Started Having Silent Days

Hi! My name is Chester. I am going to keep this as short as possible.

Cause of tinnitus: Heavy crusted wax buildup in right ear.

What happened and what I did: I heard this high pitched noise in my right ear while in bed getting ready to sleep in November 2016. I waited for a couple of days hoping it would disappear but it never did. After five days, I went to the ENT doctor, and he said that there was a huge wax build up in my right ear that he couldn't even see my ear drum. He prescribed a kind of ear drops and sent me home. After about one week I visited him again and he manually cleaned both my ears, did a standard hearing test and told me that my hearing was fine for my age (53). He was a very nice ENT doctor. He told me that this condition might very well be temporary and it would most probably go away or lessen the severity as time goes by.

The tinnitus continued, anxiety and depression started to kick in and I started to have sleepless nights, and panic attacks. After one month of torture, I went back to the ENT doctor, and he prescribed me Xanax for a month. I started taking Xanax right away and felt so good. I took it only for two weeks, and after that I downloaded some cicada sounds and slept with it for about eight months.
The tinnitus did affect the quality of my life including my hobbies (bike riding, boxing training, home theater (main hobby), music, sex life and even my work in a quiet office (I am a software engineer) in the very first few months. My tinnitus started to lose it's grip after about four months and became a hissing sound which was totally bearable during the daytime. I only had the discomfort at night when I was in bed. The cicada sound helped me to drown out my tinnitus and every night I slept about 6~8 hours very well. I started my usual activities after about five months, and completely forgot about the tinnitus most of the time. I stumbled upon this Tinnitus Talk forum at the very beginning and read some stories for a couple of days, and after that I never visited tinnitus forums or read anything about tinnitus on the internet.

I had no hyperacusis and my tinnitus did not react to anything. As a result of that I did not wear any protection at all. I hate clubs, pubs, concerts etc. But went to the movies as usual, watched movies in my home theater (about 3~5 days/week at pretty high volumes), rode my motor cycle (Honda CBR 500R) to work everyday about 18 miles/day but the tinnitus never spiked or got worse. At one year mark, I was fully enjoying my life and the tinnitus continued to fade as months passing by. After about 23 months, my tinnitus became so silent that I could only hear it in quiet environments.

Something strange thing happened on one Saturday morning in last March. I woke up to a complete silent, I mean no tinnitus at all on that day. I plugged my ears and nothing, went to my theater room which is dead quiet as it is a fully insulated room, didn't hear anything but silence. I thought that it was gone and gone for good but I was wrong. Tinnitus was back on Sunday morning when I woke up to go to the bathroom but barely noticeable, even quieter than before. Starting around that time, I had 1~2 days of full silent days every week followed by very very mild tinnitus on other days. In early May, I had 9 days of silence in a row. I am still having this cycle continues with more silent days than mild tinnitus days. I think I am on the way to my old life.

PS: Sorry for my English! I am not a native speaker.

 

So great to hear stories like this. Congrats!

 

Congrats Man. I'm so happy for you. I hope to get there too. I'm three months. Was your somatic? Could you change the sound by moving your neck or opening you jaw?

 

Thanks, New Guy and MarkX. Nope. Mine is not somatic.

 

After a series of fleeting tinnitus for the past few days, having full silent again since yesterday. My brain is really trying to reset the things back to previous state I guess. Don't feel like having tinnitus anymore.

 

Have you tried magnesium and NAC supplements?

 

To be honest, I didn't take anything. I think what really helped me is, to stop reading about tinitus online and started to do my usual activities that I used to do as soon as posible without dwelling on tinnitus. My ENT doctor did remind me to stay away from internet as much as possible. The reason I came here agaim after 30 months is, to let people know where I am at this point with tinnitus journey. My tinnitus has not gone completely yet but I don't feel like I am having it anymore. My life is very much normal now.

 

Magnesium might kick it out for good.

 

Hi @Chester, congrats, I'm glad you were able to recover. Was your tinnitus only in one ear, in both ears or in the head?

 

Excellent news

 

I'm really pleased for you, and thank you very much for coming back to tell us your story, it is so good to hear this.

 

Hi acute, it's only in my left ear. I still hear this on and off whisper on some days when I am in bed, barely noticeable. Anyway, tinnitus isn't a part of my life anymore. Hope you guys recover soon!

 

Thank you! Hope you recover soon!

 

Tinnitus is hugely connected to your nervous system. Your doctor was right to tell you to stay away from the internet. Your suffering and your stuff is the only path that gets in the way to getting better. Many people here don't work on their stuff and just accept the fact of no increase in getting better. They retreat into a stew of anxiety and being overwhelmed and spread negativity to everyone.

