Path of Exploration and a Path to a Solution After a Year of Hell

"It is your special sound, learn to live with it".
I am a tall man with nerd-neck from looking at too many computer screens on top of a bad skiing accident where I went face first into a snow bank resulting with compressed C4/5/6.

2007 started getting pains along the left hand to little finger and after months of Dr's and drugs (Lyrica, Noralgisic, Mobic and Celebrex) I found a wonderful physiotherapist who told me to sleep with my left hand/arm just behind my back. Within a few days the tingling and pain went away.

I realised after reading this forum that I had tinnitus for a lot longer than I thought. In a basement or very quiet room I could hear a shhhhh kind of sound starting somewhere in 1997. Never bothered me.

2017 I started noticing a high pitched sound in the middle of my head which over time has gotten louder and louder to now where I hear it over everything even standing next to a busy road.

So.... this is what happened and what I found.
First Dr. a year ago was no help "It is your special sound, learn to live with it". He did give me a hearing test in a soundproof booth and I came back 100% except for one frequency where it was 95% and was the frequency of the tinnitus.

Found an easy Dr and got prescription of Valium. No help. Tried Xanax next, no change.

Tried a chiropractor and was no assistance.

Tried acupuncture but saw no help there. Acupuncturist did feel that there was possibility that it was my neck and added Chinese massage (OMG it was nice) to my visits (every 2 days for 3 months) but no change.

Someone suggested sinus's so went back to hospital and 2 months of drugs but no help other than I can smell a rose at 100meters now. He prescribed Serc (betahistine dihydrochloride) and said I had to take it for the rest of my life. No help. I asked about my neck causing the trouble and that was dismissed.

For me the noise was loudest in the morning and would dissipate over the day. Warm showers on the back of my neck helped. Tingling in my left hand returned slightly and would not go away with my arm behind my back. My mood went downhill dramatically. Back to hospital.

Explained my history to a neurologist and mentioned tinnitus once but concentrated on the issue with my hand. He said I want you to take some drugs and do physiotherapy. My mood sunk as he listed the drugs that I had been given before. I explained that I had gone that route and it had not helped. He looked at my history and stated they only gave you Lyrica 5mg and maybe that was not enough so upped the dose to 25mg.

Exhausted and depressed I went home, took the drugs and went to sleep. Woke 7 hours later with no tingling sensation in the arm and the tinnitus was down from a 7 to 1.

I am still in a daze and I don't think it has truly sunk in that I have found the cause and now there is a path to head down. The western Dr's totally dismissed any link to neck and tinnitus and I think if I went to the neurologist about tinnitus I would have been sent back to the ENT Dr. and gotten no where.

In our modern world where we all live in front of computers with terrible posture our necks are being abused and could be a cause of what is causing this horrible sound. Laptops, iPhones are wonderful but make you look down all the time and screw up our body. The acupuncturist did tell me. to hold the phone in my right hand with my left fist in my right armpit to stop me from looking down. He was onto the issue but just didn't have the technology or drugs.

I don't think Lyrica is the solution but it is a way of finding out if nerves are an issue and to me finding the cause is more than half of the battle. Try it for 2 days and see.

I hope for you there is a solution if this is not yours. There is always hope never give up.

 

I was offered this one by my ENT but turned it down because of the possible side effects which scared me. Are you experiencing any side effects?

 

So far not really I feel I am still in a daze. Is this a dream or is it reality.

My plan is not to remain on the drug but use it as diagnostic which showed me where the issue really is. Then smooth things out for a week while I work hard on physiotherapy and then maybe consider surgery to replace the disks in my neck.

Tinnitus is a multi headed beast. I seem to have found which head is biting me. Different folks different causes/issues. Mine is a bad neck and this has shown that. 12 hours ago I was a solid 7 and now a 1.