Tinnitus Since 1972

It was while I was in the Navy, working around noisy equipment to grind the floors, and the inside the 5"38 gun while playing war games, that the noise caused me tinnitus. I began noticing it as a high pitched sound seemingly coming from my ears, similar to the sound of crickets. In fact, recorded crickets I now use to help mitigate what I hear every day 24/7, at various decibel levels.

What I eat can tend to increase the sound -- usually salty foods like chips or prepackaged foods, most of which I try to avoid. Eating out is seldom not a salty meal.

I tried various methods to gain relieve apart from sound therapy, including laser treatments in Daytona Beach that cost me $1500 and the purchase of a $5200 Neuromonics unit. What I've spent on remedies is proof of the hopeless state I once was in. Today, after years of sound therapy and xanax, I'm doing much better -- not cured, just doing better.

 

Welcome to Tinnitus Talk!

So, tell me, do you think the xanax and/or sound therapies helped you? Or was it more the passage of time?

 

Good to have you here buddy. Sorry to hear you've had tinnitus that long. I think the 10 years I've had it has been an eternity.

 

Hi User, Welcome to TT. You sure have been around the block a few times. What type of sound therapy are you using now..

 

Absolutely, both have worked to give me the breaks I need between spikes and comfort during times when I have to think, especially read. Sound therapy was the doorway back into reading, which is my first love; so yes, they gave me back my life. Also, the xanax calms the reaction. But now that I am older and have pain issues, the meds can peak the T, which is another challenge.
David

 

Same here, but it is no longer the only health issue I have to deal with on a daily basis, which makes things crazier. A handful of meds I take daily. They help the pain, but cause various side effects. T is the monkey on my back that never left me, and certainly, as jazz pointed out, time has been on my side; yet, without the aids, I doubt I'd be where I am today. The bridge looked awfully tempting numerous times over the past forty years. God's mercy and grace kept me from taking that leap, and only those.

 

I carry with me three MP3 players in a waist carrier (whatever term is used for these, I've forgotten). Even while working I listen. The VA, where I work, has been very good to me. They've given me hearing aids -- which I needed badly -- which are bluetooth enabled, and provided me with an iCom transmitter which sends whatever is playing on my MP3 player into my hearing aids. Unless one has special permission to listen to music, it is forbidden at work, although even if someone were to stand beside me, they would not be able to recognize that I am listening to anything as my player and cords into the transmitter are hidden under my shirt. I listen almost exclusively to Mike Petroff's nature recording. It is the closest I've found to the exact sound I hear.

 

Glad to hear about the VA, I was going to ask you about them. You have a good set up there with the MP3 & blutooth and all.
I'll check out Mike Petroff's...

 

Mike's stuff is hard to find these days, I've heard from other T sufferers. I don't think he is any longer selling his original set of recordings, and what is being sold is not coming directly from him, I understand; they are leftovers from the days when.... I hope I'm wrong.