Hiya. Just an update for anyone who's curious/cares. It seems to be mellowing out some during the waking hours. Overnight I think I'm waking up maybe three or so times vs on the hour as it was earlier. This is with the exception of some pre-bedtime napping...
Last night, napping on the couch before hauling myself up to bed, I awoke after maybe an hour to awfully intrusive tinnitus. Hot, garbage tinnitus. I even felt like it started to affect my other ear, at least at that moment. As I made my way up to the bathroom to brush/ floss, I turned the faucet on, and, damned if the rushing water didn't immediately seem to cut the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE down to an eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...
Getting to bed in a silent room is a rating system all in its own. Meaning, it starts sort of annoying, but drowsiness takes over and I fall asleep. Then I wake after I believe 3-4 hours, or "liver time" as I've read, and stumble my way to dawn, where at that point it seems to chill out and I'm able to eek an hour or two more of sleep out.
I saw my second-opinion ENT yesterday. She checked stuff out, snaked a camera through my nostrils and checked my throat, cleaned a smidge of wax from both ears with a needle looking thing (no power suction or whatever it's called), and talked about prescribing a low dose steroid, to which I went all hypochondriac for fear of making things worse. She instead gave me a bunch of sample packs of Lipoflavonoid. I keep wrestling with the decision to just try the 'roids, but who the hell knows.
So to date, here's what I've been doing. And again, save for the post-nap, pre-bed garbage tinnitus incident, I cautiously feel like things might be on the mend:
DIET
Trying to eat cleaner, namely less sodium, no chocolate, but I've resumed coffee because I've read evidence it can actually even help. That's enough for me to not forsake my daily elixirs. Of course, I take all this shit with grains of salt, so to speak.
SUPPLEMENTS
Turmeric (Curcumin) -- 2000mg
NAC -- 600mg
Lipoflavonoid -- unsure of dosage. I'm just taking what it tells me, 6 pills a day, 2 at a time, staggered
MEDICAL INTERVENTION
This is probably the biggest of all. I've been seeing my chiro regularly for a year now. He's a prominent sports chiro and has a nice little gym that his clients are welcome to use at-will. I told him of my tinnitus issues. He educated me on his beliefs and theories regarding tinnitus. I had a ton of tension on the offending side of my neck where the tinnitus is--like night and day compared to the other side. He administered EMS, afterward performing some real deep tissue manipulation, then adjusted the hell out of my cervical spine. The sound effect my neck made could be likened to a Rambo movie when he sneaks up on an unassuming jagbag and delivers the goods. Alas, this is all used to stimulate circulation.
Given that, I proceeded to his gym and began cycling my head off, almost literally, for half an hour. I was pedaling out rage the entire time. "How could you do this to yourself?!". "Oh you want circulation, cochlea? HERE!". My head was pounding in unison with my heart... in a good way. I was soaked, and felt better about everything, given the situation.
I slept decently that night. It was my first breakthrough in better sleep than the days preceding. It wasn't the old flip the switch off in my head, I'll see ya in the morning routine of norm--I did awake a few times--but it was overall better. I'm due at my chiro in a couple hours to repeat much if not all of the process.
After this event, I've been feeling like things are better. Maybe not markedly, but more than marginally.
PLANS GOING FORWARD
I still am weighing if I should attempt a steroid, but while that's in the background, I'll be adding additional supplements to the aforementioned. I plan on adding Magnesium, Zinc, and possibly Nicotinamide Riboside and Ginkgo biloba. I will spread all of these out, or stagger them throughout the day, vs having a pill-popping session. I generally respond well to meds and supplements, but I like to err on the side of caution regardless. I've determined through both medical advice and this forum to not try things like HBOT and laser, as I believe it could do either nothing, if not more harm to both the condition of the tinnitus and the wallet. As someone said earlier, only try some of this stuff if you wake up deaf.
I've seemed to have gotten past much of the regret and the woulda shoulda regarding the offending incident, albeit I will return to that dark place, if only temporarily. I'm quickly coming to terms that this battle is strongly entrenched in the mind. Dwelling on these things only serves to feed this shit condition, much as cancer feeds off stress. So when I do fall into this darkness, I quickly chop it off at the knees, for dwelling will only keep oneself from getting better, faster. I look at it as nothing more than a part of the multi-faceted treatment plan I've laid out for myself. Easier said than done, and this is coming from a parent|spouse|self-certified paranoid hypochondriac with fresh feelings of devastation. Another thing I try to strongly bear in mind: do not think of yourself as "damaged." This will only serve to perpetuate and promulgate the issue. Instead, that you are on the mend, and that things can always get better.
I'll keep the piss and vinegar flowing, and I hope you all do too. I'll be in touch...
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