Rapidly Fluctuating Tinnitus

Some quick background: got an ear infection 2 months ago, definitely had lots of ringing over the next several weeks, tones of many different pitches. That ringing has, I would say, gone away 100%.

Now, however, I'm left with a really unsteady noise that I will do my best to describe....it will make a little rumbling, crinkling, maybe crackling noise for a few seconds, and then for about 0.1 seconds, it pulses to a much higher volume, enough to jump out noticeably.

You might think "oh that sounds like pulsatile tinnitus", but it's not in tune with my pulse at all. It's completely random.

And the other thing is that there are times of total silence inbetween. At its worst, it does rattle continuously, but the interesting thing is that when it worsens, it just increases in FREQUENCY, not in VOLUME. It still always does its "crinkle crinkle crinkle ZAP! silence...."

Sometimes I'll wake up in the morning and all I will hear is just a single dull click every 5 - 10 seconds, barely noticeable at all. But on average it does the "crinkle crinkle crinkle ZAP! silence...." with regularity.

Based on my research, the closest thing this seems to align with is muscle spasms. But I worry that the ZAP! I hear is like a hair too long to be just a "click". Because "clicks" are always associated with things like stapedial myoclonus or typewriter tinnitus, and I've listened to the audio files and yeah, those are clicks. But literally none of it is locked into any sort of regular noise at all. At least when someone talks about the "static" sound of a TV, you are fully aware that the noise itself is crackling and not a solid tone, but the noise can be continuous. This isn't continuous at all.

Also I'm pretty sure that certain mechanical noises, especially ventilation fans, aggravate it. But I'm not 100% sure on that.

Any thoughts on what this is? Does anyone agree that this is probably muscle spasms? Is irregular, intermittent noise always muscle spasms? When people say "irregular" and "intermittent" on this board, they seem to mean that something only lasts for a few hours. I'm talking something that lasts for just a few seconds.

 

Hmm, alright....

Well let me ask my most important question...does anyone know anything about an ear noise that rapidly fluctuates in volume within the period of a second? It's kind of like a dog barking at times. Erratic pulses of sound (again, no, not in tune with my actual pulse, so likely not pulsatile tinnitus).

That's got to be a muscle spasm, right? If I were to plot a line of my tinnitus volume over any period of time, especially over, like, 5 seconds, it would jump all over the place and never hold steady.

 

I really would like some sort of advice on this.

The solid tone I got when my ear infection started is gone. But maybe 3 - 4 weeks later, I picked up on this other weird rattling noise.

It's very close to a click. But sometimes it lasts as a 1 second sound. Sometimes it's like a gurgle? Maybe?

Some mornings, it's an intense sound of ooOOoOoOOOOOOooOooO. Like it goes up to maybe a 7 / 10 on the loudness scale, but it's NEVER constant, EVER. Other mornings, there's literally nothing there. But usually as I wake up and start to get anxiety about my condition, it kicks in. And once that anxiety starts, it doesn't go away.

It's pretty much always around. But it's so strange that there are these moments inbetween of like 3 or 4 seconds without sound. How can that be hearing damage? How could my ears be fully healed for 3 or 4 seconds and then damaged to the point of creating tinnitus for that 0.1 second?

I just really want to know what the hell this is about. "Fluctuating" tinnitus in a lot of people means it's like 5 / 10 for an hour, and then hours later it's 7 / 10, and then maybe 3 / 10. What I have is like a "tTTTTT ttt TTT. silence for 3 seconds. TTT tt T TTT tt. Silence for 4 seconds. SUSTAINED NOISE FOR 1 SECOND."

When I drink alcohol, it's mostly unchanged, but I've noticed at the times that I've completely forgotten about the ravages of tinnitus and my future, it's pretty much gone.

When I exercise, it maybe decreases a little. Weird, yeah? Since both alcohol consumption and exercise usually exacerbate tinnitus?

And the volume, by the way, is usually pretty constant...the only thing that changes is FREQUENCY. As in, when it's bad, it goes into super clicky rattly mode. It's otherwise kind of just a sustained buzz / click thing.

When I sleep, some mornings a constant hiss has set in. Other mornings, complete silence has set in. No real clue what causes either, other than maybe total relaxation when I go to bed, which has, on a few occasions, resulted in symptom-free mornings, until I wake up and think about my condition, which immediately kick-starts my anxiety and enables this condition.

I just don't get what that is? I haven't been able to adjust to it at all, and I don't know how I could. The only seeming relief I have is when I drink, which creates a sustained even tone in my ear and gives me something solid to focus on.

 

My left ear feels like someone stuffed it full of clay, painful and full all the time, all the way to the cochlea, and it screeches at one tone. Is this what NIHL is like? My maximum loss is 10 dB at 4kHz. I can't imagine what profound, war-induced NIHL is like for veterans, then. The ear must feel like it weighs 1000 kg and is full of material as dense as the core of the sun.

I'm in a very similar situation with my right ear, with has 100% intact hearing, with the biggest loss at 16kHz, which is 10dB.

The right ear sounds like this, but lower-pitched, and changing pitch MUCH faster. It turns into a very quiet pure tone when I use the Valsalva maneuver...

https://www.freesound.org/people/nbild/sounds/233569/

 

Hi there,

I've been experiencing the exact same symptoms in the last two months since this all started for me. Did you ever reach conclusion / solution? Has it gotten better / worse / stabilized?

Cheers,
Ignacio

 

@dudewitht Just realized I didn't tag you. Thanks in advance for your response.

 

Wrong dude Ignacio! Haha @Ignacio

 

@dudewitht Apologies!

@dudeguywithstuff Did you resolve your intermittent T?