Silence After 4.5 Months

I've been a lurker here four about four months. My tinnitus started randomly when I woke up one morning and there was a high pitched noise coming from somewhere. At first, I thought it was something in the house, like an alarm in the distance or something from the neighbor's house. Took me about two days to realize that the sound was coming from my right ear, because every time I covered it, I could hear it louder. Interestingly enough, I went through some job stress that week, especially the night before it all started. It seemed like it was becoming louder and louder, and it kept me from getting a good night's sleep. I used my FM radio and set it to a random channel where it would just play white noise. I used this for about three months to help with sleeping.

I went to my general doctor, and he said it was probably just allergies, and I should try Fluticasone. After trying that for a week and using my neti-pot religiously, nothing changed. I made an appointment with an ENT doctor and audiologist, who I couldn't see for almost a month later. Before my appointment with the ENT, I had an audiologist check my hearing. Turns out I do have some mild hearing loss in the upper frequencies. As someone who is a professional musician, I was not shocked to hear this, but at the same time, I was incredibly sad. After seeing my hearing loss, the ENT prescribed me prednisone. The first day I had it, I felt terrible and was sweating and felt so odd. I had it for three more days until I just stopped because it didn't seem like it was working. After the steroids didn't work at all, I did a ton of research on the causes of tinnitus. Although I had some mild hearing loss, I didn't have an acoustic trauma experience that would have caused my tinnitus. After research, I discovered that hypothyroidism is linked to tinnitus. I asked my doctor to do a full thyroid panel, and the results revealed that my thyroid levels were a bit higher than normal (low thyroid). My doctor then prescribed me some natural pig desiccated thyroid hormone on the lowest available dose.

I started the new year by taking my thyroid hormones. Almost two days into taking the medication, my tinnitus began to fade in volume. Although it wasn't completely gone, I was thankful that it was a little quieter than usual. Since that time, my tinnitus changed from to being a little bit louder on days where I felt tired, and back to 'quiet ringing' on random days. I wouldn't notice it so much in every day life. Only when I am in my car alone and the engine is off, and when I am in my room sleeping.

During the first month I had tinnitus, I also got custom fitted musician's earplugs and use them when practicing, since my instrument is very loud.

My tinnitus would change almost every couple weeks since that first onset. It went from quiet ringing to medium loud ringing, somatic tinnitus, just some beeping (pulsatile?), then a quiet ring when I was in quiet rooms. The quiet ringing didn't happen until I took my thyroid hormones. The pitch of my tinnitus never changed throughout the entire four months. It was literally an 'F' (A=440). I was sometimes thinking 'F...' when I heard my tinnitus. Bad joke. Anyway, I tried to stay away from loud places, used earplugs whenever possible and listened to light music to mask my tinnitus.

The four months were so difficult because of how mentally exhausted and depressed I was. I read a lot of success stories, tried to find the cause, was googling about tinnitus all the time, but I just became more and more sad about it because the ringing just never stopped. As a Christian, I would sometimes question why God would do this to me. It turns out that, quite simply, ringing is a signal to the body that something is wrong, and in my case, it was my thyroid. I'm thankful for God's grace and His faithfulness to me, despite me losing hope.

I can't hear the ringing anymore, but if I try really hard to find it, I probably could, since that 'F' has been ringing for four months in this musician's head. When I cover my ear right now, I do not hear anything - just silence. I'm trying my best not to think about my tinnitus pitch, so my brain understands that it is over and moves on. I hope my story can help someone find the cause of their tinnitus or just know that people can recover. There is a chance that your tinnitus can improve even after the '3 month mark.' It took me 4.5 months (almost 5 months). I pray and hope that your tinnitus will improve and that you will experience quiet and peace soon.

 

Wonderful news! So happy for you.

 

Starting my 6th month here. No idea what caused it but still holding out hope it just disappears. I shouldn't HAVE to deal with it and get used to it. It should just leave me alone! lol I'm as healthy as I've ever been so it's stupid to even have this happening.

 

How do you know you have high frequency hearing loss? Like what don't you hear or is there a way you hear things? Because I too am aa musician and am currently experiencing tinnitus and have odd symptoms coming from my left ear but have tinnitus in both.

 

Thanks for posting this. I had standard annual blood work done recently but I don't know if they test for thyroid function on those or not or it's just the standard blood sugar and cholesterol stuff. My mom has been on thyroid meds since I was a kid, I'm wondering if it might be the cause, or part of the cause, for my T. It just started one day when I got out of the shower. No loud noise, no explanation. I got tested and also have mild high frequency hearing loss, but it's still in the normal range, I guess what they mean by that is on the low end of the normal scale. Probably the result of lots of scuba diving and many ear infections, and who can't crank up Metallica now and then?

Anyway, thanks. I guess I have something to do tomorrow.