New Here — Really Lucky

I joined this site about 3 months ago, when my tinnitus had started to become constant and worse in volume. My career was 30+ years as a recording engineer, so my hearing has always been of utmost importance, and extraordinarily good (and well-trained). Of course, my job entailed working with extremely loud music levels sometimes, because the artist or producer wanted it, and we had the equipment to really crank it up. The peak of the high volume sound for me was between 1987 and 1995.

My ear problems started about 3 years ago, in my mid 50's. Goopy discharge from my ears at night, clogging my hearing. I went to my general doctor complaining of an ear infection, and took some antibiotics. A few months or weeks later, the discharge began again, combined with buildup of wax inside. Went to the doctor again, and they cleaned my ears, said everything looked good, and to use a warm water bulb syringe as needed, with occasional hydrogen peroxide to help loosen the wax. The discharge and wax build up continued, and then tinnitus began late this past summer, and was getting worse by the week. Went back to my doctor, and asked for a referral to an ENT and audiologist. Around this time, I joined this forum and read a lot of stuff.

ENT said there was some inflammation, but not too bad, and advised me to reduce stress, caffeine, and the usual things. When the audiologist spoke with me, he was kind of excited that my hearing was well-trained and I could pinpoint the frequency of the ringing to approximately 4kHz. He put a camera down my ear canal, noted that my eustacian tubes were very small, and said there was definitely some signs of inflammation and irritation behind the eardrums. My hearing test was excellent, except for the expected dip between 3kHz and 6kHz where the tinnitus was.

His advice: DO NOT FLUSH MY EARS WITH WATER. I got two squeeze bottles (like diner ketchup and mustard), along with a short length of surgical tubing which he gave me to extend the tip. In one of the bottles is olive oil with a very small amount of Tea Tree oil - once a week, I would put that in each ear and let soak for about 5 to 10 minutes to lubricate and disinfect. Then I would flush with the other bottle, 50% rubbing alcohol and 50% white vinegar. After a few weeks, my discharge had stopped, and wax buildup is minimal. Soon after, the tinnitus was reduced to a very slight level, and not constant. Mainly now, my ears just ring after hearing a sharp impact, but it goes away quickly.

I hope my experience can be of help to new sufferers or anyone else here.

Peace,
Steve

 

As I'm sure you know from your career, that's in the hi hat/cymbal frequency range. I was a drummer for a while but when my acoustic trauma occurred I was playing heavily overdriven electric guitar through a phaser. My hearing loss is at 6.5 KHz in both ears, mostly my left, which is the ear that was facing the amp. I am 100% foolish for doing that because somewhere deep inside my gourd I knew better, I even knew what tinnitus was. DOH!