Two Years with Tinnitus and Counting

Hi all, Mary here. I've just joined and have been looking around the board here for wisdom.

I think I might have gotten my T from the smoke alarm going off one too many times.

I have had total hearing loss in my left ear since childhood, and have begun to lose my hearing in my right ear about the same time the T started.

I have two hearing aids; the left one shoots sound over to the right one, and the right one amplifies and (for a while) had the masking tone. Unfortunately my T changes pitch and quality so much, the masking is useless, so it's just another distraction.

I've tried different vitamin combinations, not much luck. T is a shapeshifter from hell!

 

Hi Mary,
Did you think about cochlear implant in your left ear ?
How bad is your hearing in your right ear ?

 

Hi Mary,
Are you there?
Hope you are ok
Please write something

 

Welcome to the board. The best wisdom sharing is at the Success Stories. There you will find many positive stories of triumph over tinnitus, whether by having it gone, faded or habituated. It takes some time but it can be done. You can also search the forum for 'hearing aids' and see prior discussions on this.

You can try other alternatives besides just vitamins to help, such as diet control on cutting off excess salt, sugar, caffeine, alcohol or MSG etc. Have you tried also NAC, Magnesium, Zinc etc. which are often suggested here on the board? Also make sure you have good REM sleep as that can help calm T. For calming the hyperactive nerves or helping sleep, you can try natural stuffs such as Melatonin, gaba calm, Lemon Balm, Valerian, Hops, Catnips, Passion Flower, Chamomile, Lavender, Kava, etc. You can do google search or check Amazon.com for each of them to know how people review these products, and see if you can take them as a supplement

If your hearing aids are not good maskers, have you tried using other means? Here are some suggestions if you haven't tried other masking options. Take care. God bless.

1) Mask at bed time if having trouble sleeping, by using a sound pillow or sound machine with pillow speakers. There are good sound machine & pillow therapy systems like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Oasis-...d-Oasis-Therapy-System-Speakers/dp/B00MH5HKTA

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds. Use wisdom in the use of headphones or earbuds as extended use or excessive volume may hurt your ears. Try set the volume slightly below that of your tinnitus.

3) With PC & speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds to see which one masks best:

TT's excellent audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: https://mynoise.net

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or click play to mix these sounds with this simple sound generator: http://asoftmurmur.com/

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

 

Hi bartek and billie,
Sorry for taking an eternity to respond, and thank you both for your helpfulness.
I have talked with my ear doc about cochlear implants, and he doesn't want to go there yet, as my hearing loss is not " severe" enough to warrant it. I have also tried modifying my diet, taking magnesium and zinc, drinking chamomile tea, and playing with the different white noise generators.

 

there's a clinical trial for the restoration of hearing, i hope that helps in 5 years or so. your right ear may be saved but not the left one.