Six and a Half Weeks Now

Hey guys. I've posted the following on /r/tinnitus on reddit and thought I would paste here and get a second opinion.

So I got my tinnitus 6 1/2 weeks from today. At first I didn't really notice it, I was watching Groundhog Day and it noticed a slight ringing in my left ear. No big deal, I play drums, it'll be gone in the morning. Wrong. (I should mention here that I hadn't played drums or been to a concert in over a months time at this stage)

I've been playing drums for 7 years and I listen to headphones (podcasts mostly) very frequently and I study video and film in Unversity. I'm 19 years old. As a young teenager I would listen to music quite loudly but in recent years I've stopped as I knew about tinnitus and hearing loss and wanted to prevent it. The day before I noticed my tinnitus I listened to something I was editing for Uni too loud for about 5 minutes just to make sure audio levels were correct.

During the week I started noticing it more and more. I got cold/flu like symptoms two days later, runny nose, sore throat, etc. I also developed an itchy ear and some pain in my ear during the week (on and off). I went to the doctor on the following Thursday, she says my eardrum is a little red and I tell her about the itchyness. She prescribes antibiotics and ear drops.

Fast forward 3 weeks later. The tinnitus constantly changes, morse code type sounds in both ears, however not constant. The only constant is a high pitched ringing in my left ear that I can hear pretty much anywhere if I try hard enough. I go to the doctor (a different one in the same clinic) and he says that I have/had something called otitis externa (an infection of the outer ear) and that my tinnitus should pass in a week or two. He prescribed me ear drops. After 2 weeks there not really much change. I've googled a lot about otitis externa and it's been said that tinnitus is a symptom and it should pass within a month or so of the infection.

I started taking actifed, inhaling vicks and antihistamines for my hay fever. It really seemed/seems to be making the ringing a lot better. A lot of the lower pitched tones seemed to be fading away and I was just left with the high pitched ringing in my left ear.

On Wednesday I went back to my doctor. He said my ear infection has gone but that my eardrum is retracted.

However on Wednesday night I developed pulsatile tinnitus. It scared me because this was the first time this had happened. It's happened twice since then.

I went to an audiologist on Thursday to have my hearing tested and she said it's perfectly normal for a 19 year old, so that's something.

I'm just wondering, could this still be caused by hearing damage if there's no hearing loss? As I've previously stated, I've been played drums for years and used to listen to music quite loud. The day before the tinnitus started I listened to something too loud for 5 minutes through headphones.

Or could it just be from my ear infection and that I'm just paranoid? All my symptoms seem to be pointing to the ear infection but I suppose I'm just scared and need an external opinion. What do you guys think?

 

I think we all have some hearing loss, mine is in the ultra high frequencies, some audiologist don't go super high when testing b/c hearing aids are useless in that range. You are still early and it could still go away... if it persist for more than 6 months, it could be a keeper... the reasons behind its appearance is really meaningless, mine just started with an ear infection, but it still started. Just keep the faith that you will notice it less and less over time, don't hate it, don't worried about it, and don't keep looking for endless cures, and cure all. All of these things feeds it, you need to get some sound flowing thru your brain, at the same level and the T, and make it soothing, not to crazy, so your brain will start to look away. Its going to take time, like years, but don't fret, it feeds it.......

 

'I went to an audiologist on Thursday to have my hearing tested and she said it's perfectly normal for a 19 year old, so that's something.
Did you see your audio gram? What is a normal 19 year old today? Maybe hearing loss? Just curious 'I knew about tinnitus and hearing loss and wanted to prevent it' How did you find out about it? Most people don't know about Tinnitus until after they have it.

 

When I went to to my first ENT, he said most clinics don't test in the high end, but he does....so I am taking what he was telling me.. I saw mine, really high end, totally deaf, but I hear speech and most other normal noises.... I heard about it from an interview with William Shatner, (Star Trek). I think most people don't care about anything until its knocking at their door.... I wouldn't fret about hearing loss, other than trying to prevent future hearing loss....but try to cope with the T, until it resolves it self.. either it will diminish, or you will habituate....

 

Hi @theekarwash. Welcome to TT! Feel free to post and ask any questions - a lot of us on this board are very knowledgeable after reading up about T.

Firstly, I don't think that your T has been caused by loud noise. For starters, usually if your T has been caused by noise then your ears should LOOK fine, and there shouldn't be any sign of a problem. An ear infection can show signs of having a normal cold too, which sounds like you had after you developed T. I too believe my T came from a cold. Your symptoms don't sound like noise-induced T.

