Indroducing Myself, First Time with Tinnitus — It Started Randomly

Hey guys, been reading the forum for a couple weeks now and thought I better make a post.

I randomly got tinnitus a couple of weeks ago. It's high pitched tone about 8.5 kHz constant most of the time but wavering with my pulse when it's lower. It's not loud enough to stop me hearing other things but I can hear it all the time unless it's very low at the moment and I cover my ears, then the general noise in my body (blood flow etc) masks it.

The time line of how this started began I guess on the 18th of July when I most definitely didn't not have tinnitus.. I was playing a game with my son on a TV we recently got and had it a little bit loud.. enough that after a hour or so I felt uncomfortable but it certainly wasn't any louder than your average movie in a cinema. Also around this day we went on a day trip and I drank 2 energy drink.s.. which resulted in me not sleeping that night. I don't often drink them, usually only on a trip so I stay awake on the way home. This day I tried the new Coke energy and the usual Monster Zero Carb drink I have.

The following day I was still pretty high on the energy drinks and my daughter was being pretty loud so I put some ear plugs in and went to sleep. I believe it was this following day I woke up with tinnitus.. I've been wondering if the ear plugs damaged my inner ear... I probably failed to use them properly as I haven't used them much in my life but it was a fairly stressful few days all up.

My health is pretty complex as I have an auto inflammatory disease which can cause weird other effect at times... anyway...

A year ago I suddenly developed what to me was very debilitating pulsatative tinnitus... it was perhaps the worst 40 days of my life but eventually just... resolved.

Anyway... since the 18th I've had a few days where this new case of high pitched tinnitus has resolved completely, once on maybe (around) the 22nd... And again on the 31st, that was interesting as I was laying in the bath early in the morning to try and deal with the stress (I haven't been able to sleep much yet since this started) anyway as I lay in the bath that day the ringing started wavering.. up and down then went rrrrIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEP... and just stopped... It stayed stopped until about 6pm that night when I ate a peanut butter balls thing... and the tinnitus came back within 30 seconds. This resolved again in a couple hours time and stayed gone until the morning where it was back slightly... I then ate eggs which exacerbated the tinnitus ALOT almost instantly, brain fuzz style and it hasn't resolved completely since, although it did resolve 99% after swinging on a swing in the playground with the kids on the night of the 2nd... (prednisone or tube drianage who knows...). It's important to note here.. that because of my immune system disease I'm on a low dose of prednisone and after having read this forums and not being able to see a doctor yet about the tinnitus I thought it maybe wise as a diagnostic tool and early investigation to do a largish dose of prednisone for a week. I started this on the 29th... I had though the prednisone was the reason for the resolution that day but it didn't completely stop it yesterday or today (today it seems to be doing nothing). Tomorrow will be my last day on the higher dosage.

Over these last two week there have been an hour here or there with complete. Back last year when I developed pulsatile tinnitus I had an inner ear infection which I got from a young kids birthday party (always risky) but this time I haven't seemed to have much or any kind if infection. The tinnitus is in my left ear (the pulsatile last year was too but eventually went also to the right ear before it stopped).

Anyway... I'm finding this very anxiety inducing as I'm already under a lot of stress with this disease I have, I can deal with it during the day but at night it's killing me. There have been a few other days where the ringing has resolved over this last 2 weeks but only for an hour or two.. usually at around 6am (no clue why) but it's mostly after I've eaten kidney or liver (which I eat fairly often while in ketosis and I've gone back into that since the ringing started).

This leads me to vitamins.. The only study I can find online with any real weight to it regarding vitamins and tinnitus is one published in Korea last year which showed a pretty good co-relationship between vitamin B2 and tinnitus (more b2 = less tinnitus), it was a big study with 1,400? people with tinnitus, 20,000 without. They tested all common minerals and vitamins and the b2 was the only one statically different between the two groups. (b3 a little also but was related to coping with tinnitus rather than having it or not)

I've been taking a B complex here and there this last week.. but not for a few days, after reading that study today I'll take it everyday ongoing and see what happens.. Anyway that's my introduction... I really hope this will go away in 40 days like the pulsatile tinnitus did last year... But if not I really hope I can find a way to live with and get used to it because it's already effecting the quality of life of my family a lot.

