New to the Forum — Tinnitus Recently Got Much Worse!

I've had very, very mild tinnitus since I was a teenager. Sometimes noticeable, most times not. I have also been disagnosed with high-pitched hearing loss. Pretty sure it's from numerous ear-aches/infections I got as a youngester swimmer at a local pool that apparently didn't have great water quality. But since it's not in the range of normal speach, never went down the hearing aid route. My problem though is that I got a head cold / sinus infection a few weeks ago. The first night I noticed ringing in my ears, but dismissed it. Initially my main problem was a very soar throat. After about 3 days of dealing with that, I went to a dr and was put on azythromycin... 5 day regimine. Soar throat started to feel better pretty quickly, but as I ended the anti-biotic cycle, I noticed the ringing in my ears was persistent now. It will not quiet down or go away as it used to. I would say it's been about 1 week now of constant high-pitched ringing in my ears.

I made an appointment with an ENT 3 days ago. They did the hearing test and again confirmed high-pitch hearing loss. Tested for allergies and I do have some. I expressed concern about the tinnitus and shared I had recently been on azythromycin. The ENT didn't express any concern that the antibiotic could cause ringing in the ears (although I now know it could)... But, I've used it before and never noticed any issues. The ENT did prescribe prednisone saying that if there is infammation in the ear, this may help and to come back in 30 days. The prednisone is a 10 day cycle and I'm on day 4 now.

I'm clearly thinking about it too much right now. Not sleeping much at night. Don't know what caused it to all the sudden become persistent. Was it the head cold/sinus infection? Do I have an inner ear infection? ENT didn't see any middle ear infection, no water behind the ear drum, etc. Was it the anti-biotic? Will the prednisone help? If so, when.

Confused, frustrated, and tired. After reading a lot on this forum, should I immediately start taking supplements like niacin, b-12, magnesium, etc.?

Any help or guidance is greatly appreciated.

 

Although this varies between people (because of different causes of T onset), I would recommend Magnesium. Most people are Magnesium Deficient, search the forum for Magnesium and T and you might find some info. If your stressed you depleet magnesium even quicker. I myself take both Magnesium and Vitamin B complex. In any case its good for your body, and it won't make your T worse.

 

I don't think it would hurt to take some Magnesium or Vitamin B - at least it would get your health up which will help you deal with your T. You've obviously had mild T and I suspect your cold has made it worse. Hopefully you will recover from it. Sometimes after you've had a bad cold the T can take ages to go. I hope yours will lower to it's normal level. Good luck.

 

Hi I just wanted to let you know exactly the same thing has happened to me recently! I've had tinnitus for 18 years and apart from a few days here and there of stress and anxiety it has not debilitated me as I listen to soft music a lot and keep myself busy - but last week 2 things happened I had flu very bad and then my smoke alarm went off for ages I could not make it stop since then my T has gone off the scale it's so loud I'm finding it hard to even talk to people and I feel suicidal at times - been to GP today she says my ear drums are "dull" has prescribed me a spray and Valium and sleeping tablets - I know that's might seem excessive but I genuinely have felt suicidal over this - I had advice here not to try and drown it out in fact to avoid noise - that's a new approach for me as drowning it out is what I have always done but I will try anything - I sincerely wish you a speedy recovery and sending hope things ease back for you soon