Ototoxicity from Eye Drops (Maxitrol: Neomycin-Polymyxin B-Dexamethasone)

Hi folks. I don't think I'm overstating this when I say this forum saved my life tonight. I was Googling "tinnitus and suicide." I was contemplating whether it might not be worth it to live the rest of my days as miserable as this one.

I've had quieter tinnitus since 2013 and finally -- finally! -- found peace with it about two years ago. I think I got it from either a 3-month sinus infection or the Azithromycin they gave me to potentially treat it.

In March (this year, just now) I got an eye bump (sty and chalazion, both yes), and the first doc gave me Gentamicin eye drops. Took those for 7 days, hearing was ok. I did have one loud day; I was in a poor mood because I burned my eye with a warm compress. I went to an ophthalmologist because the chalazion was still there--he gave me Maxitrol, which is Neomycin/Polymyxin B/Dexamethasone. After day 2 I woke up with louder than ever tinnitus and called the doctor and quit the drops. Things were wonky for about 10 days, and then, loud tinnitus. Intrusive and harrowing. Panic attack-inducing.

Neil Bauman at the Center for Hearing Loss Help says that he hears hundreds of stories of people who "wrecked their ears taking aminoglycoside eye drops." I so wish I had seen his posts sooner. I showed that to both the doc who prescribed me that class of eye drop, and neither of them said they'd heard of this happening.

So now I see the ENT and get a hearing test done tomorrow; I had resigned myself that I'd be hearing "you have to learn to live with it." I saw so many hopeful treatments and success stories here that I'm not settling for that crap. I'm going to do whatever I can.

Where do I start? What's most promising? I'm already on NAC and zinc picolinate, waiting for magnesium threonate to show up in the mail. This is because Neil Bauman wrote me an email back and told me to take them as the most bio-available forms of those.

Blessings to you all. Fight the good fight. I'm here with you. This sucks.
Megan

 

Hi. My tinnitus jumped up to I could say a 7 or 8 last Thursday. Could have been from taking Gentamicin and Neomycin eye drops, could be idiopathic or part of the progressive hearing loss I was diagnosed with as a kid after having bacterial meningitis as a baby. Saw the audiologist and ENT. I have hearing aids and are getting them adjusted to the new loss in normal hearing range and the additional high-pitched loss. I'm taking the 60mg/day Prednisone and praying for a miracle.

Some of the time it seems ok, like I might be able to habituate to this new louder ringing. Other times it feels like I'm going crazy and I just can't anymore if it stays this bad. The volume is all over the place, the tones are kind of dual (like cicadas?) although more high-pitched ones just show up out of the blue for about 10 seconds and then go away. My ears hurt a little every now and then and I sometimes feel I have to pop my ETs frequently. Now with the Prednisone my inner ears feel really warm.

Is this a normal thing? I'm really, really hoping the Prednisone works to reduce the hearing loss or that the 5inni5uw calms down to the lower volume. I'm trying to stay ok with it all but . . . I'm not.

I just read that people who are deaf can still have tinnitus. If that happens to me I'm done. Please help. Hope is in short supply. How can I live like this? How do people do it?

 

Hello! You are doing the right thing, NAC, Zinc, Magnesium, also Vitamin C and E can help. Right now you want to take antioxidants which can help protect your ears.

You also consulted an audiologist and ENT, taking prednisone, so you are doing the right things.

Give some time to all the treatment do its effect, do not expose yourself to loud noise in the following weeks and you will see everything will improve!

 

Hey Megan, sorry that this has happened to you, but welcome.

Hearing problems can be quite mercurial and are poorly understood by the medical community, so you're not alone in feeling such hopelessness. I'm struggling and so many others here are, too. Who knew that these little ears could be responsible for such havoc.

Like many others here I've got a lot of hope invested in regenerative medicine. You should check out the research thread if you haven't already, there is good reason to be optimistic for the future. The first generation of regenerative drugs currently in clinical trials (FX-322, OTO-413, PIPE-515, Hough Pill) are expected within 5 years. And there are more researchers working on other pre-clinical treatments that are a little further out.

