New Sufferer

Also slept a bit better today - went with the plugs as I had a nice cocktail of mirtazapine, zopiclone and melatonin and thought it would put me under quite easily. Feel like it's made the T a bit lower and more tolerable. I guess that's something.

 

It's ridiculous. Last year, I was fretting on my birthday which luxury watch to buy. I was legitimately perturbed. Now, I would give the watch and most of my possessions to be rid of the T.

I feel like many outsiders probably have little understanding of it - for example, when I go for my oxygen therapy, most of the other people in the chamber have very obvious conditions, like MS. To an outsider, they probably think I'm crazy or a bit of a wuss bothering with the oxygen therapy, as its veracity in treating tinnitus and even hearing loss is a bit sketchy to say the least. However, I will not leave a single stone unturned if I can ease this condition.

I don't necessarily think it's healthy to compare conditions and I don't think I'm as badly off as some of the people I meet, but there are a few things I would rather have than this.

 

You have no idea, If I could go back in time and stop myself from listening to loud music, I could save my hearing and my hips.

 

Hips?

 

Audiologist 1 has adjusted my hearing aid to give it a stronger signal and a bit of masking.

I can't say if it "cures" the T, but it definitely makes a difference. I'm wondering if I should go for fancy in-ear ones and habituate to the lower levels of T they provide.

He seems to think that my T can eventually dissipate and I won't need to wear the hearing aids, eventually. This does not seem logical to me - if I need to wear glasses, I can't reverse the loss of sight by doing so. I guess it might be more akin to being able to tune out floaters.

He said he could measure my T levels at 35db at 4kHz. I don't know how in the hell he does that, but he's the one with fancy equipment and I'm not. That does seem about right to me - I measured my bedroom at about 35-45db with my iPhone (I'm sure there's better measures out there) and my living room a little higher - 40-50db. I think that makes about sense, these are the places where it is most prominent.

I never thought I'd be stuck wearing hearing aids at this stage in life (I'm 38), but I'd wear a Pikachu mask to get rid of T.

Meeting with audiologist 3 later today. I'm not sure what else he will prescribe, but I'm sure we'll have to do the usual bleep tests, etc. I'm mainly interested in dealing with this one because he says he offers TRT. Hopefully he doesn't just give me masking apps and tell me to deal with it like my second audiologist or hand me a decade-old printout like the ENT.

Doing hyperbaric oxygen therapy right n0w - as in, I'm typing this from the chamber. The lady I'm in here with suffers from MS and deafness, one ear is more or less totally deaf, the other is working at 50%. She assumed I was here for a sports injury - obviously the gym is paying off - but was intrigued when I told her of my predicament. She said that oxygen therapy has been very beneficial for her and her partner, who is losing his sight.

Neither have been prescribed oxygen therapy by the public healthcare system, but both find it makes a huge difference in terms of symptoms. In fact, he had accidentally cut off one of his fingers and was going to need it amputated. They pleaded with a surgeon to have it reattached, despite being told it would likely need to be detached anyway. Apparently after weeks of daily oxygen therapy, the finger healed and he's still got it. The doctors were in disbelief. I know our cases are very different - dead cochlea is dead cocholea - but it s interesting nevertheless.

 

Yeah my biggest issue before the T was my psoriasis. Amazing how things can get put in perspective.

 

Psoriasis is pretty crap though, let's be real. I know some people have it all over their scalp.

I've been kind of unlucky in the last 12 months healthwise - I've suffered from shingles, chostochondritis, a chipped front tooth and a cracked crown. These all seemed like a Big Deal at the time, but I would honestly have all of these tripled than T.

Saw my third audiologist and I FINALLY got a tympanomentry test (the ENT didn't care to do one, and the second audiologist's equipment had failed) and my right ear drum isn't working as it should. My left ear has a graph where the pressure response goes up to 1.0 in the middle, my right goes up to 0.4 and to the left. I'm mildly annoyed that the ENT didn't do this test. So I've ran off for some Sudafed and the audiologist told me to ask my GP for Beconase.

I don't think this is the silver bullet of my dreams, but the T in my left ear is mild and manageable - acceptable for a metal head pushing 40. If decongestants and steroids can gradually get my right T down to my left T, I think I can live a life close to my old one, minus the exposure to loud noises every now and then.

