My Journey: From Start to Finish

8/10/04 - 19 years old and a sudden loud noise exposure causing permanent ringing in my left ear. After panicking for 3 weeks straight, it subsides to a quiet level, but the damage to my left ear is forever done

7/15/18 – After 14 years, that’s right, FOURTEEN YEARS of my noise induced T being non-existent, I experience a serious spike after being on a ridiculously loud wedding dance floor for a little too long. The injured ear is my left ear and the T was always a super low 1/10 level IF that. I had ALWAYS protected the ear the best I could but this night something finally went wrong after things being fine for so, so, so long. Was nervous about the spike a little but actually wasn’t too bothered by it as a few others spikes over the last 14 years had gone away in a few weeks max. The last one being all the way back in 2010. I became justifiably spoiled, so to speak, and was brought back into this awful world of Tinnitus full force

8/26/18 – About 1.5 months later, I begin to slowly go into panic mode over my continuing spike. Doing research, posting online, telling my family, etc.

9/7/18 – I leave for a vacation for the weekend and am more stressed out over my T than ever before, especially while driving to the airport and then going on a plane for 6 hours with the T. My anxiety nears its peak.

9/8/18 – While on vacation for the first day all I can think about is my T and if the flight was bad for it. My anxiety and stress hit a peak level that day after dealing with some awful traffic that entire night. While on the pillow trying to fall asleep in my hotel, the unthinkable happens. A new sound suddenly appears in my head, that of a “TV/electrical buzz” type noise. It doesn’t appear to come from my ears but rather my brain/head. I almost laugh it off thinking it’s all in my head (no pun intended) and go to sleep.

9/9/18 – The new sound comes and goes throughout the day but I try to ignore it, thinking it is simply too bad to be true, but by night time I realize it is full fledged and my anxiety is now through the roof. I start watching YouTube videos on T and reading all I can about it while on my vacation. At this point I am almost 100% convinced something related to the FLIGHT has triggered this.

9/10-9/18 – I land home in New York and the noise is worse than ever before. SCREAMING head buzz. At this point I'm frightened and convinced flying has messed me up badly. The cabin itself was rather noisy as I was naturally sitting in the row of the engine and the pilot was going fast to make up time as we left very late. I had plugs in and out. Didn’t seem to help. The first 1.5 weeks back home the head buzz sound goes down a tad but REMAINS (along with and OVER the regular T in my left ear of course) although after a couple of days I somehow learn to cope with it and convince myself it is actually just stress induced and that my nervous system went haywire and that it actually was NOT the flight. I eat healthy, stay positive, drink a lot of water, and go to work everyday. In the first few days back home it should be noted that I also experienced hyperacusis for the first time in my life. It shocked and scared me, as even a vacuum or road noise is affecting my ear. However, this would go away in about 2-3 days. It was all just surreal. What started out as a regular spike had somehow took a turn for the absolute worse.

9/13/18 – During this whole previous phase I go to a walk in center on September 13th to have my ears checked out. The doc sees some wax buildup in my right ear (not the left T ear). She doesn’t seem too experienced in syringing and syringes the HELL out of my right ear over and over, however eventually the wax comes out. I leave, and the head buzz (and regular ringing of course) persists.

9/19/18 – 5 days later is my ENT appointment. My doc, who is a well respected 30+ year ENT, tells me no flight can do anything like that to an ear/head. He shockingly removes some decent wax out of my left ear that has the normal T in it that the walk in center said there was “no wax” in (Go figure). It hurts, but the wax comes out. I pray it had something to do with the head buzzing as he said was very possible. My hearing is also tested for the first time since 2004 and it has gotten worse. Moderate hearing loss at 34 years old. I tell him how having ringing/buzzing in my head absolutely distracted me on the test and you can’t go by it. He’s nice about everything, but tells me and I quote “There is no cure for Tinnitus”. We both agree that hopefully it will just subside in time. I feel a bit more at ease after hearing that flying really cannot affect T/ears.

9/20 and 9/21 – Two KEY days in this entire experience and ordeal, both ironically right after the ENT. Both of these days, first Thursday it’s so so, but then Friday my head buzz now completely DISAPPEARS. I am left with not only just my regular T, but a lower volume of it so it seemed. I had maybe never been happier and felt like I could begin putting my life back together while just dealing with the original T. I tell some family and friends the good news. I treat myself to a nice dinner that night.

9/22 – Saturday AM, suddenly, after these two amazing days of what appeared to be healing, I wake up in the middle of the night around 2-3am with something that would almost be hard to be believed by anyone reading this. I am woken up to a piercing ringing sound in my left ear that I’ve been dealing with the spike in. At first I just sat there, wondering what in the world was happening. Then I realized what was going on. The head buzz was still gone, but I was now experiencing PULSATIVE TINNITUS. That’s right, PULSATING ringing, matching my heartbeat exactly. I thought it was a bad dream but it wasn’t. This is the most surreal moment of my life for me. The PT goes away during the day but I am a zombie from little sleep. Again, the head buzz was gone.

