Male, 60, Tinnitus from No Obvious Trigger Event or Cause

Hello everyone. Since it seems customary to introduce oneself here, I'll say a few words about me.

I'm pushing 60, and have had mild tinnitus for decades: The sort that you won't even notice in the daytime, while at night there'll be a very soft, wind-like noise when wearing earplugs.

In early November it began to deteriorate. First my ears felt sore and irritable, which I assumed to be an ear canal infection that I tried to fix myself with "Sterillium Pure" (an isoproanol based hand sanitizer) and a dropper. After 10 days it still didn't help, but my ears burned. I then switched to Clotrimazole (an antifungal) in 94% Ethanol, purely based on a hunch.

When that didn't help either, I finally made an appointment with an ENT, and stopped any further intervention until then.

While waiting for the appointed date, I noticed that my tinnitus had gotten considerably louder. I asked the ENT about both ear infection and rapidly worsening tinnitus, but she dismissed both. There was supposedly nothing wrong with my ears save for some ear wax, and I should report back if my tinnitus hasn't gotten better within two weeks (!).

Only a few days later I woke up from a screeching noise. The ENT offered an appointment early 2021. I went to a different ENT who diagnosed SSHL. He wrote a prescription for Methylprednisolone, while also dismissing the idea that I could have an infection of the inner ear.

That ENT visit was 10 days ago. I've been taking Ginkgo concurrently with the steroids. Since then I have seen no obvious improvement. There is no apparent trend. Right now, it's 3 am and I have given up on sleeping. There seems to be a self-reinforcing feedback loop that makes the noise become too loud to allow for any sleep. I just hope my wife doesn't wake up noticing I'm not at her side right now.

Like everyone else, I'm wondering whether I'll get my life back.

 

Sorry to hear you have SSHL. I just developed that too about 10 days ago with severe vertigo. Now I have trouble balancing and my left ear is not hearing anything. I also have ear fullness and brain fog plus a roar in the left ear and a high pitch tinnitus on the right side. Have you tried injection besides the oral Prednisone? How about HBOT? Sometimes viral infection can cause that too so you may ask doctor if you need anti viral drugs too besides Prednisone.

Hang in there brother. I am trying to stay positive that things will improve over time. That is the general sentiment from SSHL support forum. You may also consider joining a support group for SSHL if your condition persists. Take care. God bless.

 

Hello billie48,

Thanks for the kind words. No, I haven't tried anything other than what I described, and technically, the steroid "therapy" isn't totally over yet.

I did already ask about a possible infection, but this was dismissed out of hand. While I have not had any diagnostics apart from a bit of half-hearted audiometry from 200 Hz to 5 KHz, and a look into my ears.

I believe that more could be done to find the cause of my symptoms, but first I would need to find a doctor who doesn't lose interest as soon as they diagnose tinnitus.

I'm a bit reluctant to sink a whole lot of money into injection or HBOT without knowing what's going on.

Apart from a possible infection (which I most definitely had) I'm wondering whether it might be a muscle thing, some sort of problem with my neck: The noises change when I cock my head, and it seems to me that this is significant.

This will need some time and research. For better or worse, this forum is a obviously much better source of information than your run-of-the-mill ENT "specialist", at least here in Germany.

 

Hi @Rainer -- Sorry to hear about your sudden onset of worsening tinnitus. Just want to mention that I agree with you that it's significant that the noise changes when you cock your head. Could be emanating from your neck, or even other areas such as your TMJ joint.

I would suggest checking whether you can find a physical therapist who specializes in tinnitus issues. You may also want to check out this POST on a novel therapy (atlasprofilax) that helps some people's tinnitus (I got great benefit from this therapy).

Take care!

 

Thanks, I will definitely check it out!

 

Did they do a blood test before they ruled out a viral infection as possible cause of your SSHL? Sometimes I feel some doctors or ENT are too fast in ruling things out, like my ENT.

 

No, my description of the "diagnostic process" was exhaustive.

Don't you love TV serials like "Dr House" where noble and dedicated doctors are always confronted with medical conundrums, but will stop at nothing to find out what's wrong with their patients?