My Dad's Tinnitus Success Story — From a Loud Flute Down to a Hiss Heard in Dead Silence

So I figured while I am living in this unfortunate space currently with my own acute tinnitus, I might as well share my dad’s tinnitus story and success with it!

When my tinnitus came on 3 months ago, my dad shared with me that he had “a flute going up and down notes in his right ear” many years ago. It came on out of nowhere, but not a surprise as he is a Vietnam vet and ran his own contracting business (lots of loud noises).

So when he told me this, I asked, “wait, was I alive?” I asked this because I never once remembered him talking about it. So I asked further questions. He basically said “Yeah, it would get annoying, I even went to an ENT eventually who did a hearing test and I asked him ‘can you hear that?’ because it sounded loud enough to ask that. It interrupted my sleep from time to time, but I would just put on the radio at work or let work sounds drown it out”.

He never did any type of heavy duty protection following it or any therapy or meds, he said he just tried to ignore it. Within 7-8 years, he said it went from the alternating flute playing to a hiss sound. He said over that 7-8 years, the flute became quieter and quieter and turned into the hiss, but it took its time for sure. Just imagine if he took care of his ears a little better, probably would have happened faster. To this day, it’s a very quiet hiss that can only be heard in dead silence, and he doesn’t even think about and it doesn’t bother him at all (the man falls asleep all the time within 5 minutes, it’s insane and I am beyond jealous). I share this just to show that there really is no set time frame when it comes to this thing, and he for sure was noise induced tinnitus and also has hearing loss.

Also in sharing this, I know many, like myself, would do just about anything for one sound in one ear that is non-reactive. I type this as I hear my not so beautiful orchestra of 5-6 alternating sounds going on in both ears along with my static reactivity going on my right ear by the low volume of the TV and heater. So, this isn’t to downplay because I wish I had his tinnitus, but I figured another success story can always give some hope.

It should also be noted that my dad has said many times since this has taken over my life and mental state in the past 3 months, “I would do anything to take it from you and deal with it myself”. He’s a great dad

 

It's a well known fact that most tinnitus goes into remission. I wish you luck on this journey and hope the very best for you. There's lots of new promising developments in tinnitus treatment coming soon.

 

This is nice, thank you! My mother also says very often „I would take it from you and deal with it myself if I only could“. This is the kind of parent one needs!

 

My dad said to me that he had tinnitus in his forties (he is now in his 60s with no tinnitus). He said it took many months until it started to disappear. It appeared out of nowhere and he had trouble sleeping. He said to me to ignore it and just carry on focusing on what I need to do. He also said it’s not good to be working from home because it’s too quiet. He knows it wasn’t my choice to work at home - it’s the pandemic and not many people is in the office anyway, so it’s also too quiet in the office. He said try to be in a place with noise and he said don’t think about it and it will just go. I love my dad. I’m also in my forties - the same age my dad experience his now-gone tinnitus. Mine was due to COVID-19 5 months ago. I’m now sleeping well. I can fall asleep within 5 or so minutes with the bells and whistles.

 

Thanks for your story. Did he attend clubs/concerts with no protection when he had tinnitus, with no irritation/worsening to his tinnitus?

 

Awesome!

 

Always uplifting to hear these stories of how tinnitus miraculously disappears. You have to keep hope and that's what I do daily For me, it's faded to a mild hiss before today and I really hope I can do it again; I doubt it, but I still keep that hope

 

Thank you so much. What scares me with mine is the multiple sounds and reactivity, and since it started 3 months ago, it’s only gotten worse, no improvement or even steady state. I know this can happen in the first months before it gets better and I try to tell myself that, but it’s just hard. Last night was night 3 of little sleep due to the loudness when I lay down, and I can’t mask it because it’s reactive.

Positive thoughts and healing right back to you!

 

He’s not a club or concert guy, so didn’t go to very loud events like that but did attend regular sporting events for my sister and I, holiday parties, family gatherings, restaurants, etc. and continued to work his job which had louder sounds.

 

Thanks for sharing. I have reactivity which takes the tinnitus beast up a significant notch. Can’t drown it out with sound, and when I lay down, the noises get louder. Hoping by month 5 I’ve made some progress like you, because right now sleep is very hard to come by.

 

How are you going? Happy New Year and hope you will have a good year ahead.

December/January for me has been good. Most days I don’t notice the tinnitus or I actually don’t hear it for moments (a few minutes, a couple hours) even when I plug my ears, sometimes it’s so faint. But there were some days it got noticeable and at times bothersome but I always reminded myself to accept it’s there and then redirect my attention to other sounds or to other activities or to talk and laugh with friends/family.

I also keep reminding myself that like most things, this has its ups and downs and that it will settle down soon. It’s month 8 now. I continue to hold hope for better days, months and years ahead.

