Struggling and Still Only Early Days

Hey everyone. I recently had a bad cold/flu. I laid down all weekend and went to work on the Monday, I'm a Carpenter so loud noises are somewhat the norm. All day at work I had the worst sinus blockages I've ever experienced, I was mouth breathing all day and coughing, hard.

During the work day I was exposed to some loud noises, namely a generator that was running for about an hour, maybe two I can't remember. Although it was loud it wasn't that bad, it was outdoors and for most of the time on the other side of the house site to me. Now I have the dilemma of not knowing whether this T was caused by the noise exposure that day or by the violent coughing/cold?

I barely slept that night, went to work and wore ear plugs all day and went to the doctors straight after work. I'm 90% sure the noise is only in my left ear but sometimes it's hard to tell. The doctor looked at both my ears and noticed my left ear(ringing ear) had a buildup of earwax and she couldn't see my eardrum. So she told me to use some earwax drops for two days and come back to have it cleaned. She also said she was certain it caused by the earwax and should subside although after reading about the condition alot of people start of with a cold/earwax and it never goes away. Now I'm panicking because it's only been a few days and I've already been on a roller coaster of emotions, I'm scared that this will last forever, if it wasn't as loud I could handle it better but it's so nagging and hard to ignore.

I went home and used the earwax drops and noticed that it had become louder than it was, I couldn't eat my dinner and went to bed really early as I just felt upset with it all. I noticed at this point too my hearing in that ear also had lost 50% of function which made me panic more. When I could sleep I only slept for two hours at a time, I woke up at midnight and it was screaming so I called the after hours and explained it to them and they just told me to go to the doctors in the morning and that I wouldn't be prioritized if I went to the emergency department.

I still have the cold and sinus problems, it hurts my problem ear to blow my nose so I try to avoid it. I've taken the day off work and I'm going back to the doctors again today, I feel helpless, lost and I don't know what to do. Everything I read says there's nothing you can do. I don't know how I'm suppose to get use to this noise and blocked ear feeling. It can be heard over everything.

I'm sorry for the massive sorry story but I'm finding it hard to cope right now and don't have anyone to talk to.

 

First of all, you have to give time, since you are not cured from the cold. You should have hope that this can be temporary before freaking out. Relax a bit, or at least try.
If a month will past and the noise stays,then you have reasons to be worried.

 

Thanks for the reply, I understand the need to give it time. I'm trying to but this constant loud noise is over powering and taking the joys out of anything. It's hard to even concentrate because it's so, in your face all the time. I just find it hard to fathom earwax could cause this, maybe a little bit but this loud?

 

Welcome to TT. Sorry about your sufferings. We have been there and truly understand your feelings. I agree with others. Your T is very new and if it is from the cold and sinus, when those conditions improve, it is likely your T will too. If your sinus has infection, then a course of prednisone may help.

Being so new, your T will often behave quite unpredictably, morphing as it goes, like seemingly louder often, having ear pain, ear pressure, switching ears, new tones etc. Also, your mind is always playing game with you. This is because when T is new, it usually traumatizes its victims to the point that the normal parasympathetic nervous system is taken over by the limbic system which functions in 'fight or flight' mode, and things will appear a lot worse than they are. You will be easily scared and the brain will zoom in on any bad or threatening sensation and magnify its significance.

You will likely be flooded with distorted thoughts at this stage, especially 'catastrophic thinking' about the future (like my future is doomed or there is no future), as well as 'all or nothing thinking' (like my life is not worth it with T ringing). Beware of these thoughts. They are called cognitive distortions, a term used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and they can create havoc in people mental suffering if not challenged.

Our reaction to T can determine the degree of suffering or its intrusiveness. So we need to understand where these thoughts come from, write them down, defuse and counter them as much as possible. By doing so, we gradually remove the fear or phobia of T and then meaningful habituation will begin to happen over time. You can read Dr. Nagler's writing 'Letter to A Tinnitus Sufferer' and hopefully you will learn to counter/challenge your distorted thought. This is a form of self-help CBT:

http://www.tinn.com/Letter.pdf


In the mean time, new T sufferers should try to set up masking asap. I used to mask all the time, like using a sound machine at bed time, an ipod (or now smart phone) on the go, work and home PC loaded with a free sound generator ‘aire freshener’ (google it if you want a free download). Now you also can use this nice TT thread to get great masking sounds. It also contains nice tips for new sufferers and also with link to a sleep thread as well as ATA, BTA etc. So don’t panic. Calm down and stay positive. There are many things you can do to help yourself. Give it time. Take care & God bless.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/panic/

 

Just an update of my situation. I couldn't bare the discomfort any longer and drove two hours to a ENT hospital emergency department. They suctioned my ear out and it was full of ALOT of wax. My ear went from feeling like it had a pencil lodged in it to feeling somewhat normal, minus obviously having had a vaccuum stuck in it.

All was well, I couldn't work out whether or not the ringing had stopped at first as the hospital was so noisy. I've now been able to conclude that the procedure hasn't got rid of all the ringing, but has reduced the noise a lot compared to what it was. I had two ENT doctors check over my ear drums and both were happy with the results and they let me go.

I've noticed today my hearing is more sensitive than usual, has anyone else had experience with this? Could this be due having felt deaf for 3 days to all of a sudden hearing better than I have in before all that wax had a chance to build up?

I also feel as though the T has gone from being in the left, to both ears although I couldn't quite work out whether the right was affected earlier or not because of how over powering the left ear was.