So I figured while I am living in this unfortunate space currently with my own acute tinnitus, I might as well share my dad’s tinnitus story and success with it!
When my tinnitus came on 3 months ago, my dad shared with me that he had “a flute going up and down notes in his right ear” many years ago. It came on out of nowhere, but not a surprise as he is a Vietnam vet and ran his own contracting business (lots of loud noises).
So when he told me this, I asked, “wait, was I alive?” I asked this because I never once remembered him talking about it. So I asked further questions. He basically said “Yeah, it would get annoying, I even went to an ENT eventually who did a hearing test and I asked him ‘can you hear that?’ because it sounded loud enough to ask that. It interrupted my sleep from time to time, but I would just put on the radio at work or let work sounds drown it out”.
He never did any type of heavy duty protection following it or any therapy or meds, he said he just tried to ignore it. Within 7-8 years, he said it went from the alternating flute playing to a hiss sound. He said over that 7-8 years, the flute became quieter and quieter and turned into the hiss, but it took its time for sure. Just imagine if he took care of his ears a little better, probably would have happened faster. To this day, it’s a very quiet hiss that can only be heard in dead silence, and he doesn’t even think about and it doesn’t bother him at all (the man falls asleep all the time within 5 minutes, it’s insane and I am beyond jealous). I share this just to show that there really is no set time frame when it comes to this thing, and he for sure was noise induced tinnitus and also has hearing loss.
Also in sharing this, I know many, like myself, would do just about anything for one sound in one ear that is non-reactive. I type this as I hear my not so beautiful orchestra of 5-6 alternating sounds going on in both ears along with my static reactivity going on my right ear by the low volume of the TV and heater. So, this isn’t to downplay because I wish I had his tinnitus, but I figured another success story can always give some hope.
It should also be noted that my dad has said many times since this has taken over my life and mental state in the past 3 months, “I would do anything to take it from you and deal with it myself”. He’s a great dad