That being said, ear infections can cause hearing loss. I would hope that in your case, even if it has caused some hearing loss, that your ears will recover and return to normal.

Of course, a lot of people get T when they have been told they have no hearing loss, so I'm afraid I'm not certain whether you do have some or not. To be honest, even if you do have hearing loss, there's not much you can do about it now. That being said, I honestly don't believe your T has been caused by loud noise.

I believe that it is the ear infection that has caused your T. I also think it is a good sign that vicks etc seem to make the ringing better. Have you tried Sudafed? Sometimes that can help.

Try not to stress out about it. You haven't had the ringing for a long time, and there is every chance it could go away. I also don't believe that T is permanent after 6 months: I know two people who had T - one of them couldn't tell me how long she had it, only for "months" and said it cleared up, but she thought she had it for longer than six; my mum's friend also mentioned her sister had it, and she said it took over two years to clear up. So it can happen. I think a lot of people on this site believe that once you have T it's there forever; that's not always the case. More people have T than we realise; try not to stress about it.

Are you having any problems sleeping? If you need any advice, feel free to ask.

Also, here is something that I hope will make you feel better. I found this on a thread ages ago and I like to keep looking at it, because it makes me feel better:

"I have been speaking to many people and read stories of people who got rid of their ringing in the ears . I wanted to put everything together for you. First, I must mention that I was able to find less stories of recovery from tinnitus on the internet. That's when I thought it may be forever. But then, I came across people in real life. It was astonishing to know that so many people I know had gone through this, I didn't even know. How could this be? Then I thought, if we completely got rid of the noise overnight, a very few number of us would ever come back to the board tomorrow, because you want to forget. That's why, reading the stuff on the internet is going to be always more depressing because people come here when they feel bad and lonely. In real life, stories of recovery are more common and we need to remember that.

1-4 people I spoke to were in their early 50s. All told me that they woke up one day with ringing and it went away in one year.

2-Our neighbor had stress related tinnitus, after she lost her mother. Her doctor put her on prozac and ginko. she was almost back to normal, but 6 months into it she started having panic attacks and went back to square one.It took her over a year and she completely got rid of the noise.

3-A family friend took an overseas flight. When he landed his ears were ringing. He said he got really depressed and used a lot of anti depressants. He doesn't know whether it was the loud engine or the pressure change that caused it. His ears rang for 2 years and he fully recovered.

4-I know 3 people in the army whose ears rang over a year after they left the army.

5-I saw stories of at least 5 people on the internet whose ears rang for at least 6-7 months after a loud concert. In addition to that 2 friends of mine healed in 1- 1.5 years. I came across a story of a fellow forum member who healed in 2 years. In his post he also mentioned another friend of his who also had recovered in 2 years. All of them are noise induced tinnitus.

6-My friend's mom had stress related T after she lost her husband. She said her ears rang for 2 years and then she fully recovered.

7-I am not even writing stories of so many people who recovered in less than 6 months.

So, if you come to this board as a newbie, and if you are feeling depressed, afraid and if you feel you can't go on... Stop for a moment and take a deep breath. It will get better and you will heal. We just need to accept that we are going to go through a difficult time period for a while.
Cheers"

Hope this helps! Good luck!

 

I did see the audiogram yes! All low frequencies are below 0db and closer to the high frequencies my hearing is at about 15db.

I knew about tinnitus and hearing loss as I've known people that have developed it over time due to loud music and things like that. One of my friends has had it since he was about 12 or 13 so I also found out about it from him.

 

Thank you so so so much for the kind words. I very much needed to hear them. I had a bad feeling my T was caused by hearing damage but following getting a hearing test, my hearing is perfectly normal for my age so that kind of reassured me that perhaps it wasn't. My GP was convinced it developed due to my ear infection.

Yeah I found it as a good sign that inhaling and taking decongestants seem to be making it better, at least a little bit.

Its just the fact that I've developed pulsatile tinnitus now is what is worrying me at this point.

Thanks again for your kind words, I genuinely appreciate it and it has made me feel a lot better about this. I do hope both of out T goes. I sometimes feel like I can't relax and I get very emotional because I feel like I never appreciated the silence before it was gone, and that really upsets me. But, I suppose there's nothing I can do now but wait and see and try to forget about it, which has been hard, but I'm getting there; slowly.

