Using a Grinder to Cut Tile Caused My Tinnitus — Doctor Said the Culprit Was Ear Infection Instead

Hello everyone, I found this beautiful community after acquiring tinnitus.

On November 22, 2019 I was using a grinder to cut four pieces of small tile.

I cut two pieces and realized the saw was too loud so I went to get my earplugs. After I was finished with the cutting, I had ringing in my ears. I figured it would go away. Later that evening I had a massive headache.

The next morning my headache was severe and my eyes became sensitive to light.

After 3 days I went to the emergency room, and they said I had an ear infection. They said it was causing the ringing. I was prescribed antibiotics.

8 days after the onset I went to an ENT Doctor who prescribed Prednisone tapered.

Prednisone didn’t work. Three audiograms show no hearing loss.

MRI was done and it came back normal.

I was given some headache medication and I kinda have the headache under control but my vision is blurry to the point that I now wear glasses full time.

 

Welcome to the forum. It is strange that the doctor didn't say you had an acoustic trauma because your tinnitus developed right after the sawing event. It is also strange that you have problem with vision being blurred. That doesn't seem to be related to acoustic trauma. Have you checked with an eye doctor about your eyes to see if some other things are causing the blurred vision?

 

Yes, I wish the ER doctor had given me Prednisone. Maybe I would have had a better chance.

Yes, I went to the eye doctor and they said my prescription has changed very very slightly from -.25 to -.50. Other than that they didn’t see anything.

Without my eye glasses I see ok but not as far as I used to. And after a while I feel dizzy. When I’m wearing glasses it is not too bad and I’m able to manage.

So now I’m kind of stumped and not sure what to do.

 

Acoustic trauma. Protect from further damage, and wait months for the spike to subside.

 

Doctors always seem to deny that your tinnitus could have been noise induced, unless you've just been on a tour of duty in front-line combat. If only it was that hard to produce our condition.

 

I heard about a policeman near the place I work who was exposed to a very close firework (idiot threw it at him). He got tinnitus and has/had sensitivity to fluorescent light. There is a connection between hearing problems and vision, but it's rather anecdotal.

Can you describe in what way your vision is blurry? Do you see like, a slight drizzle or static moving if you look at a blank wall or during the night (it should be more obvious in these situations)?

 

So about 4 days after the onset, which was Thanksgiving 2020, my eyes were so sensitive to light I had to wear sunglasses inside of my house. The next day Friday things got better. On Sunday which was 4 days after Thanksgiving my eyes were no longer sensitive to light.

I rarely wore eyeglasses. I only needed it to see far. I get my eyes checked each year and the eye doctor said my prescription is very very minimal as it was prescribed just so I didn’t have to put a strain on my eyes to see far.

Since the tinnitus, however, that changed. I’m 20 feet from my television in my house and the close caption words on my television I can barely read now. If I don’t wear my glasses I get a headache after about 2 minutes.

When I’m driving I can no longer see license plate numbers without eyeglasses. With the eyeglasses, I can see the license plate number just fine.

The alarm clock in my bedroom, in the middle of the night, I cannot see the time anymore as it looks blurry. I have to reach for my glasses in order to see the time.

So something happened to my eye vision in which is decreased, and without wearing glasses I get a massive headache. With the glasses, I can function okay throughout the day.

So it is not blurry to where I'm struggling to see but there is a definite reduction in eye vision. I would assume, due to tinnitus, I have headaches almost every day now, I'm barely sleeping, and the back of my neck has been sore, my eye muscles may be tired but I'm not sure.

Since the 11th of January I have been taking the following:

NAC - I take one in the morning and one at night

Acetyl-L-Carnitine - I take one in the morning and one at night

Magnesium - one in the morning

Curcumin - I took for two days but stopped since I was taking the NAC, Acetyl-L-Carnitine and Magnesium together.

No change as of yet. And hopefully I’m able to take all those of those vitamins together with no long term damage.

 

I lost my good vision after the onset of tinnitus. I now wear glasses for reading and another pair for normal vision. I am pretty certain it's due to my brain damage from tinnitus.

 

This seems different from my case then. I got a bit of visual snow after getting tinnitus. My vision is also a bit blurry, but because there is static (like an old fashioned tv) in my vision. This is not something glasses can correct (though tinted glasses can make it less noticeable). My nearsightedness didn't change when I got tinnitus. It's still the same (I've had glasses for about 25 years now, and hasn't worsened in the past 15-20 years).