Even Neil Bauman is a believer, I recall reading a post of his saying that he believes within the next 20 years we will have conquered hearing loss. I hope this gives you some hope to go on.

Don't feel ashamed for having suicidal ideations, or for feeling panic and anxiety. Let those feelings out and keep fighting the good fight. Tinnitus is a beast and dealing with it is ugly business.

We are here for you!

 

Thank you both; trying to stay hopeful; see what happens in 5 minutes, in 5 months, in 5 years. I do pray, so there's that.

My posts seem to be directed to the wrong places currently; thank you for finding it!

 

Our best wishes! Don't be so attentive for the next 5 minutes, ears will take time to heal! Relax, accept things and give yourself time. Best thing you can do is to stick to the treatment, discuss it with a good audiologist and you will see things will be good!

 

Hey. I just got a knock to my hearing (which wasn't great already), I have mild to moderate hearing loss now and the tinnitus is just through the roof sometimes. I'm trying to adjust to wearing my hearing aids every day and that's hard too. It's all hard. If it was ototoxicity that did it, I did it to myself, and as far as I've heard, no one has ever gotten their hearing back from aminoglycosides.

Today I feel like I'm totally f***ed. I've seen where, in rare cases, the LLLT can cause damage to your ears (I so don't want it to get worse), I don't know if I'm a candidate for Lenire, and if they suggest at my follow-up ENT appointment to do an MRI, guess what, the contrast can be ototoxic. I'm already pretty sure my ears were hurt by two different substances, so if that's the case, I'll be extremely anxious about doing the MRI. Intratympanic steroid shots can cause it to get worse. Ugh.

Seems like there's no good way to turn right now, that I'm the worst case I've heard of. No hope atm.
Megan

 

Things can always turn around and you can always recover slowly over time. We have seen it happen here countless times in the past. Don't put a date on it like, "by this date i will be better." Just take things slow and one day at a time.
Try to reduce you stress regarding it. I know reducing stress in the beginning seems like crazy talk, but anxiety and stress definitely make tinnitus worse and more apparent.

Keep taking the supplements and try to relax as much as you can.

 

Thank you. The stress is pretty out of control; I feel for my family who are seeing me like this. I never thought I'd identify with "one day at a time" as much as I do now, and I really want to have hope that something will be recovered, even though it seems pretty improbable according to my brain. I guess finding an in-person support group or counselor is my plan?

 

I would suggest seeing a therapist or a professional to help you deal with the stress regarding this situation. I know they will not be able to reduce the sound of the tinnitus, but I they can show you coping mechanics that will be useful.

If they suggest medication, be sure to do your own research regarding the medication.

 

Hi, do you still have louder than usual tinnitus since Maxitrol?

My aptologist prescribed me Maxitrol for slight eyes inflammation with dry eye symptom, but I did'nt start it.

 

Hi @David077, yes, I still have the louder tinnitus. Before I had a high-pitched ring, now it's like I have cicadas in my head. I wonder if your eye doc might be willing to give you a steroid eye drop without the antibiotic component, or else corticosteroids instead? Although oral steroids supposedly don't cross the blood-brain barrer. I wish I had asked for any of that instead before all this happened. If it were me, I wouldn't be taking aminoglycoside anything unless it's a serious (life-death) situation.

 

I am also victim of this evil drug called Polydexa which includes Neomycin and Polymyxin B. Someone has to do something about this, how come this medicine is legal and doctors are easily prescribing it. I was prescribed in totally unnecessary case. I didn't even had infection, someone else's mistake ruined my life.

 

Hi,

I took one dose of Maxitrol, and stopped. It has elevated my tinnitus already. That is after applying one small drop to one eye. I called my doctor, who now wants me to try Ofloxacin. I’ve used this for other eye problems without any change to my tinnitus.

Hopefully the one dose of Maxitrol didn’t cause permanent additional problems.

 

How much and how long did you take the Azithromycin?