 

To be very honest with you, I have been riding bikes for more than 30 years (I would say all my life) and never knew it causes ear damage. Apparently it does to some extent due to heavy wind blast. With that said, I always wear very high quality helmets with wind blockers but never wear earmuffs when riding. As a result of that I might have reduced the damage to some degree.However, I may very well have accumulated hidden hearing loss but my hearing tests came fine. I have no difficulty hearing things or conversing with people so I believe my hearing is fine for my age. As for bike riding, my advice to you is, if you get spikes after riding (no matter how much protection you wear) , then without doubt you have reactive tinnitus, just monitor for a month or two, and if it is the case, then better stay away from your bike. BTW, what I have is non-reactive tinnitus that means it never reacts to anything such as sound, food etc. That is why I was able to continue with the hobbies that I used to do before getting tinnitus. Good luck with the battle, it is not easy at the beginning but time heals every wound, and tinnitus is not an exception.

 

You earwax people should put hydrogen peroxide in your ears. I do this every 3-4 weeks in each ear. I use about 3 full droppers in each ear, I'm guessing, but that's probably 3-5 ML's for each ear or until it heavily bubbles. Let it bubble until it almost stops which takes about 8 minutes or so, then jump in the shower and flush your ears under the shower head.

 

Hi Hazel, Thanks for your kind words. Tinnitus is a very serious condition that can make people go crazy. It was very difficult for me also at the beginning but gradually, over three years time, my tinnitus has become a whisper and I barely notice it anymore. Since I have improved this much and my life has become completely normal I thought I should come back and write my story keeping in mind that it would at least give some hope to newcomers. This is a great forum, thank you and others for keeping it running 24/7 helping people who are in need of help very badly. Guys and gals, I believe that some kind of effective treatment is on the way, so hang in there and don't lose hope.

 

Congrats, great story !

 

from my own experiences so far I can only agree ...

 

Update: My tinitus is gone for more than a month now. I mean I am in complete silence now for about 40 days or so. I strongly suspect the reason behind this is that I had been having low red blood cell count for the past 3~4 years and after undergoing my anual medical check up at our company last June, the doctor told me that I may be suffering from anaemia and prescribed B12 supplements (2.4 mcg/day)and adviced me to eat iron rich foods. Since then I started eating a lot of meat, poultry, shellfish, eggs, fortified breakfast cereals, and dairy products and cut back on highly processed foods. In the mean time, exercised almost daily which include heavy strength training and heavy bag training. During this period, I started to notice that my tinnitus had been improving massively for the past few months, and it had been on and off and barely noticeable or gone for days. Starting late November till to date I am not hearing it anymore, gone completely. I am not overly happy because it didn't bother me at all lately. That being said, it is indeed bettter not have it anymore. Did my iron deficiency play a roll here? I strongly believe and so does my GP.

Happy New Year everyone!

 

I’m so happy for you! Take care of your ears and enjoy your life in peace and silence

 

Thank you! I am glad that it ended for me this way. I can see you got tinnitus just last year. Give it more time, in the mean time, get on with your normal life and try to do the things that you enjoyed doing in the past. It will most probably get better or goes away as time goes by. Hope yours also will resolve sooner than later. I

 

Chester so happy for you!!! I have a question did you deal with spikes along the way? My Tinnitus also is not reactive to noise or food. But I’m having a couple of days that my T is very long and then a spike out of nowhere for about two days and then back to barely noticeable again. T is a very confusing thing for me, Not sure why I got it. But thank you for your story and once again I’m so happy for you!

 

Hi Virginia girl,
First of all, sorry that you have to go through this. Now to your question, nope, after the initial period my tinnitus remained low for many months, never had a pattern like you described in your post. In the late months of 3rd year, it became even barely noticeable before saying "good bye" to me last month. Anyway, thanks for your kind words. Hope you will get better slowly. BTW, I can see you have listed the cause of tinnitus as unknown. Did you visit an ENT and get your hearing tested? If not, please do ASAP. If you don't have any hearing loss, then I would advice you to take a blood test and see if you have any vitamin deficiency like I had.

 

@Chester -- Super congratulations on your tinnitus elimination! I hope it continues for, oh say, another 60-70 years.

Just to chime in quickly here: I've had tinnitus for almost two years now, initiated by an ototoxic drug. But I've discovered some "contributing factors" along the way. Just last week, an abscessed molar near my bad ear had to be extracted. Some of the drilling spiked my tinnitus for a few days, but even during this spike, I noticed the texture of my baseline tinnitus seemed to have shifted for the better.

It now appears my tinnitus has been affected by a low-level infection near my bad ear for quite some time, and has been a significant factor for me. Just bringing this up to alert others who don't know where their tinnitus came from that it's a possibility it could potentially be connected with some teeth or gum issues. Root canals and old extraction sites could also be potential suspects.

 

Thanks, Lane. Your post is very informative.

 

Chester thank you for your quick response... To your question, yes I have been to an ENT lol, actually three ENTs and two Audiologists. All have said it’s not do to hearing loss. So my search continues as to what the cause is. I will say I am very thankful to how a few very low days. And for you I’m so glad you got past the horrible intrusion of tinnitus. I pray that your journey continues with a life full of happiness. Congratulations.

 

He's 53 now. You expect him to live until 113-123?

 

Well done Chester on your recovery. I must admit, i'm a little jealous.

Everyone now goes out and buys B12, and even the vegans among us start eating meat.