PLEASE HELP! Tinnitus from Perforated Ear Drum

Please someone help me

I'm 24 years old. Mother of 3 week old an 2 year old.
Well my first night out in over a year to a concert 9 days ago.

Had full ringing in my ears. Last night I went to bed and woke up for a bottle feed in pure panick. Full blown panick attack and I thought I need to speak to someone.


I went to the walk in centre today.
Crying my eyes out. I was told I had perforated my ear drum, that there was a hole in it. And I had to wait 6-8 weeks for it to heal. I asked if all this ringing would subside and he said "it should do yes' then the dreaded "I can't promise but it should" and I left feeling a little calmer. But as my day has gone on my anxiety is through the roof

HAS ANYONE! Had a perforated eardrum which led to this tinnitus. And does it heal? Have I got hope? Does the ringing go as soon as the whole is fixed!
I'm driving myself utterly insane and I can't get my head around it! Please anyone

 

Hi amymilly,
You ear will heal up in a few weeks and might take extra time for the Tinnitus to calm down.
See your doctor to get your ear checked in a few weeks to confirm that the perforation has gone.

We are here around the clock to support you and help you get through any stress and anxiety and tears that tinnitus can cause.
I can remember crying when first saw
audiology many years ago....lots of love glynis

 

@amymilly. Hi . I havent had a perforated ear drum . But my son has and he had tinnitus with it as well. It took six weeks to heal properly and his tinnitus went to. So there is a a very good chance yours will to. Hope you get better soon.

 

Thank you for your bit of hope x @Richard zurowski
And @glynis i hope it goes away or isn't so squeeling. I'm not coping at all x

 

@Richard zurowski sorry to bother you. Your just the only person really to have a similar situation

Was your sons tinnitus keeping him awake all night ? I'm litterally a panicky mess. I'm trying not to focus on it. But I feel it's slowly driving me insane.
Did he have tinnitus untill his ear healed up? Mines been 10 days now. X

 

@amymilly. Sorry to here you are not coping very well with your condition. The answer to your question is that he had all the symptoms that you are experiencing now . It was four years ago when this all started. He could not sleep his anxiety was bad, he got severe depression, he had a job but could not work as he couldn't function , his doctor put him on anti depressants and told him it would take several weeks to heal well it took six weeks and his tinnitus went away shortly after that. His perforated ear drum was caused by a blow to his ear in a boxing match. Even to this day he has not had any recurring symptoms. hope this comment gives you some kind of comfort and that you make a full recovery . I wish you well.

 

Thanks so much I really hope it goes I think I may speak to my gp tomorrow about my anxiety because I'm a mess. Honestly trying to stay strong but this is so hard isn't it. @Richard zurowski

 

I perforated my eardrum (because of an ear infection) in my early 20s as well. Didn't lead to tinnitus, but a decade and another ear infection later, now I have tinnitus. So I can't speak to tinnitus caused by a perforated eardrum specifically, but I'll just add... when I perforated my eardrum, it took months to heal. I was told that wasn't "normal," they usually heal quicker than that. But it still healed. ::shrug:: Bodies are all different, and they take their time. That is to say, hopefully, yours will heal in 6-8 weeks. But if it ends up taking a little longer than that, don't worry. It will heal. It's also true that the ringing might take a little longer to go away than the hole, time for your brain to catch up with your body.

In the mean time, do everything you can to take care of yourself physically and emotionally. There are a lot of threads on here with advice on how to do that, on how to help yourself fall asleep, etc., and lots of nice and knowledgeable people around.

 

Hi this is my second post to see if anyone will see this again.

I went to a concert 12 days ago now. Went to the Drs a week later as I wasn't sleeping and had this constant ringing in my ears. He confirmed I have a perforated ear drum. And that it takes 8 weeks to heal and that I need to make an appointment to come back once that time was over.
I wonder if anyone's tinnitus was caused by this and if it goes away once the perforated ear has healed.

I'm slowly losing my mind as I'm aware am everyone on this site understands how I feel. And I can not stop crying and no one seems to understand where I'm coming from so in looking for some advice/ support as I hate to admit it but I'm struggling.

Thanks a lot.
X

 

@amymilly, does your Dr. have you on a course of Prednisone? Do you use Macks silicone ear plugs when taking a shower? https://www.amazon.com/Macks-Pillow-Soft-Silicone-Plugs/dp/B000067NMJ/

 

Hey @amymilly, the first thing I would say is that Tinnitus is a viscous cycle. The more you get stressed about it the worse the noise becomes, which leads to more stress, and the cycle repeats itself. So the priority for you right now is to calm your mind and not assume the present situation is permanent- I suggest you do some meditation and the panic/anxiety will subside. When a person first experiences tinnitus it can be terrifying but you need to try and take control of your own mind.

Your Tinnitus may or may not go away, but that is not a cue to start panicking. If your eardrum has been perforated then the ear will not be sending the right signals to your brain, that what's causing the tinnitus. You need to wait until the ear heals and then you will know if it's going to go away or not. If it stays then it means you've damaged some hair cells, but you won't know that until you've healed properly.

My advice:

You need to heal as quickly and efficently as possible. So for the next two months will want to live the most healthy lifestyle you possibly can. So you needs to eat right, drink plenty of water, do low-impact exercise (walking), keep stress to a minimum (of course the most difficult part) and sleep well. For sleeping you will want to download an app on your phone that plays the sound of rain for you to go to sleep to, it will help reduce the noise of the tinnitus.

Vitamins and supplements: For ears B12, B6, Magnesium, NAC (very important).