 

I thought I best link the study I was talking about https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6102331/

 

Went to the Doctor today and she said.. Your ears look OK, and I have Tinnitus. too.. I listen to swamp sounds to sleep at night.. hah! well that wasn't much help. So since I couldn't get any help there I just laid in the sun for an hour or so, it's less bad than it was yesterday. The doctor also has some pretty cold sores.. I tend to blame that virus for most inflammatory things because it likes to live in and generate inflammation. Should actually try lower the load on that, I'll pick up some anti virals. I usually take valacyclovir when I have a cold sore and I did have one in my nose just before this tinnitus started.. However I was out of pills.

 

Had a few hours good hours today, maybe all hope isn't lost. I'm absolutely smashing the anti virals.

 

Urgh I really don't understand this.. It was gone 100% for 12 hours yesterday, 5 minutes after I lay down.. It came back and still back today

 

I'm really starting to think I'm overloaded on Vitamin D.. Looking back I've been taking far too much of it these last few months. I'm having huge Tinnitus spikes (all over my brain) as soon as I get into REM sleep. Only thing that makes much sense is excess Vitamin D and calcium in the blood (which increases hugely during REM). Not sure what any ones thoughts I that might be but that's mine. Other than the mildly loud TV for a couple hours I don't have any history of noise exposure and my hearing seems fine. There was another poster on here that had the same thing happen and they said it took 6 months to resolve.

 

Ok I understand what happened now. I've gone and looked through all my search history and facebook posts etc. And I've pinpointed exactly what happened. I first searched for Tinnitus on the early hours of the morning on the 19th of July, that night we had been on a day trip and I drank two energy drinks on the way home. It put me into some kind of hyper state and I didn't sleep until midday the next day.. When I finally did go to sleep, that's when I wore earplugs, but I had already searched for tinnitus by then. Not totally unusual for me to go without sleep but I had been increasing in nervousness and anxiety in the previous weeks already. I think because I had been doing alternate day prednisone for my other problem for a few months and my andrenals had recovered given me much more constant cortisol than in previous years. After that night I seem to have lost control/inhibition of my central brain, I'd been taking lots of vitamin D also I think that's played a part.

Now whenever I sleep I wake up 20 minutes later with my brain screaming... then it slowly resolves the longer I'm awake.. But soon as I sleep I wake up again.. same thing. I guess for starters I need to go back to very low dose prednisone and surpress my adrenals again and see if I can un-exite my mind. I'm having moments of no ringing during the day if I get especially relaxed or happy but the second I sleep it comes back.

 

Hi @foam -- Since you're interested in looking at vitamins, I'd suggest you check out the following thread. I just placed an order for the unique form of Vitamin B1 he recommends [Source Naturals Coenzymated B-1 25mg Fast Acting Thiamin Cocarboxylase Quick-Dissolve - 60 Lozenges]. -- All the Best!

Thiamine Pyrophosphate (TPP) Stopped My Tinnitus!

 

Good luck Foam. It's all so random isn't it. I just think I've worked this thing out then the goalposts shift again. Never give up. I cope with a white noise hearing aid and very restricted diet.

 

Julia, thanks for the support.. I'm still having hours of complete stress over it, but once I calm down I'm okISH during the day. Next week I'll take the family on a day trip to a big shopping centre I think, I really need that

 

Well that was interesting.. I've waited all day for the ringing to fade. It finally did around 8pm. Just now I watched a youtube video with headphones but very softly and it came back to about where it was at 6pm.. (high pitched pulse), when I wake up it's a constant scream and then a medium high pitch during the middle of the day. Most days are like this. I guess I need to completely lay off the headphones. I'm not sure if I should be listening to pink noise or what.. Maybe I should be just sleeping outside with the wind and bugs.

 

My wife mentioned to me (after I complained about not having any) that she has some fancy organic Camomile flowers in the cupboard for making tea.. Well I was already having a night where the ringing had mostly cleared up before sleep. But right now.. silence.. or at least so close I can't tell it's there at all, it is great.. I don't want to go to sleep because I know I'll wake up with it all over again.. But at least I had some good hours.

