There Is Hope

Hello guys, I have been a lurker in this website for quite a while and decided to make an account to tell my story and hopefully bring hope to some of you out there. I'll start by writing a little about myself and how I ended up with tinnitus.

I am 26 years old, I graduated last year from school and started my first official first job. I am a software developer, and well to say the least I been stressed, it has gotten to me from the beginning I had some circulation problems on my left side of my body and some weird pains which seemed to go away eventually. Anyway forward to about 2 months ago, one morning I woke up with my left ear muffled I freaked out and went to urgent care, I had no pain but my ear felt uncomfortable and I wasn't able to hear well. I went to ENT and obtained some steroids, those made me feel weak and worse than what I had but eventually the muffle was gone from my ear (I don't think due to the steroids). I lost my ability to hear high frequency sounds, had some horrible earaches, and what seemed like dizziness and of course this new scary sound in my head that never seemed to go away. No doctor could help me in this situation, they would say to "get used to it", all I wanted was for this sound to go away and no one gave any real solutions. So I decided to take it upon myself and investigate more about what could possibly help. I started drinking vitamins, lipo flavonoid, B-12, and so on in the hopes they would help (they did seem to have calmed it down a little bit initially). Its been two of what I could say worse months of my life, but last week I noticed I woke up feeling rather different, no noticeable sound, not feeling tired or anything, I felt happy and I realized tinnitus was barely noticeable (when I bite on something) or not there at all. I was like that for about 3 days, something peculiar was the weather, in those days it was like humid and raining around 40+ F*. Now its been a couple of days I have to say it has come back but I don't feel it as strong anymore, the weather does seem to affect it and now that its 25+F I feel dizzy, sick, and a bit of ringing. It does seem like time is making it better at least in the coping with it.
I wanted to share my story for those in similar situations to know and have hope that everything will be okay, it will take time and you'll have to do everything to can to go along with it, but once you reach at least some relief it makes a big difference.

Let me know if anyone has any questions, btw I am experimenting with different vitamins, drops, exercises etc. anything that could prove helpful.

 

Even though you feel better I hope you are still rooting on researchers to cure hearing loss, this could be a real possibility in 5-10 years if the community is smart about it.

 

Glad to hear you're getting through it better. The beginning is always the hardest but it doest get better and ma so glad you are seeing that.

May I ask which languages do you develop software in? I am considering that path but since there are so many directions to take, I am curious what you gravitated toward.

 

@Contrast oh yes I am hopeful one of the current paths for a cure is successful, but in the meantime to survive till that happens I think we just need to hold on finding anything that can help us make it less annoying.

@another sean Thank you, and yes, at least now I feel more normal. I currently develop mostly in java/groovy and shell scripts, lots of jobs currently are looking for candidates into CI/CD and AI. My interests however are more inclined towards low level programming using C, so jobs involving hardware/software. Sometimes you just have to go with what's trending however.

 

It is a good sign that it went away for a while.

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

Staying positive and hopeful is crucial when dealing with tinnitus.

Thank-you for sharing your story with us @podoi

 

I was randomly browsing the forum and saw your question. I know it's not addressed to me, but since I am also a software developer and a tinnitus sufferer, maybe I can answer it as well. I think if your tinnitus is mild - moderate, being a software developer is a very appropriate job, because the offices are generally quiet, but not dead silent and I find computer fan noises to be a very comforting masker. Also being focused on a programming problem is a good way to keep your mind busy and away from tinnitus. However, in my experience at least, being too focused for too long makes my tinnitus spike temporarily. It's kind of an alarm that tells you to take a break...

Now to address the actual question, what language to choose, what road to follow. It depends if you are interested in a particular kind of software development or not.

A rough, incomplete list would be:

- frontend web development (the part of the website that the user interacts with). Languages of interest: HTML, Javascript, CSS. Emphasis on Javascript; there is some debate if the other two are actually programming languages, however this detail should be irrelevant to you at this point.

