Tinnitus Started After Intestinal Surgery — Any Help Appreciated!

First off, I want to THANK the fine people in this forum. It is an incredibly useful and supportive resource, and is currently one of the only things that is giving me hope right now.

Also thanks to anyone who takes the time to read my complex and possibly overly detailed story. I have spent days writing this, trying to keep it simple yet still tell the story.

I guess I will start by describing my personal Hell that is my tinnitus...

My tinnitus is bilateral, very high pitched buzz/hum. Almost always louder in right ear. Left side is usually slightly quieter and lower pitched.

Sometimes, usually at night when I’m in bed, I almost feel like it is in the right ear only, and the left is just sort of “echo-ing”. Other times it feels like a drill going through my head. Usually I feel a moderate throbbing - maybe it’s ringing? - because the noise is so loud. At its worst I have screaming volume and constant, moderate pain bilaterally. I am unable to figure out what makes my symptoms worse or better. I think only a fellow tinnitus sufferer can understand what I’m describing here.

My tinnitus started after I had surgery in November 2020, which was a resection of my large intestine. I was hospitalized for 3 days. It was a serious, slightly complicated procedure... quite painful, and they removed about 7” of my large intestine.

I was fully intubated, and I think it’s possible that at some point the anesthesiologist may have moved or misaligned my TMJ. Professionally, I work with anesthesiologists ever day, and believe me they can really get aggressive when intubating/extubating/ doing jaw thrusts on a patient...

I currently have a scraping noise in right side of jaw when opening/closing it. I don’t recall when that started though.

Anyway, I’m not sure when I started noticing the buzzing in my head. I would guess several days after surgery... I was really loopy for a while... but I never had tinnitus before that.

After having this “buzz” in my ears for a few days, I made an appointment with my ENT. He did a quick exam and I had a hearing test, which showed some possibly mild hearing loss. ENT #1 then chalked up my tinnitus to loud noise exposure, told me to deal with it, there’s nothing that can be done. BTW I had no recent exposure to particularly loud noise... I don’t use headphones, etc.

I should add I have had multiple outer and middle ear infections; several between 2019 and up until about 7 months ago. These were treated with antibiotics and/ or removal of earwax... the infections caused a lot of ear fullness, moderate pain, and sometimes discharge.

None of these infections ever caused tinnitus though.

About a year ago, the first ENT I was seeing recommended inserting tubes in both ears, because of my frequent infections. He performed the myringotomy. We both knew this would not stop the tinnitus, but he thought it would stop the infections. It did not go well. The morning after I woke from the tube insertion, fluid poured from my right ear. I had fullness and aching pain in both ears. Got treated with antibiotics again... End result, after about 6 weeks of having them in, with constant problems, the ENT thought it best to pull them out.

Good news is, in probably the last 6 months or so, I really haven’t had any ear infections.

I dumped this ENT and tried a different one. ENT #2 promptly ordered a head MRI, and then a CT scan, which showed a lot of fluid buildup in the right mastoid, which he diagnosed as Serous Mastoiditis. I also had minor fluid buildup in the left. He put me on antibiotics, Medrol and Cipro, for 3 weeks. His plan was to do another CT scan after 3 weeks, and if the fluid was still there he wanted to a cortical or complete mastoidectomy.

Before I got a chance to go back to #2, he went out on medical leave, so I had my follow-up CT scan done and went to ENT #3.

ENT #3 opined that some fluid buildup was still in the right side, but did not think it was the sole cause of my tinnitus, and advised against a mastoidectomy.

She was very thorough, listened to me, and really tried to help. I believe she is a very talented physician. She ordered another hearing test, which showed...

AD: Hearing WNl through 2000 Hz, sloping to a mild SNHL through 8000 Hz.
AS: Hearing WNl through 4000 Hz, sloping to a mild hearing loss through 8000 Hz. Immittance revealed normal middle ear compliance, bilaterally.

I don’t know what the hearing test numbers mean, but I was told I have some minor hearing loss. Unfortunately, when I had the hearing test, my tinnitus was its usual really loud, very high pitched buzzing, which drowns out some of the really quiet, high tones you are listening for.

ENT #3 also ordered a neuro workup, because I sometimes feel bilateral pressure near my temples (maybe it’s temporal muscle)? This can happen upon standing, or with sudden movements. Anyway, the neuro workup revealed nothing.

Lastly, she advised me to get fitted for a proper night guard by my dentist. In case I was grinding or clenching in my sleep. I did this and have been using the guard, but it is of no help.

Again, thanks if you have read this far. Tinnitus is beyond awful, and I am trying not to let it ruin my life. I have issues with anxiety, major depressive disorder, and complex PTSD, all of which I am being treated for, but good ol’ tinnitus makes these issues tougher to manage.

In about a week, I will see a TMJ specialist. I will update after that. I am praying...

Also looking into CBG or CBD. From what I have read, it has helped some tinnitus sufferers.

Beyond that, possibly it’s neck/upper spine related, and I might try upper cervical chiropractic? I definitely have neck crepitus.

God Bless you in this wonderful forum, where so many people support each other. It is truly heartwarming to see.

 

I too have had tinnitus since surgery in Mar., also on intestines (removal of part/all of colon/large intestine). I don't know if I was intubated or not. Although I can access a summary of the surgery via "patient portal" there's nothing about the anethesia. I was totally "under". I can't say if I had the immediately upon recovery in the hospital (~4 days), or only after I was home but it's been ~constant since. It is not as loud as yours, and no pain.

 

What were the medications that you were given? There are a lot of ototoxic meds out there. You mentioned antibiotics. What were they? You also mentioned Medrol (which I think is Methylprednisolone).