New to Tinnitus — GP Appointment Tomorrow...

Hi all, first post and all that.

So then, this here tinnitus, pain in the arse, eh?

Excuse the length in advance. This is me verbalising my little journey so far into this shite and it'll help me focus my mind for my appointment tomorrow with my GP.

I woke up on the 23rd of April feeling slightly odd. I'd had a few beers the night before and was feeling groggy and when I got up and I put it down to the beer. I felt slightly dizzy and started to get pain in my ears and forehead and where I'd believe my sinuses are. Over the morning the ringing started. There was no loud music or bangs or anything the week before.

I've been to rock concerts when a kid (last one was over 20 years ago) so was used to having localised and short bouts of tinnitus which wore off after a day or so so wasn't too concerned.

Except this didn't. I then, in the afternoon, started to get really bad headaches to go with the ringing and pain in my ears. Not hangover headaches (I'd had four pints the night before, nowhere near enough for me to enter hangover territory) but what I'd guess would feel like migraine headaches.

The tinnitus seemed to be in one ear, my left, but the pain I got was in both ears. Over the next few days, same thing, constant ringing, headaches and pain in ears.

Over the next week no real change other than at times, I'd have this very odd feeling of fluid moving around my tubes in my head. It was short lived and quickly went but definitely felt like fluid moving downwards. That lasted a couple of days and went.

I've had no trouble sleeping with it thankfully. I'm still getting the headaches (taking Ibuprofen for them which takes the edge off.) I'm still feeling pain in my ears, like a kind of pressure from outside to in. Like you want to pop your ears all the time (which I can do to relieve it.)

And the tinnitus is almost near constant. There are times though (I know, I'm very short into this journey from the look of things) when it seems to disappear completely. It doesn't last long, say 15-20 seconds, when it truly goes and I cannot hear it. Obviously, you go "looking" for the ringing and it comes back ("Hello! Thought I gone, didn't you? Ha!") but it seems to happen about two to three times a day. I've tried reading up on tinnitus, including this and other forums and not seen mention of that. Is that a good sign? Normal?

I also seem to get some pain where my jaw joins my skull next to my ears. I do clench my jaws a lot as a habit thing. Might be unconnected or not. I don't appear to have suffered any hearing loss.

And that's about me. I've got an appointment with my GP tomorrow. I fully realise that, unless there's something specifically physical causing the tinnitus, I'm pretty much stuck with it until I habituate. Sometimes when I concentrate the tinnitus goes away and I don't notice it. I realise this and go checking again and it comes back. Presume that this is the kinda equivalent of habituating in the short term? I also suffer from almost constant benign ectopic heartbeats (where it feels like your heart misses a beat - when it hasn't, just a mistimed one) but I'm completely habituated to them. I notice them but go "meh, stuff them" and it's just not noticed in my brain anymore. Same thing/process for tinnitus?

Aaaaaanyway, sorry for the length! For UK sufferers, with me having my first appointment with the GP tomorrow, would you have any advice for me based on the above? Things to watch for or ask? Any experience shared would be gratefully received.

Cheers all.

 

If you trawl a bit more, you will find everything you have mentioned somewhere on here. Not that it'll be of much use, but things like it randomly disappearing, jaw fit issues, fluid in ears etc. have all been posted by me in the past.

Honestly, my advice regarding the GP is not to expect very much. If you have a good GP, then you're very lucky, but mine was totally disinterested. I paid to see a private ENT and all he could offer was anti-depressants - something I refused to take, especially since mine started as a result of an allergy to a prescription drug.

Eventually, I managed to get to an NHS audiologist who got me back to a really nice ENT that at least took it seriously enough to have a look up my nose to check for polyps/swelling affecting the ETs and ordered an MRI to check for anything deeper, but it was all inconclusive in the end anyway. None of this was surprising to me though as it was over 18 months since onset before I was properly seen, so the initial insult was long since gone.

I wish you the best of luck, but I think like most, you are on a very personal and sometimes very lonely journey, but there are always people on here that you can message when you just need someone to talk to.

 

Ya good advice from @Owen if you have no hearing loss and your T is driving you mad then try a tinnitus Masker I'm going to try get my TMJ sorted first and if that doesn't solve my T I'm getting a pair

 

Good luck on your visit. An ENT would be much better than a GP, but I live in the states and don't know how your system works.