Tinnitus Is Like Water Torture

Hello to everybody at tinnitus talk
nice site youve got here...thanks to all who make it happen, especially Markku

ive been lurking here for about a month...im a long time tinnitus "sufferer"...20 years or so

but truth be known amazingly, i somewhat "recovered" from my first bout with T, after two years of initial onset, ,,,but now ive been thrown back into the fire.

yes from time to time i had flare-ups but for a long time i felt like id made adequate progress... that i could get along with my life

my initial affliction , if i that is the right word, occurred because i was taking what turned out to be an ototoxic drug, (back then i didnt even know what that meant!) and was subsequently exposed to what in the past had been very minor noise....small firecrackers and the sound of a 22 firing at a practice range while i was wearing insufficient ear protection

my ears rang like mad, and in fact i had about three sounds going on at once. there was this steam like hissing sound, and then also a pure tone of about 4000hz and then on top of all that was what sounded like morse code... yeah, all happening at the same time...sheesh i was, emotionally, backed up against the wall

then i read a book by a doc named, i think, hallam and i was introduced to the idea of "habituation" and got the plain scoop that this wasnt going away any time soon...i felt like doing something very drastic and dismal if you know what i mean

somehow, over a period of about two years of misery, i got to a point where my T didnt completely wreck my life anymore even though i could still "hear" it

of course, along the way i tried every treatment i could find...some so ridiculous that im ashamed to mention here. i did find that a benzodiazepine, klonopin was of some help and i was very careful not to abuse it.

during the next decade i got better and better to the point that i could only hear my tinnitus if i paid attention or listened for it...the tinnitus was in the background.......but

but.... if i exposed myself to any degree of loud noise my ears would ring even louder for three or four days, like when i went to the movies and the surround sound speakers were really loud. so early on i made it a habit to carry ear plugs and i learned quick how to chew on paper and make a large spit ball and stuff them into my ears... a pretty decent ear plug in an emergency

ok so fast forward to today...so many years later...ah yes, well i was recently mis diagnosed as possibly having cancer and had a few other medical problems that drove me emotionally to the edge. even after i told my doctors that i had Tinnitus and wanted to avoid all risk of ototoxic drugs, still, i was prescribed meds, over and over, that upon my research, i learned were a risk for a person such as myself

i turned down some meds early and others i took for a day or two and when the tinnitus got louder i took appropriate action.

despite my best efforts i could hear my tinnitus slowly getting louder, and then one day my ear protection fell out while i was running the vacuum cleaner, and the next day i got a flu shot only to find out later that it had gentamicin in it

by the end of that week my T was back in full force. i want to be clear here, i...dont.. know... the... cause.. of my amped up tinnitus. could it have been stress?, the flu shot? the minor noise exposure? the antihistamine i took? advancing age? who knows,…. i sure dont

but now, today, after many years of getting better, my... tinnitus... is OFF_THE_HOOK !

damn i feel so guilty, or is it stupid? or what ever, for having done, or not done what ever it was i did or dint do, that pushed me back 10 steps

so here i am. now all i can do is carry on as i did many years before, and hope for some kind of treatment thats in the research pipeline...like we all do

thanx for listening to my story

best wishes to all
mock turtle

ps
a little personal info...i live in the puget sound region and i enjoy outdoor recreation especially hiking around mt rainier

 

That's a crazy story. I am guessing stress is the culprit right now to your increased T. Seems like you have a lot going on right now, medically, and I am sure your stress and anxiety are through the roof. If I were you, I would to try and take at least 30 minutes a day for some meditation, deep breathing, outside if possible. That helps me sometimes. And a .25 xanax never hurts either.

 

Tha_b_man

thanks for the re

yeah i think you are right...the stress was something to behold...i learned stress can do unbelievable bad things to a persons health

at one point when the docs said it appeared i had a brain tumor, i couldnt eat for several days...constant nausea and fear waiting for the day of the brain mri an the "final" diagnosis

i certainly weakened my system with fear and anxiety.... kinda poisoned myself

but something else is happening here also cause i was kinda cumming out of it (less stress) when the big T got amped up, way high

delayed reaction? or any of a number of things, i dont know

my prime suspects....a prescription of tylenol3 i was on...or a recent flu injection that had a very small amount of gentamicin in it (an aminoglycoside..notorious for ototoxicity)

well what ever...ill probably never know for sure

best wishes to you
mock turtle

 

Very definitely stress, so get that under control and your T will settle down again to the manageable point. No vacuum or flu shot would spike you up that drastically. As far as i'm concerned T is the symptom of stress. I have depression and when I recently went through a bad spell the T was loud. I got the D under control with a variation in meds and the T was almost instantly better. My 2 bits from Western Canada.

 

Don, thanx for the reply

you may well be right, as the stress was crushing

still i worry about the antibiotic (gentamicin) in the injection, and i had been exposed to other ototoxic drugs as well

in all probability it was a combination of events with stress likely a big part...much sadness

well, i habituated once before...many years ago, took more than a year, maybe i can do it again...hoping

 

Mock Turtle, your mind is racing, you need to calm a little, I think this is why your T is at its peak, take it easy,dont stress, and I dont think that flu shoot, has anything to do with any elevation. If you take things a little calmer, I am sure you will make youre T dormant again. It takes time and patience