Officially 2 Months In....

I reallly realllly did NOT want to still be here 2 months in, But here I am, and I'm doing okay thankfully. I know I shouldn't complain, as a lot of you have had this much longer. I don't mean it in a complaining way, it's just my story. Brief background, I'm a 25 year old female from Santa Monica, CA and work full time as an auditor at a public accounting firm.

My onset occurred two months ago, I was confused at first and just thought it was a temporary thing and virtually ignored it. But after the fourth day I started to distress and became anxious, terribly upset, and barely ate for two weeks.

For the couple weeks leading up to the onset, my TMJ had really been acting up, my jaw was hurting horribly, clicking badly, and I fell while hiking which caused bad neck pain and increased jaw pain. When the onset first started I had no idea why, until I started doing research and saw that TMJ can be a cause of it. So right away I went to my chiropractor that had been helping me with my jaw, asked him to adjust and told him about my fall. He did, I almost expected the ringing to leave right away, HA!

Next day I went to an audiologist (I'm not very patient =] ), hearing checked out 100%, no fluid in my ears he could see, no ear wax, no trauma, so he agreed that it must be my TMJ. That the dislocated jaw joints, and hyperactive muscles must be pinching my ear nerves.

So the very next day after that, I went to go see a high profile dentist who has specialized in treating TMJ for the past 20 years (side note- im able to get appointments so fast bc my dad is a doctor and he helps me do this, I know it's not easy for everyone). A week later this doctor had my mouth splint ready for me, I clench badly when I sleep which is why my TMJ is bad. It's also supposed to reposition my jaw, bc I got a CT scan that shows my jaw is misaligned and way too close to my middle ear. He said that in 4-6 months I should see a big improvement with the ear ringing, and even sooner improvement for my jaw. I've had the mouth splint since Sept 8th, and have had four TENS sessions with this doctor (hook you up to Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation system around the ears and jaw for an hour). My jaw does feel better, but it's definitely not great yet, my clicking when I open my mouth to wide to take a bite of food or yawn, is still really bad and accompanied with a lot of pain still. The ringing improved about 3%, but has stalled there, and recently I've been having tingling sensation around my ears, jaw, and face. This sensation doesn't last long but it still kind of scares me, especially i've also been feeling a burning sensation in my ears, also doesn't last long. These are new, so I called today and scheduled an ENT appointment for this Thursday to see if they can tell me anything different.

This month I started acupuncture, I have gone four times and going for the fifth time this Friday. I feel great after the sessions, unfortunately it only last like two days. But the more I go the longer the good results should last, I am told. I'm also taking b12, magnesium, and Zinc daily for about 3 weeks now.


My ear ringing is normally around a 3/10-4/10, and a 6/10 at it's worst (when im in my car with no engine on or really silent room). For example, I'm at work right now sitting a cube and I don't hear it at all. I think it's because I'm in an open space with people around, and there's mild AC going on in the background. I can't hear it at all when I'm outside, or when I'm driving. To go to sleep, it's usually enough to just have the window open, I don't need a fan.

Okay, so what is the point of this long post! I wanted to know if anyone else has experienced burning/tingling, these are new to me these last two weeks which is why I made the ENT appointment this Thursday.

Secondly- since my ear ringing was not caused by noise, nor is it reactive to noise (from what I can tell so far, but haven't really been anywhere too loud, i never usually am). Should I still avoid loud places? I'm supposed to go to a concert 11/17 and cant stop thinking if I am going to make this worse or not.

 

Go to the concert don't sell yourself short. Take some plugs if you feel the need . Go have fun don't let your happy meter go low . CURLY

 

thank you!