New to Tinnitus and GP Dismissed Any Attempts of Referral

Hey all!

My Tinnitus started about 3 - 4 weeks ago in my right ear. Recently landed back from living abroad to visit family in the UK for an extended stay and noticed a ringing sound in my ear. Quickly dismissed it as something that would go away but after a few days noticed it had actually gotten louder. This progressed to popping sensations in my ear and then WHAM the ringing was loud and constant.

Visited the GP who was just a Locum (Temp) who mentioned the ear drum was slightly darker than the left side and prescribed some steroid spray and advised to buy an Otovent device. I was also told to make an appointment with their in house ENT who I saw the following week.

With the ENT - After a couple of checks of my hearing and a quick look inside the ears his diagnosis was Tinnitus. He printed off some "Support" documents and prescribed Diazepam to help me get some sleep as it's been consistently keeping me up at night (loudness and anxiety). He also declined a referral to an ENT specialist for at least 6 months or in his words "unless you lose your sanity".

I've since had to buy a "Sound Machine" in order to get some better sleep, enrolled into CBT, have booked appointments at the dentist as my jaw clicks and pops consistently on the same side my ear is ringing, she couldn't feel anything amiss and as luck would have it, their X-ray machine was broken.

Unfortunately I have a history of using headphones a lot! Music is/was everything to me but that's had to be stopped. I also had an experience in my early teenage years where somebody set a firecracker off very close to my head causing me to go deaf in both ears for around 10 minutes. Unfortunately these factors, although the more severe happening a very long time ago, leave my hope of this being TMJ related or "temporary" very slim.

So yep, that's me...28 years old, living with Tinnitus and very low on options.

Anyway, sorry for the essay - hope you're all as well as you can be!
Jack

 

Why did you put "Cause of Tinnitus: Unknown"

When it is obvious you had a history of noise exposure. Loud music, loud fire works, most sufferers have noise induced hearing loss and TMJ together.

 

Pleasure to meet you too, "Contrast".

Unfortunately I had some difficulty registering with the Forum and since being verified, I focused on introducing myself rather than filling out the finer details of my profile.

Also with my lack of knowledge around Tinnitus it is extremely difficult for me to say categorically what caused it, considering I've not been exposed to any substantial noise for quite some time.

 

You should try and see an ent privately if you want to do that. That's messed up that you didn't get a referral. Hopefully it'll fade by then since you're early on.

 

Very sorry for your predicament. As you continue to learn about this beast and cruise through this forum you will learn as I did that this thing is very personal to each individual, and one shoe does not fit all. One thing does stand out for almost all T sufferers and that is the T is brought on by some degree of hearing loss. And that hearing loss does not have to occur at the same time the T comes to us. Also the hearing loss may not even be noticeable to the T sufferer. In your case the way you descibe your past, it leaves little doubt that you have some degree of hearing loss that is most likely the cause of your Tinnitus. I am also guessing that the intensity of the T you are dealing with now will subside a bit, but will at least to some degree remain with you for the foreseeable future, and may or may not require you to utilize some kind of masking (white noise) to help with sleep, etc. Good luck, and don’t hesitate to enquirer in here about how others are going on, and how you are finding your way through this. We are here for each other.