Tinnitus, Hyperacusis, and a Psychiatric Hospital

Round 1 - Day 7

There are 3 psychiatry departments in the University teaching hospital:

1. Department A - severe cases (I imagine Hannibal Lector type of a thing)
2. Department B - moderate risk (suicidal tendencies, severe depressions, pain etc.)
3. Department C - low risk (more like a day care centre, psychotherapy with accommodation, access to wifi, patients are allowed to leave the ward without an escort etc.)

I am located in the department B and the following lines should give you an insight into what the daily routine looks like, especially from the point of someone who suffers from bilateral tinnitus and hyperacusis.
The main reason why I got into the mental house was due to the infamous acoustic reflex test (mesured with the Interacoustics Titan IMP 440) that gave me a severe spike and pain. I did not know what else to do.

If you would like to know more about the test and its consequences, please, read here: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/warning-acoustic-reflex-test.25645/#post-295490 and here: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/is-tympanometry-safe.18558/

I feel a little like the Joker now with the voices in his head (tinnitus) in the Arkham Asylum.

In all seriousness now. A typical day in a psychiatric hospital looks like this:

• 6:30 a.m. is your wake-up signal. A nurse storms in the room and with a loud voice yells out "Good morning everybody and wake up!" (Just exactly what my ears need)
• 7:00 a.m. there is breakfast. A dinning room full of other patients making clanking loud sounds with cutlery and dishes, talking loudly, laughs and all that jazz. So as a result you take your breakfast to a conjoined room where it is somewhat less noisy.
• After breakfast everyone must go and take their medication. For me it is a small cup with 5 pills (Brintellix 10 mg, Brintellix 5 mg, Clonazepam 2 mg, Betaserc 24 mg and Vitamin b12)
• 8:30 a.m. there is this community thing where we all meet in a common room and sing a song all together (again, precisely what my ears need). This is compulsory.

A small sidenote: During all this I'm having my Ohropax foam earplugs in + my - 27 dB cheap safety earmuffs on. Yes, I know I look like an idiot but then again, I guess I'm in the right place then.

• 9:00 a.m. ish there is a ward round. A psychiatrist walks in, asks about your day, how you feel, if you noticed any chances, the usual stuff.

A small sidenote: Ocasionally I now get a fleeting t. too. Not sure if it's due to the medication, the stress or smth. else. It usully resolves itself in a matter of seconds.

• 11:30 a.m. there is lunchtime. This is similar to breakfast just a lot louder. There is even TV playing in the background, so I just usually go and mute it for the moment again where I'm eating by myself in the conjoined room. The noise there appears to be somewhat less bothersome. Perhaps it's juts my own feeling and perception of the noise.
• after lunch you get your daily intake of pills again. This time, I think, there are only 3 in the small cup (Clonazepam 2 mg, Betaserc 24 mg, and Thyamin B1 50 mg)

Come to think about it, having yourself admitted in an ENT clinic could be a beter idea - less noisy, intravenous therapy with corticosteroids etc. - Just my opinion.

• in the afternoon, patients spend their time watching TV, playing foosball (loud sudden impact noise blasts when hitting the hard ball with the figure), playing ping-pong or just spending their time in the corridors and hallways having a loud chat, laughs, other times even crying or just being incredibly depressed. It is a sad sight but the least I can do is to offer a shoulder to cry on and try to restore their faith in positive thiking (something I lack myself atm.) Most of the time I am, however, hiding in my room.

As you can imagine I'm wearing my s. earmuffs on 24/7, and during the meal time even with my earplugs in. When I shower I plug my earplugs in too. I do not think it works the way that when you put your earplugs in that is - 32 dB + you put your safety eramuffs on - 27 db it adds up to an actual protection of - 59 dB. Shame.

• 5:30 pm is dinnertime. The same scenario as with breakfast and lunch. Again, once you finish your meal you must go and take your medication. For me it's this time (Clonazepam 1 mg, and Betaserc 24 mg)
• then the usual follows, ping-pong (used to love it, now hate it because of the noise), loud TV, table football, and people having their visits - me hiding away again in my room, with all the protection gear on. Luckily my roommate was quite tolerable (no cabinet or door smashing). I would so much appreciate revolving door instead - try to slam it shut (lol).

The things that are also VERY irritable are the pushing of those huge cleaning, or food trolleys, ocasionally dropping metal things on the floor. Especially early in the morning - think 5 a.m. ish.

• 11 p.m. is my last pill. Risperidone (antipsychotics).

To sum it all up. I am not too sure if trying to make a recovery after acoustic trauma in such a place is a good idea. With the pain and suicidal thoughts it felt as though it was my last resort.

I just wanted to give you guys a quick idea of what it is like to be hospitalized in a mental house with T & H. All this because of my ringing in the ears and the mad spike I got after multiple reassurances of the whole ENT department that the acoustic reflex test will do me no harm.