Above all, DO NOT expose yourself to noise above 80db , basically if you have to raise your voice to speak to the person next to you you're environement is too loud, if you have to be there though use earplugs for the time being. If you're kids are ever really loud next to your ear you should put earplugs in as you are more vulnerable right now. And you should not use headphones under any circumstance.

Medication: Do research on ototoxic medicine and youll know what to avoid.

I would also like to add that this forum represents 1% of the tinnitus population all the people on her tend to have it the worst, so don't read the posts on this forum assuming that other peoples situation will apply to you, i did that in the start and it really freaked me out. I think you're going to be fine Amy! Just try and not think about it in a catastrophic way.

And I know what you mean by people don't really understand if they dont have it esp younger people as more older people tend to have it. I'm only 19 so its kinda annoying but alot of people of the youn people on this forum will be happy to talk whenever you want

Good luck

 

@just1morething i don't know what prednisone is or what it's for? And no I'm using cotton wool and washing my hair very carefully to make sure it doesn't get wet x

 

It's a anti-inflammatory. Maybe a antibiotic too? See a ENT right away if you can or call their nurse. Take every precaution to avoid long term tinnitus. Cotton wool may be okay to keep water out of your ear. I was told to use MACK's silicone plugs by a ENT when I had ear injections.

 

@Kane Moffat thank you so much for writing such a long post to keep my mind active for a few minutes.
Yeah it is a vicious circle. I find when I get all worked up and I'm crying or should I say (sobbing) my ears get louder and a new noise appears more of a buzzing than a high pitch noise of what I usually hear then it calms down again. It's vile and the fact I have an ear ache and a bit of the flu coming to making me feel even more crappy. I feel shit that Iv came to a website for support as people around me don't understand. And do these supplements work? Iv read that they don't. I read all different things lol.

And I'm trying not to think this is perminant then I'm like why kid myself there's not many people that get it and it dissapears that's why I think I'm having panic attacks. I go to bed thinking it will dissapear like s headache and wake up in utter state. I'm amazed how calm some of you guys are on here. And I should be taking care of myself but i only seem to manage a meal a day as I'm worrying too much x

 

@just1morething no the dr just said it isn't infected so I don't need any antibiotics. And they will refer me to see a specialist if it doesn't heal. And pretty much left me to it. Said the ringing would go once my ear healed and not to worry.

 

Okay, but maybe call a ENT nurse for a 2nd opinion of your situation. Some primary care Dr.'s don't always give the best advice.

 

@just1morething I called someone and they said I have to be refered to see someone? Else it would cost a fortune. And England has nhs free. I don't know where your from sorry X

 

Okay, I'm from the US. But still a phone call to a ENT nurse would be wise to see if they're in a agreement with your primary care Dr.-- Better safe than sorry. Good Luck!

 

@amymilly, happy to help

So the vitamins aren't really for reducing the tinnitus but they are really important for having healthy ears . So during the healing process it's important. The b12 and b6 are imporant vitamins, the magnesium also helpful and the NAC will protect your ears from something called 'oxaditive stress', basically protects you from loud noise when you're vulnerable. You can pick them all up at holland and barrett.

Yeah it sounds like you might have read alot about it and stressed yourself out abit. That's exactly what i did, you trawl the web looking for information because the doctors can't give you any, and then you end up even more stressed. So although it's really tough i would say that you should stop reading/ searching on the net if you can. It's incredible how loud you can make your tinnitus by paying attention to it. Like i can iterally go from a 4/10 in loudness to a 8/10 if im stressed about it.

The reason that happens is because right now you're brain is hearing the noise of the tinnitus as a threat, so just like 10,000 years ago the sound of a predator nearby would send a person into alert and stress them out. This is a survival mechanism and it helps if a predator does want to eat you as you are alert and ready to fight or flight. Unfortuantly, if you see your tinnitus as a threat just like a predator it becomes louder becasue the brain 'tags' the noise and then turns its volume up so that you are fully aware of the threat. You're tinnitus won't kill you but right now that's what your brain thinks. The signal in your head is literally increasing because you're scared of the noise. And as soon as you untag that noise the signal in your brain reduces.

Right now, its totally understandable to see it as a threat as you are scared and stressed out. But thats how you can calm down, meditation will really help here. I meditate in the shower lol because i cant hear my tinnitus there.

Also, you should try and just fill your house/room with ambient noise- don't sit in silence you'll just get wound up.

And just get reallly really busy dont giver yourself time too think about it

 

Hi can I ask how you're doing? I see these posts were form over a month ago.

I'm going through something similar. Perforated ear drum with ringing which I'm finding really hard to mask thank you.

 

I'm experiencing the same. did it go away?

 

Hi Amymilly did your tinnitus go away after the perforation is closed? I am curious to know as I have a similar situation.

 

Hi there i have the same situation, please let me know if your tinnitus went away after the eardrum healed??

 

Hope your feeling better, has your ear healed? Did the tinnitus go away? Only asking because apparently I’ve still got an perforated ear drum for nearly 3 months (Doctor was unsure if it healed and then got damaged again)

 

I'm curious is there anyone here who had a perforated ear drum (without hearing loss), it healed and their tinnitus did not go away?

From what I read it seems to take 3 months to resolve.

I wish you the best recovery @amymilly

 

Hi. I had a perforated ear drum on dec 15th, and have had tinnitus since then. I had two recurring sinus infections, but i am still waiting on the ringing to disappear. Any updates from anyone with a perforated ear drum and tinnitus resolved itself?