3 Weeks Into Tinnitus. My Intro.

[hexentanz]

In late September I began having Migraines here or there, not to uncommon for me, however they felt a little differently this time as I could barely hold my head up at times along with other issues I cannot quite put my finger on anymore, due to other issues which have popped up since then. By early October the migraines became constant, were there when I woke up, were not relieved by anything I tried anymore. I had been popping my migraine reliever of choice Aleve once a day, which I have done for years and have since learned can actually cause your ears to ring! I followed the Aleve routine on and off in October with a good solid two weeks toward the end. At night I would try what is known here in Germany as Novalgine and following this pattern of Novalgine at night and Aleve in the morning helped for a bit, but then this was no longer helping so by the end of November I asked my general doctor if he could give me Topamax, which is what I was on a few years back for migraines and this seems to help to a much greater extent, but of course at times, feel it could be working better. On top of all of this, I am also seeing someone for manual therapy as I have spinal issues and have had some adjustments on my neck prior to when the migraine started, which may or may not have helped it along, we shall see. My doctor has actually booked me for a Brain MRI with contrast on the 18th of this month, as along with migraines I am having some pretty bad Nausea, Dizziness, Vision issues, etc.
Here is where the Tinnutis comes in, about three weeks ago now, I was just standing there in the room when all of a sudden my hearing got lower for a few seconds I heard light ringing (I have had this on and off over the years, but it always went away after a few seconds), but this time as soon as my hearing returned to "normal" level, my left ear had this "heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" sound in it 24/7, then over the course of a few days, I had several moments again where my hearing would get lower again, I would hear lots of various ringing sounds and now my right ear has decided to join in with a solid "beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep". Last week Thursday I visited an ENT doctor, who said there is no infection in my ears or no other visible signs for why this would happen, he did notice however I was suffering from pretty severe vertigo, as when he lightly spun the chair around to examine my ears I got extremely dizzy. A hearing test was performed and they informed me I have hearing loss in both ears equally (I believe it was 18dB). He also said I should start a high dose Prednisone treatment straight away in the hopes of reversing the Tinnitus and today I am on Day 3 of that. He also said he would like to see a copy of my MRI results as soon as I have them.
Another thing I can think of before this all started is that I did have a pretty bad ear infection back in July, it was pretty deep in the left ear, but they seemed pleased with how it responded to antibiotics, me on the other hand, I feel that there was still some issues left behind as I do still have quite a bit of drainage in to my throat while laying down and I did mention that when I was back at the ENT last Thursday, but he said that was normal after having such a bad infection?


P.S Pardon my hyperness!

 

[Natalie Roberts]

Wow! Sounds like you've been feeling pretty miserable for quite awhile! I'm new here too so don't have much information about everything but just wanted to say welcome to the group! I've found so much support here and am glad to have found it when I needed it the most! I hope you also find the support helpful I also enjoy the success stories!

 

[Senketsu]

I hope it is fine if i write in german. I will try to translate the text later.

Hi hexentanz,
wie geht es dir momentan? Ich hoffe, du schaust hier des öfteren vorbei. Du kannst mir auch gerne eine PN schicken. Mein Tinnitus begann im Januar 2015, genau wie bei dir. Mein Hören wurde im linken Ohr ganz leise und gleichzeitig entstand der Tinnitus, ein konstanter Piepston (10/10). Dieser blieb laut, allerdings dachte ich mir nicht viel dabei. Ich ging davon aus, dass er bald wieder weggehen würden. Am nächsten Tag war er dann immernoch da, allerdings leiser (5/10)! Und so blieb es bis jetzt. Die ersten 2-3 Monate waren seltsam. Ich musste mich an den Piepston "gewöhnen". Und der beste Tip, den ich dir geben kann, ist es, das Leben soweit wie möglich normal weiterzuleben. Mit der Zeit wird dein Tinnitus vielleicht ganz verschwinden.
Mal davon abgesehen, kommt es sehr oft vor, dass der Tinnitus nach einem Hörsturz mit Hörverlust innerhalb von 1-6 Monaten komplett verschwindet.
Bei mir wurde zb KEIN Hörverlust ermittelt...
lg Senketsu

 

[Ecip]

Hab auch kein Hörverlust, seit dem 4. November aber Tinnitus. Hat einfach mal an diesem abend angefangen. Jetzt, 4.5 Wochen später ist es nicht mehr so laut wie in den ersten zwei Wochen, aber ist halt immer noch ein scheiss.
Ich hoffe das, wie du gesagt hast, es einfach mal total weg geht.

 

[hexentanz]

I wanted to give an update to this.

First I never provided this information because i felt it was not related to what was going on, even more so because it kept being dismissed as the cause no matter how many times I went back and visited the ENT doctor.

Late August I had visited the ENT doctor because I was having sinus issues, they told me maybe I have chronic sinusitis (nothing new to me, which I said to them) and sent me for xrays. When I went back after the xrays they told me I had zero sinus issues, which was funny because I have had them since being a little kid, they also told me I had nothing wrong with my left ear which at the time was feeling clogged and I was hearing muffled sounds. Exactly one week later I was back there because i could not hear at all out of the left ear and after they cleaned the ear I could hear again, they looked in my ears and said that perhaps I did indeed have an infection deep in the ear which they could not see and gave me antibiotics. After the antibiotic course was over I went back to them and said that i felt no changes, funny enough the guy then said to me "I can no longer see any infection at all" and sent me on my way.
Trusting him that I had no infection I went on my way and that is when all started to go downhill from there.
I have actually been back to them 5-6 times complaining of ear pain, facial numbness, severe migraines, cheekbone pain, pain at the back of my head, sinus pressure, ear pressure, the ringing, etc.
My MRI this past Friday was never done with any contrast like my main doctor had ordered, so it was a total waste of my time and when I told them what was going on, they informed me they would like me to return in 3 weeks for an MRI with contrast. GRrrrrrrr!
Today I had enough of all of this shit and went to an Emergency doctor and guess what? He found the infection the ENT doctors claimed I did not have. So much for specialists...
I'm praying that once the antibiotic course is over the ringing in my ears will go away, but I do not have my hopes so high, since this has now been going on for months. :/