Tinnitus from Myriad Potential Sources

Hi.

I'm Karj.

Where to start, I guess...

So, my current experience with tinnitus started in the first year of the pandemic, around September 2020. I woke up one morning and noticed that the tiniest faintest ring I used to hear throughout my life (for years) had the volume turned up, considerably.

As a kid I played a lot of live music, and for the first month or so of playing, I didn't use earplugs the way I should have. This, is certainly a factor on some level to some of the high range hearing loss I have (above 15 kHz-17 kHz in both ears is gone. It's a high range without much frequency content, but it's gone nonetheless).

Professionally for the last 16 years I've worked in audio for tech/games, and while in my professional life I've been much more careful about the sounds I expose myself to, it's still something that is part of my daily life. Weapon and explosion sound work, I've tried my best to really monitor my listening volumes, but at the end of the day, a part of what I do is still making big booms and bangs, and it too, has likely had an impact. Especially over the course of the pandemic - doing more work with headphones, rather than studio monitors.

Personally (and I will only touch on this lightly as it pertains to stress and sleep), I also suffered a lot of abuse and neglect as a child, and have picked stressful and less-caring-than-I-should-have romantic partners. My stress levels have pretty consistently been up, and the amount and quality of my sleep has been "decidedly not great". Not long before things worsened in September 2020 I'd come to a realization of the childhood and lifelong traumas (mostly small traumas / CPTSD), and I think that going through that may have also helped lend itself to the worsening of the tinnitus.

Lastly (and not in chronological order), in December of 2019 my partner at the time became VERY sick for several weeks. We were not able to confirm that it was COVID-19, but the symptoms and some of the long term side effects they encountered line up with a lot of folks' COVID-19 experiences. I caught whatever it was (COVID-19 or not), and there is some part of me that also wonders if that, too, played a roll in this (from a long COVID-19 perspective).

From there, I went to see my GP who first wondered if it could be an infection/inflammation. So I went on several rounds of antibiotics, all to no effect. Then, the GP sent me off to a nearby ENT specialist, whom, when they did their hearing tests, everything was in healthy/normal ranges (though, admittedly, most ENTs only test up to the 8 kHz range), with the slightest volume perception dip in my right ear. The ENT did a few jaw open/close tests on me and felt pretty sure I had Temporomandibular Dysfunction. I sat on this for a while, and then returned to the ENT a few months later and their assessment was the same "it's likely TMD, you need to see a myofascial dentist". So... in late 2021 I found a really good myofascial dentist, got scans, mouth/teeth/jaw impressions - and a mouthguard was fitted for me. Their thought/hope was that because my jaw couldn't rest properly that the blood vessels near my ears were in a constant state of stress and inflammation - and that - ideally, the mouthguard would allow my jawbones, muscles, etc to all find a new comfortable way to rest, and allow the muscles/cartilage in my jaw/face to heal. As part of this I was also sent to Physical Therapy for dry needling, upper body / posture work and exercise, and intraoral manual massage therapy. The postural work, dry needling, and manual work have helped to a small degree. On my worst days I would experience the ring as a 7-8, and nowadays the ring is about a 3-4 on average (still ever preset, but I am able to tune it out while masking or otherwise heavily mentally engaged in a task, and/or playing video games).

In addition to the medical treatment from the myofascial dentist, and physical therapists, I've also made a lot of changes in my sleep habits, and diet. A good amount of research I'd found had suggested not stomach or side sleeping, and instead trying to lie flat on one's back - in an effort to prevent any undue stress and pressure on the head/neck/jaw (and the influence issues in that area can have on tinnitus). On the diet side, I've seen several mentions of lowering processed sugars and salt, so I made another pass on my diet and removed as much of each of those as I could comfortably do so.

Also, picking back up meditation a year and a half ago, and really deepening the practice the last 6 months has also helped. Mostly Ohm chants for, on average 20-30 minutes a day.

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All of that said, where I am right now I am happy to have made some minor progress and improvements, and I want to continue trying other approaches. I have very dark days, and dark thoughts, and some days I'm not sure that I will be able to stick around - specifically because my life and livelihood revolves around my ability to hear, it's a visceral terror to think of a time when I may not be able to just keep pushing forward and enduring it.

With that in mind, and after seeing a few folks mention Stem Cell therapy as an approach that helped them (either lessening considerably, or eliminating outright), that is the next step for me. Coming in early 2023 I'll be going to Innate Healthcare in Phoenix, AZ to receive treatment similar to what @attheedgeofscience did back in 2013.

I am going to try to do a similar journal of my trip and treatment as well, in hopes that it helps someone else at some point.

Thank you for reading, be kind to yourselves,
Karj

 

You sound very, very much like me in many ways. I'm now thinking of doing the exact same thing. In addition to my hearing ailments, I also suffer from severe IBS and HF autism, which is exacerbating the mental aspects of my tinnitus. I'm considering making an appointment to talk to them and asking my parents for help with the $$. It might be my last hope in many ways...

 

Good luck with everything! I have a notch that fluctuates between 15-20 dB in my left ear. Drives me insane. Would really like to have it fixed. Definitely wouldn't want to spend $26,000 though... That would be roughly 3/5 of my yearly income.

Well, if I get enough money, I will likely do the same.

 

Wish we heard some updates from @Karj.