9 Weeks, ETD, Tinnitus, Anxiety, Panic Attacks

[Reece bude]

Hello everyone my name is Reece

I'm a barber and 28, I've had tinnitus on and off for years from my previous job as a touring musician, for the last 3 years since stopping playing ive not thought for one second about tinnitus, I'm pretty sure I had some low level ringing there but it didn't affect me and I didn't hear it!

My ears have been troublesome since I was a kid , had grommets and also had perforated ear drums twice, once when I was 15 then again 3 years ago. The most recent one due to having in ear monitors fitted and the guy injectong the moulding paste too quick.

Now why I'm here is because 3 years of no ear troubles since perhaps made me complacent and I went to reading festival for 1 day this year without earplugs , I don't know why I did as I always wear them indoors at gigs!

I watched the 1975 headline and a bass boom went through my ears and the next kick drum made my right ear rattle almost so I spent the rest of the gig with my finger plugging my ear!

Had the usual dull hearing on the walk to the car , got home fell asleep but woke up to a bit of buzzing and ringing , didn't panic because I've had this before and it settled, the next day I woke up and was relieved that things were normal and my ears fealt ok!! But the next morning I woke to find my ears feeling blocked and wet inside almost and ringing more audible, my ears were sore and had a feeling of a head cold, gp said I had a viral infection and Eustachian tube dysfunction because of that , then specialist said I had a retracted right ear drum and it looked dull with fluid , now let me be clear I can no longer hear ringing unless the room is silent and I relax totally , but sleeping without pink noise would be a challenge , it's been 9 weeks of this shit now and although I've had good weeks , where I felt positive and I didn't look for it etc this week so far is back to panic attacks, crying , mourning my life before this all happened . If I look for it it's there still in my right and when I get stressed i get it in the left.

Anyone else had etd for 9 weeks and does the ringing go or at least go back to its previous non bothering level after the ear returns to normal , don't get me wrong the blockage is much better but it's still not right and my ear drum still looks dull according to my ent, I can still feel there is some
Mucus or fluid in my tube aswell.

Sorry for the essay but it's nice to get it off my chest
Reece

 

[RaZaH]

It seems that dullness/fullness is what accompanies T when it first hits .
That dullness seems to go away in a few months.
If you cant hear it unless in a quiet room ...well, then its mild , count your blessings and take care of your ears.

Obviously I cant tell what kind of T you have but if its mild enough so you only hear it in a quiet room , then I would suggest that the anxiety is a bigger problem at the moment. Sorry If i am presuming some nonsense.

I learned that as tempting it is to use noise when falling to sleep it irritates my ears , I would suggest at least trying Rain sounds from https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

 

[Reece bude]

When I let myself go in bed ie relax in silence it almost goes piiiiing loud then settles the right ear does the ping almost like it's amped in that ear ,I'm hoping that once the retracted dull ear drum with fluid sorts itself out , it will go back to its normal level! Got MRI tomorrow to see whats happening , had 3 weeks of steroids which have helped a bit but the ear still feels weird when I move my jaw etc and I occasionally get a tickle where the mucus in my Eustachian tube is moving about