- and back problems.
TL;DR
- used new earbuds for 5 days, 2 weeks later for 1 day, hissing noise that was always there i think
- 6 days later ear- and jaw pain & burning, especially from low frequencys,
- 1 week later cricket-like noise in morse-code-like intervals in left ear,
- crickets react to sound, get louder with noise, but only for the duration of the noise, "competing"
- last week ENT found only slight hearing loss in low frequencys in my left ear
- this week crickets change ears sometimes
I hope this post isn't too long or detailled, but I can really make no sense of this and the thought of it never going away and living a whole life with this is worrying and, frankly, sickening. I can't even listen to my music anymore the way is used to
I have some other minor auditory symptoms, but this already long post would become a novel.
For everyone who reads all of this, a big thank you, even if you have nothing to say about it.
Member
