Silence After 2 Months of Tinnitus

Hello,

I said I would post a success story when I was recovered. My tinnitus came out of nowhere 2 months ago at the end of August. Just to add a backstory - I was working for a large finance firm. I had finished my contract so I went travelling around America for 5 weeks. I didn't take much of a break between these two and was constantly on the road for 5 weeks. The night before I left for my trip my sister screamed near my ear when we were at a football match and I heard a pop in my ear and it was ringing for about 30 minutes. It wasn't at a high pitch or anything it was normal level so I didn't take any heed of it and went on my trip. I was in nightclubs etc over this trip.

When I got to New York I had a minor allergic reaction to Chinese food. I had to go to the doctor and was very anxious over it all as I was so far from home. I had a panic attack but it could of been due to lack of sleep, exhaustion and stress of going to hospital in America. I am not sure if this is related to my tinnitus but thought I would add it in. Also, I had gotten new BOSE earphones that played music at a crazy loud level. Due to all my travelling I was listening to music a lot and even remember my ears being very sore after second use of them and slightly were ringing. I stopped wearing them as they were actually leaving me in pain. (totally my own fault for blaring music!)

A week after I came home, I made a phone call and had to take the phone away from my ear as it really hurt my ear/ gave a minor shock. About 10 minutes after the phone call I had a weird ringing in my ears. It was like static noise. I wasn't too alarmed at this rate but it continued for the next few days and got worse. My left ear was like a whooshing noise and my right ear was like a Morse code chirping sound. The first few nights were hell it woke me up out of my sleep most nights. I was googling my symptoms and was thinking the worse. I didn't want to get used to masking it so I just tried to sleep the best I could over the next week.

My tinnitus noise started at static but soon developed into a sharp piercing noise. After about 10 days it changed into hissing noise and morse code chirping in my right ear. After a month, the hissing in my left ear was only noticeable in a quiet room but the morse code remained.

My uncle works in the hospital so he was able to get me an appointment with an ENT after 10 days. He wasn't very forgiving and told me he was 90 % certain it would pass as I was only 23. He told me to continue living my life and to put cotton wool in my ears if I was going out. He suggested I have an MRI as I had previously been suffering from vertigo over the last 3 years and he thought it might be Meniere's disease.

After researching on the internet I was taking Vitamin B12, Zinc, magnesium, Ginkgo Biloba, liu wei di huang wan (suggested by Chinese acupuncturist) and calcium. I found the Ginkgo and liu wei di huang wan the best and they definitely helped lowering the volume.

After about a month the tinnitus dropped from a 6-7/10 to a 3/10. I was so protective over my ears, I wear Ear Dial earplugs if I am going out to a pub and wear normal foam earplugs if needed in daily life. I have stopped going to nightclubs/live music performances and refused to work for my friend in his pub. I don't want to let it ruin my social life completely and just use Ear Dial earplugs to late bars - I never stand near the speakers and always go for a break outside every 30/40 minutes or so.

As I am writing this I can barely hear anything only if I look for it. I can safely say it is at a 2/10 and hopefully will drop completely. I do miss going to spin classes but I feel they are way too loud at the moment. A point to add is that smoking/drinking alcohol/caffeine do temporarily raise the noise. I don't use these things as much as I did previous but sometimes cant live without a glass of wine or a coffee!

I am not too sure what actually caused the tinnitus. A major thing worth noting for me is I actually used to work in a live music venue for 6 months - a list performers were there weekly. I still cant even comprehend how much damage this must of done to my ears. Even though I never experienced ringing after any concert damage was probably done. (I wore foam earplugs at every gig or nearly every one) I credit my tinnitus to the loud headphones and stress on my body from travelling.

Just to anyone who is new to tinnitus please note that most of the time it won't remain at the loud level. Your body is always trying to repair itself and will wake up some morning and it was have dropped a tone or two. Always wear earplugs in the first few weeks after if you know you are going to be subject to loud noise. I cant say I will ever go to a concert again and will definitely not be in any nightclubs for at least another 6 months. Ginkgo, magnesium and liu wei di huang wan lowered the noise levels for me.

I wish you all the best and hope anyone reading this will hear silence very soon.

 

Enjoy the improvement!

I think the loud avenue was the culprit. Maybe some damage is done, even if yor T lessened in volume. Based on my experience I highly recommend you avoid loud noise for the rest of your life (not 6 months). We have a limited number of second chances. My T came back and super worse after 2.5 years of nearly silence.

Take care.

 

So you still have it, it's just quieter?

 

You might consider using commercial earplugs instead of cotton wool. You might also consider Not going anywhere where live music is being played. This forum is full of stories of people whose T was over who got exposed to more noise and proceeded to develop T that didn't go away that second time around.

Make that "years" (decades?) instead of "weeks". Also, if you know you will be subjected to a loud noise at some place, do what you can to avoid that place.

 

Hi,

Yes I still have it but all it is very low white noise in my left ear but I'm not sure this is tinnitus it could just be normal hearing but I'm hyper aware of every noise.

Yes thank you for the advice I plan on avoiding loud music venues at all costs. The only places I still go to are late bars and I don't find them too loud when I have eardial earplugs in.

Thanks for the replies I hope ye recover soon too.

 

Hi @Rachel W,

Thanks for sharing your success story--and congratulations on your improvements!. It appears to me a number of factors you mentioned all likely contributed to your tinnitus onset. I very much appreciate the amount of attention you're putting on protecting your ears at this time. I must say however, 6 months strikes me as being too short a period of time to stay out of nightclubs.

Even though you would likely use ear protection, there's a lot of evidence that intense vibrations can be quite detrimental to ears as well, especially those in recovery mode. I'd probably extend that 6 months to a couple years or so. Also, given the trauma your ears have been through, you'll likely have to be very careful with them for the rest of your life. Not so difficult if one uses some basic, commonsense protections. -- All the Best!

 

no amount of time is long enough to stay out of night clubs once you experience a period of prolonged Tinnitus. You can never subject yourself to more than a minute or two of loud especially live music ever again. Earplugs yes maybe you will survive for a while but its asking for trouble. Just accept that loud is now your personal disability and carry on with life away from it.

 

Well put @john paul...

 

Hi,

Yes ithink ye are right I went to a nightclub last night and woke up and had static noise in both ears. Luckily it only lasted an hour and has gone now.

Just for reference - I was In a nightclub with eardial for 2 hours last night but it was too loud so I spent most of my night in pub joined to it. To think that maybe 5 minutes - 10 minutes with earplugs total in this loud environment could lead to that static noise this morning has giving me a huge wake up call!

Do ye guys think taking NAC with help recover quicker? I have some but haven't taken yet.

 

So true. Why dont doctors know this?
It is sad how my life would have changed if I had entered this forum before going to that concert. I only searched opinions about earplugs on youtube.