Platelet Rich Plasma Injections

I did it as a warning to people who don't have many funds left and might be looking at last choices. I looked into this rather carefully, read the Indian study several times and corresponded with experts. I think it's of service to people here to have a balanced view of the real chances of this treatment based on current research and facts, and to know the risks and the type of conditions for which it may (middle ear, eardrum problems or may not (hair cells loss) work. Otherwise I don't know why this forum exists. I looked into it rather carefully as it could be one of my last options. Yes, I'm aware of your previous attempts and I'm sorry they didn't help.

I hope this one works, as I said. Nothing would make me happier than being wrong here, but burying the head in the sand won't help anyone.

As for your end note, it is not difficult to answer, but that would add further negativity so let's stop here.

Fingers crossed it works for you, as I already said in my original post.

 

It would be better to go directly to Dr Shim. My opinion...

 

Thanks @scotty03874.

 

Thanks Scott. I appreciate it. I contacted her. She was very helpful. Very expensive, I might wait for you to finish to see if I should do it or not. I’m going to have to sell a lot of my long term stocks to get it. It is at the Advanced Rejuvenation place I was thinking about. Good, they have hyperacusis listed on what they treat too. They said they combine laser therapy with it? And are they injecting it through your eardrum?

 

Yes through the eardrum. What did they quote you? If you don't mind me asking? I'll keep you informed as the weeks and next couple of months pass for hopeful improvements...

 

The woman I emailed said 18k for bone marrow and she didn’t say PRP. I’m guessing the PRP is less? Are you doing both? She said they combine it with the laser therapy. I’m not too sure about the laser therapy. Some have worsened from it.

 

Once again, well said Chinmoku

I for one do not believe your posts ever display negativity, in fact, if anything your posts are always full of compassion and kindness. Informing others of a balanced view in my opinion is useful, unfortunately what works for some may harm others.

Tinnitus Talk members can help one another by pointing out what has worked or has not worked for them, including articles that contradict positive outcomes.

Unfortunately some people will always shoot the messenger.

Please keep up your wonderful informed posts, Tinnitus Talk is lucky to have such a knowledgeable member who is willing to part with information to help others.

 

Wow that's a lot of money for such little work. You've done blood patches with Dr. Foster like I have, it's basically the same exact process for PRP. The bone marrow takes a little more time to extract (maybe add 5 more minutes). But that price also includes laser at $250 per session.

I only treated my left ear... I'm having middle ear surgery on my right ear on 8/5 due to ossicular chain discontinuity in Boston, and eardrum reconstruction.

Better to wait on my results and go from there Brian. If you have a good relationship with Dr. Foster, he could easily do the PRP injections and get trained by Dr. Shim with virtual platform coming out soon (Talala). The only difference is you need to prepare the blood by spinning it and then you also inject calcium fluoride into the ear after injecting the blood.

Takes under ten minutes to do the entire process.

 

So it didn’t cost you $18k? Only $250 per session? Or that’s just the laser? How much were the bone marrow injections? No way only $250 per session? My blood patch was like a few hundred, I forget.

 

No, I got the USA guinea pig discount since I set this whole thing up with Dr. Shim.

The laser treatments are $250 each. I think the NEW retail price for bone marrow is $4000 each ballpark. I'm guessing only PRP price would be less. Only blood withdrawal and then an injection after it is spun. Then they simply also inject calcium fluoride which activates it. Done deal...

My ear still feels super clogged as I just got my last injection on last Friday. It sucks waiting for it to leave the middle ear.

 

Thanks. I appreciate it. Yeah after I got the blood patch, my eardrum would hurt for a week or two and sound would bother it too. Besides my normal hyperacusis pain which is deeper. I like the clogged feeling; it blocks out more sound lol.

 

I know the feeling, I kind of like the blocked feeling too. It diminishes lots of exterior/interior auditory sounds.

