Long Family History with Hearing Loss, but I Have Tinnitus

[johnkinfw]

Nearly everyone on my father's side had some hearing loss - him and all six siblings, his mom and dad. Mother's side not so. I have done very little listening to loud music and very little shooting. The years I worked in aircraft maintenance we always had hearing protection. I contracted tinnitus during a severe ear and sinus infection, and many years after I switched careers from working on aircraft to writing about working on them. The ringing started while the infection was at its worst. When the infection cleared, the ringing did not go away. A chorus of three tones in one ear, four tones in the other. It took six months before I could get any sleep at night. I gave up caffeine for three years - no help. I tried several home/herbal remedies to no avail. Three months ago I started with Dr. Christopher's ear drops - the garlic oil, followed by an herbal tincture, mostly cohosh root. For two months there was no change, then gradually all the tones dropped out except for one in each ear. They are almost exactly 1 Hz apart, so I get a "wow-wow-wow" flutter. About a year after developing tinnitus I had my hearing checked with a non-vendor-affiliated professional audiologist. My overall hearing was exceptionally acute, with 30 db dropoffs narrowly centered on each ringing tone. What I am left with at this point is the one tone, which was the highest pitch out of the chorus. I am continuing with the eardrops, six nights on, one night off, with the off night flushing ears with warm diluted cider vinegar. I have had a setback or two - for some reason I experience only occasional irritation, and only in the right ear, never the left. So I give it a rest for a few days, then restart. I have not had my hearing rechecked, but subjectively it appears I have regained sensitivity to higher frequencies. As a music lover and amateur musician, I listen to a lot of music, and it appears that strings and vocals have a brighter, less muddy sound to them than before.