Stress, Surgeries, and Now Tinnitus

Hello all,

I am new to Tinnitus and hoping to find some help here. I have found ENT's and audiologists to be underwhelming. I am trying to figure out my T and see if maybe it is temporary (hopefully). I apologize if this post gets a bit long, but here is a some back story and what I think are relevant events and details regarding my T.

Between July and late August I had three surgeries. I had a vitrectomy in my right eye for floaters first, two weeks later I had a hernia repaired, and about two weeks after that I had my left eye vitrectomy. I started to notice the ringing sometime about a month or so ago. After my first surgery I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia where my entire upper body was sore (not sure if that's relevant).

Additionally, in this time I just left the Army after about 9.5 years of being in that environment to include college. So to say I have been stressed out should go without saying. I have been looking for work and it has been a real challenge.

In the middle of August I went to get a hearing test, my results were normal. I don't have any significant hearing loss. I was referred to an audiologist to follow up on the T. When I finally got an appointment they did a bunch of tests, and to be honest their equipment was a bit faulty at times during some of the testing. This was the first time I really focused on my T, that was fun, trying to key in the pitch. In the middle of the other testing they did a quick hearing test as well. They decided that I had hearing related T. Which I thought was a rush to judgement.

From there I saw an ENT. She initially said it is likely to be hearing loss related as well. I guess when you are in the Army that's the only answer they think to provide. She went ahead and had me do an MRI. She said that there was some inflammation and fluid behind my ear drum. She said that might be the cause, but my neighbor, an ENT resident who actually works there as well said she doubts that is the cause.

I am being fitted for masking devices in a week or so. Not sure if I want to go down that route, but we went ahead and ordered them while I had good insurance.

Here is what my symptoms include:

Around a 9,000 hz constant ring. It gets louder when I bite down. It travels to my left ear when I lay my head on my pillow, left ear down, and it gets loud. My right is the typical culprit all other times. I don't notice it much when I am moving around, but I also try to make sure that there is constant noise around me. Additionally, I get an ear fullness sensation in my right ear, and I am constantly moving my jaw to open my Eustachian tubes throughout the day to cope. Some higher pitched sounds seem brassy in my right ear (i.e. phone ringing, female voices).

The ENT suggested I hold my nose and pop my ears to help move some of the liquid out. My neighbor said I could try some flonase. Oh and I also had a septoplasty about two years ago, ended up with a perforated septum. My nose has been bloody daily since, lots of irritation, not regular nosebleeds though.

Any help would be much appreciated. I apologize again for the length. I just heard that once it has been around for a certain amount of time it is here to stay. I am 27, after looking at other posts, this seems relevant.

 

@Jeff G
You said "It gets louder when I bite down. It travels to my left ear when I lay my head on my pillow, left ear down, and it gets loud. My right is the typical culprit all other times."

I have the same problem. It may be a temporomandibular problem that's on one side. Questions to answer to yourself. Clench teeth on one side. Mouth and teeth soreness on one side. Injury to the jaw or joints, injury to muscles in neck. Head injury - whiplash. Something is off balance, so when you lay down either pressure or gravity will increase. Laying on the unbalanced side will cause pressure. Laying on the other side, gravity will place pressure.

When there's injury to the jaw or jaw joints, muscles in your neck can start to hurt. When there's injury to the neck, jaw and mouth trauma including clenching can happen.

When it travels when laying down to the other ear, it's somatic tinnitus. Most all somatic T is related to jaw, dental or the neck. Either injury such as whiplash, trauma to head/neck/jaw or from a dental procedure will cause two things. It will get louder when biting down and sound will travel to other ear. All of this can relate to ET, but that usually won't cause your T moving from ear to ear. It's unlikely that it's related to your surgeries, including your eye, unless your neck was placed in a bad position. There are reports about improper placement of neck during surgery.

Try laying on your back with a small pillow bunched under your neck placed on the edge of another low pillow above. Make sure that you don't clench teeth. Take vitamin C and B12. Eat food with vitamin D. If you have a sore neck, consider x rays/CTs.

