New Here. Tinnitus and Cancer.

Hi all, I'm really glad to have found you.

I am 25 and have been having treatment for thyroid cancer.
On the 3rd November I underwent major neck surgery to have half of my thyroid removed.

When I woke up I had this pulsing and ringing in my ears!

I honestly think my hearing is now suffering. I cant separate noises so if someone is talking and the tv is on it all blurs together.

I just really need some advice on what to do? My cancer nurse has advised me to see my gp.
Could the surgery have causes this?

Thanks
Linda

 

I am very sorry that you have to deal with these problems. I hope that the surgery worked and stopped the tumor from spreading.

One possibility is that one of the drugs used for anaesthesia was ototoxic and had damaged your hearing. The good news is that some people who got T as a result of ototoxic drugs eventually get better once the drug is discontinued. Ears take forever to heal...

 

Hi @Lindyapple - sorry about your health issues...
One thing you can do is to do a complete hearing test (most likely done by ENT + audiologist) to get a picture of what your hearing looks like.

As Bill said there could have been some ototoxic meds gone into your system, or something related to the surgery itself (perhaps some of the work got close to the neural pathways of the hearing apparatus).

You should certainly ask your surgeon about it. I know some chemotherapy drugs are known to be ototoxic.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your hearing issues.

You should see an ENT/Audiologist. The GP isn't going to be of much use for hearing issues.

 

Hi Bill

Thanks for your reply.
I'm doing well on the cancer side of things. I go in for another operation in a week then targeted radiotherapy and that should be me in remission.

I honestly am struggling to cope with the tinnitus I have a high pitched ring in both ears and a wooshy noise in my left ear ( coincidently the same side I had surgery on my neck)
I know it's a small price to pay to not have cancer but I couldn't begin to explain to someone who doesn't understand.

If stabbing myself in the ear would help I genuinely think I would do it.

I can't sleep because of it and find myself very sensitive to any noise.

Hopefully I get some answers soon

 

Check out the thread below where I summarize everything (24 tips spread over three posts) I learned about managing tinnitus after reading the posts on this forum for the past 11 months
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...itus-recently-this-info-will-be-useful.25741/

There, I talk about ways to help you fall asleep. One way is to take amitriptyline.

Have you been using sound enrichment? It can really help.

 

It could all be related for sure.

After the operation I was in intensive care for a week because I suffered a catastrophic wound infection and my entire neck was packed with fluid and puss. It lead to needed emergency surgery. I wonder if that found be a contributing factor as well.

 

That could very much have contributed. It is possible a nerve was damaged due to inflammation post surgery. Ototoxic medications are often blamed when sometimes the culprit is something else. That said, if you do have measurable hearing loss, your surgeons should be cautious and avoid subjecting you to any potentially ototoxic meds going forward.

If you’re hearing a wooshing noise, that could be related to a blood flow issue.

Make an appointment with an audiologist and have your hearing tested. If you have any loss, steroid treatments can be started right away. Also if you have loss, the pattern of that loss can offer some clues to the cause.

I wish you health and good luck with the next surgery.

 

Awww, you have been through so much. You have been very brave and I wish you all the best in your upcoming surgery and treatments.
I do not know about tinnitus and surgery, but I have heard that some chemotherapy drugs are ototoxic. Hopefully if this is the cause the Tinnitus should go away if chemo has stopped. Your Dr. and/or surgeon definitely needs to know about the pulsing as (like someone else on the forum has mentioned) this could be vascular in origin.
There is likely a lot of inflammation in your neck area, perhaps once this goes down the pulsating will stop.