Hello all. I will start from the beginning. It all started on 28 August 2009, I was 22 years old. I went to an electronic music concert and stayed too close to the stage for a few hours. The next day I had fullness in my left ear and of course - loud ringing. Everyone here knows how it's like for the first few days-weeks (panic attacks, depression etc.) so I won't get into further details. At first it was loud, it didn't want to go away. It was a nightmare and hell on earth. I stayed at the hospital for 3 weeks, I took meds, had all kinds of tests and examinations, tomographs, audiograms, x-rays - you name it. After about 2 months it got a lot quieter and I stopped taking meds. After about 4 months it was so mild I could only hear/notice it in complete silence. It didn't bother me at all. I could read books and work in silence without noticing it was there. On a scale from 1 to 10 if I had to tell how much it was bothering me I would say 0.5/10, a perfectly normal life. Of course I was very cautious about my ears. Whenever I went to a place with loud music I would ALWAYS wear earplugs. My friends got so used to me wearing them that when they saw me 'plugging' them at the club they would just smile but I could see their eyes saying: "Still got that ear problem huh 
". I always had in mind that although my T is very mild it can always get worse if I'm to careless. It stayed that way for 5 years.
I woke up on 11 November 2014. I wasn't at a concert or a club. I wasn't listening to loud music. Nothing that could cause the spike. So I woke up and the T in my left ear was there. Loud. At first I thought to myself: "What the hell ?! My T isn't that loud, what's happening?". At first I thought that I was having that fluctuating tinnitus, you know, the one that suddenly attacks you loud but fades away after 5-10 seconds. But no. I ate breakfast - it was there, I went to work - it was there, it was with me the whole day. It kept on like that for a week. The nightmare returned. I got depressed, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't work, I couldn't do nothing but lay down listening to the new pitch of my T and be depressed about it. I took 3 weeks off work. I went back to my hometown to stay with my mom. I was desperate for someone close to cheer me up or just to be around someone who cares about me. I started lurking Tinnitus Talk forums and I found a few threads where people kept saying that their T got worse with time, that it got louder and stayed like that. I convinced myself that I won't get better, that my T won't go back to 'normal', I'm screwed for life. My mom is a nurse so she got me appointed to an ENT the next day. I was hoping to start some kind of professional treatment right away - TRT, laser therapy, oxygen inhalations - whatever would be available. Instead, she (ENT) said something like: "I will prescribe you meds, take them regularly and if is doesn't go away visit me again in 1 month". I was prescribed basically the same meds as 5 years ago (Piracetamum 1200mg 2 times a day, Vinpocetinum 5mg 3/day, Betahistini dihydrochloridum 24mg 2/day, Opipramol(mild antidepressant) 2/day, Ginko biloba 2/day).
I kept taking meds. I noteced my T was changing it's pitch and loudness. Sometimes it was TV static, sometimes buzzing and sometimes screeching cicadas. Almost everyday was different. I was constantly measuring my T. I downloaded an 8 hour long shower sound for my smartphone and I kept playing it constantly to mask my T. It was the one thing that gave me some kind of relief. I wasn't enjoying anything, I've lost 4 kilograms in one week. I was sure that it will stay like that forever. My mom was the only person that kept me going, she kept saying: "Listen son, it got better 5 years ago and it will get better now, I'm sure of it, just give it time".
I always enjoyed video games, I'm a professional games tester working for a big video game development company and I also very much enjoy playing video games in my free time. Now I would just lie in my bed taking sleeping pills because sleeping was the only time when I couldn't hear my T.
It got better over time. I don't know if it was the meds or time or whatever. My T was gradually going down day by day after after 2 weeks of taking meds. Now a month had passed and I can say it with full fondness that it got down to it's 'normal' state. The spike is gone. It's been OK for a whole week and it stopped changing it's pitch. I'm back to my normal life, I stopped using my T masker, I sleep well at night, I got back to work, I enjoy video games again, my T is mild and stable, I'm still taking meds though. I like the idea of it staying like that at least for the next 5 years. Now, why am I writing this? I just wanted to share my story with those of you fellow T-buddies that if it turned out like this for me - it may turn out like this for you. I did not believe it at first, but now I feel like a newborn. The nightmare is over...again .
Sorry for the wall of text.
-David.
". I always had in mind that although my T is very mild it can always get worse if I'm to careless. It stayed that way for 5 years.I woke up on 11 November 2014. I wasn't at a concert or a club. I wasn't listening to loud music. Nothing that could cause the spike. So I woke up and the T in my left ear was there. Loud. At first I thought to myself: "What the hell ?! My T isn't that loud, what's happening?". At first I thought that I was having that fluctuating tinnitus, you know, the one that suddenly attacks you loud but fades away after 5-10 seconds. But no. I ate breakfast - it was there, I went to work - it was there, it was with me the whole day. It kept on like that for a week. The nightmare returned. I got depressed, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't work, I couldn't do nothing but lay down listening to the new pitch of my T and be depressed about it. I took 3 weeks off work. I went back to my hometown to stay with my mom. I was desperate for someone close to cheer me up or just to be around someone who cares about me. I started lurking Tinnitus Talk forums and I found a few threads where people kept saying that their T got worse with time, that it got louder and stayed like that. I convinced myself that I won't get better, that my T won't go back to 'normal', I'm screwed for life. My mom is a nurse so she got me appointed to an ENT the next day. I was hoping to start some kind of professional treatment right away - TRT, laser therapy, oxygen inhalations - whatever would be available. Instead, she (ENT) said something like: "I will prescribe you meds, take them regularly and if is doesn't go away visit me again in 1 month". I was prescribed basically the same meds as 5 years ago (Piracetamum 1200mg 2 times a day, Vinpocetinum 5mg 3/day, Betahistini dihydrochloridum 24mg 2/day, Opipramol(mild antidepressant) 2/day, Ginko biloba 2/day).
I kept taking meds. I noteced my T was changing it's pitch and loudness. Sometimes it was TV static, sometimes buzzing and sometimes screeching cicadas. Almost everyday was different. I was constantly measuring my T. I downloaded an 8 hour long shower sound for my smartphone and I kept playing it constantly to mask my T. It was the one thing that gave me some kind of relief. I wasn't enjoying anything, I've lost 4 kilograms in one week. I was sure that it will stay like that forever. My mom was the only person that kept me going, she kept saying: "Listen son, it got better 5 years ago and it will get better now, I'm sure of it, just give it time".
I always enjoyed video games, I'm a professional games tester working for a big video game development company and I also very much enjoy playing video games in my free time. Now I would just lie in my bed taking sleeping pills because sleeping was the only time when I couldn't hear my T.
It got better over time. I don't know if it was the meds or time or whatever. My T was gradually going down day by day after after 2 weeks of taking meds. Now a month had passed and I can say it with full fondness that it got down to it's 'normal' state. The spike is gone. It's been OK for a whole week and it stopped changing it's pitch. I'm back to my normal life, I stopped using my T masker, I sleep well at night, I got back to work, I enjoy video games again, my T is mild and stable, I'm still taking meds though. I like the idea of it staying like that at least for the next 5 years
. Now, why am I writing this? I just wanted to share my story with those of you fellow T-buddies that if it turned out like this for me - it may turn out like this for you. I did not believe it at first, but now I feel like a newborn. The nightmare is over...again .Sorry for the wall of text.
-David.
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