 

I started a thread topic on sodium thiosulfate last year, and just got around to purchasing some. It's sort of in the category of "leaving no stone unturned". But I think there's reason to at least be hopeful, as even conventional medicine knows it has otoprotive properties, and give it to patients doing ototoxic chemotherapy drugs. Here's a link: -- Sodium Thiosulfate — "May" Help w/ Hearing Loss and/or Tinnitus

 

@Drone Draper

It sounds like you're being very proactive. I hit it hard at first but after a few months I decided to give it time. I wish I could say the t has gotten quieter, I'm not sure it has. I know I'm getting more used to hearing it.

I burned myself out after the first few months obsessing over finding a solution and obsessing about my future.

Do you have hyperacusis? Are your ears more sensitive to sound than they were before you got t?

I got that and it's slowly getting better.

One of the t veterans on the site said his t went down but it took a long time. I keep telling myself to keep giving it more time and I'll get used to it or it will get quieter. Either way is better than what I have now.

Remember to be patient and go easy on your ears. Your ears need some time to heal.

 

Thanks @Lane , I will have a look.

@New Guy - I just want to tick all the boxes of what I can do before settling in to just accepting and hoping the T can dissipate.

No hypercausis, actually. Did a test with the second audiologist where we played bleeps at increasing volume up to 90db, I started feeling discomfort at 90db at certain frequencies, but that was apparently to be expected. Did you get hearing aids?

I'm definitely going easier on them. I only use headphones with music at low volumes when I run, 30 mins x 3 a week. Anytime else, it's either silence or podcasts.

 

how much loss do you have? 15db on 4khz?

 

I thought it was 17db, apparently it's 20db at 4kHz.

 

its still normal, mine is 15db on 3khz and 6khz.
Did you do speech in noise?

 

Oh, right. Any drop at 4kHz?

We didn't, the third audiologist showed me a bit with a box with letters overlaid my audiogram and said because I didn't have dips below the letters, he didn't want to do one.

 

my ENT said my hearing is normal even with mild hearing loss in noisy areas.

 

Interesting. I haven't had any issues understanding people yet based on noise, but as an immigrant to Scotland, I sometimes struggle to understand the locals. Not sure if that's volume or accent, lol

 

I used to have a drop there but it went back up to a 10db.
Mine drop is on 3khz and 6khz 15db.
I have mild hearing loss in noisy areas (damage inner hair cells)

 

you are still so early in, wait it out for 6 months. In 6-8 months fading should begin.

 

Oh, wow. How does that happen? As in, I assumed that your hearing couldn't improve, just stay the same or decrease.

Based on bone conduction tests, I have damaged inner hair cells, too.

I saw what happened with you and your audiologist friend. Absolutely horrific. I feel for you, man.

 

I do hope it does fade, I'm trying to stay positive as much as I can, but I'm not going to lie, I can't cope sometimes. I think this forum is actually really good, despite what some think. I've joined and left facebook groups in literally hours because of the toxic attitudes.

 

Quick update - my T seems a bit more stable one week on. It's still worse in my right ear, but it doesn't have the angry wind noise anymore, at least when I wake up. Exercise does tend to spike it, and I work out every day, so it can be hard to understand what the true baseline is.

I've been going to HBOT now for 12 sessions (out of 15), I think it's making a positive difference, but hard to quantify as the effects are meant to be cumulative, rather than acute. I'm considering asking for more sessions to bring the total up to 20, or maybe even 30, but it's hard to get to the sessions instead of going to work, though the chamber does have WiFi and I can work during the session. Plus, the sessions themselves are a total drag. You need to be more or less completely stationary while the session takes place and the chairs are uncomfortable. I will ask if I can just get the late sessions from now on.

Overall, feeling a bit more positive about things, slight bit of habituation going on, lol. I think that may also just be the anti depressants kicking in. I know my life is not going to be as good as it was without T, but I still think I can have a decent one if I can juuuust get this T down a little bit more.

Watched a video about hearing loss that I found most interesting -

Stanford's Initiative to Cure Hearing Loss

 

@Drone Draper -- Thanks for posting that video. The images, pictures, illustrations, animations, etc. are the best I"ve run across. I would have found this video invaluable in my first days of tinnitus when I had little understanding of how the inner ears worked, and how it related to my tinnitus.

