USAF Retiree, 24/7 High-Pitched Ear Ringing (from My Duties in the Military and Neomycin Ear Drops)

Hello,

I just found this group, hope it helps!

I retired from the military in 2013 and had occasional tinnitus from my duties in the military. The VA rated me for having tinnitus and provides care for it as needed. In 2016 or so, I developed a double ear infection and ended up going into the VA for care. A VA PA prescribed me a Neomycin based ear drops solution. I used it for about a week, then all of a sudden both ears just started SCREAMING and never stopped.

Four years of hearing a constant high pitched whine at about 7800 Hz with a slight wobble in the range of crest to trough. It's maddening. I have many ailments and injuries but NONE compare to the misery and pain this ringing. I've gotten to the point I asked my doctor if they could remove all my "ear parts" so I didn't have to HEAR ANYTHING anymore, but he told me the sound would likely persist even if they removed my inner ears.

I don't know if he was being honest, but you can get the point of how base this affects me. Thank you for reading my story.

WeatherMan

 

Thanks for sharing. I used to have mild tinnitus for many years but it got much worse this year. I always considered it inconvenient or annoying, but I had no idea it could be debilitating. I got a taste of that but fortunately I'd been habituating, learning to manage and carry on. Life will never be as easy as it was, or as good as I didn't know I had it. Either way, we carry on. It's a struggle but don't let it run your life.

 

Hello, I understand you very well. I also have a ringing of about 10,000 Hz. I was also thinking about cutting the auditory nerve. But tinnitus increased in the other ear. If I cut the nerves of both ears, I will be completely deaf. I am 40 years old.

There is only one thing I don't understand. I have only been exposed to loud noise from headphones once.

Have you tried hyperbaric oxygen therapy before?

 

10 kHz, ouch. I also have fairly high frequency tinnitus at 9100 Hz. The majority of my hearing damage over the years has been from loud tools and motorcycles (wind noise), though this year I got careless with hearing protection when using tools briefly and thanks to the draconian government response to coronavirus attended many protests with loud noise, sirens, bullhorns, amplified sound systems, etc.

I have not tried or heard of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for tinnitus. I have struggled with tinnitus this year and also hyperacusis which I think I brought upon myself by being overprotective of my ears for too long. I have been taking supplements, a multivitamin as well as B-Complex and Nicotinamide Riboside and Ginkgo Biloba. I also have been using notched audio. I notch all sound out of my computer I normally play music from most days as well as using the app Tinnitus Notched Tunes for background noise when I sleep. I don't know what has helped, if anything, but I find it much easier to deal with tinnitus after a few months of these things. I suspect it's mostly acclimating, but maybe these things have made it easier to acclimate.

I find it surprising that you suffer from 10 kHz tinnitus with only one exposure via headphones. Looking back, it took many years of being careless about hearing protection when I should have used it for me to get to this point. All those brief noises add up. Granted, I rarely use headphone or earbuds even before things got worse this year so I don't know how loud might be reasonable to encounter.