- backend web development (has to do with data and making it accessible in the frontend). Here the list can be pretty extensive, but the established languages are Python, Ruby, Java and Javascript. Besides this, some knowledge of databases is necessary (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, etc), but not compulsory in the beginning because the database interaction is usually abstracted by the web development framework. Some web development frameworks are Rails Rruby), Sinatra (Ruby), Django (Python), Flask (Python), NodeJS (Javascript).

- mobile apps (iOS, Android mostly). For iOS you would need to learn ObjectiveC or Swift and most important to note here is that you would need to use a Mac computer; the integrated development environment for developing these apps is free on the App Store and it's called XCode. For Android, mostly Java and Kotlin. You can use any operating system and the integrated development environment for this is called Android Studio.

- Data Science. It depends a lot if you know math or if you are willing to learn math. It deals with analyzing data, finding patterns in data, suggesting new directions based on data predictions. Languages of interest Python, MATLAB, but the list is extensive.

- general application developer. Think about the applications you install and use on your computer. The programming language could be anything, it also depends on the operating system. Just to name a few, could be Java, ObjectiveC, C, Python.

This list is very limited, but it should provide a minimal starting point into research for people that would like to tackle programming but have no clue where to start. At least you can google these terms and start from there. As you can see there are languages that can be used for a variety of purposes. If you are not sure which of these roads to pursue, I would advise learning Python or Javascript (out of the two Python has a friendlier syntax and is generally considered easy to learn). Javascript is also easy to learn but it has many pitfalls. It is also one of the few languages that can be run directly by the browser, so you can easily get visual feedback. This is very rewarding when you are starting out.

There are a ton of ways to get started with a programming language and even the multitude of tutorials can be overwhelming, but in the end what's important is to just start with one. It does not matter if it's not the best, you will still get a feel of what programming is.

If you are wondering what I am doing currently, I am what you would call a 'full stack developer' which means I do both web backend and frontend development, but I mostly focus on the backend part. I am using Ruby and Javascript on a daily basis, however my favorite language is Python. I am also self taught, I studied Economics at the Uni and had no computer at home until I was 20 . I am now 33.

Cheers and good luck!

 

Hi @sky_high, thank you for that amazing response. All the languages and directions you mentioned I am familiar with and that is my issue, I don't know which path to take. I am experienced in html, css, WordPress and WYSIWYG apps like RapidWeaver, Muse and Hype. Initially I wanted to be an iOS developer. I am a Mac user and developing for the iPhone is exciting to me. But the learning curve is huge. I try to self study but my selection is limited because I can't hear speakers so I can only watch online training with subtitles. Ray Wenderlich seems my best option. I know as far as Swift Methods at the moment.

Also I needed a skill that I can do from home and not only from an office because I have reactive tinnitus and am mostly home bound.

What I liked about iOS development is I could sell my apps myself on iTunes. But again, huge learning curve, I'm still not sure if I can do it. The benefit I found from Front End development or Back End development was there are a ton of jobs available. But I doubt telecommuting would be easy to find. I feel my only option would be to find freelance work on UpWork but the pay rate is not the best there. So that's where I'm at. Should I continue with iOS training or learn WordPress and front end and if possible back end and get freelance work on UpWork.

Another thing that's discouraging about WordPress or just front end work is the salary, from what I can tell around 40k which is less than what I would like to make. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

 

Not sure how it's in the US now, as I see you are from LA, but in Europe remote jobs are increasingly popular, at least in Germany and the UK. I actually had to refuse some offers because they were mostly remote. Since my tinnitus is not reactive I feel best in an office setting as the background noise masks my tinnitus. At home I find it hard to concentrate and mostly focus on my tinnitus or look up things related to it (today is one of those days when I do home office, that's why I am so active on this forum).

I am sure you can do it if you want it. The learning curve is a bit steep but it's no rocket science. Having a really good idea for an app is harder than writing the code for it. Sometimes people look at developers like some kind of geniuses, and not to say that some are not, but most of us are regular guys that learned along the way.

 

This could be a real possibility now.

 

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