 

I read somewhere that the pulsing T (PT) can happen to ordinary people without T, that they just get it sometimes when they are bending etc. But the PT I think proves that it isn't hearing loss - I am 99.9% that PT has nothing to so with hearing loss.

If it just one or two bouts of it I wouldn't worry. If it persists you should see a neurologist rather than an ENT, because they know more about PT than ENTs do.

T is a very difficult thing to deal with. I always think it is more a mental ailment than anything else. It takes time - months and even years - before you can completely get used to T. Hopefully it won't be there for that long!

Try not to monitor your T either - just ignore it. It's hard to do, but distracting yourself is the best thing to do. It does get easier, as hard as it can be to believe.

 

I have T for 24 years. I am currently in a bad T. It does spike I wouldn't lie to you it is hard. But when one learns to live with it(habituate) it is GREAT! Lets all work on it and get there! If someone's T goes away that is better. What I am saying is we learn to live with it.

 

It'll be 12 weeks Friday for me. Constant ringing, cycling everyother day buzzing with a slight pulsation and somatic T to boot. Wish I was having as much fun as my T.

 

I've been feeling a lot better about my T in the past 2 weeks or so, not monitoring it as much and generally just trying to accept it. It had been causing troubles with close relationships so I'm trying to pick up from where I left off when it began, it's just a bit tough at the moment.

I'm hopeful that the T with subside in the coming weeks or months. From what I've read, all my symptoms seem to point to Eustachian Tube Dysfunction as I've had popping, cracking, ringing and mild pain in my ears. I actually began to think I had ETD when my doctor two weeks ago referred me to an ENT, said that the infection had gone, that there was mild scarring and that my eardrum was retracted. I googled this and the first page that came up was ETD. I read the symptoms and they all matched. I then googled "ears hurting when hiccuping" just out of curiosity as that has been something that I've been dealing with lately and sure enough ETD came up.

However I'm unaware if I had fluid in my middle ear, my doctor pointed out to me that I had an outer ear infection rather than an inner or middle ear infection. But, I'm hopeful, it seems that the symptoms of ETD pass over time.

My PT seems to be passing or becoming less obvious now that I've started running again, combined with decongestant nasal spray, which is a good sign.

Thanks again for the help citigirl13, you've really helped me come to terms with this. I hope that you are doing well and that you T gets better soon.

 

I hope so too. Thank you. And you sound like you are making good progress. All being well it will soon go. There are plenty of good sign that you T will go. Be warned though, it can take longer than you think - or hope.

 

Thank you so much your artical is the most positive thing I've heard in a long time I will hold on to your words and be as positive as I can be. Thank you Regards Borris

 

It's okay, I'm glad I cheered you up. There is so much negativity when it comes to T, we need to spread some positivity. The internet is filled with horror stories, but I suppose it makes sense because when we are depressed/worried we want to rant about it on the sites. I love the quote that someone else wrote (in highlighted green part) because it shows that there are so many people who have had it, and not only do they cope it simply disappears. It really does show we are not alone. I also think that T disappears more often then we think. As I mentioned, I know two people who have had T (one of them had it for over two years) and it went away in both cases. It's not all doom-and-gloom.

 

I dont want to talk bad but I think you damaged your ear cells or neurons and it may be permanent. my sitiuation is also close in some sense. I tried several natural treatment and i recover %90.
I hope you will gain your health.

 

How do you mean your situation is close?

I don't know, I'm 95% positive it was caused from infection since my hearing is still perfect and that I had an infection in my ears for 5 weeks following getting the tinnitus. I was also very stressed coming up to when my T appeared.

My audiologist said that her friend got T coming up to exams because she was very stressed. After 2 months her T went.

I'm not trying to analyse it as much anymore anyway, just trying to get on with life and live it hope that it goes away and if not, I'm just going to have to cope aren't I!

 

I think that you have a great possibility that your T will if not go at least to get to a level that it will not bother you at all. You are new to T and you have made a good progress allready. We just have to "go out there" and continue our lives - like you said. Even with babysteps.
BTW I have noticed that melatonin and also baracetamol helped me to lover the volume a bit (forgot to tell that on my intro post ) but nasonex (nasal spray) made my head ring more for 3 days . I won't tell anyone to use any meds, but just to let you know. You are doing well and in the future even better!

 

I don't know if my T is getting better with this new positive attitude but I certainly do feel better about it. I am learning to think less about it and the less i think about it the less i tune into T so once again thanks for reprogramming my way of thinking.