Tinnitus Since Sept., Crowdsourcing for Ideas and Observations

Hello. I wanted to add my story to the pile in the hopes of better understanding my situation and perhaps helping others as well. Perhaps others will find some similarities with my situation and have some ideas to try, or rule out.

I developed tinnitus in my left ear at the end of September. I do not believe it was noise induced. I wear headphones often but they are the on the ear type and I don't have them extremely loud.

My T started with a single higher-pitched hum. It's not screeching high but it is in the upper octaves and constant. Over the past two months, I have noticed at least 2 additional high-pitched sounds that have joined the first. They are all single pitches and do not seem to fluctuate. Often there is one of the three sounds that dominates, though sometimes two or more can be heard. The sounds are not terribly loud, at least based on some of the other stories I have read, but they are definitely noticeable, especially in quieter situations. They seem to change slightly in volume depending on the time of day and situation. Sitting up for a long time, for instance, will cause the sounds to get quieter over time. This could be the brain doing its thing, however.

After mostly ruling out basic ear infection, wax build-up, etc., I went to an ENT who ran tests. I have some very slight hearing loss in that ear, but this could also be chalked up to the tinnitus sound masking the hearing test sound. After talking to the doctor, he is convinced I have hydrops, the type without vertigo. I did have an ECOG around 30% which is just out of normal range but also have no prior tests to compare that to. There is a possibility he is right, but there are reasons that I doubt this assertion.

I have some slight pain in my jaw, at the bone and often on that side. I don't consider this major, and my dentist says my teeth are fine, but it's an avenue I want to explore again. Also, in reading about hydrops, people speak of hearing fluctuations and fullness. My ears rarely feel full. There is often some tightness around the ear if I try to move it, along with some pressure. When there is pressure, it is in front of the ear on or near the cheek bone. I also sometimes have a sore throat Also, salt intake does not seem to spike my T, which is a common symptom for hydrops.
Another odd thing I noticed was when using an electric razor and moving it near that area, the humming sound is amplified, as if an amp is getting ahold of the sound and making it much louder. I actually hear this in the other ear. Very strange, but it makes me wonder about electric razors and also the source of the humming. Also, I seem to have higher fatigue than normal, and sometimes sleep for 10-12 hours a night. I’m going to get a physical soon and hopefully an MRI as well as a check for various deficiencies (zinc, iron, magnesium, etc)

I wonder if anyone else has experienced similar symptoms and what you've done about it that has worked or not worked. There are a lot of posts here and I've done a lot of reading, but with so many different types of T and possible causes, it's hard to narrow things down. Of course, I may never know. It would be great to try to draw some correlations between types of T and symptoms and probable causes and best course of action. That's one thing that seems harder to find online and on this forum. If you Google tinnitus you get general descriptions that don't account for the wide variety of symptoms, noises, and causes.

Thanks for reading, and for all of you who have posted. This forum has certainly given me a lot of ideas and food for thought, and I hope to share more as I learn more.

 

@kt17 - do you have an audiogram you are willing to share?

 

I thought I had one to share but I don't see it wen I logged into my health portal. My hearing is basically fine. They said there were a couple of lower frequencies on one ear that were slightly lower, but max 10% difference. Also have nothing in the past to compare that result to.

I do have a dental appointment on Jan. 4 to check for TMJ things as I do have some pain in front of the ear and in the jaw. I guess it's theoretically possible to have TMJ and still have hydrops, but not sure.

 

Welcome to the forum. Sometimes it is easier to use the Search function so you can see lots of related posts grouped under the same search criteria. You can try to search based on tinnitus type, cause or symptom. If you haven't done so, try the search function. Just click on the Forum button and do a search there, which then will include posts from all forums. If you only want to see success stories of people with a certain symptom or type of tinnitus, then do the search only when you are in the Success Stories forum.