New Here (3 Weeks In)

@Michael Leigh indeed Michael i do understand your humour lol. Sorry for the delay in replying, i don’t really come here much these days as it was beginning to get like “listenining to a broken record of doom and gloom”. I hope you are doing well Michael.

 

Update: Had a spike yesterday 11/26 which was high pitched, it was loud and it covered everything, It calmed down today. yesterday, i felt like my ear was a little bit full but it wasn't enough to cause a concern. Today i went to get my wax on my right ear taken out. The PA used a manual wax remover, a purple plastic instrument. He said I have eustachian tube inflammation (on my right or healthy ear). I feel ear fullness all day today. I am also diagnosed with TMJ, which apparently can cause hearing loss

 

Stay strong my friend! Eustachian tube inflammation in combination with TMJ - maybe if the inflammation goes away, you will no longer hear the loud T...

 

Quick Update: T settled down, i can barely hear it, only in quiet rooms and then it dosent bother me at all. It is just some stupid sound. It used to be a high electrical pitch sound and now it is just ringing which is mild. H is gone mostly, has to be very loud sound to bother me. I am habituating, the key to habituation is distraction, yes distract your mind from Tinnitus.

 

I'm happy to hear you feel better. Great news.

@jer Hi there, can I ask how far were you in when you got your course of Prednisone? I saw 4 ENT docs and it was only the last one who gave me an injection of Solumedrol 125 mg like 4 hrs ago, and prescribed a hardcore course of Medrol 16 mg (methylprednisolonum).

 

I strongly believe that people can habituate to Tinnitus. You just have to distract the mind. I can barely hear mine.
TMJ/ETD is another thing altogether and I consider them worse than T ( at least in my case).

 

@dpdx Hi, Did you notice any sympthons on your eustachian tube inflammation yourself?
Did you get any medication for this or did he tell you that it would self heal?

I hope you feel better soon.

/Martin

 

Yes, I have ear fullness, the mucus membranes are also inflamed. Tinnitus and Hyperacusis are fading away. They are not bothering me at all. TMJ and ETD are bothering me more than Tinnitus ever did.

 

another spike.....got too comfy with low T. I went to the mall without wearing earplugs ( i know stupid), now dealing with a nasty spike for 2 days

 

Chances are that it won't end up being permanent...

 

They had a little band of four individuals playing Xmas songs on clarinet and other instruments. I walked passed them twice but i chose to keep a reasonable distance. That night T spiked up bad (Saturday night), now its Monday and still dealing with that.
The problem with me is that T got so low that I assumed that all is ok, how stupid was I, back to square one for me. I am going to wear earplugs everywhere now when i am outside. Work is ok though, office is quiet...

 

And no more caffeine for me either, it also causes T to spike but not this intense. Last night I had to sleep with the clock and the sound machine turned up. I need to make amends that life will never be the same as it was, and if i want to go to the bar, resturarant, café...i need to bring good earplugs.

 

Thank you for sharing your experience. I think I am as vulnerable as you. It is shocking how vulnerable some of us are.

 

It is crazy and guess what I was in the restroom and somewone was using those dying machines to dry out hands and that is loud.

 

I mean it would really suck if i got another acoustic trauma...

 

The plan above will work well if those places are quiet and don't have any music playing. Otherwise, many people learned the hard way that ear plugs can provide a False sense of security. I am sure you have seen me posting links to some of the countless horror stories about it.

 

I had an MRI it was loud as hek, i had so many cushions, my earplugs were not even placed in properly so the tech put them in right and gave me extra, a lot of extra cushion, it was fine no spike.
I dont think earplugs can work either, i feel like vibrations can cause T to spike up. Music makes my T spikes up! I thought because my T lowered considerably that i was ok and that i healed, well it wasn't, in fact i dont think we ever heal from this. We have to protect ourselves, i made amends that I am going to probably spend most of my life inside my home, work-home-store. I told my friends that they can forget about hanging out.....this is life from now on...

 

Not getting better..

 

This will be a hard life for me as i have
1) Tinnitus
2) TMJ
3) ETD
4) Labyrinthine Dysfunction
5) Almost pre-diabetic

 

How do you know that you have damged some hair cells? Can they test that?

 

Update: I have a major spike from being at the library, the alarm came on and i wasn't wearing earplugs, i covered my ear quickly with my fingers....an hour later a spike. This occurred on Wednesday January 17. I developed a new sound as a result, a buzzing sound, the tinnitus is higher pitched and covers my sound machine.

 

Update:
So i got a nasty spike from being at the library (no earplugs) and the fire alarm came on. I covered my ears after 1 second but the damage has been done.
From scale 1-10 with 10 being the loudest tinnitus that is,

Wed 1/17/2018- Spike, tinnitus went from a 2 to a 7
Thu 1/18/2018- tinnitus is now a 7, can be heard over most stuff like people talking, music
Fri 1/19/2018-tinnitus is now a 7, can be heard over most stuff like people talking music, later that night three gov helicopters flew above my home while i was reading news online, i covered up ears but it was still loud as hek
Sat 1/20/2018-tinnitus is now higher 8
Sun 1/21/2018-tinnitus is now higher 8
Mon 1/22-8, can hear it over people talking, over tv, when i drive on the freeway, the only place i cant hear it is when I am taking a shower, can hear it over my sound machine.
Tue-1/23-8, was not able to work how loud it was.
Wed-1/24-8
Thur 1/25- a slight decrease to probably 7.5, can hear it over music, tv, driving on freeway, but its not that intense,

Will keep you all updated.

 

@dpdx I had a few questions for you but I dont know how to personally send you a message ... can you help out ?

 

Hey dpdx,
Have you ever tought of electronic earplugs like the hd15 from Etymotic?
They let normal sound trough but they drop the volume if dangerous volumes are present by up to 15 decibels.
So you can still hear people speak but are not going to get blasted by sudden loud noises.
Here is a link to the site: https://www.etymotic.com/hd15.html

Etymotic hd15

I work at a really noisy job and either I wear earplugs... but can't hear anyone talking or I don't, and I might have increased T if someone hits something with a hamer for example. Im thinking of buying these ones myself because I keep forgetting to plug in my hearing protection a lot as well. The price tag is a bit high thow.

I use these Alpine Partyplug ones at the moment which I always have with me because of the added keychain box.
Even when im using the blender I pop these in now.
Link to the site: https://www.alpinehearingprotection.com/earplugs/partyplug/


Alpine Partyplug

 

Thank you

 

So the spike went down to baseline. I started to wear ear protection when walking next to a busy street and when driving. I didnt overprotect at all as I did when i got T (during the onset).I developed Hyperacusis once again, last time I had Hyperacusis was October 22, it lasted about 3-4 weeks and it went away.

Dont overprotect your ears, wear protection when exposed to loud sounds.

 

Update:
I am far worse now than I ever was. I got H in the left ear and mild tinnitus. Right ear I have popping/clicking sounds, Hyperacusis, Tinnitus which sounds like morse code, and this weird feeling that the eardrum is vibrating. i am also sensitive to my own voice when i speak.

Crazy!

 

You might want to clarify that this happened because you were exposed to a fire alarm at a library (spiked your T), and also because you had a "caloric test" done (gave you H)...

 

Life sucks
I wish i had a major ilnesss that could put me out of my misery than have this.

 

I know how you must be feeling right now. I hope that your T will fade soon and that then you will feel better about life in general...