Hi my name is Phil. 48yo and otherwise healthy. I came across TinnitusTalk only yesterday and am glad I did. Here is my story and how/why I found your community and why I became a member.
3 years ago – Went to primary care physician complaining about not being able to hear well (muffled and a sight hiss). Nurse cleaned my ears and what came out shocked me, very dirty. Afterwards I could hear much better. There was still a slight buzzing from what I remember but nothing that overly concerned me. After all they had been so dirty that I just figured they were adjusting to my improved hearing because the crud had been removed.
1 year ago – Cleaned my ears with peroxide, nothing major, not really that dirty, all good. Still a bit of hissing and a few times that my ear (left) would spontaneously buzz very loudly or occasionally feel full or dull feeling. Its difficult to explain exactly. The extra hiss always went away (not all the way but most) so I didn't give it much thought.
3 months ago - I decided to clean my ears with hydrogen peroxide after noticing a pulsating swooshing sound and buzzing that was much louder than I remember. To my dismay my ears were not dirty, just some minor earwax as to be expected. I did notice that while I was cleaning them out I became very dizzy however. Nothing that concerned me I had just put peroxide in my ear right? A few days after cleaning the buzz was still pronounced a maybe a bit worse which concerned me.
1 month ago – Ears still singing, more so than usual, something is obviously not normal here decided to get them checked out. Set an appointment an ENT.
3 weeks ago – Went to my ENT appointment. While performing the initial exam and I mentioned that I have a wooshing sound that tracks with my heartbeat and commenting 'I'm guessing is what most people complain of right?' The ENT said with a very straight face 'No, that is not what most people hear when they have tinnitus'. I also remember him repeatedly asking me if I had any vertigo or dizzy spells recently. He must have asked 3 times in 3 different ways to be sure I understood exactly what sensation he was looking for. The answer was always the same, No. He continued to talk but I have no idea what he said. A specialist just told me that something I was experiencing was not normal. My anxiety had hit an 8 out of 10 and my mind was racing. He scheduled me to come back and take a proper hearing test performed by an audiologist. Over the course of the next few weeks I began paying attention to the sounds, they were getting worse, much worse.
2 days ago – The audiologist performed testing. 20% hearing loss in left ear confirmed with a slight loss of overall general hearing. He immediately ordered 2 tests:
MRI of IAC w/ + w/o Gad
MRA of head w/o Gad.
I just wrote down what was on the prescription sheet I am looking at now. I don't know much about the tests other than they give detailed views of the inside of your head and the Gad is short for Gadolinium which is a dye so they can see what is going on with the blood vessels.
1 day ago - When for my MRI and MRA yesterday.
Today 7/11/2018 – Anxiously awaiting the results with all the psychological 'what if' baggage that accompanies them. Trying to say away from researching it other than reading similar experiences on this site for fear of what I may discover. I'm still trying to work out how I am going to simply cope with what I currently have which is agonizing to say the least. Persistent hiss/buzz in left ear only and a loudish stereo wooshing and high pitched hiss in both ears all the time. Difficulty sleeping, lack of appetite and all the usual types of maladies that come with a very depressing health related prognosis. When I wake up and realize this will not be going away and will most likely never go away I get anxious to the point of a panic attack. This sucks!
I will post again when my MRI/MRA results are in.
Bracing for impact,
Phil
3 years ago – Went to primary care physician complaining about not being able to hear well (muffled and a sight hiss). Nurse cleaned my ears and what came out shocked me, very dirty. Afterwards I could hear much better. There was still a slight buzzing from what I remember but nothing that overly concerned me. After all they had been so dirty that I just figured they were adjusting to my improved hearing because the crud had been removed.
1 year ago – Cleaned my ears with peroxide, nothing major, not really that dirty, all good. Still a bit of hissing and a few times that my ear (left) would spontaneously buzz very loudly or occasionally feel full or dull feeling. Its difficult to explain exactly. The extra hiss always went away (not all the way but most) so I didn't give it much thought.
3 months ago - I decided to clean my ears with hydrogen peroxide after noticing a pulsating swooshing sound and buzzing that was much louder than I remember. To my dismay my ears were not dirty, just some minor earwax as to be expected. I did notice that while I was cleaning them out I became very dizzy however. Nothing that concerned me I had just put peroxide in my ear right? A few days after cleaning the buzz was still pronounced a maybe a bit worse which concerned me.
1 month ago – Ears still singing, more so than usual, something is obviously not normal here decided to get them checked out. Set an appointment an ENT.
3 weeks ago – Went to my ENT appointment. While performing the initial exam and I mentioned that I have a wooshing sound that tracks with my heartbeat and commenting 'I'm guessing is what most people complain of right?' The ENT said with a very straight face 'No, that is not what most people hear when they have tinnitus'. I also remember him repeatedly asking me if I had any vertigo or dizzy spells recently. He must have asked 3 times in 3 different ways to be sure I understood exactly what sensation he was looking for. The answer was always the same, No. He continued to talk but I have no idea what he said. A specialist just told me that something I was experiencing was not normal. My anxiety had hit an 8 out of 10 and my mind was racing. He scheduled me to come back and take a proper hearing test performed by an audiologist. Over the course of the next few weeks I began paying attention to the sounds, they were getting worse, much worse.
2 days ago – The audiologist performed testing. 20% hearing loss in left ear confirmed with a slight loss of overall general hearing. He immediately ordered 2 tests:
MRI of IAC w/ + w/o Gad
MRA of head w/o Gad.
I just wrote down what was on the prescription sheet I am looking at now. I don't know much about the tests other than they give detailed views of the inside of your head and the Gad is short for Gadolinium which is a dye so they can see what is going on with the blood vessels.
1 day ago - When for my MRI and MRA yesterday.
Today 7/11/2018 – Anxiously awaiting the results with all the psychological 'what if' baggage that accompanies them. Trying to say away from researching it other than reading similar experiences on this site for fear of what I may discover. I'm still trying to work out how I am going to simply cope with what I currently have which is agonizing to say the least. Persistent hiss/buzz in left ear only and a loudish stereo wooshing and high pitched hiss in both ears all the time. Difficulty sleeping, lack of appetite and all the usual types of maladies that come with a very depressing health related prognosis. When I wake up and realize this will not be going away and will most likely never go away I get anxious to the point of a panic attack. This sucks!
I will post again when my MRI/MRA results are in.
Bracing for impact,
Phil
mentioned above. I am trying to stay positive about this and all the very real ramifications but it is difficult. I do have the disk with the MRI and MRA results and understand I can send out for second opinions. Any thoughts about if this would be something I should look into?
Manager
