Is There Anything That Can Be Done from Increased Tinnitus Due to Bad Cold/Bronchitis?

It really is becoming one thing after another. Because I haven't got new insurance yet I'm sitting in the unknown in figuring things out.

My T originates from noise induced primarily at 18. 7-8 years with mild T. 10 months ago, a wood saw 5 feet from my window wen't off when I was sleeping and ruined my ears further. It's been hell since. A lot has happened in between but this sickness I contracted has put me in a state I can't deal with.

I got what seems to have been a very bad cold/pre-stage bronchitis (didn't seem to fully develop into a huge coughing spree, but I did have insane congestion and blowing nose, ear clogging, slight sore throat, and I cold turkey most of it for about week and half. Used sudafed two times in two days, blew my nose tons, coughed up tons, took Emergen-c and slept a lot. During my sickness, I had a very bad rumbling like sensation and it cleared up after I got better, great! But, as I became 99% and then 100% better, my T was louder. Not a little, very noticeably louder.

During the sickness, my original T wasn't even that much different (beside this rumbling sound/sensation in my head). Now, it's considerably worse and I'm hearing it more in areas I only could barely hear, and I'm really losing it now.

I used to have a high pitch ring that came through more on left side and then a more lower freq. static in both ears. Now, the high pitch is louder/sharper and the static has turned into more high freq., cutting through things it never did.

Am I screwed here? I've been sick before with my mild T in the past, never had a issue. First time I've been sick with even more damaged and worse off ears, and I fear they're so susceptible now that this has ruined them even further.

Most people say they're T can get temp. be worse during a sickness, yet I'm having the problem directly after. It's been at least a week to week and half since I've had really any symptoms. I feel 100% for awhile now, and my ears are still awful. After feeling close to fully recovered about week ago I also had some of worst fleeting T I've ever had. 3 in a 5h period and left lingering T and fullness for awhile that took awhile to leave. I also noticed earlier this week 1-2 times I had a pop sound in my left ear, which seems to be normal coming off of a bad cold, flu ect.. but just throwing out everything that has occurred.

Has anyone experienced this, and quite honestly, does this seem permanent?

 

I recently had the flu and coughed a hell of a lot. Still cough a bit now 3 weeks after.

The t has spiked, and I think it is pretty much the same as when I was really sick. From what I've read it can be a few weeks for it to calm down. I do feel pressure in my ears, and I am blowing my nose a lot still.

Hopefully it'll die down a bit for both of us.

 

Thanks for the reply. It would make sense if it got worse during the sickness, but I'm a bit scared since it came after I was feeling better, which makes no sense to me. I don't have any clogged ear feeling or remnant sickness that I can tell, it's been over week of being 99% over the sickness. I hope perhaps, ears are the last to heal up or fully get better...but seeing as I've read others got their T/got worse from sickness like this, it's definitely upsetting. I just wanted to get better from my original increase, and now I'm going backwards and it's worse. Really depressing.

 

Try steam inhalation twice a day for two days to clear any mucous hanging around in your tubes and should see a difference ........lots of love glynis

 

I will give that a shot. My ears don't particularly feel clogged or anything but maybe there could be things going on in there that I can't feel. I fear though this illness, the infection or what ever it was, damaged the haircells which were already in a fragile state from noise trauma.

 

Well I'm coming up to 2 weeks now not much change. It's shocking to me that this sickness could of cause perm. damage. I know my T well these last 10 months hoping and praying it will go back to mild T I had for 7 years. To then finally feel an improvement and to get sick and have this, is devastating. I got sick a decent amount when I had mild T, never affected me. So my ears must be so damaged now after the last sound trauma last year that perhaps some of haricells or neural transmitters are just so weak that I can get damaged. Either that or this is taking a long time to recover, which seems unlikely at the 2 week mark.

I wonder if I should of taken prednisone or something.

 

Is anyone knowledgeable on what damage is occurring from bad sicknesses like Bronchitis or bad colds? Is it damaging the same things that loud acoustic trauma is doing? What I don't understand is how T remained relatively same during sickness besides a rumbling sensation, and about 4-5 days feeling better my T goes up. Not only is it louder and the pitch is higher a bit too making it cut through stuff it never really did before in my ambient surrounding.

