Tinnitus Just Started 2 Weeks Ago and Is Constant

[Clarknbruce]

Hello everyone. My name is Stephen, I'm 27. My tinnitus just started about two weeks ago. Since these last two weeks it has been constant and only gets better when I'm around other noises throughout the day. Its a high pitch sound but the volume (if you will) is about a 4-5/10. I feel I forget about the noise and it only gets better when I'm around other noises. As a matter of fact I was in the shower and I couldn't hear the tinnitus at all and was extremely happy and as soon as i turned the water off sure enough it was there and the water was just drowning out the ringing.

I'm not entirely sure what caused this but i have three ideas.

1. About a 1 months ago I saw my PCP and i told him 1 week before the appointment I noticed when I woke up I would have a weird crunch/crackling sensation only in my right ear when I would put pressure on my ears. For example blowing your nose. It doesn't last all day but I notice its worse when I wake up. Well two weeks later I'm having bilateral tinnitus.
2. About 1.5 months ago I went to the gun range and my ear muff seal wasn't properly closed to the right side of my head and someone close by fired off a couple rounds. I instantly was like wow that's loud so immediately left the range and adjusted my ear muffs and everything was fine. The crackling started 2 weeks after that give or take.
3. I've always used headphones at this gym. Not crazy loud but not soft either. This damage I've been causing overtime maybe now is just too much. (I've tossed the headphones).

My PCP when he assessed my ears said he noticed I had hair in my ear (however no hair in my left ear) that could be pressing against my eardrum and when pressure it put on the eardrum it could be pressing against the hair causing that crackling/crunch sensation. He thought it could of been hair from a previous haircut and told me to rinse out my ears. I have since and my ears have been assess by another physician and he said the hair remains? and that its hard to tell if its hair thats growing in my ears vs hair that is from a hair cut. I'm not sure if the crunch/crackling sensation is a coincidence to the tinnitus. (even the the cracking is only in my right, but the tinnitus is in both ears). The tinnitus wasn't there when I saw the first physician. The second physician is a friend of mine and he told me it's best to be seen by an ENT.

Anyway, shortly after my tinnitus has started, I noticed when I thrust my jaw forward (bottom teeth in front of top teeth) the sound lessens and heightens when I retract my jaw in a normal position and overall movement of my jaw kind of changes the pitch of the ringing.

I have an appointment/hearing test with an otolaryngologist today in about 5 hours. I'm hoping it gives me good news and that this tinnitus goes away on its own. I've seen an ARNP to get this referral to the ENT and she prescribed me a combination ear drop that contains prednisone and another medication in it that I will be starting after the hearing test.

I'm starting to lose faith and this is really depressing to be honest. Unfortunately the last year I've been having way to many health issues and this is just the icing on the cake. Palpitations requiring a complete cardio work up (echocardiogram, holter monitor, EKGs, stress test, xrays etc.) then found out my bilirubin is around 2.4 and I have Gilberts syndrome (thankfully its nothing else) and seeing a GI doctor. I even had intermittent chest pain that occured requiring a ED visit (all tests negative). I've since recovered from all that but man, health wise I've been way too busy.

Anyway, thanks for your time to whoever reads this.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Your T is most likely due to the combination of causes 2 and 3. There is a good chance that by the time you are 6-8 weeks in, your T will begin to fade. It might take 3-24 months to hear silence again, or for it to get to the "can faintly hear it only in quiet rooms" stage. So unless you experience no improvement/fading during your first 3-6 months, you shouldn't worry about it being permanent.

Your doctor will most likely not be helpful.

Make sure those ear drops (and any other medication you get prescribed from now on) is not on the list below
http://hlaa-sbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Ototoxic_Brochure.pdf

Right now your goal should be to avoid hurting your ears again.

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

I didn't read all the above comments, but did peruse a fair amount of it, and ran across many good points on both sides of the argument. What strikes me is there seems to be an underlying assumption (of course I may be wrong on this) that all brains and neurological systems are created equal. The way I see it, that's simply not the case, so everybody's way of dealing with tinnitus and/or hyperacusis is going to have to be highly individualized.

I read a book many years ago called "Adrenal Syndrome". A lot of the book touched on the residual resiliency of people's adrenal glands as they respond to life's stresses. Very low resiliency often resulted in months/years of chronic debilitating exhaustion following a stressful event(s) in their lives. Very high resiliency indicated essentially the opposite. The author broke this down into some rough numbers:

25% of people have low resiliency, meaning normal life stressors will often send them into some degree of a tailspin.
25% of people have high resiliency, meaning that no matter how severe a stressor comes into their lives, they will be able to cope without becoming debilitated to any degree.
50% of people fall somewhere inbetween.

I believe there are some kind of corresponding numbers for a person's brain and neurological resiliency as well, which can greatly affect the ability to cope with tinnitus. (I believe adrenal resiliency also plays a major role in our ability to cope). -- Based on these assumptions, it's pretty easy for me to conclude that what may be overprotection for one person will be underprotection for another, and vice versa.

I think the main point to understand for someone new to tinnitus is that their path forward is going to be a lot of "testing the waters". Generally, IMHO, it's going to take a few weeks or months to get important insights that will help us achieve a healthy balance. In all likelihood, most people are going to learn from experience when their over-protecting or under-protecting.

I've come to believe however, that in those early months, if one is going to err in either direction, it should be toward overprotection. It just seems to me the consequences of underprotection (which could result in permanent injury) in those early times are much more dire than the consequences of overprotection--which as I understand, generally results in temporary setbacks.

Doing a number of things to better support the brain and neurological system and the body's stress response (adrenal glands) is quite high on my list of recommendations I would make to anybody with tinnitus. Doing so might even prevent phonophobia or OCD, etc., as we go through our learning curves -- Just my 2 cents worth.

