Hydration Is Important

I've had tinnitus for the past year, at times a very angry, aggravated, alarm-sounding tinnitus, and now it is nearly gone. Yep.

It started last summer, just intermiitently, and got progressively worse. By January this year it was continuous. I had also developed progressively worse headaches, dizziness, and to top my misery off, I should mention that I also had chronic diarrhea.

My doctor thought I had tension headaches and that the stresses of my life were causing not just the headaches, but also insomnia and diarrhea. I was always sleepy and drank coffee every morning to get going. I always sort of thought that drinking the coffee was why I had diarrhea, so I didn't worry too much about it.

The doc gave me amitriptyline to help me sleep. Yeah, I was able to sleep, but the tinnitus was getting worse and worse. The dizziness too. Only now I was even a bit nauseous. Sometimes I felt like I was going to pass out. Confusingly, it was even worse at night. Was stress causing to get sicker even in my sleep?

I saw a neurologist to get myself thoroughly checked out. Despite extensive testing --MRI, EEG, ultra sound (on my carotid arteries), and tests of my hearing nerves -- the doctor could find nothing wrong with me. He gently suggested that I might want to see a psychologist.

Meanwhile my condition deteriorated. I was having diarrhea at least twice a day. Then, oof, I went to the emergency room with kidney stones. I was so dizzy I was terrified that if they put me under I might end up in a coma or something. Fortunately, the stone came out on its own. They told me to drink more water to avoid more kidney stones. I think I never really drank a lot of water, more coffee and beer.

So I started drinking water -- in a big way. No, if you think this is the point where things started to turn around, you are totally wrong. They were going to get dramatically worse.

My diarrhea did not go away. In fact, I had noticed that it had changed color and had become more watery. My doctor asked for a stool sample, but then advised me also -- because I was still having terrible headaches -- to double my amitriptyline. (From 10 mg. to 20mg.)

Soon, I was having diarrhea five times a day. My ears were rining like a five-alarm fire, and my whole head felt like useless wood. I couldn't think. I went to the hospital.

After three days of intrvenous fluids, drinking lots of water, and not taking any meds, my head started to clear. I could then feel that my sinuses were sore and painful. They had been completely dried out. I remembered that they used to bleed some nights. I guess my apartment was pretty dry. And the diarrhea kept me dehydrated.

Then, I thought maybe they were so dry that I damaged my inner ear or something. I stayed on IV fluids and in addition the hopital gave me an inhaler to help moisten things up.

The improvement has been dramatic. My tinnitus is not gone, but it is way down at a level I think I can live with.

I'm hoping if I can figure out my intestinal issue and stay hydrated, then it may subside further. By the way, for me, one side effect of amitriptyline is diarrhea. Luckily it made things bad enough that I inadvertently got the help I needed.