I know this sounds like the standard "me and my problems" post but I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this and what the future might be like. I'll try to keep it short.
My ears have always randomly rung, usually more often after listening to loud music with my headphones, but the ringing was random and subsided within a few seconds. Never thought much of it.
Well, 4 weeks ago the ringing randomly came, in the left ear, and it was loud. Much louder than my usual ringing, to the point where it temporarily deafened me. I felt a lot of pressure in that ear, too. I didn't listen to any loud music recently. It wouldn't go away, and I fell asleep figuring it would work itself out by the morning, but I was severely stressed out about it.
Well it didn't, and I started freaking out. Started googling, trying self-help videos, breathing exercises. I couldn't cope. It wasn't even a high-pitched ringing at the time, but mid to higher-pitched sounds sounded like they were accompanied by a shrill tone, the same that you'd hear if you rubbed your finger across a wine glass. Like these frequencies were "broken". I heard it's called "reactive tinnitus" but some people don't think it exists. It does, and I have it. And my fridge was making a constant noise that triggered it, and made things a lot harder to deal with.
Went to my GP and got my ears cleaned out, still ringing. Went again, and they gave me Hydroxyzine for the anxiety I was having - all it did was make me drowsy so I took a nap, and I woke up wanting to kill myself. Went to Urgent Care later on, they said it was fluid in my Eustachian tube and I'd be okay, and gave me Prednisone/Flonase/Claritin-D. That gave me a lot of false hope. Took it, and all it did was make my head feel even more pressurized. I've known to have allergies occasionally but my nose wasn't even blocked and it still isn't, just head pressure. I stopped taking all three and I'm still not sure whether to take them again. Went back to googling, just more horror stories and that one guy with the "glass ear" who was in constant pain. I still stress out about that story.
Then I went to the ER for suicidal ideation - I was barely getting sleep, couldn't eat, wanted to just die peacefully, many of you know how it is. The doctor at least listened to me - he gave me an MRI and checked my ears - he thought there was "bubbles" in my Eustachian tube at first, but after the MRI came back negative, he said he must have been mistaken. I started to panic again. He told me I should feel lucky I have my health. I wished I had a tumor, at least they could have removed that. After that it's been constant panic attacks whenever I think about the future.
I'm on week 4 with T. H comes and goes, usually depends on how much I allow myself to think that I have H. I always feel better as the day goes on. I have high blood pressure, am overweight, have had heartburn my whole life, had a lot of ear infections as a kid, listened to loud music, had diabetes type 2 for a while but managed with diet to make it go into remission. Overall my health hasn't been good, but I'm wanting to do everything I can now to fix that.
So my questions are:
- Anyone else have "reactive T" and mild H that came out of nowhere? Or just these two in general? Do things improve, or get worse over time?
- I'm eliminating salt from my diet, almost completely, to calm my blood pressure. Any other diet tips, maybe get my blood nutrient levels checked?
- I wake up at 3:00 AM every night with tingling in my face and left arm. I try not to freak out about it, but is this concerning?
- I'm pretty sure I haven't gotten good sleep since this happened. Any ways to induce good sleep and make my subconscious mind stop freaking out about this very real, very uncertain, very scary thing?
- Is this just about my emotional reaction or is there something probably wrong with my ear, or both? How can you be "positive" about something like this?
Thank you for reading this, I've been through hell, but I hope all of you are having more good days than bad.
My ears have always randomly rung, usually more often after listening to loud music with my headphones, but the ringing was random and subsided within a few seconds. Never thought much of it.
Well, 4 weeks ago the ringing randomly came, in the left ear, and it was loud. Much louder than my usual ringing, to the point where it temporarily deafened me. I felt a lot of pressure in that ear, too. I didn't listen to any loud music recently. It wouldn't go away, and I fell asleep figuring it would work itself out by the morning, but I was severely stressed out about it.
Well it didn't, and I started freaking out. Started googling, trying self-help videos, breathing exercises. I couldn't cope. It wasn't even a high-pitched ringing at the time, but mid to higher-pitched sounds sounded like they were accompanied by a shrill tone, the same that you'd hear if you rubbed your finger across a wine glass. Like these frequencies were "broken". I heard it's called "reactive tinnitus" but some people don't think it exists. It does, and I have it. And my fridge was making a constant noise that triggered it, and made things a lot harder to deal with.
Went to my GP and got my ears cleaned out, still ringing. Went again, and they gave me Hydroxyzine for the anxiety I was having - all it did was make me drowsy so I took a nap, and I woke up wanting to kill myself. Went to Urgent Care later on, they said it was fluid in my Eustachian tube and I'd be okay, and gave me Prednisone/Flonase/Claritin-D. That gave me a lot of false hope. Took it, and all it did was make my head feel even more pressurized. I've known to have allergies occasionally but my nose wasn't even blocked and it still isn't, just head pressure. I stopped taking all three and I'm still not sure whether to take them again. Went back to googling, just more horror stories and that one guy with the "glass ear" who was in constant pain. I still stress out about that story.
Then I went to the ER for suicidal ideation - I was barely getting sleep, couldn't eat, wanted to just die peacefully, many of you know how it is. The doctor at least listened to me - he gave me an MRI and checked my ears - he thought there was "bubbles" in my Eustachian tube at first, but after the MRI came back negative, he said he must have been mistaken. I started to panic again. He told me I should feel lucky I have my health. I wished I had a tumor, at least they could have removed that. After that it's been constant panic attacks whenever I think about the future.
I'm on week 4 with T. H comes and goes, usually depends on how much I allow myself to think that I have H. I always feel better as the day goes on. I have high blood pressure, am overweight, have had heartburn my whole life, had a lot of ear infections as a kid, listened to loud music, had diabetes type 2 for a while but managed with diet to make it go into remission. Overall my health hasn't been good, but I'm wanting to do everything I can now to fix that.
So my questions are:
- Anyone else have "reactive T" and mild H that came out of nowhere? Or just these two in general? Do things improve, or get worse over time?
- I'm eliminating salt from my diet, almost completely, to calm my blood pressure. Any other diet tips, maybe get my blood nutrient levels checked?
- I wake up at 3:00 AM every night with tingling in my face and left arm. I try not to freak out about it, but is this concerning?
- I'm pretty sure I haven't gotten good sleep since this happened. Any ways to induce good sleep and make my subconscious mind stop freaking out about this very real, very uncertain, very scary thing?
- Is this just about my emotional reaction or is there something probably wrong with my ear, or both? How can you be "positive" about something like this?
Thank you for reading this, I've been through hell, but I hope all of you are having more good days than bad.
