Off and On. Now On.

Hi Everyone. I'm 51 and I've had tinnitus in my right ear for about a year now. I was diagnosed with HBP about 15 years ago and have been on various meds since then. It is pretty much under control until I get stresses. The tinnitus I have in my right ear sounds like a medium tone that will vary up and down really quick then go back to the same tone. It was light enough that I could tune it out.

About 2 weeks ago, I got a real bad head cold. I felt like my head was clogged and I started noticing the tone a little more. I had been sneezing and blowing my nose a lot and could feel my ears popping. I was a little worried blowing my noses because of the clogged ears. Long story short, on this past Thursday, I hung out at a bar/restaurant with a friend for a few hours. It was not very loud there (it was Thursday). It's actually something we do practically every Thursday. This time when I woke up Friday morning, I had really loud ringing in both of my ears. It wasn't triggered by loud noises, it just appeared.

I mentioned my HBP diagnosis because I've read that some BP meds side effects are tinnitus. I did not know this until I just read it recently. It's now been 3 days of ringing, sometimes more noticeable in my right ear than the left. Went to my doc of 18 years who looked at my ear drums and said they are perfectly normal. I told him about the clogged feeling and his suggestions was to try a decongestant over the weekend and call him next week. He'll send me to an ENT if nothing changes. He also suggested a Nettie pot. I've been doing both and the sound isn't as loud, but it's still there. (I still am clogged too btw). It's made me a bit more anxious as I was already dealing with some anxiety. I know anxiety can cause all kinds of issues. I'm starting a new job and this isn't helping at all. I don't know if this is going to be permanent or not so I'm hopeful, but I'm looking for some coping methods since I can no longer tune it out. It's worse at night which interrupts my sleeping.

Thanks for listening and any suggestions would be appreciated.
Pete

 

Hi Pete.
Sudafed or steam inhalation
Extra pillow at night might help...lots of love glynis

 

Thank you.

 

Stress and anxiety can aggravate tinnitus. So try your best to relax & stay calm. Masking your T will help reduce the anxiety. If you haven't done masking, here are some suggestions:

1) Mask at bed time so you can sleep better. Find whatever sounds/music that are soothing to you. You can use a sound machine or sound pillow for this, or a computer with speakers.

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds.

3) If you have computer and speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds too:

TT's audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: https://mynoise.net

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

 

Thanks so much.