New and Looking for Info/Support

Hi all,

So, I was sitting on my couch at 11:00 pm one day last month when out of nowhere a loud, incessant, ringing sound went off in my head. And it hasn't turned off since then.

I had recently (as in the day before) gotten back from a trip out to the west coast. Does anyone know if air travel can induce long-term or permanent tinnitus? Even if it goes away, I'm terrified to get back on a plane.

For the first few days I could barely sleep at all (maybe 3 total hours of very broken sleep) to the point where I was coming apart emotionally. For a couple of days it seemed like it was getting better. While the noise was still there, the volume had gone down and I could go minutes and one day hours without noticing it. I even managed to have a couple of nights where I was able to get some decent sleep but now I'm back to barely being able to sleep.

I'm really been struggling with this, terrified that it will never go away or go down, and I am desperate to find a way to sleep. Any help, advice, support would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Hello Sirius80,

The first thing I would do is check for hearing loss. I use an iphone app called mimi hearing test and believe it or not, it's quite accurate when I compared it to the graph from my ENT. Do you have any swelling or feeling of fullness in either of your ear? dizziness? Do you notice the sound from the left/right ear or is it pretty equal? If it's pretty equal and it came on all of a sudden and you've had no noise trauma then I would look at taking a toxicology screen and full bloodwork. I suspect your T is originating in the brain rather than a damaged cochlea or nerve in the area due to the sudden onset onset and assuming you have no hearing loss. For example I read someone here found their T was from high blood sugar levels and once they corrected it, it went away.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

I forgot to mention in my original post that I have seen an ENT who did check my hearing and there is no hearing loss. I was referred for an MRI of the brain (probably because I also mentioned recent bouts of headaches and sporadic pain localized in the back/base of the head in the weeks before the tinnitus kicked in).

The tinnitus sounds bilateral to me; however, when I plug each ear the sound seems much stronger in my right ear (which is also the side of my head where the headaches and head pain tend to be).

I wonder if blood sugar could be a factor. I'm not diabetic or pre-diabetic but I will freely admit to not having the best diet.

 

Definitely get that checked out. I don't want to scare you and I'm not a doctor but if you take your symptoms of headaches and localized pain, do you think it could have been a mini stroke? I've read that people could have small strokes that resolve on their own and they never know it or suspect it to be a regular headache.

I have to correct my original statement on the person who had the blood sugar related T claimed it was due to low insulin levels and not high blood sugar levels.

 

Hope you feel better soon, hang in there and welcome =]

 

I have no idea if it could be a mini-stroke. My instinct is to say no but I'm hardly an expert on strokes. My initial thoughts on those symptoms was some kind of tumor. WebMD actually mentioned a hemorrhage (stroke) as a possibility.

 

Regarding flying, I am at 7 months and am hesitating (delaying) any flights. If your T cause was physical, and not from some drug interation with the brain, then please note a flight involves tons of pressure changes.

Here at TT I found one person with early T (first 3-4 months) and flew without incident, but he took extreme precautions, including loading up on certain drugs for before and on the flight and then popping his ears like every 1000 feet of elevation.

Here's the post, I think:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...and-supplements-to-try.6514/page-6#post-90414

Good luck friend!

 

ENT's and there outdated test can be wrong.
http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/#hiddenloss

 

Do you have any history of noise exposure, ototoxic medicines, do you have TMD, cervical issues, or head trauma?

 

- In terms of noise exposure, I've gone to concerts (infrequently, like every few years) and professional sports events (a handful of times a year).
- I don't take any medications regularly other than ibuprofen which I've used on occasion for headaches. I typically take generic ibuprofen but a few days before the tinnitus kicked in I did take some Advil for a headache.
- In terms of TMD, I've had clicking in the left side of my jaw for roughly 20 years now and I recently saw an orthodontist who recommended surgery to change my bite structure as apparently my current bite structure will lead to my teeth inevitably breaking. I'm not sure if I grind my teeth in my sleep.
- In terms of cervical issues/head trauma, I can't think of any recent problems with either (other than the back of the head pain I mentioned earlier). But that pain, as far as I can tell, doesn't have an external source as I haven't had any recent blows to the head and so on and it only shows up when I'm at the gym during specific exercises (i.e. bench press).

 

@Sirius80 Your back head pain most likely starts with your temporomandibular joint. A lower joint out of alignment places strains on muscles. If your jaw clicks or pops then the lower half of the joint is not in proper position. A long sitting position with your TMD problem and having neck not being properly supported can spasm occipital nerves and deep fibers nerves at your brainstem causing tinnitus and a back end headache. Tinnitus could set in a day to a week after your flight.

Maybe talk to your dentist about him making a very thin flexible mouth guard that does cover the wisdom teeth. A small pillow under neck for support while sleeping. Good sitting posture and straight posture for your jaw.

 

Do you think there's any chance that if I address the TMJ problem that the tinnitus might go away?

 

Very possible. Most likely 90-95 % you will also need to be careful with the very top of your neck. I added a couple of comments to my post above.

 

I would stay away from any dental treatment aimed at changing your bite if it is because of TMJ/D. 30 percent of all people have displaced TMJs. There is Zero correlation between TMJ displacement and pain. All that being said, muscle tension being held in your face, jaw, head, neck etc can and do impact tinnitus! Just don't go getting yourself a partial occlusion coverage mouthguard. Especially since most (95%) of TMJs heal themselves over the course of 18 months.

 

As the orthodontist told me, this is something I have to do as my current bite structure will result in breaking multiple teeth in the long-term. I've already broken two teeth several years back requiring two root canals.

What is a partial occlusion coverage mouthguard?

 

Any bite splint that doesn't cover all of your teeth. The gelb, any anterior repositioning splint etc.

 

I'm sorry for your condition; it is no fun at all. I would emphasise that the prognosis is good; even if the sound never goes away completely, it will very likely get more manageable and quieter, and you will learn not to hear it all the time. And you might be lucky; a lot of people I've spoken to have had T disappear completely over months.

My own advice is not to worry about day-to-day variation, but to look at the trajectory in terms of months. Also - take lots of drugs for sleep. No one can function properly without it, and you'll just be driving yourself mad, which will increase you're anxiety and perception of tinnitus. I took zopiclone, which worked fine, and I now take amitryptaline, which is also fine. You basically just keep trying new ones (e.g. for a few days or a few weeks at a time) until you find one which doesn't have bad side effects for you. So as an absolute priority, I recommend you get your doctor to help you get some sleep. I would recommend low-dose (10-25mg) amitryptaline to start, but there are plenty of alternatives out there - ami is good just because dose doesn't tend to need to be increased over time. But whatever you do, do something about this quickly: tinnitus-induced insomnia will wreck you, and there's simply no need suffer that way.

I personally wouldn't worry about otoxic drugs. Aside from high-dose, long-term aspirin, these drugs' tinnitus-increasing effects are almost always: (a) dose dependent (small doses = lower risk); and (b) temporary, in the sense that the effect recedes once the drug is stopped. The effects are also rare; 99% of people can take most of these drugs for months or years with no otoxic effect.

Another trick I learned too late, was that 'sound enrichment' doesn't have to sound at all like your T sound. I got confused here, and so struggled, because everything that sounds a bit like my T makes me anxious - so sound enrichment at night was counter-productive. Yet I also couldn't sleep in silence (and still can't). In the end, I just found something that I could sleep with, which sounds nothing at all like my T, and this helps a lot.

I am 4 months in, and better than ever before. Once the panic starts to lift, you will feel better.