Relative newbies to tinnitus are likely to find all the information/opinions above quite confusing. So here are a few common-sense rules to follow:

1. The best protection of all is avoidance. Even the best earplugs can't guarantee complete hearing protection so those relatively new to tinnitus are best advised to avoid prolonged loud noise exposure - especially amplified sound at for example live concerts and sports events. This may involve lifestyle changes.

2. When in doubt, use hearing protection. In the many tasks we all do through the week, some will inevitably involve exposure to noise - which may be at higher levels than we at first realise - so using hearing protection for many of these is only sensible.

3. Build quiet into your day. It's not a good idea to be wearing hearing protection all the time - so you need to give your ears a break by ensuring that there will be quieter times during your day when hearing protection isn't necessary.This may involve changing your routine. Use soft masking noise and light music (not using headphones) to avoid "silence" where tinnitus is most noticeable.

4. Don't stress about stress. Tinnitus newbies are forever being told that the thing which makes tinnitus worse is stress. But while it's true that how you are feeling at a particular moment can make tinnitus temporarily louder, it won't have a lasting effect. But prolonged loud noise exposure can make tinnitus permanently louder. So don't stress about stress - but do be concerned about noise.

 

[Clarknbruce]

Bill thanks a lot for your reply. I will absolutely check out those links. I'm trying to ignore the ringing but its hard not to in the early stages. It's so nerve wracking. I would like to add, growing up I've had moments of ringing in my ears but from what I could remember it was only temporary and would last up to say 15 seconds and it would be gone. It wouldn't happen often it would happen randomly. I don't think sound exacerbated it. Not sure if that's important for what going on now.

Anyway, thanks again Bill.

 

[Clarknbruce]

Bill, I just checked the list. I was prescribed metoprolol XL 25mg daily for the palpitations i wrote about earlier. That medication is on that list...

I started that medication about a year ago. Not sure if the tinnitus would take that long to develop.

Hmm... makes me wonder.

 

[Bill Bauer]

from what I could remember it was only temporary and would last up to say 15 seconds and it would be gone

This is what the people on this forum refer to as "fleeting tinnitus." You will most likely notice episodes of your T getting louder for 10-45 seconds. It is a scary experience that most of the people with T get if not multiple times a day, then multiple times each week. Some people like to think that this is our body's attempt to recalibrate and to heal.

I'm trying to ignore the ringing but its hard not to in the early stages.

Tell yourself that even if your T is going to be permanent (and there is still a good chance that this won't happen), chances are that what you are hearing now is not what you will get stuck with. Also, unless one's T is very loud, many people stop having as much of an emotional reaction to it beginning at around 18-24 months after the onset. Focus on riding it out, and try to not think about the future (because if you do, you will most likely be worried about something that will never happen).

I started that medication about a year ago. Not sure if the tinnitus would take that long to develop.

Hmm... makes me wonder.

Ask your doctor to prescribe an alternative drug. Hopefully (as is sometimes/often? the case) one is available that is not on that list.

Note that if one in one thousand patients were to report developing T as a result of taking a drug, the drug would end up on that list. So just because a drug is on that list, doesn't mean you will get T if you take the drug. But it is possible that now that you have T, you are more vulnerable, so you might want to not take the drugs on that list, if that is at all possible.

 

[Lane]

I started that medication about a year ago. Not sure if the tinnitus would take that long to develop.

@Clarknbruce -- My take is that tinnitus can develop over just about any given period of time, from immediately, to months or even years. The reason I think that is because it appears "assaults" to our auditory system(s) appear to be cumulative, so even the results of seemingly minor assaults can accumulate over time. -- So I think your medication could very well have been a factor in your developing tinnitus.

Shortly after my own onset of tinnitus, my acupuncturist told me he had the most success treating tinnitus if it was caused by an ototoxic medication. He said once it begins to build up in the body--especially the liver as I recall--those parts of the body send out discordant signals that make its way to the ears, signalling there's something very wrong going on.

By working on the liver and kidney meridians, it gives these organs the opportunity to expel those accumulating toxins, and the discordant signals sometimes end. -- I assume various kinds of foods/herbs that assist with liver detoxification would be helpful as well. Many who've done this have gotten varying relief from tinnitus.

BTW, acupuncture treatments can become expensive, so an option to counter that is to learn self-acupuncture, making it a remarkably inexpensive option to pursue.

 

[Clarknbruce]

So I saw my ENT and audiologist. My hearing test was normal. My ENT was very empathetic to my situation but unfortunately there isn't a "treatment" that can fix it. She offered cognitive behavioral therapy as an option and counseling. She did offer me an antidepressant knowing I have a history of anxiety. I'm extremely skeptical on taking it.

As an update to my tinnitus. My T has really shifted to my left ear. I would say it started 50:50 but now it's like 75 % left and 25% right. Maybe my right ear is healing while my left one is taking its time.

I have the prednisone drops which I'm starting tomorrow. Luckily as I once said during the day out and about I forget about it and it's almost not noticeable. As of now, being in a quiet room is extremely loud and again high pitched. I'm feeling a little more at ease with it right this moment.

Anyone else take an antidepressant? How did you feel. Let me know please.

 

[Lane]

I'm extremely skeptical on taking it.

@Clarknbruce -- I would encourage you to remain extremely skeptical. Many on this forum have tinnitus that was either caused by or worsened by ADs. I believe there are a number of much better alternatives to going the AD route. -- Best...

 

[Clarknbruce]

@Clarknbruce -- I would encourage you to remain extremely skeptical. Many on this forum have tinnitus that was either caused by or worsened by ADs. I believe there are a number of much better alternatives to going the AD route. -- Best...

Thanks for the reply. What would you recommend?

Thanks again