Trying to Establish Cause of Spike

Hi all,

I developed tinnitus after acoustic trauma in Nov. 2017. It gradually became pulsatile in one ear; in the other it's just high white noise. (The second is actually the one the ENT said had hearing loss at high frequencies.) It's never so loud during the day that it bothers me much, but it's a drag at night, especially since I've concurrently been dealing with acid reflux and so have had to sleep on my left side, so my pulsatile ear is always smashed up against a pillow beeping away. I use a sound machine which generally helps.

So, on Bill B.'s advice I have been on quite a "sound diet" since this happened. Haven't really been in the same room music is being played ever. Only watch TV on low volume with closed captioning. Only even started doing that after about a 3-month break. Use ear muffs for household disturbances like vacuums, blenders, etc.

My overall sense was some gradual improvement. Actually a few weeks ago, the pulsatile sounds went away completely for about a week! But they have since returned. And in the past couple of weeks my ears have felt very sensitive. Not hyperacusis really (thank God-- had that at the beginning), but more insistent T and a feeling of fullness in ear, ear popping, pressure in cheek/jaw area, all mostly on that problematic left side.

So here's the thing. I just can't tell whether this is all due to the advent of seasonal allergies, which I treat but which have been intense this year (I also had colds when I first noticed the T back in fall/winter, so I have no sense whether the fullness/popping/pressure feelings were ever simply related to the acoustic trauma or were always unrelated eustachian tube issues that just magnified the T on their own). OR whether it is due to some recent experiments: listening to rock music at a not that high volume for awhile in a room with my family; attending my son's piano recital while wearing earplugs; listening to music coming from my iPhone speaker a little bit in the car. I really would like not to believe that "exposures" this minor would cause a spike and the fullness etc., because that is pretty unsettling news for me going forward (it's been 7 months). Would love to think it is just the allergies, and then maybe these small exposures have a bigger impact because my ears are already pressurized? Any experience anyone else has would be great to know! I'm trying to decide whether I need another period with no TV at all, which is frankly a little depressing to contemplate (and also seems, again, slightly hard to believe. But maybe I should look into better TV speakers? That's a subject for another thread.)

Thanks!
Jen

 

Hey Jen,

Mashing your ringing ear against the pillow takes some getting used to yeah, perhaps these are ideas:
www.thepillowwithahole.co.uk
www.soundpillow.com

Against seasonal allergy's I read online that bee-pollen work well (make sure your not allerging to ingesting them btw)
www.bee-pollen-buzz.com/bee-pollen-research.html
Spirulina als seems to work against allergy's:
www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/publish/news/newsroom/2658

Talking about allergy's, im trying this online food allergy test in a few days. If you don't know the cause then who knows: www.cerascreen.co.uk/products/food-reaction-test

I to had a very recent spike, some extra sound exposure did that, im still on the fence about it but im thinking of buying these elektronic earplugs (and wear them most of the time) that auto block loud noises but let soft noises trough:
https://www.etymotic.com/mp915.html
Btw. If you look in the questions section on that page you also see comments of people wearing these in very high noise locations, it stated that they got ringing in the ears by doing so. So low to medium noise locations should work very well for these, I would imagine.

Regards,
John