Thank you for your attention.

P.S.:

One more thing happened that scared me much. It was just my luck. I had an arranged appointment in the morning with the hospitals ENT doctor on Thursday. He was the first one that gave me actual hope that my T might lower in volume and frequency by about 30 % - 40% and if I'm lucky the even by 50% over time. I left the ENT clinic all positive and in a good mood. What do you know? That very same day during lunch time a bunch of workers came in the reception and started drilling holes in walls. I was literally like 49 - 32 feet (15 m - 10 m) away from the loud drilling noise. Wearing still my cheap safety earmuffs (-27 dB). When I confronted the nurses that I have a hearing problem(tinnitus + hyperacusis) they became super bitchy that I won't be ordering anyone around! Luckily I didn't suffer any major spike that day but it certainly hasn't promoted my recovery either.

Cheers,

Jiri

 

You deserve a "funny" rating too, for your humor, but I could not give you two ratings.

 

Glad your getting the support you need and I hope on going support when home.
Keep us posted on how you are doing.
Love glynis x

 

@Jiri

I had a similar experience with the acoustic reflex test.
Without being warned, when the probe was put inside, the sound in my ear canal grew suddenly and to a very high level. Involuntarily i screamed.
Guess what? The audiologist scolded me in a very rude manner that i scared her, and my scream almost gave her a heart attack.
So i was scolded for the fact that the startling increasing pressure/sound ...startled me, and my screaming startled her, from which i understood that startling somebody is not polite, but startling was what she did to me first.
The increasing in the pressure is controlled by the audiologist, so she could have done it nicer and slower, and with warning.
Oh, well...

 

@Jiri - Sorry to hear about all the grief you have been going through. I was in a hospital last year for 10 days from a surgery complication. The nurses were both good and bad. Do you think your noise could be from muscle spasms from your neck? I have very loud hissing today that I think could be caused by muscles in my neck. I'm not totally positive but think it's likely. Could be a sleep cycle brain thing too though. I've been on a few different CNS meds.

 

Yup, exactly same here.

Again. Same here. I got told off and kicked out the room. She sent me back to the doctor where I was reassured again, it's a safe procedure.

I had NO idea this was a possibility. I thought it was all automatic.

I mean are they dumb, or smth? You tell them exactly what your problem is and they seem to ignore it completely. If I was rich I would sense a lawsuit coming.

 

@just1morething It very well could be. I believe mine T. was caused primarily by acoustic trauma rather than the damage to my c. spine. However, both options are very possible.

It could be a herniated disk that is pressing on one of your vagus nerves in your cervical spine. Or a pinched arteria vertebralis, again in your c. spine.

Try asking @Greg Sacramento He's a lot more knowledgeable about the anatomy causes of Tinnitus.

Also, I agree. Some nurses are nice but some are complete b*****. If they don't enjoy doing their job, perhaps they shoud look for something else. It's called common courtesy and manners.

 

They just simply DO NOT CARE.

The machine they used with you may be automatic, i do not know (i doubt, cause in some case they must repeat a part of the increasing), but in my case she moved the cursor up right in front of me. I was next to table and the machine was on the table.

Right! They do that with people who have ear problems!

If you were rich this would not have happened. They would have given you special treatment (maximum caution and courtesy). They treat rich people differently, we all know that.

 

@Jiri
Although you are in a hospital and you gave us a pretty good idea of how much fun you have there, i wish you, without being ironic
"Merry Christmas"!

 

I believe they do it even with people who've got other problems. Had it been themselves or their relatives/close ones it would've have been a different story.

That's actually correct. High profile people. Chances are that a lot of us would be doing much better already and then it's just poolside and umbrella drinks.

@Dana Merry Christmas to you too and thank you!

 

These audiologists sound like real idiots. Every audiologist I've gone to has asked me if loud noises are bothersome and when I tell them 'yes' they decide to not do the acoustic reflex test.

 

@Jiri - You write very well considering you have bad T & H. I thought that would affect your concentration levels. I was thinking that your neck trauma came before your acoustic trauma. I can't function too well today with my noise.

 

You're beyond lucky then. I was never asked. They just inserted the probe in and did the 'job'. Seriously, causing a permanent hearing damage or giving someone a permanent tinnitus spike is a good enough reason in my book for pressing charges. Very incosiderate, a sloppy job and dangerous.

 

With tinnitus, no. There was a rich member on the forum and in a thread about what can help tinnitus he listed a number of expensive brands of alcoholic drinks, most of which i only heard of. He had a nice pool too. And in spite of being rich and living in a rich neighborhood, believe me, he was absolutely miserable. I bet that if could have traded all his money and possesions for healthy ears and no tinnitus, he would have done it in a flash. Only when you are hit with something like tinnitus you realise that, although useful, in some cases money are absolutely powerless. They cannot buy you back the lost silence, the lost health, our most precious possession, without which nothing else matters anymore.