9/23 –Sunday. Wake up again, this time after a bad dream at 5am after 5 hours of sleep, and the sound of PT has returned, this time worse than the previous day. I don’t fall back asleep. This time the PT stays throughout the day. ANYTHING I do aggravates it (and I mean anything). It had not even hit me still, what I was experiencing. It was as if my entire life was in a fog and this wasn’t actually real. That maybe somehow I was imagining this all. If this all wasn't horrific enough, the Hyperacusis suddenly makes a comeback on this day now too as I am bothered by road noise again in the afternoon while out as well as loud music in general on my car radio. I had gone back to square one and then some. I go to sleep broken, feeling more hopeless than ever before, while just a few days prior I thought I had beat this. Still, I tried to dig down to stay positive and look back to those two good days as hope. Again, as horrific as the weekend was, no head buzz.

9/24-9/29 – This week and timeframe now consists of THREE sounds on and off going on inside my head/ears. The PT, my regular left ear T, and the HEAD BUZZ which would make its RETURN around mid week. That’s right. It came back. On Thursday of this week I am woken up at 4am and was not able to fall back asleep due to absolutely horrific Pulsatile Tinnitus. I am a zombie at work on this day and start thinking about doing an MRI. This was arguably the darkest day of my entire life. For the first time in my 13 year career with my company I think about applying for FMLA sick leave as there is no way I could ever function with consistent 4-5 hour sleep days like I had that one night prior. At this point I have not gone to the gym in over a month and have fallen into a legitimate depression.

9/30 – A Sunday after the week from hell and after 3 noises in my head. I begin telling myself to calm down. To relax. I do some breathing exercises throughout the day. I try and convince myself over and over that my anxiety has caused my nerves and brain to go haywire and that I just need to CALM myself. After all, I admittedly was a wreck. Then, by Sunday night, something begins happening. I begin feeling a little better. The piercing PT which was nonstop for all day Saturday and Sunday starts to seem a bit quieter. I take a little Nyquil before bed that night and on Monday I feel rather well rested at work. I continue to try and stay calm.

10/1-/10/3 - Now closing in on one month since my initial flight and horrific turn in my T, things are feeling a little better but my PT/head buzz absolutely remains. It is not bothering me as much but I don’t know how much longer I can be able to say that. While part of me feels I am on my way to the promise land of getting back to the baseline of just my regular "ringing" T and rid of this extra surreal PT and overall head buzz sound, another part of me thinks something is very wrong and this could be a real tragedy of permanent noise. I try and stay positive and calm, but even as I type this, it's head buzz mixed with in and out Pulsating Tinnitus.

@Bill Bauer who knows, maybe you were right about flying and Tinnitus

 

Holy shit. I am so sorry. This is terrible. I will prymay for you.

 

Thank you. I have decided that if things are not improving by this Monday I will be scheduling an MRI

 

Wear very good protection and ask them for cushion

 

If anyone has ever had an experience with tinnitus getting worse after flying please post

 

Hi @Smartone202. I'm sorry you are having to deal with all this after so long with what it seems was mild ear noise.
I have had a bad t flight incident but it doesn't compare to yours.
Did you notice the change on the plane home at any point? Last year on a short flight back, my right ear (with very mild tinnitus) wouldn't equalise on landing and I felt pain, confusion and a louder and very high pitched ringing. It lasted for a few weeks from what I remember.
Continue with your breathing exercises and do things to relax you even though I imagine it is difficult to do at this moment in time.

 

Thank you for your warm words @Jenny_S

The new noise as I stated began the night after my first flight. About 10 hours after landing while tying to fall asleep in an anxious state. On the flight home things absolutely felt a little worse as far as the static/head buzz went and the engine vibration/noise was rather loud. By the time I got off the plane and in the terminal it was the loudest it had been. I was legitimately frightened. Anxiety trigger or flying? You be the judge.

But after a good night of sleep it subsided but of course still remains now. Just very hard to believe my ENT at this point when he said flying can’t do such a thing. It actually states all over the internet that a symptom of barotrauma(which can be caused from flying) is ringing in the ears. So technically he’s wrong, even though I don’t think that is what is causing this.

 

@Smartone202
I've read about some people experiencing barotrauma from flights (and scuba diving) and this caused their tinnitus. As a precaution, after my original ear noise onset, before every flight I use those earplane plugs for pressure, I use an over the counter nasal spray, drink lots of water and have chewing gum. However even with all these, I had the incident I referred to in my last post.
I really couldn't tell you if what you are experiencing is from barotrauma but the flight didn't help.
Unfortunately I am disillusioned with ENTs after my last experience (hence why I'm having further ear problems now ) so cannot make any positive comments on your ENT.
I hope in time your ears will settle down.

 

Hi again @Smartone202
Unfortunately I am not very tech savvy but I downloaded this pamphlet from the British Tinnitus Association about flying with tinnitus a while ago. It may be informative for you.

 

Thank you for those! But basically it’s conclusion seems simple - flying cannot cause your Tinnitus to get worse. It’s been one month since the flight.

Also, with regards to barotrauma correct me if I’m wrong but the main thing behind that is clogged a ear/ears from the pressure changes. Am I right? This is not the case with me. My ears do not really feel clogged.

 

According to the pamphlet, you are right, it says only a temporary increase in loudness and nothing about new sounds. It does talk about anxiety about flying with tinnitus which can make tinnitus worse. Not sure if you would apply it to how you felt after your spike then flying.

With barotrauma, it's about being unable to equalise pressure and yes, I assume you would feel the fullness. But I really couldn't confirm that as I'm not medically qualified.