 

Hi Jeff. I'm new here and to all of this myself - got T a month back and just starting the whole process of seeing all the specialists to see what's going on, so I sympathize my friend. The soreness after surgery is called post-operative myalgia and is very common. It's a reaction from your body being paralyzed for surgery from the succinylcholine - which causes your body to clench and relax over and over. I had sinus surgery (deviated septum & outfacractured inferior turbinates) myself back in Feb and mine was really bad afterward. So much so I actually went back to the hospital because everything hurt hugely whenever I so much as twitched. Docs said, 'Sorry, you just have to ride it out, it'll pass in a day or two' and it did.

I couldn't begin to tell you why you have it, but my surgery didn't go well either and I've had a lot of problems with it since then and my doctor thinks it may be related to my T - "sphenoid sinus infection", but we'll see. Best thing to do is educate yourself as much as possible. Go to PubMed, read medical papers. Most of it will go over your head but you don't need to understand all of it. You'll find stuff that relates to you and gets you on the right path. The more you can educate yourself the more you can arm yourself with and cover the angles when your dealing with doctors.

Second, if you're able, get as many opinions as possible. I'd see a neurologist at the very least for an MRA and CTA (those are angiogram where they look at the vascular state of your head). A lot of times it can come from something like a fistula (blockage) or collapsed transverse sinus, or something like that. It wouldn't hurt to see a cardiologist for testing as well. Arterial plaque/blockage can cause T. All in all I'd actually ope to see a neurologist even before an ENT or Audiologist.

Meantime just try and eat right, get some exercise - even just walking helps and keeps the stress down. Lose weight if you need to, take good supplements - again research. Good luck. man. Hope we can all pull through this. Remember, there are literally millions of us in the same boat, so try and keep your chin up, buddy.

 

I'm so sorry to read all you're going through. Stress and anxiety really compound tinnitus.

Maybe random, but by any chance do you know what antibiotic you received during the hernia surgery? An antibiotic is often given during abdominal surgeries, and some antibiotics can be ototoxic.

 

A fellow floater sufferer!

How did your vitrectomies turn out?

 

Thanks for the replies!

I don't know which antibiotic but I am allergic to penicillin so it wouldn't be in that family. I will find out tonight once I get my medical records pulled up.

The vitrctomies worked well. I have a floater or two but it is see through. Only notice it when driving sometimes in bright light. Also a speck or two but 98% better. I would recommend. Maybe not as close as mine were. I think the trauma of several surgeries and stress may be contributing to my T.

 

So I suspect that my jaw may he playing a part of this. I have looked a lot at the TMJ stuff and I definitely have some of the symptoms. I don't have much pain, but my jaw pops a lot and my teeth fit together differently from day to day. Additonally, I have been told at night I snap my teeth from time to time.

Also wouldn't be surprised if my neck was messed up a bit. I have lower back issues (i.e. bulging disc, DDD). My neck pops a lot and is prone to some stiffness/pain. Thanks for your insight. Sounds like you are very knowledgeable.

Why the supplements? Also, if I start treating some of the TMJ and neck issues is it possible to turn the T off? Have you had success in this?

Lastly, I just ordered a mouth guard on Amazon; hoping to help my situation.

 

@Jeff G Doctor Ben Balough who was once the Director/Surgeon - tinnitus - US Navy now practices just minutes from where I live. I can't become a patient of his because his hospital won't accept my insurance. It's not allowed to pay cash.

I was able to talk to him on the phone. He gave me all the background information to what I posted. We talked about stress and both you and him know something about military stress. It doesn't end there, as many with T can relate to stress. He said that many and many that have T, received it directly or indirectly because of muscle tension. Even if other problems or circumstances have taken place including exposure to loud noise. He even mentioned how some with ear wax may fit the equation.
Here is his unseen as a patient report on me. He was sent x rays and CTs.

1. Myofascial pain, facial and cervical origin
2. Osteoarthritis -
3. joint hypertrophy
4. Symptomatic TMJ
5. Masseter muscle problems - a given
6. Treatment for cervical spine and not to use a full mouth guard as jaw may be displaced. A soft guard for front teeth
8. Posture correction - as one of my legs is shorter than the other.
9. Lordosis treatment and touch point soft massage

He thinks that I could have my tinnitus reduced by 50% with proper treatment.