 

Well, thanks I guess. Read my first post and count all the drugs I'm currently on. On a daily basis for the past weeks (I had some other similar medication before that too - just lowered doses) I hear the noise, the medication just makes me somewhat not to care about it that much + I'm listening to the fan of my laptop as a masking sound.

Edit: Also, English isn't my 1st language so pardon any typos or mistakes I make pls.

 

It was very encouraging for me when i read this. In fact i knew that, besides bad people, there are good people also, who make this life worth living and the world not such a bad place after all.

 

Agreed. You only have one health. However, with money he could afford to become a participant in some stem cells research project (you know how it goes, ppl know ppl who know ppl..). I heard there is a similar type of research being currently carried out somewhere in Mexico (unconfirmed piece of info) or he could proly try this as well, which costs almost as much as my tution fees:

Tinnitus Treatment - Causes and treatment of...

 

I saw! Unbelievable! Not that i do not believe you, but they really dope you up! My!

 

I don't know about stem cells research (not very optimistic), acoustic CR neuromodulation looks better to me, but i personally cannot use it. Not because i lack money, which i do, but because the frequency of my tinnitus changes. But the member i was talking about was having neurosensorial hearing loss, probably due to a virus. Yeah, he could have easily tried this. Like i said, money ARE useful. Maybe he tried it, or maybe he will. You are right; even when it's about lost health, having money is a tremendous advantage. But it is not a guarantee. I know of a guy who died after a liver transplant. When he died, he was a ...billionaire. With a "b"! All his money could not buy him time. And he was not old.
So with lots of money you can do so much more than what common people can do, but they have a limit in what they can do. Oh, my "great conclusion".. Everybody knows that. I was just rambling.

 

It kind of reminds me of Steve Jobs.

Here's me literally quoting what I saw on youtube (you decide if it's rubbish or if there's some truth to it):

"in a year or 5 they should have a pill to rebuild ear hair and synapse connecting inner ear hair to the brain . that is probably damaged .. stem cells research is every where .. the pill tricks the body into growing and fixing synapse .. thats michigan university . good study getting tweaked finished in belgion or dutchland . all working on it . countries and states .. they know the earbud generation is going to be a flood of ear problems . my ears running now . stay away from noise . lol . lots of things can cause it .. rebuild brain clinic in cali and mexico . might help . mexico has stem cell IV but goes to heart and brain. 30 grand . hold on you will have options soon ."​

 

RUBBISH. With capital letters!
"The pill tricks the brain into growing and fixing synapses"? What?
Are you making fun of me?

You are right about Steve Jobs. But he kinda did it to himself. His diet was absolutely crazy.

 

I think I know the member you are talking about. He has pretty severe tinnitus too.

 

I know.
Funny, smart, industrious, self-made man, cultivated, and, with all that...tinnitus came and spoiled everything.

 

Or his genes.

Look here, I know that the miracle pill thing fixing synapses and all that is bo******. I'd imagine some more invasive method like injecting some stuff (like the Gel AM-101 – Keyzilen) right into the inner ear would be more effective. However, that guy is right in a sense that scientists must be aware that current generation of youngsters is already a flood of all kinds of ear problems. With current speed of technology advancement and everything progressing at a linear rate it is almost impossible to predict what the future may hold for us. That means there is hope and a solution to our problems might be here sooner than expected. I think that's being a positive realist.

 

I do not to spoil your Christmas, otherwise i would tell you what i think about our chances to benefit from the advancement of science and technology.
Injecting a gel in the inner ear? No way. The endolimph and perilimph must not be disturbed.

 

Yes, I don't mean to spoil your Christmas either. This should actually make it a little more optimistic for you: http://www.aurismedical.com/product-candidates/am-101

Second off, did you know that only 66 years separated the first successful plane flight from a moon landing? That's huge. Look at the phones/tablets what they can do now and what they could do and how they looked 10 years ago. Everything is accelerating. Did you know they can already TELEPORT photons from one island to another? It's called quantum mechanics. Hearth transplants etc. quantum computers, AI, programs that are able to learn from mistakes of other human beings and other programs, then become unbeatable. That's science. Our hope.

Anyway, don't mean to be argumentative. This all was a little off topic. I hope you have a nice day.

 

These research projects have the potential to make one's T worse...

 

True.

 

It might be a blessing in disguise that you can't afford being part of those trials.

 

Look Bill, the way I see it we just need that little bit of luck (trust in our own body repair mechanisms), progress in the medical field, and hope + positive thinking. Stats, facts and evidence are MVPs here too. Indisputably.