My Tinnitus Issues

Hi,

I wanted to share my experience with tinnitus so far.

I'm a 27 year old overall healthy guy who has been dealing with constant tinnitus since June 23 of this year.

It all started after I attended a concert and found myself a little too close to the speakers. The next morning I noticed my left ear felt full and just didn't feel right.

I figured it would go away after a few days but woke up a couple of days later with horrible nausea and vertigo.

I went to my doctor and he said the fullness in the ears and vertigo/nausea could be caused by ETD since I am a severe allergy sufferer.

He prescribed some decongestant and sent me on my way. That night I caught a flight out of town and upon landing I again felt dizzy and vomited heavily.

Upon returning back home I visited my Dr again and this time he was suspecting labyrinthitis and put in a referral to an ENT and audiologist since I couldn't hear well out of my left ear. He prescribed some prednisone (5 day high dose burst) and sent me on my way.

After finishing up the prednisone my hearing improved and my vertigo did not recur. I took a hearing test with my doctor and he noted some hearing loss in the 6,000hz range as well as 20 dB in mostly all of my other lower frequencies for my left ear.

I am now waiting on my ENT/audiologist appointment which is in a couple of weeks.

My tinnitus changes in pitch and severity throughout the day.

I notice it is less noticeable at night when I'm relaxed. However, I have a hard time hearing higher frequencies out of my left ear.

I also find that sometimes my tinnitus seems to get really bad and I develop a sensitivity to sound in my left ear. Even my own voice seems to hurt to hear and I find myself avoiding conversations with other people when my tinnitus gets this bad.

I have worked around aircraft all my life as a mechanic so I'm sure this has not helped the issue much either.

Anyway, not sure what is going on with me I just know I don't feel right and it's not normal. I am trying to avoid looking up my symptoms online as this seems to bring up all sorts of horrible results which only makes my anxiety/tinnitus worse.

Is there anything that has helped you guys cope with these types of issues? Thanks for reading!

 

Really it just takes time, I ended up with tinnitus from exposure to a powerful external alarm.
I had balance issues, tinnitus, hyperacusis (sensitivity to sounds and things sound too loud) then a few months later when I realised it wasn't going away and I began too understand the problem I became extremely depressed.
Fast forward a little over a year and my symptoms have all but gone, balance problems have gone, I'm not sensitive to loud noise although I will forever be careful around loud noise now that I understand it and how dangerous it can be. As for the tinnitus it is very mild now, a lot of the time it isn't there even at night when it's very quiet. This wasn't the case at 3 months after the trauma or 6 months or 9 months.
When you damage your hearing from loud noise it takes a long time to repair, sometimes they can repair completely sometimes they don't, it's like a bruise, you need to give it time and protect your hearing from loud noise, use ear plugs or ear defenders.
You say you worked around jets so I am sure you are familure with ear muffs.
I'm a little over 14 months now since the trauma and things are lot better, don't believe all the doom and gloom on the internet. It does get better but it takes a lot longer than you might think.

 

Thank you...it's good to know there is some hope. It definitely gets depressing when you think about the possibility of losing your hearing at a young age. I definitely will give it time and see what the ENT/audiologist thinks as well. I carry ear plugs with me everywhere now. I tend to get some strange looks when people notice which is kind of funny but i want to make sure i dont damage my hearing any further. Matter of fact i bought some ear peace ear plugs that were recommended to me. Either way I appreciate your response!

 

Let me tell you this much. Go and see your DR and see what he/she will say. YES. try not to self diagnose yourself by reading online stuff, it will or can scare you and frustrate you. I know you are a bit nervous about what is going on, TRUST me i have been there myself millions of times.

Just give it some time and remain calm. DO protect your ears and be kind to yourself

It's not the end of the world, it really is not. I have full blown tinnitus and its beyond garbage and a good amount of hearing loss in both ears too.
I on the other hand live my life and these rotten ears will not stop me....

Take care

 

There is definitely hope.

In case you haven't seen it before, check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/

Good for you. It is the other way around for me. It sucks having trouble falling asleep.

In any case, as long as you don't suffer a second acoustic trauma, you ought to be ok. Keep in mind that moderately loud sounds like the vacuum cleaner, blender, etc. might lead to a spike Try to protect your ears...

 

Definitely will be protecting them and hoping for the best! Tryin to stay positive...thats the hardest part.