Hi everybody
I am a 38 years old male from Scandinavia with Tinnitus. Thanks for reading my story which I belive can be interesting for someone with similar experiences. I have been suffering with fluctuating and low Tinnitus for 1,5 years. I can`t really remember the first time I noted the tinnitus because there where no dramatic situation due to my T onset. One day I just started to hear a faint morse code ringing in my right ear. It didn't bother me much in the begining because I was pretty sure it would go away. But so far it has not. I remember most parts of the early days I had relative low tinnitus with minimum activity, the ringing was barely audible and sometimes complete gone. On scale 0-10, the ringing was fluctuating from 0/10 - 2/10. Sometimes the ringing was very weak and the morse code ringing sounded bip.....bip..bip....biip..........biiip with multiple seconds between the bips. A simple yawn or Valsalva manouvre could actually stop the ringing. The tone of my T'(s) has never been high pitced. The frequensy is probably around 1000-3000Hz. I have never been to loud conserts, or had any dramatic acustic trauma before, but I used to play the electric guitar with headphones. But I never played on very loud because I have always been whatching out for my ears. I stopped playing with headphones once I noticed the ringing back in summer 2015. As for my medical background I no have diseases, but my GP measured some slightly high blood pressure after a couple of times I visited him to talk about my tinnitus situation. Some years before I got T, I had long term problems with vertigo. I was feeling constant dizzy. Not really vertigo dizzines, but it felt much like jetlag with mild dizzines and neck pain. I can still feel it sometimes today but it's usually only lasting for minutes.
After a half year with faint T I had a nasty flu and the Tinnitus suddenly become louder and more disruptive. Suddenly I started to hear the T during whole days. Sometimes as a morsecode ringing or as a single tone. This was new to me and I started to feel anxious and stressed. From here the T started to take control of my life. I saw a ENT doctor at the local privat clinic. The doctor there said that I had ETD. My left ET was complete clogged and she suspected this was causing the problem. The only problem with this theory was that the T is in my right ear and the clogged tube was in the left ear. Today I know this is not causing my problems because I have managed the open the clogged tube and the T is still there. I also did MR. The pictures shows that I have swelled tissue in the pharynx (throat/swallow) that might be blocking the eustasian tubes . Surgical operation was proposed by the doctors to remove the excess tissue. I didn`t go through the surgery, because another ENT doctor said that it would probably not help or was causing the real problem to my tinnitus. At the local hospital I did hearing tests with state of the art equipment. The audiologist said that I have normal hearing for my age. Although the audiogram shows that I have a little dip -15dB at 4kHz in both ears. According to youtube tests I have done I can't hear sounds over 13kHz. I asked my ENT doctor about this and she said that is normal for a 40 year old person.
The time period between april to november 2016 I experienced alot of fluctuating tinnitus on and off / loud or weak. Although I believe my T has never reached louder than 5 out of 10 on the scale, it was still very difficult to sleep sometimes. I started getting weird hissing and metallic sounds in head and ears. Specially after drinking alcohol I got strange metallic hissing sound which could stay for several days. This still happens today when I drink alcohol. I also had occasionally Fleeting Tinnitus. One time I was in my bed reading and suddenly out of nowhere the strongest fleeting T ever hit me in my left (non T) ear. The very next day I noticed my left ear had suddenly started to hiss. I still have some slightly hissing that comes and goes in that ear. I have also experienced that my tinnitus has completely dissapeared over several weeks giving me the hope that the T will some day be gone forever.
I am coping alright with my Tinnitus and I can live with it, but what's worries me is that since tinnitus is so unpredictable, my T might get severe some day. Although I dont think my T is due to hearing loss, I try to protect my ears as much as I can. I use ear protection when I am at the cinema, bar/discos etc. or working with power tools, lawnmovers etc.
Any suggestion to what might be causing my T?
Thanks for reading and take care.
