Silent Days Still Give Me Hope... Is It False Hope?

[Gabrielle]

Dear Dr. Nagler,

I've been reading your bio and areas of expertise and it kept me calm for a while, Thank you for that.

I am a newbie on this forum, since yesterday. I have tinnitus 5 months now. Very loud iiiieeeeee and sssssshhhhhh. It's tinnitus without a cause. Started just on a saturday May 3th, sitting on the cauch.

Well, my ENT says there is no cause for sure, but maybe it is caused by cleaning ear in March. The earwax was very difficult to remove and it took a long time, so there was big big lots of water in my ear. And maybe my hair cells are damaged.

Do you think tinnitus can start two months after the ear-cleaning? Tinnitus starts on May 3th.
Cleaning ear happend on March 5th.

I've done hearing test and other test (BAEP) but my ENT says everything is OK with hearing for a woman of your age (49). Just a very little dip on the right ear.

My ENT says maybe your tinnitus will go away in the future, because you have silence days every week.
But he also said that I better can give up hope, because the change it will stop is always small when you have tinnitus.

Dear doctor, what do you think? Is there hope for me that T will go? Because of those silence days... One day in a week it's complete SILENCE. Every morning it's there, but for 5 months now, there has been always one (sometimes two) days a week, the sounds are not there. I kept a journal but there is no pattern. The silence day can be on monday, fryday, sunday, etc....

Ofcourse I am so happy to have silence days sometimes... but it is also difficult because I will never habituated on the sound... because my hope will keep my alive and when the sound is back after a silence day... it's difficult...

With respect and most kind regards,
Gabrielle from Holland

 

[Dr. Nagler]

Hi @Gabrielle -

Thank you for your questions. I am sorry you are having a difficult time.

I think it highly unlikely that your tinnitus is due to ear cleaning that occurred two months prior to its onset.

And, of course, there is hope for you. In many cases tinnitus just fades away on its own. I'm not a big fan of daily journals, though. It's really hard to find a predictable pattern, because by its nature tinnitus is rather unpredictable.

All the best -

Dr. Stephen Nagler