Tinnitus for a Few Weeks — Changing

Weekend was quiet again, both days, which means that tomorrow there will be ringing again as a punishment or revenge from my ears to my soul for peaceful quiet time. Besides of this, evening is always the worst - tinnitus is loudest (but If quiet day, still manageable) like a "reward" for all accumulated noise and sounds that was allowed to land in my ears that day.

If I'm not aware that I have tinnitus, I would say I don't have it, expect few short episodes when I did notice it but only when searching for it or with plugged ears. Today I experienced about 1 hour of noticeable ringing/hissing that mostly went away.

What bothers me is the fact that after tinnitus onset, I'm experiencing "sudden tinnitus" for 30sec - 1minutes, sometimes few times a day randomly in both ears, but mostly few times a week that reminds me that something is wrong/I have a damage

.... or maybe I'm just habituating and my brain is filtering the noise off my consciousness.

 

I constantly monitor your reports as I am in a similar situation. I sometimes have a passing ringing for a couple of minutes or seconds.
I hear my tinnitus mostly in the morning and in the evening.

Do you avoid loud noises?

 

@Ivkopivko I'm glad you're having quiet days.

Is your tinnitus somatic, meaning can you modulate your tinnitus by moving your neck or jaw?

I got mine just sitting watching TV. Not loud. So I want to know if ours is similar.

 

Yes I do - I'm scared based on some posts there and trying to give my ears chance to heal. I'm wearing earplugs 33dB SNR while driving, walking on the noisy street or doing dishes/loud activities in garden. Sometimes I just plug them also in noise, just to listen the sound of tinnitus and thinking about whole experience - strange, I know...

@MarkX - I can definitely hear increase of intensity when pushing my chin/head down to my neck like I want to reach my chest with it however I don't exactly know what does it mean related to our condition and was told that It's normal also for people without tinnitus. Moving my head to side or rotating does not affect my tinnitus.

 

I knew that something had to happen. Today I went to a lunch with colleagues, everything went great and finally, when I was returning the tray with dishes, my metallic tray slipped and dropped not just on the floor, but to another metallic bracket about more that 1 meter lower and then on the stone paving.

What a disaster

You can only imagine how loud it was - I haven't heard anything that loud since my tinnitus started and even if I had no tinnitus and this happened, I'm sure that my ears would have started ringing and burn in hell. Like a car wreck.

It has been few hours and I do not notice any spike yet, however maybe after 30 minutes my tinnitus was a little louder but then got quiet 30 minutes after the "incident". Unfortunately It's not a secret that It can (and I'm sure it will) come later in full force.

Please, wish me luck.

 

Take NAC, a big dose.

Maybe someone knows which dose is optimal?

I read about 500 mg/kg.
But I think 5*500 mg for a day will be ok?

 

Thanks for the advice Yuri. Luckily it wasn't necessary for this time - I didn't experience any spike so far, rest of the day and yesterday evening was quiet. Today my tinnitus is also very quiet, barely noticeable including now (evening). I'm so thankful,

 

I hope you have carried on and in a couple of days everything will be as it was. I have, for example, pain in my ears after loud noises (mostly glass and dishes) that I try to avoid.

Anyway, take NAC.

Yesterday I read a story about taking NAC for one year and it made the tinnitus go away.

 

Well, I hope there won't be any jing-jang stuff and my tinnitus won't spike and kick my ass just because I'm writing this post, but I have to say...

Last 2 weeks were certainly quieter compared to months April and May. The worst were first days and week after "motorcycle incident", which was definitely the moment I decided to search for help and found this community/forum.

@Bill Bauer, @winstona, @Arseny @GSC and many others were there for me ready to cheer me up and share some valuable insights - many thanks to all of you! You guys and my girlfriend helped me when I went trough the darkest times.

28.5. was my first longer quiet day (tinnitus most probably was there, but it was that low that I didn't hear it at all trough the normal day, both work or weekend, only when I plug my ears with earplugs with 30+dB SNR there was little hiss but almost not bearable). Since that day, I experienced at least 7 quiet days like that first one. Unfortunately, It's always starts to ring/hiss a little after 17:00, but stays on low volume until next day. I had approximately 2 or 3 quiet evenings, so much less compared to usually quiet mornings.

I went back to some activities that I was unable to do while crying in bed and depressed after the motorcycle spike, I started to run again, a few kilometers a few times per week, I can focus on work once again, experienced few parties (garden parties, without loud music, only chatting, shouting and clinging with dishes etc).

Yesterday, I "dared" to spend about 2 hours on the terrace of noisy pub located on noise place (crossroad in the city centre, average noise level measured for few minutes was about 75 dB with some "spikes" to 82 dB) with no protection, just chatting with my friends as I used to, followed by walking home on the noisy streets of city centre, encouraged by few beers and I didn't experience worsening.