 

I believe I took the full Z-pack, can't remember how long that is. This was in 2013 when I had a really bad sinus thing that lasted over 3 months... turns out it was viral anyway, of course! The tinnitus didn't start right away, I don't think, so I didn't connect the dots till later.

Does that help? It can all be harsh at first and I'm still sad this is happening to me, but most days I just accept it and move on. Time definitely helps.

 

Thanks! So maybe it was the virus then? Not sure how many pills Z-pack contains, I'll check it out.

 

Hi y'all,

To be honest, I really wanted to be gone. I know it's not great that the folks who adjust to their tinnitus leave the forum so you don't really know how they are. But I was one of them and was doing really well about 2 years into the loud tinnitus, mostly ignoring it (it didn't get better, but I just decided to quit thinking about it if possible because I'm stuck with it.) I felt pretty habituated. This week--I'm not really totally sure--something happened and it's back at the forefront of my mind. It's distracting my work. I'm seeing an Audi tomorrow.

Could have been the UTV I was riding in (with ear protection) on Thursday. Could have been that I'm working out hard (Crossfit) in preparation for BLET. I'm now a Park Ranger in a state where all state park rangers are law enforcement. In just a few weeks I'm scheduled to start the Basic Law Enforcement Training Program. Now I'm wondering what I was thinking, because of course BLET includes shooting, and my new career choice involves chainsaws, and power tools, and UTVs and ATVs and other loud things. I thought, as long as I use ear protection religiously, I'll be fine. But it's a one-way street: I won't know I'm not fine until it happens, and hearing loss isn't reversible. I wish I didn't have to consider quitting just because of my tinnitus/hearing loss issues.

Anybody else who used noise protection and still had a bad outcome? (A hard question for THIS forum, but -- anybody who has been using noise protection for such activities and doing fine?)

 

Hey, I just read through this thread for the first time. After reading about the Neomycin drops increasing your tinnitus, I felt mine start to elevate. I used the same thing, except in a gel form, over a year ago (February 2021) for a skin infection in my eyelid that also transferred to my eye. It was really bad and continued to worsen, so I had no choice. I never felt it affected my tinnitus at the time, I was more worried about the Doxycylcine I was also required to take, but I did start having worsening about a month later after taking doxycycline again for blepharitis and then the COVID-19 vaccine.

Anyways... I didn't realize you are required to take law enforcement training to be a ranger in your state. Have you considered trying a different state? I know for sure in Arizona and California you do not need any law enforcement training to be a ranger. There's tons of amazing parks in those states.

As for protection, have you tried double-protecting? It will add about 5 NRR to the highest rated protection you are wearing.

I've wanted to be a park ranger for a few years now. I'm really tired of sitting at a desk and doing "brain" work, especially with the mind-numbing ringing. I'd rather be out doing something physical that gets my mind off it all.

 

Yeah, that one's tough. Did you ever get an audiogram for possible hearing loss? To me, that would help confirm what happened. My left ear is now worse than my right, which Neil Bauman at the Center for Hearing Loss Help pointed out would make sense if the eye drops that I used in my LEFT eye caused damage. Doxycycline also messed up my friend Zoe, though, so it's a tough call.

People are talking about double-protection not being enough which is anxiety-provoking. Prior to this week, when I remembered what I have to lose, I thought that just double-protecting would make it a safe activity for my ears. That's apparently not the case. Trying to hear more from folks who double-protected and still got damage. If you hear from folks, send them my way please! Also trying to ask about using suppressors on the range and any special accommodations they might be able to give me. Is the risk ultimately worth it? Still deciding.

Three words: Natural Resources degree.

In my state, also, if you work a LOT of seasonal jobs, that puts you on the radar to be considered for ranger. I love my job and so lucky that I got picked, as state park ranger jobs are hard to get as everybody wants them. I agree, I'd rather be out DOING something! I'm just crossing my fingers that another state will see my experience and also hire me. Giving up a dream job totally sucks. On the other hand, protecting your hearing is also an extremely smart move. Who knew nature work could be so loud?! LOL!