Never Believed I'll Actually Post Here

I can't believe I am actually posting here.I now understand what the word tinnitus means. As of today, It's been 7 weeks 2 days 14 hours... but who's counting.

It all started when I was visiting my girlfriend in London Uk. but before that here's a background about me: I'm a 20 years old male with perfect health, I currently a studying in Ottawa, Canada.

It was my last day in London when I woke up to this weird sound in my right ear that is not disappearing I instantly knew that it was tinnitus but I didn't want to admit it.
I went to a bike ride in the morning hoping it will fade away after a bit. But nothing really happened, reality started to sink in and I started crying. I couldn't help it. It was horrible.

My right ear was hurting and any noise would bother me. I flew back to my home town that day while crying all the way on the plane. I couldn't watch any of the movies since my ear was hurting and ringing all the way. I went to the doctor the first day and he told me to go do a hearing test, which gave results that my hearing is even better than the average, he then told me to wait it out.

I waited a week until I went to another doctor that told me it most likely a sinus infection, he recommended some antibiotic and a nose spray, after starting the antibiotics my sinuses started clearing out for a couple of days I was having flu like symptoms until it all stopped after three days except the ringing. He then starting giving my second and third round of antibiotics so as another nose spray that is supposed to be stronger.

After a week or so of tinnitus starting, white, almost solid mucus started coming out of my nose which I assumed was stuck in my ear due to the eustachian tube inflammation. Which made total sense, I was happy I thought I was healing. It's also worth to note that my tinnitus faded during these weeks. I saw my family doctor again he then sent me to an ENT specialist that informed me that your eustachian tube is perfectly normal and you don't have any more inflamation, he also said that there is no mucus in your ear. He recommended an MRI scan and now I am waiting on that.

I'm completely lost, I really don't feel like any of this is helping me. I am still getting white mucus from my nose aka coming down from my middle ear through my Eustachian tube to my nose every now and then. Especially when I cry or that I am really hot I think that kinda open the tube better and let the mucus out. It's very weird. I also feel that my right ear keeps pops like 3-4 times more than my left ear every time I move my jaw forward. And that the ringing sharpens if I contract my face. I also feel pain under my ear as if something under the ear is inflamed.

I still dream of the day when I wake up and I hear nothing and I hope that day is close, and I can write something on the success story of the forum. But for the time being, I wanted to introduce my self and a bit of my story with tinnitus

 

I am sure that eventually your doctors will be able to get that infection under control. Tinnitus ought to resolve some time after that.

Did it become louder again, after it had faded?

You are young, your body is resilient. Ears take forever to heal, but there is a good chance that your T will eventually go away or will at least fade. Also, always keep in mind that even in the worst case scenario (if your T is still there two years from now), the tinnitus you will end up with in the long run will most likely be different from the sound you are experiencing in these first few months. It will most likely be quieter and the pitch will be easier to ignore. Often T changes from a high pitch tone to a hiss.

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

Just make sure to protect your ears from moderate noises like that of a vacuum cleaner, a blender, or a lawn mower.

 

Mucus producing tissue traps bacteria. Sometimes being white can be caused from something in the environment. I read a few times that white mucus can be caused from black mold, but it's probably the antibiotics and maybe dehydration.

 

Yes, you really have to realize now that your ears took a massive hit. There is still a good chance it will go away or fade to a lesser degree, but I would really like to stress that you have to protect your ears from now on. That means, no more in ear headphones. over the ears are also bad, so just stay away from them. I would (until it resolves) stay away from clubs, loud bars and concerts. I would invest in some good hearing protection (custom molded earplugs if you can afford), and some good peltor headphones for when flying. I have the black minus 35db ones, which are excellent.

Also realize that sound what is considered normal level can hurt you now. So that means flying, dentist visits etc.
Also be careful with medicines, because anything that is ototoxic (certain way of making medicines) can really hurt the ear and be detrimental to you.

 

Thank you for your advice it s really beneficial, and yes normal sounds do irritate me. Even music in the car bothers me. The question is why does it bother me? what is going wrong in my ear ? I can recall first day after that I had it even people talking was bothering me I had to have earplugs 24/7. But does that mean my ears had a noise trauma?

 

Yes I agree, It's most likely that the doctor said it s white because there is no more infection

 

Hey, thank you for your reply. I m really grateful for this forum, I would have gone mad without it. The ringing has been decreasing lately It still is, I used to hear it almost everywhere but now I can only hear it in my bedroom at morning and night.
What I don't understand is why couldn't my doctors realize the cause of it. Is there any excel sheet of all the known reasons of tinnitus?
and also I 've been using a neti pot, is it useful or not? I also sometimes feel in the mornings it starts to go on wave cycle of going low almost unhearable then back to normal ringing.

Ohh, and also is there anything else I should do? method of preventing it to become worst or treatments that might be helpful?

 

It will most likely continue to fade. You may want to continue doing whatever it is you have been doing - it seems to be working (or at least it is not interfering with healing). This might include that neti pot (unless it is something you were doing before your T began, and there is a chance that it was the cause of your T).

You might want to take NAC (search this website for details), Magnesium, and vitamin B supplements. You could also take Ginkgold or Tebonin ginkgo biloba pills.