Dr. Shim told me my ear should be clear by now today through email, so I'm a little concerned. But I have an Amazon ear camera and I can see still see a little dried blood behind my eardrum and outside. I did a 20 minute hydrogen peroxide cleanse out today for 20 minutes. So who knows honestly, but after my blood patch with Dr. Foster in Miami, I had a conductive hearing loss for about two weeks.

I don't know if what Dr. John is doing is even legal per American Legal Medical Standards. Directly injecting into someone's ear. I think only licensed ENTs can legally do this. Which he is not FYI. But I did it, no turning back now...

 

Yeah I need some conductive hearing loss tbh.

Was the patch just as good as Dr. Foster's? Yeah That does worry me a little. Well filling the middle ear with fluid is not hard, but it seems getting the regen meds on the round window can be tricky sometimes.

 

Dr. Foster was A LOT better at the injecting. He's a seasoned ENT. Or he used a better numbing agent on my eardrum. Because with Dr. John on two of the injections I was saying "that hurts." Remember I was the first person he ever injected into the eardrum. Dr. Shim was just instructing him with the technique and watching over him.

 

Oh wow you were his first. Man these things we do to try and improve. Yeah Dr. Foster was good. I didn’t have pain right away, got vertigo for a while, that was a bad feeling. He’s definitely the most understanding ENT I’ve been to. If Frequency Therapeutics and Otonomy come out, I’ll be going to him.

I never asked, do you have any middle ear pain? Or issues like fluttering, tugging, tightness?

 

I get fluttering in both ears. Tinnitus, hyperacusis & hearing loss too. My ears are super sensitive to any loud sounds. Even a lawnmower pisses them off a lot. Everyday is a goddamn challenge.

 

Have you considered the Silverstein surgery at all? I’m leaning closer and closer to it because I think the fluttering and movement you feel can be the stapes or tensor tympani. I think I messed my stapes up bad and my ears fluttered for every noise for 6 months. The noxacusis is the issue for me because my bad ear feels like an open flesh wound 24/7 and the pain gets horribly bad. I want to try it but the thought of it getting worse lol. Yeah my case is different. I’m also considering asking them to disconnect the bones too. No doubt I have some of the best hearing of any human. Feel like if I get some sound blocked off in the middle ear maybe it would help. My audiograms are scary. I also have a feeling any kind of stem cells or PRP would heal the middle ear as well. And my ears seem fine with injections.

Not sure if you read my story but my loudness hyperacusis was very bad before and I had moderate noxacusis so I tried my own sound therapy and almost cured the loudness hyperacusis, then made the noxacusis horribly worse. Still to this day that overwhelming loudness hyperacusis is still gone. I just hear everything and it triggers the nerve pain if that makes sense. Your tinnitus sounds definitely worse than mine. Guess I got the trade off.

I’m still really hoping the PRP gives you some kind of improvement.

 

Me too Brian.

My hearing problems have totally ruined my life. I'm wealthy, healthy, middle aged and I have never had any life changing issues until I got slapped in the ear causing moderate tinnitus with mild/moderate hearing loss.

The tinnitus bothered me sooo much that I couldn't get over it. So I kept searching for answers. So then I had an ear surgery cuz some Top Doctor (at a top Hospital Mass Eye & Ear) said I should do a middle ear exploration. But since then it has only gotten much worse. The middle ear surgery fucked my ear up even worse after messing with my ossicular chain. Don't mess with your ossicular chain unless you have no other options, I speak from experience.

I'm having another middle ear surgery (probably a prosthetic) in my right ear on 8-5-2022, the doctors (different hospital) think I have ossicular chain discontinuity. I have HUGE conductive losses on my audiogram (right ear) -40 dB almost across the board.

My left ear has declined since I had crazy pulsatile tinnitus in November 2021. After having crazy pulsatile tinnitus for 4 days straight, I ended up in the hospital for several days due to hypertension and sleep deprivation for 3 days. My blood pressure was 200 over 130 when I was admitted myself into the hospital. I now have mild to moderate hearing losses in my left ear also with terrible tinnitus in my left ear. That's the ear I just had treated (left) not my worse ear which is my right ear.