The pattern seems to be 2 quiet days followed by 1 "normal" (I can hear the static noise or hiss over the quiet office, but quiet compared to onset), but it's still somewhat unpredictable. In 2 weeks, it will be 3 months since onset and I'll join the "chronic tinnitus club" with minimal chance to get rid of it.

I'm determined to continue and protect my ears. I declined to avoid all planned summer festivals, I'm protecting with earplugs walking on busy noisy street, driving longer distance or when there is a chance of any unpredictable "incidents" like horns, dog barks, children screaming etc. and once Lenire by Neuromod will be available in Germany (Regensburg can be reached easily by car from place where I live in a few hours), I'm also determined to give it a try and possibly get back to normal life.

Do you think that I still have a chance to have it fade away and be more spike-resistant in the next few months/years, considering my progress that I tried to capture in this thread?

(OMG I can't keep my posts short, It has to be a book every time, sorry for that).

 

Congrats. I’m on over three months and just today was a quiet morning so far. I’m trying to stay positive. If it stayed like this I could survive this. I hope yours go away.

 

I just wanted to share a quick update there, as in next 2 weeks I'll be at 6 months mark.

In overall, my tinnitus had improved a lot compared to 2-3 months after sudden onset (out of the blue, no medical examinations finding including MRI, Tympanometry, Neurological, Blood tests and much more, 2 independent audiograms with totally normal hearing and more).

I'm still tracking and making notes day by day and I would summarize it in the points below.

1. My hyperacusis started to improve approx at 3 months mark and it improved much that would say It's 85% gone. It got better gradually week by week.
   I can handle loud sudden laughs of my colleagues and some woman, I can work almost normally in he kitchen with all the dishes clinging and other noises, I can clap with my hands, lock the doors almost with no issues compared to first 2 months when all of those were very unpleasant.
   
2. TTTS - yes, I developed also this symptom and It was noticeable only with some little certain noises like locking specific doors, slinging with specific dishes, starting my GF's old Toyota with keys, or loud bang of Head'n'Shoulders hair shampoo..
   This symptom is also almost gone, my ears don't react to any of the mentioned sounds/situations anymore. Interestingly, this changed somewhat quickly - in the middle of June it was there, but in he middle of August it was gone.
   
3. Tinnitus - on the beginning It was more intrusive, It was over the top of others sounds and everything, more tonal, for example I could match the noise to 4.150 kHz with high pitched high-frequency (maybe 14 kHz +) crickets sound and those could be heard in busy office, in the meeting, walking in the forest or busy street.
   It changed more to the old tape hiss with short episodes of "dentist drill" or "electrical something or like a crickets", but much less loud and less intrusive and it usually calms in hour or two back to hiss.
   
   I have many quiet days and episodes of quietness - started at month 4, there were few days where I felt the way I'm cured = from time to time there was a day when tinnitus started low (only plugged ears state) and stayed until I got the bed in the late evening, Unfortunately, since July there were only 5-8 days like those.
   
   Mornings are usually super quiet, first 2-3 hours of the day I don't hear the tinnitus at all, only when I plug my ears. When I have a bad day, the high frequency cricket sound appears and can be heard over the quiet office, or driving the car. On a good day, I can't hear it in the quiet office, driving the car or walking in the park/forest, however It slowly creep back at 5PM and stays for the rest of the day.
   
   Looking to my diary, I'm having 2/3 good days and 1/3 are normal or bad days.
   Does this mean that my tinnitus is fluctuating?

I hope that mentioned symptoms and tinnitus still has some chance to improve, but not sure... I still experience few bad days in a row (2 or 3) with no apparent reason or even when I'm in completely quiet environment with any loud noise incidents.

I had a few opportunities to test my tinnitus, I attended a very loud wedding (healthy people complained it was loud as well) with band playing and I did well with 35dB NRR earplugs during the night dancing like a crazy, singing few songs to the microphone with the band and groom. Interestingly, I had extremely quiet day after the wedding where I had to drive 950km to Tuscany, Italy and didn't experience any spike or worsening, but opposite - next 2 or 3 days were very quiet. I drove it without plugs and the same regarding to way back, so I'm happy to say that 10 hours of highway driving won't reflect to spike or tinnitus worsening too.

I'm eagerly waiting for reports from Lenire users and also to further possible treatment options like UMich and UMinn devices, or adjusting/refining the device in the future.

 

Hi - I have been following your post and read your thread.

I’m glad to read that you’re feeling somewhat better at almost month six than you were at months two and three.

I’m about three weeks into my Tinntus onset and my patterns and noise levels seem very similar to yours. I am starting to see a touch of improvement in week three (more hissing, less tones, easier to ignore over ambient noise and conversations) after a big setback in week two.

It was helpful to read about your journey. Please keep posting updates, it is good to hear about the road ahead considering I seem to be following your patterns.

Thank you!