I am a 38 years old male from Scandinavia with Tinnitus. Thanks for reading my story which I belive can be interesting for someone with similar experiences. I have been suffering with fluctuating and low Tinnitus for 1,5 years. I can`t really remember the first time I noted the tinnitus because there where no dramatic situation due to my T onset. One day I just started to hear a faint morse code ringing in my right ear. It didn't bother me much in the begining because I was pretty sure it would go away. But so far it has not. I remember most parts of the early days I had relative low tinnitus with minimum activity, the ringing was barely audible and sometimes complete gone. On scale 0-10, the ringing was fluctuating from 0/10 - 2/10. Sometimes the ringing was very weak and the morse code ringing sounded bip.....bip..bip....biip..........biiip with multiple seconds between the bips. A simple yawn or Valsalva manouvre could actually stop the ringing. The tone of my T'(s) has never been high pitced. The frequensy is probably around 1000-3000Hz. I have never been to loud conserts, or had any dramatic acustic trauma before, but I used to play the electric guitar with headphones. But I never played on very loud because I have always been whatching out for my ears. I stopped playing with headphones once I noticed the ringing back in summer 2015. As for my medical background I no have diseases, but my GP measured some slightly high blood pressure after a couple of times I visited him to talk about my tinnitus situation. Some years before I got T, I had long term problems with vertigo. I was feeling constant dizzy. Not really vertigo dizzines, but it felt much like jetlag with mild dizzines and neck pain. I can still feel it sometimes today but it's usually only lasting for minutes.
After a half year with faint T I had a nasty flu and the Tinnitus suddenly become louder and more disruptive. Suddenly I started to hear the T during whole days. Sometimes as a morsecode ringing or as a single tone. This was new to me and I started to feel anxious and stressed. From here the T started to take control of my life. I saw a ENT doctor at the local privat clinic. The doctor there said that I had ETD. My left ET was complete clogged and she suspected this was causing the problem. The only problem with this theory was that the T is in my right ear and the clogged tube was in the left ear. Today I know this is not causing my problems because I have managed the open the clogged tube and the T is still there. I also did MR. The pictures shows that I have swelled tissue in the pharynx (throat/swallow) that might be blocking the eustasian tubes . Surgical operation was proposed by the doctors to remove the excess tissue. I didn`t go through the surgery, because another ENT doctor said that it would probably not help or was causing the real problem to my tinnitus. At the local hospital I did hearing tests with state of the art equipment. The audiologist said that I have normal hearing for my age. Although the audiogram shows that I have a little dip -15dB at 4kHz in both ears. According to youtube tests I have done I can't hear sounds over 13kHz. I asked my ENT doctor about this and she said that is normal for a 40 year old person.
The time period between april to november 2016 I experienced alot of fluctuating tinnitus on and off / loud or weak. Although I believe my T has never reached louder than 5 out of 10 on the scale, it was still very difficult to sleep sometimes. I started getting weird hissing and metallic sounds in head and ears. Specially after drinking alcohol I got strange metallic hissing sound which could stay for several days. This still happens today when I drink alcohol. I also had occasionally Fleeting Tinnitus. One time I was in my bed reading and suddenly out of nowhere the strongest fleeting T ever hit me in my left (non T) ear. The very next day I noticed my left ear had suddenly started to hiss. I still have some slightly hissing that comes and goes in that ear. I have also experienced that my tinnitus has completely dissapeared over several weeks giving me the hope that the T will some day be gone forever.
I am coping alright with my Tinnitus and I can live with it, but what's worries me is that since tinnitus is so unpredictable, my T might get severe some day. Although I dont think my T is due to hearing loss, I try to protect my ears as much as I can. I use ear protection when I am at the cinema, bar/discos etc. or working with power tools, lawnmovers etc.
This morning I woke up with a pretty noisy weeeeeeeeeee in the ear. I went to the gym and forgott the T for a moment. Came back home, took a shower and notised I had no T at all. Had the rest of the day without T wondering how tommorow will be like, or next week...
Gona see a new ENT next week. I belive there is still hope for me since I am having these "time outs"Any suggestion to what might be causing my T?
Thanks for reading and take care.
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