Possible "Neck Issue" Tinnitus

Hi everyone,

I am new to this site. I decided to join after reading alot of posts. I have literaly have been scared out of my mind to the point of wondering if I can cope with this or end up with an ice pick in both of my ears Don`t worry it is just frustration and fear talking. This is how my T started:

I work out at the gym on my lunch hour at least 3 to 4 times a week. So i do use alot of the muscles in my neck and shoulder area alot. Well, one day i was helping my mother-in-law move light, heavy and medium boxes then i want to say a few days later i was layingin my bed with my pillows propped up because i also have a hiatal hernia and acid reflux.

I fell asleepfor "I don`t know how long. I fell asleep with my head/chin bent down to my chest. When i woke up, all of a sudden my ears felt weird. (from here on out i wont use caps and contractions because it takes too long), sorry guys. They felt likeb a deafening and muffled feeling then my heart started pounding. i chalked it off to a sleep panic attack. the next day my terrifying T started. i kept thinking it would go away soon but 2 months later its still here. i went to a cardiologist. he did an ultrasound of the heart and everything was a ok.

next dr. was my pain mgmt dr. i asked him if there is a connection to the neck and tinnitus and he was too quick to say NO. First off i REFUSE to believe that.

thirdly, i went to my neurologist,mind you i am crying heavily in each of these dr.s offices. my neurologist said that YES there is a connetion between the neck and tinnitus. he sent me for a c-spine and x rayof my tmj bones. the tmj joint is where everything is supposed to be. the neck showed degenerative disc disease and arthritis. he then sent me for an an mri to be sure before sending me to physical therapy. tbe mri came back

 

normal. (sorry i am having to reply to my own thread because i am typing on a tablet and for some reason it would not let me finishmy post). i was upset with the nurse said my mr showed the same thing as my c spine. i started crying when the nurse said it was of the bones. i started balling because shouldnt an mri show joints and nerves? i didnt get one with the contrast. my problems is with the nerves and joint. thank God he gave me 1 mg xanax. it saved my life. i do not know what to go now. lasr resort, i am going to an upper cervical spine specialist.

i appreciate all comfort advice and your stories and how you are dealing with it. one thing i forgot to mention, i am the 45 year old female in the picture.

 

Well..I'm not going to call you AttackingTinnitus. I like your spirit, but I'll go with AT

The main thing you'll hear any of us say here is that you *can* and you *will* cope with this. It's not an empty reassurance, either. Search out some of the "good news" posts on this forum (and on others) - these are literally life-savers. You'll also notice a connection between stress and anxiety and your T. Working on your anxiety is one of the most productive and rewarding things you can do right now.

My story is spread across a few posts on this forum, I think you can look at my profile to see my posts.

I hope you find lots of comfort here, AT.

All the best to you
DD

 

Hello AT,

My sympathies, I know how you must feel. My tinnitus started a week ago and I know how worrying it is. Do not lose hope though, there is still chance it's temporary and will go away!

Spine problem definitely can be a reason. If you know any good specialist who can help you, I'd say go for it. I know most people would say that habituation is the way to go. I believe you should try to find the cause. Especially that your tinnitus wasn't caused by noise trauma - that means, whatever the cause might be, it is likely treatable.

Best of luck to you!

Fish

 

DD,

Thanks sooo much for your encouragement of stating that "I can and will" cope with this. This is all still new to me and I feel like no one around me understands because they don't have to deal with it. My husband is at his wits end these past 2 months with me. He says I am so negative and dragging him emotionally down. I told him "at least when you walk out the house to go to work or wherever, the problem is gone for you, but try and just imagine having something constantly ringing, humming in your ears and in your head and you CAN"T get away from it. Last night I tried to convince him to read some peoples' stories of how they are dealing with their "T". I told him that this problem will even make a grown man cry.

This is why I finally joined this site, because you all hear know EXACTLY what I am feeling while giving comforting advice. The advice is well taken. I just went to my pain management dr. this morning and convinced him to really listen to me. I told him it's not my ears, my hearing has been checked and I am not around loud anything so I know it's not from the typical "damaged hairs" in the ears that typically causes T. Mine has something to do with nerves being compressed or something.

You see, I also get bad pain in the back of my head to my shoulders and the pain travels from the back of the head all the way to the eye which makes it feel like a sinus attack but it isn't. The dr said I have Occipital Neuralgia.

