Newbie Looking for Help

Hi. I am a newbie. Prior to being a newbie, I was a healthy active, married, happy girl who just finished building her dream home and was looking forward to a trip to Germany in May, and my life was great! All of that changed when 3 weeks ago when I developed a severe head cold, my cat died and our house alarm blared for 10 seconds (with me standing in front of it). All of that combined has left me with epsiodes of vertigo, ear pain & fullness, and of course the T. Everything comes and goes except for the T. Mine sounds like a low volume hissing/static sound in both ears (with occasional episodes of high pitched T). Needless to say the past 3 weeks have been the most excruciating and the most amount of suffering I have ever experienced in my 31 years. I never even knew about T!

At first onset I began the trips to my doctor. (Flonase and Claritin for some fluid in left ear). Basic hearing test (totally normal). Gave me Xanax for the anxiety.
Saw the ENT next. He gave me lipoflavanoids, told me to live with it and scheduled my MRI and advanced hearing test for next Monday (April 20th).

I'm devastated. The anxiety that surrounds this is unbearable. I am depressed and I just want my normal life back. Any advice anyone has would be appreciated. Could mine resolve on it's own? When will I know if it's permanent? Should I cancel my trip? Should I sign up for a clinical trial? Should I give up my lovely Friday night glass of vino? I need advice, direction, and clarity. So happy to have found this place to come too.

 

Consider enlisting with the AM-101 clinical trial:

http://www.tinnitus-study.info/

The sooner the better (due to physiological processes of the inner ear that occur after an auditory insult).

It could.

I don't believe anyone can say - with certainty - when tinnitus becomes permanent. Tinnitus is - in my opinion - a cause for concern when it lasts beyond 48 hours. And a real worry when it lasts longer than a week. But it all depends on the cause (i.e. a diagnosis).

For sure, there are people who recover during the acute phase of one to three months.

 

Thanks so much for the quick response! I appreciate all and ANY advice. I checked out the clinical trial, and filled out the form and sent it. Hopefully they contact me

 

For me it worked very good to read about the neurophysiological model of Jastreboff.
Also physical excercise works great for me because of the endorfines it creates.

I know it is very hard for you at the current moment to relax or to think you will ever be fine, but you will I promise. I was in the same stage as you for 2 months and now slowly getting better.

Try to speak to good doctors and try to find out what the cause is, mine is head/jaw/neck muscle related and never thought or felt any pain in those areas until the chiropracter pushed gently on them! I now one thing for sure anxiety and stress about Tinnitus will looks like it's getting worse and worse (like a giant snowball that rolls of a mountain) but this is just a mindgame.

Relaxing is very important take a nice massage, go swimming/biking/walking or go to a sauna. Anything that makes your relax (in a normal situation) will help you a lot.

 

I don't think there is much else you can do at this point.

You can check to make sure your doctor(s) is/are aware of the latest Tinnitus Treatment Guidelines (which lists a standard batch of tests to be performed, if necessary).

You can also read about TRI's exhaustive list of diagnostic assessments and treatments below:



Melatonin can be helpful for sleep management (6mg, ½-hour before bedtime; therapeutic range as a sleep aid = 5 to 10mg).

 

All I can say is WOW. That is an awesome chart. I will bring it to the ENT next week. He doesn't seem very knowledgeable, so I feel like I probably need a second opinion from another ENT. Would you recommend a consult with a neurologist as well?
On an unrelated but happy note, if you could visit just one place would you pick Berlin or Munich? I saw you live in Germany.

 

There is a very good chance your tinnitus will resolve on its own.
Don't spend time on the Internet and don't take any notice of horror stories, stick to this and other reputable sites. Many people think tinnitus never goes away, this is incorrect - for most it lessens considerably or goes away completely with time (this is a quote from the ENT UK website).
I know it's hard but try to stay calm. It will get better. You will be ok I promise you. If you're struggling with anxiety take meds until you feel you can cope without them, focus on the good things in your life, get as much sleep as you can and protect your ears in noisy environments.
Tinnitus is horrible I know but the best thing you can do is try to calm down as much as you can, in doing so your tinnitus will calm down too. The more your T calms down the more you will calm down and so and so on . . . ! Do all the things you normally do, enjoy your wine (I do and it actually knocks my T on the head for a while). If you need questions answered ask Dr Nagler in Doctors Corner on this site, he helped me a lot in the early days.
It will get better, you will be ok honey. x

 

Gill, that is honestly the nicest, sweetest message I have ever received from a stranger. It brought tears to my eyes. Thanks so much for listening to my story, commenting and bringing me comfort. Means so much to me. I promise to stay calm, and focus on all those happy things in my life. PS- England is one of my favorite countries, I hope to make it back soon.

 

New tinnitus can do this to most new T sufferers in the first phase of suffering. Due to the newness and alien sensation of T, our mind can tipped into the fight or flight mode of the limbic nerve system, which will sensitize our feelings and reactions to prepare us for a fight. Unfortunately when T doesn't go away, the nerve thinks the threat is still present. So the stresser of T can repeat its tyranny for some time initially to create much anxiety and fear, even depression and sleeplessness for some. So take that as a normal thing for most people. If you read the success stories you will realize that most people go through this initial phase with tough struggle. But eventually given enough time, understanding of T, and learning to apply some wisdom from others, people do getter better, even for those whose T stays on because they habituate to their T over time. Have hope you will be fine too. Here is TT's link to help out a newer sufferers, with step-by-step advice plus some masking tracks. Take care.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/panic/

 

Keep fighting to find a solution as we all are but in the mean time, just try and disregard the noise as much as you can. Keep distracted and mask it if you really need to. White noise generators work for me. Best wishes.