 

Ok my anxiety and stress is improving. I'm still getting a few hours silence per day but last night was the least noisy night I've had in a week and a half?. I made an important discovery yesterday I had silence and lost it immediately after a 15 minute drive on the highway. We have a small hathback and the road noise is loud.. I've been complaining about it being uncomfortable on my ears for a couple years now.. Anyway we went on a hour drive today so the wife drove and I wore ear protectors,, looked like an idiot but my tinnitus didn't flare up at all.

 

Is anyone else's Tinnitus tied directly to the daily cortisol curve? mine is.. completely. It starts to resolve at about 3pm every day and is gone at 9pm.. till .. when I sleep. Then starts to build back up to it's peak when I wake. I'm going to try some ashwagandha.

 

Ok a few things have happened since onset, probably should update for my own records at least. I was starting to wonder if what I have is tinnitus at all.. Because it sounded exactly the same as the somatic sound when I move my neck or jaw to it's extreme. I was wondering.. is this tinnitus, is this just a crooked neck... Anyway now I have a new sound underneath that sound.. Or perhaps it's not new. Perhaps it was masked before.. But I have morse codes. in my left ear now. It's not loud and a TV overpowers it.. Very different to the somatic hiss which is unable to be masked by anything. I'd do a trade.. But rather not have both. Also in the days leading up to the morse code.. I had a tone in the same range as the morse code but constant.. this could only be heard inside the sound proof environment of the car with everything switched off. That constant tone has gone. Both the constant tone and the morse code are very different to the high pitched hiss.. The hiss is fully in my brain.. The morse code is in the ear itself and not very far into it at all. Sounds much like musical whistling morse code in a sea shell..

Somehow this constant tone turned into morse code 2 days ago. Was the constant tone always there? was it new.. I can't remember.

The good news is... I can sleep (sort of), I can function.. sometimes. I patted my daughter today on the head/back for the first time in 6 weeks unforced and not distracted. Other good news is my jaw no longer hurts, the bones around my ears no long hurt and my neck is becoming more flexible. A doctor gave me Amclavox as he suspected I had experience a bacterial ear infection, he saw bubbles in my ears, maybe he was right maybe not but I definitely had an infection in the jaw at least. I considered the risks and decided to take them. So I took the antibiotics without too many problems other than my gut not working very well again yet, finished up the antibiotics a week ago. To be fair it wasn't working well before I started on them anyway. Oh yeah my acid reflux which arrived at the same time as tinnitus has stopped for now. In another week I will have had this for two months. Still hopping for a full or near full resolution.. one day.

 

Well.. time for an update..

I've discovered there are multiple problems going on here.. The somatic ringing. This happens overnight and I have learnt that this is my nervous system picking up pain or at least nerve receptors from my neck and jaw. I went to a chiropractor the other day and this ringing was instantly BEAMING all over my brain and ears like unbelievably loud for the next two days.

The other issue is the 10.5khz tone I originally had, this has changed.. to a morse code and may have changed again.. More about that in moment. This tone/morse code, this seems to be either coming from my TMJ jaw or genuine ear damage.

Last night after I had realised that the somatic ringing was coming from my neck I decided to try 10mg of amitriptyline, I know most people on this forum are scared of that drug but after reading the damage it does can be mostly offset with NAC and Q10 I took both of those and the amitriptyline. Well.. pretty impressive drug I must say. I had almost no somatic ringing all night, I think I only woke up once and slept 12 hours..! and there's still barely any brain ringing (about 10% of what it was yesterday) now some 20 hours later. Not only that... Up till now I can only JUST with my ears plugged in silence here the morse code.. and it's so low that I'm not even sure it' still morse code.. It may have changed to a mosquito type sound. For a drug that's supposed to take 3 weeks to work.. It's great to know it exists and if it's working on me because of it's effects on serotonin and norepinephrine then maybe I can improve those level naturally. If it's working because of it's pain reducing effects on nerves well.. just good to know it's there for the future. I will continue to take it for a few days in a tapering off dose, I only have a few more pills. Hopefully I have some more continued success and can write a actual success story at some stage.