This Wednesday he is doing injections in my neck as well as a nerve block in the occipital nerve. He said your head will feel numb on that side, so now I am totally frightened about that and also wonder if possibly it will make my T louder. I am thinking if the nerve is numb maybe it will alleviate the T.

Have you ever heard of this treatment before for T?

Thanks for your comforting advice and is greatly appreciated and needed.

 

Hi Fish,

I am so sorry you have to experience this horrendous tyrant called "T". I don't know if you did what I did, but I went to every doctor under the sun. My neurologist is sending me to physical therapy with some sort of Ultrasound heat???? (I don't know what that is) and also have massages and then put my neck in traction or head in traction. I don't even know at this point. My sister said traction will alleviate some pain in your neck.

My neurologist said that there is a connection between the C-Spine and Tinnitus. Also there are Trigeminal Ganglion nerves in the neck. I have been living with ear buds in my ear which I am sick of because I am a 45 year old female and I have never walked around with ear buds in my ears. Now I need it to drown out my T.

I am taking 1 mg Xanax which has 100% calmed me down. Also FYI, I read an article from this neurologist and he said that "if you walk into a room and hear the AC running, you don't think twice about it and you forget about it until someone brings it to your attention, then you'll hear the AC running, otherwise your brain drowns it out.

Well, with T, (in the beginning when people are first diagnosed with it) the brain detects it as a THREAT. When that happens we go into the "flight or fright" syndrome that exacerbates the stress, anxiety and tension, which then make the "T" LOUDER. He said you have to train your brain to know that T is NOT A THREAT and it won't hurt you.

I've been trying that but I still have bad days. Mine or mostly at night when everyone is asleep, that's when I have to turn up the ocean noises.

Good luck to you Fish on coping and hopefully finding a cure for your T. I appreciate your response so quick.

Have a wonderful day!!!!

Julia

 

Hi AT,I'm afraid I haven't heard of that, but I don't think I would have anyway since not had cause to look into it. Glad I was able to help in some small way, and sorry that I can't make this a longer response - at airport checking in for holidays! Look after yourself
DD

 

AT -

My audiologist gave me the following paper to read: http://www.tinnitus.org/home/frame/tin2_download.PDF
Please read this. It describes the habituation process, which may take between 6 months and 2 years.

I take an anti-depressant, Remeron, which is excellent for sleep. I have no side effects from this medication.

 

AT

After reading your post I'm wondering if my condition may be neck related as well. I do remember the night I got my T that my neck was killing me which was directly related to some of the swimming I was doing earlier that day. When I see my ENT I will bring this up.

 

Maybe you will find this interesting that after my T has started, I have done an RTG scan of the upper part of my spine and it has revealed an upper neck lordosis. It is one of the most probable causes of my tinnitus and since I have started doing exercise to reverse this condition, my T has much improved.

I am also taking betahistine and had special ear injections so I am not certain what exactly helps me, maybe it is a combination of all three...? But still I thought I would share.

 

Good to hear that exercise is helping. Are these neck exercises?

 

That is correct! Neck stretching exercises several times a day and massage therapy two times a week. It is meant to improve blood circulation that is supposedly impaired by strained muscles in the neck.

The exercises are like moving head in directions, pressing the chin against your chest, among others.

 

Aloha AT, I know what your going through i had mine for 3 months , i went to bed one night next morning i had the ringing . I too have neck issues and for some reson i think it might be that too, Ive been seeing so many doctors and my husband has been great at times there are those days when i just feel like hell and he dosn't understand what im going through, theres this site i went on where you can show people what tinnitus sound like so i let him hear a sample of what i hear and he couldnt belive it , now he knows what im going through. I pray that God will heal me ,i pray that it's my neck and it can be reversed, my husband has been so great and we are going through this together, i pray that i will go to bed and wake up and its gone, it was nice hearing your story and finding this site makes it easer to complaine about things some people dont understand...

 

I snapped my neck, with pain and limited movement I went to a chiro, the same day I visited the T started. So for me there is no doubt that there is a connection.

 

Upper neck is the hidden culprit in many concussion cases for tinnitus..no doubt

 

Hi Everyone!

I'm a 63 year old man. I've had tinnitus for 30 years. My name is Flint. I was a professional touring rock musician and so naturally I put that as the cause of my tinnitus. Very simply, my ears use to ring for a day after a show and then the ringing would stop. One time in 1984 it just never stopped. I went to all kinds of doctors, acupuncture, everything you can think of etc. No help at all. The good news is that I've had some good stretches lasting weeks and sometimes months, when it went down to manageable levels. It seemed to do that during times when I was exercising,eating right, and most importantly.....relaxed - feeing comfortable on my own skin.