I'm sitting at at least 2 and half weeks since the end of the sickness and I've had no improvement really and the last few days I've actually felt it's a tad worse. I actually feel like I'm back a few months in my progress when I originally had another acoustic trauma and made my T even worse. 9 months of slow progress has been destroyed because of an illness? That just doesn't make sense.

 

I got my t from an outer ear infection and have had it for 9 weeks. The doctors all say it's not possible from an ear infection (long term)and I am thinking I may have had this a bit before but because I focused on the ringing during the ear infection I am making it louder. I have a fantastic audiologist that has t and has studied t fr 30 years and I am seeing a therapist who has T and specializes in counseling people with T and they both say that we perceive it louder when we are thinking about it. That's why anxiety makes it louder. Is it possible that like me you are thinking about it all the time and checking it and anxious about it?

 

I don't personally believe thinking about T makes it louder. That's just me, because it doesn't happen to me and the volume is the volume no matter if it's masked or if you're listening to it. If I'm in a 35db ambient and my T is clearly in background and I can hear it, I hear it regardless if I'm focused on it or not. I'll admit since my last acoustic trauma which made my mild T a lot worse last June, I've spent 10 months listening to it more so, hoping to see it go down day by day. It's not healthy and I was depressed over it, but even with all my depression and anxiety, I don't believe it had any affect. I saw some improvement back in mid January and I thought maybe it could continue. I'm extremely attune to my T, I know what it sounds like and if it changes. When you're in an environment that masks it, or barely is audible, and then you really notice it because the level is now higher, you know something has happened.

I know pre-sickness and post-sickness there is a difference because I'm struggling to accept the noise even more. The pure tonal ringing is louder, the background static is no longer in background masked by just general noises like t.v running, it's not more of a higher pitch to it. These are very noticeable to me because months of having it one way, and then it changing, is very noticeable to me when I know what it sounds like.

Clearly something has happened, either damage or a temp. increase, I guess I'm just at a loss on why. I understand acoustic trauma but I've been sick before when I used to have mild T which never bothered me too much, never had an affect. Now I'm wondering if my ears are so damaged ( I already know genetically I got the short end of the stick from my ear resistance to noise) that even a sickness further damaged it.

I read people get sick and T is increased during sickness, but mine really wasn't. It happened after I was feeling bad, that's what really irritates me the most. People say don't let T control you, live live. I did that wild mild T, but when my ears keep seeming to get damaged and worse by jets flying by you can't prepare for, or illnesses or a motorcycle at 105db suddenly roaring by, and your ears feel like they're at their peak of hanging on, it's hard to continue on and risk your ears even further.

 

Well I don't know .. Literally every single Doctor I saw said that. They compared it to like having a cut on your hand and if you thought about it over and over you would feel the pain from it. They also said the focusing on it is making the brain put its attention on it.

 

I guess I'm not used to that way of thinking when it comes to T because I never dealt with it that way. My mild T for like almost 8 years was masked by everyday stuff, even sitting in room with just computer running. Only complete silence was it there and annoying yes, but not enough to not let me sleep in silence.

Since acoustic trauma last June it's been louder and a constant struggle since i hear it all day every day, that's not T I had to deal with before or even think about.

My ears are definitely thrashed now as they spike (which I never had) from noise and an illness can seemingly make it worse after the fact, which still doesn't make sense. Coming up to three weeks in a few days and I fear the worst as this seems permanent.

 

So an old rumbling type T that makes me almost nauseous in silence has crept back (sounds same as when I had another acoustic trauma almost 11 months ago that wen't away or just really lessened. I'm assuming due to this sickness that must of done damage and now showing additional side affects even almost 3 weeks after. Looks like I'm done.

Tried to go out and got stuck in traffic with ambulance and fire truck blaring their sirens hitting me, and I felt no protection in my car from that 130db stupidity that they use. I'm sure that will be adding nicely to my already screwed ears.