 

Wow, I was hoping they weren’t related but apparently tinnitus seems to affect much, much more the brain than I thought. Ugh.

 

Hi @S2000gtx -- I too had vision issues that appeared at the same time as my tinnitus onset. I got my tinnitus from a drug however, so our situations are different. One thing that helped me was that I began eating a large number of egg yolks every day. I don't even remember why I thought that would help. But after I ate my first three egg yolks, my eyesight improved about 30 minutes later.

It then gradually improved further until it was back to normal a few weeks later. I think I ate about 5-10 egg yolks (organic) for a few days before I tapered off. I'm now remembering I took it because of the high amounts of Choline in egg yolks, and I was trying to improve the Acetylcholine in my body. I'd read there are Acetylcholine receptors in the inner ear.

 

Ah I see. How did you prepare the egg yolk or did you just eat it raw?

 

@S2000gtx -- During this time of major upheaval, I could hardly eat. What I could eat was home made bone broth. I would heat it up to boiling, pour a cup, and add a couple of raw egg yolks. So they we're exactly raw, but they weren't exactly cooked either. With all the seasoning in the broth, I never even hardly tasted the mostly raw egg yolks.

 

Okay, thank you.

 

Good day everyone,

I've had acoustic trauma induced tinnitus since November 21st, 2020.

These last two weeks my dizziness and eye pain has taken a toll.

I went to the eye doctor, and she confirmed my eye health looks good.

However, recently I've felt dizziness and a ton of head pressure. When that happens, I just have to sit. Whenever I sit, I feel better. As soon as I get up I feel dizzy again. The head pressure feels like it coming from the back of my head.

The dizziness isn’t at the point where it feels like the place is spinning or I'm at risk of falling.

It's just a rush of blood or a rush of pressure in my head.

At night when I’m sleeping I’m okay, when I get up suddenly to use the restroom I feel a burst of pressure rush to my head and I feel the dizziness.

But this dizziness and head pressure which causes me to have a headache is different.

I have gotten used to the ringing in my ear, I wear earplugs around the house since I have two small babies.

I have an appointment with my neurologist in three weeks, mid-February. Where I live in Florida, the neurologist seems to be always booked up.

Does anyone have any thoughts in the meantime?

 

I think you shoud reduce activity as much as you can for a couple of weeks. Do not bend over, do not lift anything heavy, avoid coffee and salt, and take a mild diuretic like Dandellion root tea 2-3 times a day to reduce head pressure. I am not saying you have intracranial hypertension (if you did you would not wait for acoustic trauma to start feeling head pressure), I am just saying you should avoid all activities that increase intracranial pressure for some time to try to let the injury heal.

 

Thank you. I bought the Dandelion tea the same day and it seems to be doing something.

I was able to get a telemedicine appointment with my neurologist late this evening and she prescribe me Topamax or Topiramate for the headache. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. I’m looking forward to seeing if it will affect my tinnitus.

 

Diuretics lower your intracranial pressure a little bit, so if you combine keeping your head elevated all the time (you can try sleeping on two pillows, too) with avoidance of straining, you put less explosive pressure on your inner ears (from inside).
And if you avoid loud noise you put less implosive pressure, too (from outside).
Caffeine increases the production of cerebrospinal fluid, so that's why I told you to avoid coffee, at least for a couple of weeks or months.

 

@S2000gtx -- Dandelion tea is also a great liver detoxifier. Perhaps what you're noticing has something to do with that. -- Just a thought.

 

Yes I drink it twice a day now. Once in the morning before work and once at night before bed. It definitely helps...

I don’t drink coffee but I do drink hot chocolate since we have a terrible cold front. But I will cut off all caffeine.

I go for my vertigo test on February 10th so hopefully I get some answers there.

 

Thanks, the tea is doing something. For that I am grateful.

My tinnitus usually behaves during the day. At night it rings like it’s on steroids.

 

It seems my tinnitus is cranking up again, higher than before. Not sure why.

Would it be beneficial to call my ENT to get another course of Prednisone? I’ve taken it twice already, once in November when I first experienced noise induced damage, and again in January when my house alarm system malfunctioned and the sirens blasted off.

Not sure if it worked but I guess it made me feel that no further damage is being done.

Any thoughts?