This is one of his articles.

http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/articles/review-of-pharmacological-therapy-for-tinnitus.pdf

 

So I found my records and the only thing I could find that causes T was toradol. Not sure how long T from that would last.

 

I am not sure. Do you have any hearing loss? Is your tinnitus in both ears? Another possibility is rather than medication, the position of your head and neck during surgery contributed.

Just out of curiosity, what antibiotic did you receive?

 

Clindamycin I think.

 

I think Toradol caused my T

 

Hi, Jeff G! I'm sorry about your tinnitus. This is a good place to share our problem. You can truly feel welcome.
I’ve had a severe retinal stroke in my left eye and I need a vitreoctomy to cauterise a blood vessel that bleeds, from time to time, into my retina. The doctor told me that my eye is in a potential danger of blindness if I don’t get the procedure.
I’m very sensitive to all sort of drugs and I try not to take them if possible, so I’m really frightened because the local anaesthetics are all listed as ototoxics and so are the antibiotic and anti-inflammatory eye drops commonly used during and after the surgery.
I had a gastroscopy in April and I was sedated with Propofol, three days after that my already mild existing tinnitus became severe again and hasn’t diminished so far. Propofol is also used during eye surgery with all the rest of the drugs. I don’t really know what to do because I don’t want to harm my ears even more; I don’t think I could cope with a louder tinnitus and would prefer to die instead. During a checking procedure, only two drops of a local anaesthetic in my left eye gave me a pressure feeling in my ears and a terrible spike started one hour later and lasted for almost 24 hrs. Go figure. How can I go for a surgery then?
What annoys me the most is the poor knowledge of doctors about the ototoxic potential of the drugs they use in their daily routine.
I wonder what would you do guys if you were me? Any comment will be wellcome. Thanks a lot.

 

I would take the surgery and the risk of worse tinnitus, as opposed to losing my vision, and if there was an increase in tinnitus and/or new symptoms, I'd go through the habituation process in order to deal with it.

 

Luman, I appreciate your answer.
If I may ask, is your tinnitus severe?

 

I don't know some would say moderate I guess. I can't really say. It's very frighting, either way, I understand that very well as I have very serious vision problems myself.

 

I’m sorry about your vision, it frights indeed, I hope you can get through these difficult times and get a soon improvement. I’m glad that your tinnitus is mild, at least. Mine is severe and very changeable, difficult to get use to it, so habituation is going to be very complex. I don’t think I could overcome an exacerbation. It’s an acute dilemma.

I appreciate your reply and understanding, Luman., and I wish the best of luck to you.

 

I would as well. A couple years ago, I temporarily lost my vision for several months. It was awful. I could not drive, read, or work. Everything was a struggle, even just folding laundry or getting myself ready in the morning.

Tinnitus is horrible. I hate it. It is life changing, but not in the same way as being blind. Permanently losing my eyesight would have altered my personal autonomy and nearly every aspect of my life, both the insignificant and significant.

 

And adding to my above, being blind with tinnitus would be horrific. I relied so much on my hearing to help me function when I could not see. Now with tinnitus and hearing loss, I rely more on my vision and try to protect my hearing in loud environments.

 

My vision

Terrible experience you went through, I’m sorry.
I know that vision is essential, but my problem is one eye only, the other is fine, so I could still see if a lose my eyesight but I know what you mean. I’m deaf in my left ear and only hear a 60% on the right one, I understand you very well and I agree, blindness and tinnitus is something that I can’t even imagine, but feel myself in front of a wall with two doors on it and I don’t know what’s behind them, so I don’t know which one to chose.
Despite of the ototoxicity of the drugs, which will surely affect my tinnitus severity for worst, I will get cataracts as a side effect of the surgery and will have to get another operation in a short term, that will mean exposing my ears to the same toxic drugs again. I don’t think I want that under any circumstances and I’m sure that you can understand my fear. I feel so impotent and angry when no alternatives are available for ototoxic drugs. I’m a victim of them, among millions of people. It’s so difficult to understand and accept it when a choice like mine has to be done.

Thank you very much for your reply, Tinker, it was nice to talk to you.

I wish you well.