So make sure you are willing to take a huge risk if they open up your ear for a middle ear surgery and mess with your ossicular chain.

 

Thanks for the advice Scott. That sounds pretty horrible what you’re going through. I’ve done a few of those no sleep marathons when my tinnitus was going nuts. There’s no sleeping sometimes when the tinnitus is that crazy. I usually can sleep but when the beeping is crazy loud, it’s insanely difficult. Oh I remember reading your girlfriend slapped your ear. That’s crazy how it messed you up that bad. I had bad pulsatile tinnitus for a while; it was annoying too.

Yeah, I got tinnitus and mild hyperacusis at 18. It really changed my life. I had to give up a lot to control it. Now this severe noxacusis I can’t do anything for. Wish I could take pain meds; everything makes the pain worse of course lol. I don’t think my noxacusis is normal. It’s really, really nasty, makes me yack a lot or I have to walk at night for like 5 hours to be able to sleep. Giving up working out was the hardest thing I had to do for sure, since I got some other issues going on like a fistula or CSF leak, which makes my ears worse too. Being homebound sucks man. I never believed noxacusis could get this bad. It’s crazy. I’m still a kid. I’m 23 and my life is ruined. Didn’t get to experience much at all.

It’s always false hope for this hearing stuff, I think this decade will be it though. I hope these drugs come out and we can get a little normalcy back. I can live with pretty bad tinnitus, still would drive me nuts. But combined with all the other stuff it’s game over. If I can do stuff with earplugs in, I’ll be happy. I don’t need to be cured. I’m pretty sure you feel the same. Just need some improvement and not stupid TRT being posted as a treatment all over the internet lol.

 

Yeah it's definitely been a horrible, horrible roller coaster ride.

Before, when I just had tinnitus in my right ear, it was manageable (background noise/fans always around me etc). I only had moderate hearing loss then.

Now, I have way more hearing loss in both ears and bilateral reactive tinnitus.

Currently I'm also not working out until after I'm cleared from upcoming my surgery on 8-5. Being out of the gym/CrossFit really sucks, it's been such a huge part of my life for the last 20-25 years.

I know life will get better, I just don't know when that will be... It's not right now for sure.

 

Did you kick that guy's (who slapped you in the ear) ass and break his teeth in and slap both his ears?

 

It was an ex-girlfriend, complete accident. Happened while we were in the bedroom actually. Big rough sex night mistake. Screwed my life up...

 

I did PRP injections yesterday. No Lidocaine involved. Injected me a buncha times, supposedly into my AA joint although he didn't use any imaging machine to guide needle placement. So not sure about the depth of injection there. He hit me up & down neck, top bottom left & right occipital area & TMJ joint.

I was told by my mom they did use something to see where the needle went. No relief for tinnitus and hyperacusis.

 

Have you had any relief now since the PRP injections? Thinking about getting this done soon myself.

 

Nothing so far.

 

It seems that it can take up to 6-9 months to see good effects.

Especially anything to do with nerves healing takes a very long time.

Some people have said they got some results in a few days though but the biggest results I've read have taken months.

 

I was looking into Regenexx and they have some advanced type of PRP treatment. In talks with them currently, I will update, but here's a snip of what they do:

The Regenexx Super Concentrated Platelet (SCP) Procedure and Platelet Lysate (PL) uses growth factors from your blood to promote repair of damaged tissue.

https://regenexx.com/our-approach/procedure-experience/

 

I hope you're doing as well as you can be buddy!

What was the name of the clinic you got PRP done at? Seems like a lot of people actually do it.

 

The UK branch would not treat my ear issues. They treat mostly things with joints. I didn't contact the US branch.

 

@scotty03874, is it the SunaVae treatment you received? This one?

https://www.advancedrejuvenation.us/other-services/tinnitus-hearing-loss-treatment/

Did you use the laser too? Are you using a laser at home now after the treatment?