Somatic Tinnitus Improving

Hello All,

I have religiously read many posts in this site during the last 5 months and I have learned so much and found so much solace in the hell of tinnitus. I thought I should contribute what I have tried and learned as well.

About 6 months ago I lost my Dad. I was drinking too much wine at night to avoid my sadness and sleeping poorly. A couple of times I woke up and used the bathroom and would notice a loud ringing in my right ear. I would move my neck around and it would stop and I would go back to bed. I didn't think too much about it as it only happened a couple times and seemed to go away quickly.

Fast forward to a month later and I got the worst sinus infection I have ever had. There was fluid trapped behind my right ear and the ringing was constant and loud and completely terrifying. I found myself at the urgent care on Thanksgiving Day and the doc there told me, yup, you have fluid behind you ear, nothing you can do but take sudafed during the day and benadryl at night, use a steroid spray and call me in a week if nothing has changed.

Well, nothing changed and the sudafed lit the fire of my anxiety like nothing I have ever known. At this point I was climbing the walls and not sleeping at all. I wound up at my PCP who said, yup, fluid behind the ears. You need Augmentin. 10 days of that, nothing moved or changed. Went back, she gave me ciprodex and steroid ear drops, they seemed to lessen the ringing slightly but not significantly really at all. Went back, demanded oral steroids to get rid of the fluid behind my ears. I was given a 6 day course which did begin to lessen the fluid and maybe lowered the ringing? It was hard to tell. I still had the tinnitus and at this point was fed up. Finally got a referral to an ENT. First ENT told me I had "an inflammatory process happening" and needed more steroids and that I had silent reflux. She did a normal range hearing test that I easily passed. I went to second ENT for second opinion, he did a more sophisticated hearing test and said I had high frequency sensorineural hearing loss. Did the tympanic test, ear pressure was normal, no more fluid behind my ears. He told me the virus attacked my ear and damaged it and now that I was a month in, I had to decide that day whether or not I wanted intratympanic injection of steroids to my ear. I sat in that office for an hour contemplating the pros and cons and ultimately decided to take a further 10 day course of oral steroids instead, which was hell for the anxiety. Also told me I had to get an MRI to rule out acoustic neuroma, that didn't help my anxiety either.

Before getting that test done, I finally caved and called a psychiatrist friend of mine and he gave me Lorazepam for my anxiety and panic. The only way I got through the MRI and getting the results.

All that said and done, I went back into second ENT's office 11 days later for follow up. Still had the tinnitus, raging. He told me everything was normal, brain fine, hearing back to normal, I was cured. Well, why do I still have the tinnitus? He said it was leftover inflammation and should fade with time.

What I found in the next few months was that it definitely was not fading with time. I had extreme neck pain, both behind my ear and in my SCM. Any amount of tension or fear or stress and my tinnitus would get very intrusive and loud and the tenser I got the louder it got. It was so bad that I started to have an even louder tone now in my left ear, WTF??? I was at my wits end and turned to this site to try and find alternative txs.

This is what I have done to get mine down to very low to nothing a lot of the time. I found that when I took a Lorazepam the tinnitus would sometimes totally disappear, this convinced me that it had something to do with my neck muscles and stress. The following things I have tried and found success with:

1) I found an acupuncturist in NYC who practices Korean style which uses very few needles and she put them in my stress point and turned them for 20 min, switch sides, repeat. I did that twice a week for three weeks and it did not make my tinnitus go away but it made me be able to feel what relaxed felt like in my neck and shoulders, I had forgotten.

2) I went to see a NUUCA chiropractor in the city as well. At first I thought this was a total sham. I am still not completely convinced. At first what he did seemed to actually make my tinnitus louder but it really did help my terrible posture. After about 8 txs I decided my posture was less important to me than my ears and left the tx.

3) I was googling around and found a you tube video by a lady talking about trigger points in the SCM and scalene muscles and relief of somatic tinnitus. I tracked her down, told her my story and asked for a referral in NYC. She helped me find someone who was able to teach me how find my own trigger points and bring the volume down myself. This was life changing. It has given me a measure of control. She can get the tinnitus to go away but it always comes back because I am a stressed out mess, it turns out. She actually sells a self help book to do it yourself. I would recommend buying it instead of trying to find someone to do it for you. It's expensive and it's really hard to find someone who knows what they are doing.

4) I have succumb to yoga and I do it with a vengeance. I try to go 5/6 times a week and this also has taught me how to relax my CNS and bring my whole system down through breathing and stretching.

5) I also have started in person hypnosis for the same exact reason. To learn how to relax and successfully talk my system down off the ledge. Also, she helps me learn how to shift my focus away from the noise whenever I happen to hear it now and it just doesn't have the same emotional loading for me. It's like eh, it will calm down when I relax again and be quiet instead of OH MY GOD I WILL NEVER HAVE SILENCE AGAIN AND I WANT TO DIE, big difference. For those of you that can't afford this, there is a really good self hypnosis on You Tube by this guy Gary Madison, it's free and I have used it religiously in my worst times. He is an angel for posting it there. If you just google, tinnitus hypnosis and you tube, his comes up as Free Hypnosis.

6) The trigger point person convinced me to go back to the NUUCA guy and let him work on my one more time now that my muscles were loose in my neck. I did that yesterday and it has seemed to actually make it better this time. I will continue to see him once every month to keep my neck in line.

This is all to say, I have not found a silver bullet or anything but my tinnitus is nearly gone. It was a 10/10 before and now I'd say it is like a 2/10 and I am confident if I stay on my path, it will be gone in time. And I have been through plenty of stress of late. It's not like my life has been easy so I know it's not just that I am avoiding negative things. I can really be in the muck and then get my system to calm down and quiet it.

As much as this has been total hell, a lot of good things have come out of it. At the ripe age of 40, I have finally taken control over my health. I drink way way less than I used to, I have lost weight, my posture is good for the fist time in years, I am limber and, most importantly I have viscerally learned that I can count on my friends and family when my life takes a nosedive. I am not an island and I was trying to be one before. I think that's what brought all this on, grief, anxiety, and trying to be overly self-reliant.

I hope this helps anyone out there who is suffering and I'm happy to answer any questions. And yes, I have spent WAY too much money on all of this but looking back, it was all worth it. To find some peace and quiet is priceless to me. It's funny, all the running around to all these people looking for help is what has taught me that I what I needed I really already had, I just needed some other people to teach me how to access and aim it.

 

Helpful post.

 

Thanks Dana, wishing you a quiet night or maybe morning in Romania? Not sure of the time difference there.