It's been 6 weeks (since end of May 2015) that a constant ringing appeared in my head. It is a constant high-pitch sound that seems to come from the center of my head. It does not get masked from sounds that come in through the ears, i.e., I can hear them both at the same time. It is extremely annoying, but more importantly, I am nervous that it might indicate something seriously wrong with me.
I am fairly certain the ringing started a few days after I applied something called WartStick to a finger on my right hand. About four months ago a wart appeared on that finger and would not go away. (I am fairly sure I got the wart in a gym I go to work out once or twice a week.) The WartStick (which is mostly salicylic acid, just like aspirin, which is a well-known potential cause of tinnitis) worked as advertised: you rub the WartStick (looks just like lipstick) on the wart, cover it with tape and wait. The next day remove the tape, wash the area, re-apply the WartStick, cover with new tape. It worked like a charm: the wart and the skin under the wart started to dissolve (it was not painful) in a few hours. After 4 days, several layers of skin dissolved along with the wart. After the wart was gone, I stopped the process and the skin grew back very quickly, another 2-3 days. The wart did not come back. Great!
However, I started noticing a ring, or hum, high-pitch inside my head on either the second or third day of this process. It wouldn't go away and became quite irritating. At this point I had not connected the wart treatment with the ringing. A few years ago I had some ringing which turned out to be due to a wax build-up in my right ear. At that time I went to a doctor who flushed the ear with warm water and got rid of the wax (and the ringing). So I figured I had another wax build-up this time. I went to the doctor again. This was three weeks ago. The doctor examined me and, yes, I had wax again. A nurse flushed the ear with warm water and got rid of the wax. However, the ringing did not stop this time! It is still there, loud and clear.
The doctor sent me to an E.N.T. (Ear-nose-throat) specialist, who, without even looking in my ears, used a machine to generate high-pitch, low-volume sounds and send them to earphones he made me wear. A standard hearing test. The conclusion was that I could not hear sounds at high frequencies. This was surprising to me since I always thought I had pretty good hearing. However, I am 68 now and we all lose our hearing as we age. All this testing was done while I was hearing the constant high-frequency sound generated in my head. So, when the machine was sending the high-frequency sounds to my ears, I could not tell if I heard them or not because I had my own high-frequency sounds! Unfortunately, the doctor was satisfied with his loss-of-high-frequency-sounds conclusion and did not want to spend too much time with me. He dismissed my wart-medicine-might-have-caused-the-tinnitus story, saying that the amount of salicylic acid was probably insufficient.
So here we are. The sounds in my head are still there (thank God I am able to fall asleep unlike some poor people who cannot). I am pretty miserable. I have read countless stories about tinnitis. I have seen many snake-oil promises as well as conclusions that tinnitis does not go away. I don't know if my tinnitis is temporary (it's only been about 6 weeks and apparently for some people it does go away) or not. I just want it to stop or at least to diminish!
Any ideas/consolation/help/misery-loves-company suggestions out there?
I am fairly certain the ringing started a few days after I applied something called WartStick to a finger on my right hand. About four months ago a wart appeared on that finger and would not go away. (I am fairly sure I got the wart in a gym I go to work out once or twice a week.) The WartStick (which is mostly salicylic acid, just like aspirin, which is a well-known potential cause of tinnitis) worked as advertised: you rub the WartStick (looks just like lipstick) on the wart, cover it with tape and wait. The next day remove the tape, wash the area, re-apply the WartStick, cover with new tape. It worked like a charm: the wart and the skin under the wart started to dissolve (it was not painful) in a few hours. After 4 days, several layers of skin dissolved along with the wart. After the wart was gone, I stopped the process and the skin grew back very quickly, another 2-3 days. The wart did not come back. Great!
However, I started noticing a ring, or hum, high-pitch inside my head on either the second or third day of this process. It wouldn't go away and became quite irritating. At this point I had not connected the wart treatment with the ringing. A few years ago I had some ringing which turned out to be due to a wax build-up in my right ear. At that time I went to a doctor who flushed the ear with warm water and got rid of the wax (and the ringing). So I figured I had another wax build-up this time. I went to the doctor again. This was three weeks ago. The doctor examined me and, yes, I had wax again. A nurse flushed the ear with warm water and got rid of the wax. However, the ringing did not stop this time! It is still there, loud and clear.
The doctor sent me to an E.N.T. (Ear-nose-throat) specialist, who, without even looking in my ears, used a machine to generate high-pitch, low-volume sounds and send them to earphones he made me wear. A standard hearing test. The conclusion was that I could not hear sounds at high frequencies. This was surprising to me since I always thought I had pretty good hearing. However, I am 68 now and we all lose our hearing as we age. All this testing was done while I was hearing the constant high-frequency sound generated in my head. So, when the machine was sending the high-frequency sounds to my ears, I could not tell if I heard them or not because I had my own high-frequency sounds! Unfortunately, the doctor was satisfied with his loss-of-high-frequency-sounds conclusion and did not want to spend too much time with me. He dismissed my wart-medicine-might-have-caused-the-tinnitus story, saying that the amount of salicylic acid was probably insufficient.
So here we are. The sounds in my head are still there (thank God I am able to fall asleep unlike some poor people who cannot). I am pretty miserable. I have read countless stories about tinnitis. I have seen many snake-oil promises as well as conclusions that tinnitis does not go away. I don't know if my tinnitis is temporary (it's only been about 6 weeks and apparently for some people it does go away) or not. I just want it to stop or at least to diminish!
Any ideas/consolation/help/misery-loves-company suggestions out there?
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