3 Month Update — Tinnitus Got Better

[Deamon22]

Coming up to two years, not much new to report. Tinnitus still fluctuates over longer periods of time (I get long stretches of very low tinnitus and then a stretch where it is a bit louder). Mostly it moves in a certain loudness range up and down, so it does not surprise me anymore.

I went to my first wedding last weekend. After reading up on weddings here on the forum, I was afraid they were terribly loud. Luckily this one was very nice, mostly the music was just very low in the background, so it was just people talking and laughing. My phone measured the volume at around 60-80db at the reception, where I put my foam earplugs in. No big change in my tinnitus, a small spike when I came home but that happens always when I drink a bit.

I still use foam earplugs for a lot of stuff like the gym, restaurants and longer drives, so no changes there. I feel like my tinnitus is not improving much anymore, but it could also be that it just goes way slower now. Will see what the third year brings.

 

[Bill Bauer]

I feel like my tinnitus is not improving much anymore, but it could also be that it just goes way slower now.

The more it fades, the slower it tends to fade. This is consistent with it fading at a constant rate. Initially 1% was a lot. Now that it is low, 1% of a small number is small.

 

[AnxiouslyWaiting]

Hi @Deamon22,

It's good to hear that you're doing well. You mentioned in your original post that you drained your Eustachian Tubes initially, how did you do that?

 

[Lane]

longer drives

@Deamon22 -- I watched a youtube video recently where a guy showed how tires get drier and noisier as they age. He demonstrated how buying a new set of tires lowered decibal readings from about 75 to around 65. I believe he also used a "tire conditioner" of some sort to keep the new tires from drying out. Doing this every few months can apparently extend the life of tires by 2-3x. and I guess keep them quieter at the same time.

 

[Deamon22]

Hi @Deamon22,

It's good to hear that you're doing well. You mentioned in your original post that you drained your Eustachian Tubes initially, how did you do that?

I used this video, however I could not say that it really helped.

 

[Deamon22]

@Deamon22 -- I watched a youtube video recently where a guy showed how tires get drier and noisier as they age. He demonstrated how buying a new set of tires lowered decibal readings from about 75 to around 65. I believe he also used a "tire conditioner" of some sort to keep the new tires from drying out. Doing this every few months can apparently extend the life of tires by 2-3x. and I guess keep them quieter at the same time.

I just put on some new tires, my car is not really noisy, but I mostly wear them just because I try to cut out avoidable noise. And having driving noise for a few hours at least for me seems not really necessary. But thank you for the advice.

 

[Deamon22]

3 Years

Damn, time flies. Not much changed since my last update, lately I struggle a bit more than before, I wear foam earplugs a lot more and I am generally a bit afraid to do things. My tinnitus does not fluctuate too much anymore, it stays mostly in a certain range. While I am doing ok all in all, I feel like I am living on eggshells, and that sucks.

 

[Massi91]

Hey everyone, I know 3 months is a short time and maybe next week I'm back in the support forum asking for help. However, since my tinnitus is now very quiet/silent for the last 2 weeks I wanted to share a bit of hope for the newcomers.

Quick backstory, I got my tinnitus on one night together with a bad cold. However, since I had some episodes of mild hyperacusis prior to the tinnitus maybe it was because of my car accident with head trauma 1.5 months earlier. But of course it could also be long time noise exposure. I have a bit of an allergy problem (no idea what, still need to do the allergy test) so my nose is always a bit stuffed.

I tried some supplements but none did anything noticeable (Nicotinamide Riboside had no effect and N-acetylcysteine spiked my tinnitus for some days). So I stick to the basics I already used before tinnitus (Magnesium, Omega-3, Vitamin D3).

The only things that noticeably helped my tinnitus was some osteopathy treatments for my neck, jaw and facial muscles and a nasal spray together with draining the eustachian tube. And i also changed my mattresses.

My tinnitus was always mild for the last 2.5 months (could hear it at night, in the morning or with earplugs) but nonetheless it created me great distress and a lot of anxiety. However, the last days/weeks I don't hear it anymore at night at around 30-32 dB in my bedroom. Normally my tinnitus was the loudest in the morning after waking up (like a boiling tea kettle), however now I don't hear it in the morning anymore without plugging my ears in my silent bedroom. So I'm pretty confident that it will go down further with time.

So today I'm feeling happy enough to write a small success story I hope it can give at least to the newcomers some kind of hope.

PS: I nearly forgot, I use ear plugs most of the time I'm around loud noise (driving, restaurant, gym etc.). I didn't go to any loud clubs or bars since tinnitus.

You are really lucky that your tinnitus is not so loud. I mean you can´t even hear it in the night so you should feel blessed.

Many other people are dealing with it worse... Just don't get anxious about it... it´s really faint in your case.

You can live a normal life.

Enjoy.

 

[Deamon22]

You are really lucky that your tinnitus is not so loud. I mean you can´t even hear it in the night so you should feel blessed.

Many other people are dealing with it worse... Just don't get anxious about it... it´s really faint in your case.

You can live a normal life.

Enjoy.

Unfortunately, not hearing it at night was just in the beginning, so around three years ago, when it fluctuated a lot. I still get sometimes a night where it is low but it always comes back to baseline. Nowadays I hear it mostly just indoors when it is quiet, but at night it is clearly there.

I absolutely know that I am lucky, but I am also terrible afraid of it getting worse, so I constantly tiptoe around everything and use foam earplugs a lot.