Becoming a Father with Tinnitus

[Ambassador]

I've recently had my grand daughter on my shoulder with her wailing straight into my ear and no damage done. A little jarring as I mentioned earlier but nobody likes to have a baby screaming in their ear.

Interesting thing when I hold any of the kids it really sends my tinnitus into the background. A good reason to pick them up as often as possible.

 

[Ed209]

I've recently had my grand daughter on my shoulder with her wailing straight into my ear and no damage done. A little jarring as I mentioned earlier but nobody likes to have a baby screaming in their ear.

Interesting thing when I hold any of the kids it really sends my tinnitus into the background. A good reason to pick them up as often as possible.

I know that feeling Ambassador! She screamed right into my ear and I had that brain vibration sensation. That's what I call it anyway. Nothing came if it, thankfully, but I can tell you for a fact that if it had happened during those early days of me hyper-analysing, I'd have had the spike from hell.

That's the nature of tinnitus. It's so mystifying. Sometimes the spike is in our head because we believe we have damaged ourselves. It's like a Tinnitus nocebo effect and is very real. Real spikes also happen, but I believe most of them are perception based.

 

[Ambassador]

I know that feeling Ambassador! She screamed right into my ear and I had that brain vibration sensation. That's what I call it anyway. Nothing came if it, thankfully, but I can tell you for a fact that if it had happened during those early days of me hyper-analysing, I'd have had the spike from hell.

That's the nature of tinnitus. It's so mystifying. Sometimes the spike is in our head because we believe we have damaged ourselves. It's like a Tinnitus nocebo effect and is very real. Real spikes also happen, but I believe most of them are perception based.

Agreed, it's up to each of us to put this into perspective. I know it's difficult but can be done. As I mentioned here several times I was recently in Disney World, flew there no problem, the park is loud and sitting in the Indiana Jones show, before I could react the actors pulled pistols and fired several blanks, we were in the front row. I thought "oh boy this can't be good" but no problem at all.
I really believe the sound never changes it's our reaction to it that changes and as long as we don't freak out over it we can live quite well. It still pisses me off sometimes because I'm tired of hearing it but that's about it. I've habituated before and expect to again soon.

 

[DebInAustralia]

I am now the proud father to a beautiful baby girl who was born on Halloween. The first thing I did was reach for my ear plugs whenever she had a screaming fit, but this didn't last long. The volume of the screams is definitely alarming, but it's not something I could keep up and not something I even wanted to be thinking about. I felt it was getting in the way, so I just stopped bothering. All the hyper-analysing and worrying just became a huge burden, and in the end an unnecessary waste of energy. I know many of you are parents on here so I know you'll all have your own ways of coping. I just thought it maybe appropriate to add that my tinnitus is no different after being subjected to weeks of screaming. A few times she has done it right next to my ear, and I will not lie there have been a couple of times where I was a bit concerned. But, I came to the conclusion it's not worth worrying about and have being doing great since. The first week I used earplugs every time she cried but it became increasingly hard to keep up with. It boils down to: help my daughter, or track down my ear plugs and then help my daughter. I decided to just cut out the middle man and it felt like another milestone reached from my perspective.

I haven't been around here for quite a while because I find it puts me in a negative headspace. Although, I'll always be eternally grateful for the support I received regarding my chest problem.

I thought a positive thread regarding parenthood might be worthwhile.

Photos?? Show her off!

 

[Candy]

Congrats Ed, what lovely news!

 

[Ed209]

Cheers @Candy. Hope all is well with you?

 

[Candy]

Things are ok, I've come a long way...keeping busy and engaged am at my happiest. Still have hard times and concerned about noise around me...
The kids keep me sane x

 

[Ed209]

Things are ok, I've come a long way...keeping busy and engaged am at my happiest. Still have hard times and concerned about noise around me...
The kids keep me sane x

That's awesome Candy. Glad to hear you're improving. You were a significant source of help early in the year for me, which I am really grateful for. Thanks for being there.

 

[Mister Muso]

Cheers Michael. It's not that I was affected personally (maybe somewhat subconsciously, who knows) but I stopped feeling the benefit. Reading nothing but 'don't do this; definitely don't do this; this is bad' stopped being beneficial to me. I prefer seeing solutions to problems that don't involve living in a padded cell.

Good point Ed. I often edit my posts to try and include a positive note of hope amidst describing my negative experiences. Not always easy but the point is it often helps myself let alone possibly helping another reader.

I'm not sure if my 12 years' minor tinnitus plus 8 months moderate - severe makes me a veteran yet, but I feel a lot more in control of things than I used to.