I would like to hear more about neck posture because lately my T is very bad, but my neck is as tense as can be! Sometimes its coming from right side, sometimes left side only, and sometimes both sides. I'm under a huge amount of stress having just bought a house 3000 miles away and moving to the east coast. Marital difficulties, the whole nine yards. Sometimes ginkgo does seem to help. But I remember various times, airplane flights, sleeping in a weird position etc, during the past 30 years when it would get worse due to neck posture.im I'm going to resume yoga, after a long layoff because I think that will help. Please respond.

Thanks, Flint.

 

I suspect a neck-Tinnitus connection as well. My upper back and neck hurt as hell. I am a former rock musician (and aficionado, so, hearing loss there, no doubt) but am also a flute player and noticed that tinnitus can get worse after playing a lot. But also after sleeping funny. I will explore and will post findings here. I am new to this. And of course looking into a lot of things. But the neck-shoulder-nerve connections seems very plausible to me. all the best to you, t

 

Reduce stress, it gets me everytime.
Then T gets louder, and more stress.

My neck and sleeping position also make a difference.
Time for massage.

 

You should read my post that i just put up at
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/i-am-new-here-and-need-to-share-my-info.8366/

I had eye surgery for the same thing along with 2 rounds of shots to the neck and a block as well. Neither fixed my issue but i think it is still my neck.

 

iI also have neck issues. DDD and bulging disc, my neck hurts every day and it hurt before I even got my tinnitus, but I was wondering if opptical neuralgia could have anything to do with tinnitus? or even fibromyalgia? I am going to start on my 5th round of physical therapy for neck issues, they say no pinched nerves. but sometimes I wonder I have went to a nucca about 3 times and quit going because im just not to sure if it was helping. he barley touched me.. and now im getting a splint made by a neuromuscular dentist... the problem is... it seems like all these docs find something wrong .(example: nucca: my atlas was off) neuromuscular dentist.: jaw was misaligned. ect....) what do we do?? just keep shelling out money and still have tinnitus??? ....
I have been told fibro. which is overactive nerves.. makes sence to me to cause ringing, but meds didn't help, and have side effects.. and I was perfectly fine health wise , until I had a 30% triglicoric acid peel on face in 2012 and had nerve blocks in face and inside of jaw. and a week later neck started hurting and eyes watering and then a week later the dreaded tinnitus.... so im still convinced the chemical peel or nerve block shots did something to me...

 

I have read that opptical neuralgia can cause tinnitus, I have a lot of the symptoms.. maybe this could be the cause of some of our tinnitus issues?????

 

i would be more inclined to think arthritis of the cervical spine if they did not detect anything wrong during x-rays

 

Carl, im thinking the nerve blocks caused my tinnitus, because I think I had a reaction to them... I also have ddd but no nerves being pinched , I hurt every day in my neck though....

 

I am not an expert but i have neck pain and tinnitus too. I have been chasing so many other issues too but decided a few weeks ago to focus on whatever is going on in my neck. It has not been easy. I wear a neck brace a few hours a day and only lay on one side now when i sleep. The issue is but keeping a diligent eye on my neck seems to make it hurt in more and different locations. Very frustrating but i still think my issue will be my neck with some sort of issue going on there. I think with your DDD i would really put all my energy into getting neck figured out.

 

i start physical therapy soon , for the 5th time,

 

what type of dr are you seeing that sends you to PT?

 

my regular gp has sent me, and my orthopedic doctor has sent me also.... seen my ortho. 2 weeks ago and he is sending me again... sure hope it helps since its my 5th time!

 

My PT was moving the ultrasound therapy wand on my neck muscles yesterday and my T fluctuated super crazy!!!!!! He relaxed those neck muscles and after one treatment my ears were back to normal and T was GONE! Total silence for 3 days and it has slightly come back. The PT told me my T and H can be because of muscle stiffness and spasms of the neck and after a couple of ultrasound therapy sittings it will reduce a bunch. By the way I got T after slamming my head on a concrete wall so I suspect its upper neck injury and inflammation or muscles of my neck playing a big role in producing T

 

That's great that your ultrasound therapy made your noise go away @Asian. I have never heard of a ultrasound therapy wand but will inquire when I go to physical therapy.

 

This gives me a lot of hope that i am on the right track to getting better from this
Thanks for sharing