Can't get a break and world wants to damage my ears when I'm briefly in it, it's a sick joke.

 

What was your additional trauma do you mind me asking?Yep the world sure is a noisy place unfortunately,it's the reason I'm the way I am today

 

Last June I awoke to some idiot using a wood saw. I was asleep which I contribute to the fact my ears were not in a "ready" state or to me, probably more vulnerable. I live in a town house and the guy was in the next door entry way, which I basically see just looking out the window, it's a mere 10 feet away. It awoke me in a panic, I put my hands over my ears because I was too concerned to let off and open the door. Probably got hit a solid 5 seconds with out covering then additional 10 with hands over the ears which probably did jack. After he stopped I slammed my window shut in rage which probably helped in screwing my ears. About 8 days later my T at night was way higher, and I've been struggling since. I finally had some improvement in January when I was moving but I've been hit almost daily by a dog with a high pitch bark, extremely loud, loud jets flying over and finally this sickness which seems to have damaged my ears further making T worse and giving me basically the same T as I had after the trauma in June.

Had mild T from 18-26, was fine with it, a room with a computer on basically masked it. Now I hear it through t.v and shows, outside if its' not loud enough. I was pretty careful after getting T at 18. Didn't go to loud venues anymore ect..

Now my T is bad, hyperacusis is bad and sounds seem very loud to me. This June will be a year and after a military jet flying over, these ambulances hitting me and this sickness making my ears noticeably worse, my improvements are non-existent now. Pretty difficult to even carry on. When you don't have just a steady T that remains the same and it keeps getting worse, what's the point.

 

I know how you feelSometimes there's just nothing you can do about the unexpected.I had mild T for 3 years with maybe a mild H for 3 months(went out with friends way louder than I thought it would be)that settled down.Needless to say after the noisy night out I basically never attended loud venues again!If I had to be at a birthday I would call in sit away from the music,say happy birthday then leave.My joy was cars,modified cars in particular and I'd occasionally attend car shows which usually weren't noisy,where all my friends were stripping their cars to be faster and louder I was trying to make mine sound sporty but be quiet at the same time.
,needless to say my friends never understood this lol.Then a sudden noise exposure in January 2014 ruined all that and left me with moderate T and H that's slowly been progressing ever since,I was doing much better 2 years after the incident but the more I got out in the world the worst my condition gets.Currently housebound now

 

Besides genetics I think there comes a point where your ears are so damaged (hair cells/what ever else is back there) that maybe even 90db, 95db and 100db are enough to cause damage. Maybe our barrier to stop noise from damaging just isn't up to par anymore.

I thought with mild T from 18-26 it would be like that forever. Then it got worse from one 10 second encounter? A wood saw being used that I awoke to? Seems not even possible but perhaps my ears were already at their breaking point and here I am now.

Because the medical community sucks and nobody gives a shit about T because there's no profit to it, we still don't know a lot. It's sad, because while many may have mild T that will never change and generally have decent ears, many are genetically not in the same boat and maybe typical sudden noises that many can handle, we can't.

I'm assuming you also have normal hearing tests? I had and quote "hearing like a 8 year old" yet my T is bad. Go figure. That's probably where hidden hearing loss comes in which ENT's no jack about.

 

Yeah I have perfect hearing apparentlyI was the same as you,I told the mild T I had for 3 years would be forever,noise never really seemed to effect it until one day that all changed

 

Well it's been a month and nothing has improved. Good stuff, ears can be so damaged (from so little, thanks genetics) that stupid crap like this makes it worse.

Can't believe in end of Jan. I was actually feeling some improvement. High pitch ringing in left ear was less high pitch and just more easily sat in background and the second T was more static sounding and low in background. Now because of the f-ing military jets that flew over me in late march combined with the bad sickness in March, I've got the high pitch back and background T now louder and higher pitch, cutting through everything. Hyperacusis bad and pain/soreness off and on.

It's amazing that you have vets with T and nothing gets done to help them (which would directly helps the millions with T) who wen't above and beyond and the government can't do shit to fund any research or promote real scientific data on noise induced trauma.