Pretty Sure I Did This to Myself...

So this is my story..

This past Friday (11MAR) was a quiet day at work; I had a major headache in the morning but pushed through it with some ibuprofen and a lot of water. Around 1pm, my boss said I could leave, so I did.

Why is that relevant? Not really sure, but it's become part of my reliving the 'day'.

Hubby and I went out to do some shopping as normal, came home and cat was being extra annoying for some reason. I had downloaded a tone generator app a while back (just for kicks) and decided that today I'd use it to annoy the cat.

I pushed up the little slider until I couldn't hear the tone anymore - cat ran into the other room and shut up. I slid the tone down a little bit just to 'test' the upper limit of my hearing. Satisfied that it was normal, I closed the app.

It was then that I noticed the noise hadn't gone away. It still sounded like the app was on and was emitting the highest frequency I could hear. So I turned off my phone. Could still hear the sound.

It wasn't loud enough to overcome the TV..in fact, the sound itself was drowned out by any other noise - even the whirring of the fridge made it go away.

I thought it was just an overreacting to the tone generator and my ears would go back to normal in a few hours.

So far, I've been wrong.

I've read up on tinnitus - my mother-in-law has it bad (sometimes she cannot hear you when you're sitting right next to her and you call her name) and it has always freaked me out.

And now..I haven't slept more than 5 hours in 2 days. I have sleep apnea as well (under control with a cpap)..and it's very frustrating because I was always a light sleeper to begin with.

We've had a fan going at night for years - my husband needs that white noise to sleep. I've tried concentrating on that to drown out this high pitched sound - and it works for a bit, but as soon as I relax an start to fall asleep - it comes right back. I also tried 'white noise' sounds - and it also works for a bit.

I'm so scared right now - I had a massive cry in the shower and have just been sitting here, pretty much dazed. I've made an appointment request with my doctor, but I have a feeling it's not going to be anything different than what I know - I screwed up my ears and it's more than likely permanent now.

I hold out a small glimmer of hope that it will go away..maybe some of you kind folk can reassure me?

Goodbye silence.

 

Welcome to the forum. Don't panic and don't despair. Your T is very new. It may go away or fade over time. Don't rule that out. Stress and anxiety can aggravate T. So do your very best to stay calm and positive. T is annoying but not life threatening. Your mother-in-law is a good example of that. It may take some time to get used to the sensation if it stays. But it is doable and livable.

Saying that, since your tinnitus is so new and may be related to acoustic trauma, you may want to get your doctor/ENT to prescribe a course of prednisone or other corticosteroids. Members here often recommend new T patients to get this treatment as soon as possible. Here is a discussion thread on this treatment:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads...dexamethasone-others-oral-and-injections.348/

If you find white noise helpful, perhaps you can try out these masking suggestions also so yo don't get bored with only 1 type of masking sounds. Take good care & God bless.

TT’s own excellent masking sounds:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

If you need more masking sounds, here is free ‘aire freshener’:
http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

You can mix your own rain sounds with this rain generator:
http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

Search youtube with ‘masking sounds’ and you will also get lots of different nature sounds, such as rain, waves, waterfalls, running brooks, insect sounds, even shower & faucet etc.

 

Thank you @billie48, I know this was for him but you really gave me some peace of mind right now. Thanks again
Ricardo

 

Thanks @billie48. I appreciate the advice.

I actually cried two more times today, getting snot all over my husband's shirt.

I'm hoping to get in to see my doctor tomorrow and see what the next course of action is going to be.

One other thing that could be promising is that I've noticed my nose is also congested so that could be clogging my ears too.

 

Dominick, very sorry to hear about your T. So frustrating. It sounds like maybe you already had some vulnerability and then the noise generator triggered something. So weird. Anything can happen, it's how we get through it and manage it. My T is relatively new. I had a really bad day and my T is worse from someone yelling. There is not a lot of noise sensitivity in our world - people are loud.

If you got the sound from a noise generator, I would probably avoid tones and sounds from a computer audioplayer that Billie is recommending (sorry, Billie).

 

I cried on my husband's chest 3x yesterday..and I felt a little better. Then I noticed that my head was all congested, so I got hopeful that the noise in my head was from just a stuffed head. So I took a mucinex and a sleeping pill..and headed off to bed. I put on some white noise to try & mask the sound and it helped for a bit.

Woke up in the middle of night, drenched in sweat and pulled off my cpap mask and earbuds. NO SOUND! I was elated.

So I went back to sleep, blissfully unaware that today would be a new day..and the sound would return.

I'm going to the doctor tonight, but I'm not feeling very hopeful. I'm probably going to ask for Xanax or sleeping pills or something just so I can sleep. I can almost deal with the sound during the waking hours by masking or concentrating on something else - but in the still of the night, I want to just stick hot pokers in my ears (which I know won't really help, but it feels that it should!)

I know it gets better..but I'm so very afraid right now. My mother in law (as mentioned previously)..she doesn't deal with her T very well. She hardly sleeps and is always depressed. I don't want to live my life that way. Perhaps she's a bad example.

Maybe I'll also ask for recommendations for a CBT/psychiatrist etc too.

 

Just got back from audiologist - as I suspected, no hearing loss. Both she and my doctor doubt that the tone generator app caused the T - it wasn't loud sound, just high pitched.

My PCP gave me trazodone to help me sleep..then I looked and saw it can be ototoxic in some cases so he gave me Valium but I had already picked up the trazodone and would have had to wait for at least another hour to get the Valium..and my poor hubby was already exhausted. I took the trazodone and it didn't help me sleep at all - so I'm hoping prince Valium will help me tonight.

Perhaps all I need is a good night sleep to relax and calm down.

 

Hey. just some words of encouragement.
It's a very complicated condition, but it doesnt come from nowhere.
Perhaps, look at all possible causes and start working on remedies for those?
I have T in both ears but next to no hearing loss.
It came on during stress and was exacerbated by a neck injury, I was then much more sensitive to sounds.
My left ear isnt sensitive to sounds and only started making noise during stress three months ago.
the right is sensitive to sound.
odd right.
try things....
relaxation, massage, exercise, vitamins

good luck!