Thanks for having me on board

Hi all, I am fairly new to this. It started just after the Easter weekend (end of March 2013). I had good and bad days at the start for the first couple of weeks and even had a couple of completely T-free days but when I woke up the following day it was back with a vengeance and gave me a great sense of disappointment and made me feel very low indeed. I am now in my 3rd week and it has remained pretty much constant (high-pitched whistling and hissing mainly in left ear). I have just had some bloodtests for Thyroid hormone levels and the results are due back in about 4 days. If they are inconclusive my GP says she will refer me (not sure where). Anyway, I will be happy to read all your posts and respond if I feel I can be of any help or have any questions. Many thanks, Sybs.

 

Hi, thanks for the welcome. I am not aware of having any previous thyroid problems but when I saw my GP that was the first thing that came to her. She said that with a Thyroid disorder the tinnitus is usually constant - which it is in my case. I was amazed because I had been looking for possible causes on the web and Thyroid had not come up. She was very sympathetic and seemed determined to get to the bottom of it. Alot of posts I have read on various forums suggested that other sufferers had not had such positive experiences from GPs - that they were more or less told there was nothing that could be done and that they just had to live with it. Yet I keep reading that it is not a condition in itself but a symptom of a condition therefore I believe that there must be a root cause to everyone's tinnitus that can surely be dealt with if they get the right treatment. Obviously if it's caused by being in a regular noisy environment then I guess the only thing to do is to steer clear of those environments and hope that it will get better on it's own. There are several supposed "treatments and cures" advertised and I am hoping to find out from people on this site of their experiences of any of them. I not only want help for myself but am hoping that if I find some useful things for myself I can share them with others in the hope that it will help them too. Many thanks for listening and have a good weekend yourself, Sybs.

 

Very interesting stuff, can someone please elaborate on thyroid. So I understand it's a gland of some sort that controls your hormones, are people saying if it does not function properly one of the side affects can be tinnitus? Is there a medication for a problem like this?

 

Yep, that thyroid is Not something to neglect. If it don't work right, your body does some weird stuff.
They had to nuke mine. I was losing weight, rather fast. I thought, its easy to lose weight, my diet is working.

I can't say or state its connection to Tinnitus. Maybe it's possible. I'm no doctor. On the other hand, T maybe involved with the ears. Good thing to get it checked anyway by blood tests. If its out-of-order, it can be fixed. Perhaps your GP is just being thorough. A referral might be to the ENT doctor.

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My blood test showed my THS level was too low. I cut back on my syn-thyroid per doc instruction, cause I told my doctor it's too low. She didn't think much of it. I think the intensity of the"pulsing" T might of decreased, pulsing only. I'm not sure yet, jury is still out. It takes time for body to adjust. My head is still pulsing with the tinnitus. Got to relax.

 

Karen, yes you are right. Thanks for your interest.
My thyroid was overactive. So I took a radioactive pill to kill most of my thyroid, I believe.
So now I take a daily 175mg levothyroxine (syn-thyoid) pill to regulate my body. It was a few years ago.
My blood test is borderline TSH too low. So my Doctor told me I could stop 1 pill (day) per week.
Perhaps due to my aging, my dose needs to be adjusted, imo! So far it doesn't seem to help.
I'll check that link out. I got to read that, thanks big-time.

Karen,
I'm shooting in the dark about all this, hoping for any hope of a reason or cause why?
I really don't know if Thyroid issues or BP makes any difference at all.

My GP also wants me to take lisinopril 10 mg BP pills, considering my BP is high, like normal high+.
Then I told her it might increase my T, and she responded: "well then you don't have to take it".
Later she mentioned for me to take it. She wants me on the BP medicine. I'm not taking it.
I'm starting to hate all these pills. I already quit smoking and drinking, to help the BP.
We have fun in California, and I tend to over do it.

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I went to a noisy restaurant tonight, my ears are buzzing after I got out.
I 'm thank full for all the advice and stories on this forum. TY Markku,
I just bought some ear plugs, got to use them for situations like that.

 

Hi Karen, I've cut out caffeine altogether for 2 weeks now but it does not seem to have had much of an effect. I also drink red wine in the evening but instead of making the T worse I find it usually makes it better - probably because it relaxes me. I do find that sleep seems to punctuate the T., i.e. I can go to bed with it, and if I get a good night sleep can usually wake up without it, or very faint. Conversely if I don't have it and go to bed but don't sleep well, I usually wake up with it. Also Karen, you described your T exactly the same as mine (hissing with high pitched whistling underneath). The whistling is usually worse in the left ear and often not present in the right ear. When I have it in both ears it's usually ringing and hissing. Yesterday was pretty bad and sounded like loud crickets, but then after a few red wines in the evening I was more relaxed and extremely tired meaning I was able to get to sleep quite quickly. Then I woke up this morning and it was virtually non-existent. However, I do find that some noises make it worse instead of masking it. For example, I work in an open plan office with lots of white noise, aircon, etc and if the printer is in operation that makes the T louder, especially the whistle in the left ear. Also, any audience applause on TV makes it louder. At this moment, the whistling in the left ear feels like it's getting louder due to the aircon.