 

Wow, glad to hear you’re doing better! That’s where we all want to get, a place of notable improvement and trending in the right direction.

I am doing about the same the past 1.5 months or so, not better but not notably worse. I’ve been struggling for over 2 weeks now with some kind of upper respiratory infection that just won’t completely go away. It comes on as sore throat with some thicker post nasal drainage. I take a bunch of supplements and such, it feels better/gone for 1-2 days, then comes back. This is beyond frustrating as getting sick is the one thing that can easily worsen/aggravate my tinnitus. I made such great efforts for months to not get sick, but whatever I picked up 2+ weeks ago just won’t leave, thus affecting my tinnitus. Wondering if I need an antibiotic like Doxycycline or Amoxicillin to kick it, but I’m trying to get rid of it without needing meds.

Possibly starting TRT within the next week or so, the main thing I need to get under control/to decrease is my very sensitive reactivity/spiking component. If this could be greatly reduced, my life could change very much so as my tinnitus baseline is not very loud, even with 3-5 tones.

 

Similar to you, I developed tones and frequencies that change in both my ears during the summer.

Lately it's gotten much better to the point that I think I can start tapering off my sleeping meds.

Give it time, it'll get better

 

Is that a known fact? Are there studies?

 

I have an echo like like tone in my left ear. It comes and goes. Does that happen to you?

 

If you must be on antibiotics, make sure you tell your Doctor to prescribe one that will not aggravate your tinnitus.

I was on Azithromycin for bronchitis, and I received the most excruciating spike in my left ear, such that I could not hear any external sounds.

Sulfa, however, did not have that effect on me.

What particularly annoyed me was that the Doctor acted as if I was a puling little wussy for complaining about such a "superficial" side effect as a tinnitus spike.

It is so lamentable that the Medical Community still does not get it about this condition.

 

No echo, but my left ear can range from crickets chirping to sounds of whooshing air (like from a vent). Thankfully it's not loud/annoying to the point where it bothers me.

Now the morse code in my right ear is another story

 

A thousand times yes!!! That sound is one of the worst ones

 

I think it's great you're giving TRT a try. My audiologist friend set me up with demo hearing aids for noise therapy, and this coincided with when my tinnitus improved. I don't know if there's correlation, but it's certainly worth a try.

 

I did try noise therapy when I first got the white noise generators but I found the white noise irritating and it spiked my tinnitus, which in turn raised my anxiety level.

As it's turns out though, they seem to be faulty so they have gone back to the audiologist for some investigations.

Glad to hear you are having some success with yours.

 

Thanks, @Jonnie! I am about to start TRT soon, my devices will be linked to my iPhone and I will have access to many sounds my therapist points me to as well as any sounds on my phone that I like. My goal is to decrease reactivity, I pray this can happen with the sound generators over time. She warned me the first couple weeks can be “wonky” as my brain and ears get acclimated but we can always adjust as needed.

Did you do sound therapy? Do you feel it helped?

 

I think I misrepresented it. It’s not like Morse code. It’s a steady echo that just lasts for hours to days on and then goes away.

 

Did the spike ever go down again? I took Azithromycin and got such loud tinnitus right now.

 

My dad also has tinnitus. He is a Vietnam Vet and I did not really even know he had tinnitus until I got it this last May in my left ear. He got it from some explosion from the war that ruptured both his ear drums. He said tinnitus was better than coming home in a body bag, Positive thinking right there. He says when he can hear it does not bother him at all. He has had it for over 40 years. He says when he hears it at night he knows it's time for bed. He also can fall asleep within minutes.

My tinnitus was really bad in the beginning - my ear was screaming and I was a mess. I'm getting better. I hope one day it does not bother me at all either.

 

I've been lucky in that I haven't needed to use the noise masking feature. My hearing aids just boost certain high frequencies in my left ear, which at first made everything sound like I'm hearing through a metal tube. But over time, you get used to it and everything sounds normal again. I can't say if my recent improvements are because of the hearing aids, but since things have gotten better, I'm going to ride it out as long as I can.

Keep us posted on how things go for you!

 

Thank God that the spike went down after about 36 hours (which was about the time it took to be flushed out of my system.)

I had a colonoscopy in early December, and whatever anesthetic was used triggered a murderous spike for the whole day.

Also, I completely avoid aspirin; that will in every instance rev up my tea kettle hissing.

 

Anything “-mycin” can cause/aggravate tinnitus.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Hey @ErikaS, just wondering what is your high frequency loss like? I have mild loss in the 6 kHz - 8 kHz range and I'm wondering if this means my tinnitus will never go away.

Did you have a middle ear infection that caused your tinnitus?

BTW, glad your dad saw an improvement over months / years, that is what I'm hoping for as well.

Thank you!

 

@ErikaS, is there anything more to your father’s story? I have heard from several people that tinnitus cannot be reduced with time or treatment.