In my case, tinnitus was kicked off by an ototoxic drug (Promethazine, also known as Phenergen). It's an anticholinergic drug which inhibits acetylcholine receptors in the brain and neurological system (including the delicate nerves in the inner ear!). These kinds of drugs block the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which in turn inhibits nerve impulses. Is it any wonder these kinds of drugs can (and does) create tinnitus? -- I don't know if that acetylcholine blocking is what caused a huge irritation directly to my major hearing nerves, or whether that irritation was caused by my hair cells being so traumatized.

I very much appreciated the part in the video where the discussion on tinnitus began (45:38 Mark). Some of his comments included: 1) Tinnitus is essentiallly abnormal activity in the hearing nerve; 2) In tinnitus, the hearing nerve becomes "irritable" and begins to "rhythmically discharge". His hope is that if they are successful with hair cell regeneration (which he is quite optimistic will happen), then hopefully the nerve will no longer be irritated, and hopefully no more tinnitus. He also mentions how nerves from our teeth attach to the cheek bone, and transmit impulses to the ears. Obviously, a problem with that nerve (such as a tooth or gum infection) has the potential to cause tinnitus.

His use of the words "irritable" and "irritated" gave me more insight into why tinnitus onset can be so emotionally and psychologically shattering. He mentions that after a certain amount of time, the brain usually comes to some kind of "accommodation" with the discordant rhythmic discharge--but not always. -- If that doesn't happen (as in my case, even after a year), my take is that the constant irritation of the major hearing nerve in turn irritates the auricular branch of the vagus nerve--which in turn irritates the entire vagus nerve which runs through literally every major organ system in the body. And the vagus nerve is is the primary orchestrator of the body's parasympathetic (calming) response (it's a master communicator in many other ways as well).

This all explains why therapies such as cranial sacral, meditations, and other calming techniques can help a number of people with tinnitus. But results vary, mostly likely because of how seriously irritated the whole system is to begin with. If it's ultra-irritated (as in my case), it's likely going to take a lot longer, with progress being painfully slow. And quite frustrating, because there's no guarantee it will lead to a lessening of the tinnitus (preferable!), or habituation, or neither. No wonder so many of us feel as if we're living on the edge. Our bodies and nervous systems are screaming at us that something is very wrong, and we're starting on a whole new learning curve of how to address those alarm signals the best way we can.

@Striveon
@TracyJS

 

Yup! Precisely.

My gf thinks I'm making too much of a big deal about the tinnitus and that it's all I talk about. It's not, but it's a pretty big life changing thing. People end up killing themselves because they can't take it!

 

Just went to the cinema and Wagamama, currently experiencing a spike.

Holy moly, Wagamama was 85db! Do we really need that level of sound for dinner?

 

Wow! How long did it take your 4khz dip to improve to 25 db?

 

maybe 6 months

 

Did you do anything specific?

I am noticing my tinnitus fading a bit. I ended up doing HBOT for 15 sessions, unfortunately I was never given prednisone. I'm hoping it could continue to fade. I slept 9.5 hours last night, so that's a good sign. A lot of the scarier sounds I had in my right ear are gone. Still want more, of course, lol.

 

@Drone Draper, my 4 kHz dip is at 30 dB. The ENT said I would need to be moderate (more than 40 dB) across most frequencies before being a candidate for hearing aids.

My tinnitus is mild white noise kind of sound, pretty mild. Accumulated from about 10 years of metal gigs, I am just turning 30 in a few weeks.

 

Hello @Sam Bridge . Normally I wouldn't be a candidate for them, but I've been trying them on and while they're not adding anything to the clarity of conversation, they do seem to help lower the tinnitus. I suppose that's maybe where hidden hearing loss comes in?

In any case, fellow metal head here! Had to pass up seeing Mastodon and Powerwolf in January. Absolutely gutted.

I'm surprised you describe yours as mild. Most people who are bothered enough by their tinnitus to join this forum describe theirs as severe or moderate. Does yours bother you when you sleep? Can you hear it in crowded rooms? Traffic? Quiet rooms?

 

I sleep fine with it, i did go through an anxious stage with it for a few months where sleeping was a struggle. I think I joined here because it made me anxious, once I got that under control everything's fairly normal in life again. Saw Nightwish in November, had a great time and no problems.

Maybe it is moderate - for example i hear it in the office if i think about it but i can go for ages without being aware of it.