 

Tinnitus is most likely permanent...Now, there are treatments coming out very soon, just the waiting game. I can assure you I will post on here when a cure is found out. However as for now, you can try and obtain trobalt, which is very hard to obtain but when you do the silence is bliss. I wish I could recommend another drug, but it's truly the only one that can reduce tinnitus by a large percentage.

 

Thanks so much! It's good to know that I am not alone in the initial suffering phase. I can definitely tell when I am more stressed the sound is much more prevalent and definitely noticeable. I guess acceptance is probably the hardest part for everyone. I do enjoy reading the success stories, I find them much more calming then the horror stories which create more anxiety. Thanks for responding to my post!

 

Thanks so much! I feel like I'm up against the biggest fight of my life. The fight to get back to the normalcy I once had, and the silence I didn't cherish enough until it was gone.

 

Don't get discourage and don't cancel your trip unless your doctor recommend it for some medical reason or test that you might need. I was just like you about a month ago thinking that my life was over and was not able to sleep more than hour a night for one week (did not take any benzos, i should had taken them at least for a while) I think alprazolam or xanax is the wrong choice (short effect), clonazepam is better but only for a short time during initial stages, while your anxiety calms down (believe tinnitus increases 100 fold under stress). the trial is a good idea if you get in. After a month and a week i am much better (tinnitus still there and i am not happy about it) but i am coping better with it and i am able to work and sleep almost as before. Hopefully you and I will be one of those cases that goes away on its own. keep strong and try to be busy (its easy to ignore the bussing that way).

 

Also forgot to tell you i tried doing and MRI yesterday. IT IS VERY LOUD (like a jackhammer next to your head) and it last like 30 to 45 minutes. Make sure they protect your ears. I had to stop mine after five minutes for fear it will make my situation worst. Talk to your doctor about it there might be other studies better suited like a high def spiral computer tomography. Almost 43% of patients have temporary threshold shifts after MRI even using ear protection. If your case has some acoustic trauma involved (it sounds like it does from your bell experience) it might not be good idea.

 

Thank you so much for your response. I really don't want to cancel this trip, as I have looked forward to it for the past year. It just depresses me to even be dealing with this right now. (Although, I do know that many more people suffer from far more awful things). I don't want to throw a pity party, but I am sure as a newbie you know it's hard not too! I got a prescription for the clonazepam too. I was scared to take it but I think I will try to Sunday when I don't have a lot to do, to see how it affects me. I am hopeful that you and I will soon be posting on the success forum! Best wishes.

 

Ahhh, this is the first I have heard of this. It definitely makes me think twice about it. What did your doctor say to you when you wanted to stop it? I definitely do NOT want to make it worse! Anyone else with that experience?

 

its ok to take it i wish i had (for short periods for example a month there will be no addiction problems and it will help you a lot with the anxiety). Also its important to know that if you really want to get into the trial you should not take it otherwise you could get disqualified, they check for both alprazolam and clonazepan (benzos in general). Have you heard back from them?

 

Hello.. I think the question about the MRI is very pertinent.. It looks that you T was caused by the alarm that triggered at your house. If you gonna do an MRI be very careful.. I just had T on my left ear until a ENT sent me to do an audiograhm. Well, the technician who done that when testing the left ear put me a white noise in my right ear. When it started it was so loud I have to take out the headphones quick as I can. The 3 seconds I took was enough to cause me T on the right ear. This was 2 years ago and I have T on my left ear for almost 15 years before I developed it on the right. My T was caused by noise exposure at my work without protection(stupid),and 3 years ago a children's balloon exploded to close to my ear increasing the sound from a mild T to a very hard to deal T. Still trying to cope after 3 years. When it was mild there was months I didn't think about it one time.
Fire alarm are a danger to your ears, and it's not the first time I heard people who got T from alarm exposure.

 

I'm definitely more concerned about having the MRI done now, but I don't know what else to have done to rule out possible causes that my doctor is looking for. They are not sure if it was a fire alarm or the sinus infection. My doctor is more inclined to think it's the sinus infection versus the alarm. I think it would be both.. Anyone else with thoughts regarding the noisy MRI?

 

From my experience most of exams we made it's just a waste of time and money. I have to tell you, if I knew some years ago what I know now I would never gone to an ENT. The biggest part of it knows there's no cure for T so they let it go until the patient give up.
That's OK you should try anything you can to solve that, but with time you will understand like most of us with years of dealing with this 'little inconvenience'. I know this is not very positive, but I think you should try to cope with it as fast as you can.

 

And that's OK to drink a little wine. It helps to relax. And if you have a mild T don't worry too much. I've said that before. It's like wearing glasses. You have it on your nose but you never think too much about it. The hardest step is to accept it. Once you think you have to move on everything will be easier.

 

I can understand where you are coming from, it sounds like you are very frustrated with the healthcare system. However, I don't think going to doctors is a waste of time or money, even if they don't find anything wrong with me. I'm not going to not go to doctors and not try to find a cause, as there are serious diseases that cause this. For me to not investigate would not be the best option. I am fortunate enough to live in an area and have access to excellent healthcare, and thankfully can afford any medical testing/procedures. I agree I should try to cope, but as you can tell from my post I was looking for more advice then just "coping as fast as I can." I've gotten some great responses and some great resources from other posters, so this has been a great introduction for me!

 

I agree with you. You should try everything. Maybe I am not in my most positive days. Wish you the best of luck. We all need.

 

Yes