Tinnitus Since 21st July

I'm 41 and live in the UK.

A bit of background first: I'm keen on running/fitness. The weather in the UK the past couple of weeks has been crazy. Very hot for the time of year and fairly relentless. I don't cope well with the heat. This has inspired me to go running at crazy hours (as late as 2am), to get in some runs when the weather is cooler.

Again, because of the heat, sleeping has been difficult as I'm just soaked in sweat by 2am or 3am. I struck on the idea of using ice packs wrapped in a pillow case to help cool me down, so I've been doing that, alongside taking ice cold showers, after my long 2am runs.

This is when I first noticed my tinnitus.

I first noticed a faint, very, very, very high pitched tone (which I've identified as 11,800Hz using one of the Tinnitus tone websites) on 21st July. I didn't schedule a doctor's appointment as I assumed it was temporary. However, on 25th July, I woke up sweating, feeling dizzy, with horrible ringing in my ears (spiked up to a 6 or 7 from its usual 1 or 2), and a headache.

I started researching everything I could find online. I went to an emergency doctor's appointment who has referred me to an audiologist. They made no mention of hyperbaric chambers or Prednisolone. Personally I think that's an extremely poor show.

Prednisolone / Prednisone

Thank God for the internet, because as I've found from researching this after my doctor's appointment, it seems a highly recommended course of action for early stage T is to take prednisolone / prednisone for 5-10 days at 1mg per kg of bodyweight, up to a maximum of 60mg per day. If caught early enough, this has been known to stop T in its tracks.

Thankfully, my dad already had stockpiled prednisolone for another medical condition, so rather than wait to be prescribed by a UK doctor (which I don't trust would happen) he gave me enough of his which will allow me to take 40mg per day for 6 days. I took my first dose yesterday. It seems to have helped.

Other things which seem to have helped:

1) Ice.

It occurred to me that T gets worse at night not simply because it's easier to focus on it at night, but also because of lying down horizontally. The additional pressure / blood may exacerbate some underlying inflammation issues and thus increase the volume. So I had a small brainwave: I used one of my ice packs (cooled down slightly) - and laid it against my middle ear and auditory nerve area (the temple). Within 15 minutes, the T was definitely reduced, by my reckoning by at least 80%. I was back in near-silence and could sleep much more easily.

2) Looking past the noise

Focus is an amazing thing. If you've ever tried to stare at a small object unblinkingly for long enough, you'll soon realise that ALL you can see is that one small object. Everything else in your peripheral vision becomes invisible or cloudy. So it is with T. If you focus on the T, it seems to be all you can hear or think about.

After several days, I noticed that looking through the noise is definitely possible - like looking past our noses. How often do you notice your nose? It's at the edge of your vision the entire time and yet the brain tunes it out.

3) Realising that the T might have always been there.

Somehow it helps me to consider that the T has always been there, and I'm simply noticing it more now due to a shift in awareness. If I think back to times when I was sitting in a silent room, I *could* always hear something... I'd always assumed that this was the sound of silence - some sort of faint hiss in the far distance. Our brains / ears probably produce all kinds of sounds at various frequencies, and then something happens, some combination of events that just makes us more aware of them. Retraining the brain to ignore these frequencies once again may be difficult, but it seems logical that it can be done.

Hyperbaric chamber:

I also understand that hyperbaric chamber therapy can help with early stage T. I haven't gone this route yet, but if my T persists / does not respond to the prednisolone or other coping strategies I mentioned here, I think I'll explore it further.

 

If you would like to try the hyperbaric chamber you should do so asap. As far as i read this only helps in early stages in case of a noise trauma.
How is your blood pressure? Is the T you are hearing at night the same high pitched tone? Or both ears maybe? Pulsatile?

 

When my T first started my doctor gave me the steroids and never mentioned anything about hyperbaric chambers or anything. Shows the piss poor state of medical knowledge about this.

 

Yes, I heard that it needed to be done asap... I guess I'll look into that as well then. However, mine was not noise trauma - related. More inflammation-induced I think. Not sure if that makes a difference.

 

Don't know if it could work in that case, but you could try, you have got nothing to loose. Just some £'s...

 

Some of the information on
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822
might be helpful to you.

 

out of curiosity do you listen to an iPod on your runs?

 

No - I never listen to headphones or earphones... I was never able to run with earphones in particular as they would always fall out of my ear.

