Tinnitus Worse After 20 Years — Doesn't Let Me Sleep and Causes Anxiety

I see in your last post stretching the neck had effects on tinnitus, so, considering the new spike has no known cause, one idea I get from reading the forums is having checked neck/forward head posture or even TMJ to see if they could be amplifying the problem.

 

I was doing better the past couple of weeks. Mainly up and down tinnitus during the day but couldn’t really hear it unless in a quiet room. At night it would calm down if I wasn’t watching TV. Sleep was getting better.

Yesterday I felt bad, like the way I did on the day of the onset. Weak, fatigued, headache etc.

I went to the theaters earlier with my earplugs, covering my ears during the loud parts. No spike after. Ate popcorn and soda there. Wife gave me Benadryl but like 5 ml. I was coughing as my throat was closing up.

I woke up at 2 am with my left ear spiked. It has gone up and down but the electrical noise it makes intermittently is now straight on and hasn’t stopped. I feel weak and have headaches too.

 

A lot of people report things ramping up when they are sick. Just ride out whatever has you ill before you draw any new conclusions. Also many here, myself included, will have elevated tinnitus when waking up in the middle of the night. Mine goes completely haywire when I pull an all-nighter.

 

So it seems I may be having Eustachian tube problems?

3 days ago I woke up to a spike and I have been sick. Once I started sneezing and draining non-stop my tinnitus has gotten noticeably lower. At night only can I hear the squeaks. Then my right ear got full today and I heard the crackling when swallowing. I took a drive and my left ear spiked a little bit (hissing electrical high pitch buzz). I mean it usually goes up and down all day anyways, but these past days have been so low it didn't bother me much.

Today I noticed the spike over driving. Usually I could stretch my neck and it helps the left ear. Also, I heard crackling in the left ear while swallowing today. I see a follow up chiropractor Friday for the neck.

For whoever wants to know what squeaking is: it's basically a super high pitch eee that is intermittent. Squeak... squeak... squeeaaaak... used to be cicadas to my heartbeat. iI usually flatlines. Squeak... squeeeee... eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and so forth lol.

Just an update for whoever is reading.

 

After the chiropractor yesterday I felt fine. As the day went on I spiked more. I slept with a spike and woke up with it calm again. Same thing happened today; I woke up with it calm which lasted for some hours and it started spiking later.

Not sure if it’s the Eustachian tubes giving me issues (cracklings when swallowing) or the crap food and caffeine I’m eating (wouldn’t bother me much before), or it’s just a new evolution of my tinnitus. It seems the squeaking is turning into full blown static high frequency noise when spiked.

I was having a period of good mornings, up and down afternoons and quiet nights. Not sure what to do if I keep getting worse.

 

It's pretty common for it to be calm in the morning and gradually get worse as the day goes. I've read some people have it worse in the morning and it calms down in the evening. Kind of a flip of the coin.

 

Mine has been constantly changing from bad in the morning to good in the morning, at night too vice versa..

I have 2 theories which caused this new sizzling buzz in my left ear:

1. lingering cold (I still have thick mucus)

2. tones are just naturally changing since it’s only been 3 months.

Thanks for listening.

 

Is it possible to have a high pitch electrical buzz with Meniere's, hydrops or ETD?

Just trying to figure out why my tinnitus is progressing, and the background ringing has been spiked too.

 

I guess the main thing that Improved was sleep but reactivity got worse.

 

Hey Captain

Does your reactivity go on / off instantly to noise or is it the more common variant, increasing after noise exposure?

What was your cause 20 years ago?

 

White noise, even if quiet over some time ,starts to increase mine. Box fan, PC fan, tires on the road. I had a firework incident when I was a kid, then another firework incident later on, both in right ear. 3 months ago got a new ringing tone in left ear, 2 weeks after my COVID-19 shot. Could’ve been noise induced too as I used to use headphones but at a quiet volume.

 

My audiogram from 3 1/2 months ago.

 

Some little things I saw in my MRI today.

Black dot and white one.

 

MRI looks clear to me, but my eyesight is not good.

All I notice is hypersignals in the inner ear, which just means focusing on sound due to hearing loss. Not vestibular neuritis or labyrinthitis.

 

It's probably nothing, but do ask for another evaluation by a different radiologist. We saw dots like that in my MRI and concluded they were harmless.

It's interesting that you got a new tone after your vaccine, I got my Morse code after my 1st Pfizer shot, but in my case I was using new headphones at decently high volume. If you were using headphones at low volumes and did not experience discomfort/ear fullness, I doubt they were to blame.

 

For an untrained eye it looks a pretty standard nut

 

Yes, I think so.

I am not sure I am reading your audiogram correctly. Do you have hearing loss in your right ear (-55 dB at 2 kHz), that did not change from the previous audiogram and still your tinnitus changed a lot? Is that the situation?

 

@Greg Sacramento, @Tau, @Exit, thanks for the input fellas. If this clears, it’s hearing aids for me.

 

Yeah I got a new pulsating tone in my left ear. Sounds very high frequency and faint most of the time, but other times it is annoying. It came on two weeks after the shot.

To be fair I had dizzy episodes and random loud ringing (on top of my habituated right ear ringing) that was coming on months before the shot.

 

I’m going to say that maybe, just maybe, it was further hearing damage. My son would yell and my ear would wince...

 

That would actually be very unfortunate...

 

That's strange because it does not appear you have significant hearing loss in your left ear.

Have you checked your neck, jaw etc with a physiotherapist?

 

I have not... just chiro lol.

In the beginning it was somatic but now it’s just in the brain. I’m thinking it’s high frequency hearing loss that is caused by the vaccine, or hearing damage. I also thought maybe the right ear got further damaged and created a tone in the left ear. I don’t know.

I can hear it squishing to my heartbeat very often, especially lying down.

 

I can see a little better now with my one eye with natural light.

Weighted images, which describes the frequency (speed) of the radio impulses used during your scan is not the greatest.

Black spots:
I don't think that your black spots are from flow voids from vessels.
Black spots can be areas of iron deposition or calcium.

White spots:
Most likely showing a history of migraine. Less likely would be B12 deficiency. I doubt that they note a small head injury.

There are no signs of small strokes, multiple sclerosis (MS), lupus, a brain tumor such as lymphoma, or an infection such as Lyme.

I do see hypersignal activity and for some it can be off and on somatic. Some of this hypersignal activity does appears to be new and could be from the vaccine.

It's just your brain focusing on hearing loss and I would say that you are having a spike. I doubt additional hearing loss.

I would suggest hearing aids.

 

Thanks Greg, you know your stuff lol. There were a ton more images but I dropped it off at the ENT. He mentioned if the MRI cleared, I would be a good candidate for hearing aids based on my hearing loss.

So I’ve been having back of neck/head left side headaches for almost two years now. That’s coincidentally where that black dot is (I think). This comes on from eating bad or having my head pushed forward from bad posture.

Anyways, not gonna think much of it as most of us can’t determine our tinnitus lol.

Thanks again.

 

Jesus, that audiogram is pretty bad in the right ear. Were you ever exposed to gunfire or anything happen to your right ear? How old are you if you don’t mind me asking?

I’m 39 and I have Ménière’s disease. My tinnitus was flared hard by the Pfizer vaccine. I have the characteristic low frequency hearing loss, vertigo, tinnitus and fullness.

 

How are you managing it? I’m 34 and got mine from fireworks.

 

My left ear squeal was gone for about 2 hours and started up once I laid down.

 

@Wrfortiscue, good discussion. Wishing you the best.

 

Thanks. You too!