 

Booked in for hyperbaric therapy tomorrow, Thursday and Fri. Then next week from Monday onwards as well. It's not one of the single-person tanks, but a chamber which can accommodate up to 6 people. Will see how it goes.

I've also been taking prednisone for two days - 30mg on day 1, and 40mg on day 2. I'm going to take 50mg today. Noticed some improvement to the extent I've even had some difficulty hearing the T in a quiet room at night - at fleeting moments anyway. That's given me quite a lot of hope that I've caught this early.

 

Here’s hoping

 

Update:

5 sessions of HBOT under the belt - today was first medium pressure day. It gets really hot in the chamber - unpleasant!

Also two days left tapering off prednisone - will take 20mg and 10mg.

Yesterday afternoon I had an Indian head massage and a full body massage. The head massage started off quite painful as she was pressing very firmly into the back of my neck / base of my brain. Then later it became very relaxing as she worked over my whole skull.

Last night, I couldn’t sleep as the tinnitus was blaring out at about 7 out of 10 all night. Zero sleep. Also only 3 hours sleep the night before for the same reason.

But, I’m currently sitting in a quiet room and noticing the T getting quieter and louder - it’s moving between zero(!) and a 2 or 3.

I can barely notice it for minutes at a time. Searching for it brings it slowly into focus as a 1 or lower. I’m also having occasional spikes to 3ish for a couple of minutes every 30 mins or so.

Interesting. Hopefully this is a good sign.

 

I’m so glad that you had the common sense to do your own researching and come up with excellent ways to help yourself. From my experience, doctors and medical professionals are pretty useless st offering help and suggestions. An Audiologist actually worsened my Tinnitus and gave me hypercausis by a botched micro suction procedure! Always follow your gut instinct with this! X

 

Yes, my GP referred me to an audiologist, but I decided not to go along simply because any time I tried listening to tinnitus-like high frequencies on YouTube videos, or using hearing test apps, it hurt my ears and most definitely seemed to spike the T for hours afterwards. I decided to go my own rout with the prednisone, HBOT, and other bits and pieces - have also been taking COD liver oil, apple cider vinegar and zinc.

I should point out the title of this thread is wrong - I first developed T on 14th July (not the 21st) - I realised by checking back on text conversations.

So it’s been over three weeks, most of which has been varying intensity, but I guess around a 3 typically, and sometimes a piercing 6/7 - especially at nights - often accompanied with sharp headaches, earache or eye-ache as the ultra high frequency tone bored into my skull.

As I’m writing this now, this is the lowest it has been for the whole 3+ weeks since onset. I expect more ups and downs, but it seems like some healing is happening. Fingers crossed.

 

Have you tried using a sound machine to mask your T?

This is an awesome news! There is a good chance that those periods of silence will grow longer and longer.

If you beat tinnitus, please let us know.

 

I used some masking music - singing bowls - for one or two nights only. Much of the time I’ve been trying to stay within the quietest environment possible - no tv or radio or music of any kind. I wanted my brain to try to get used to the T sound in the hope it would learn to tune it out.

My apartment is a very quiet place most of the time, the sort of place you could hear a pin drop. So you could say I’ve been basically alone with nothing but the T sound for company much of the time.

I actually bought an instrument - a real Tibetan singing bowl, and have been playing it once a day for 10-20 mins while I meditate, eyes closed. Seemed to calm me down quite a bit which I think is very good for healing. I have a sense that the sound vibrations it makes might also do something positive.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been through a lot of other stuff in life, but even while the T has been at 6/7 I haven’t let it get me down too much. Was sort of resigned to it, as well as simply - arguably blindly - believing it would get better.

Lack of sleep and physical discomfort / pain from the T is (or was) an issue though.

 

Quick update, 3 months in. Tinnitus is generally around a 1 or 2, and the tone seems to have mellowed slightly. It's hard to tell exactly. If I had to guess, I think it's got 10% or so better since I last posted here... so I think very slow progress. I also think some degree of habituation has helped. It doesn't get me down at all really. Would be nice if it disappeared though of course.

Still taking Apple Cider Vinegar and I like to think it's doing something. I watched a BBC show in which they studied its effects and proved 100% it had an anti-inflammatory effect, albeit fairly transient... but this coupled with the wealth of anecdotal reports convinces me its worth continuing with.