Change in Your Tinnitus Tone?

[kmohoruk]

Hello Everyone,

I know that there's been a couple threads created regarding this subject.....

But I've now noticed that I now have a new tone in my right ear (This goes along with the Hissing and slight Ring that I have in that ear already). I'm not really freaking out about it or anything just yet as I can only really hear it when I plug my ears.

But I can't help but wonder if this is maybe my H that is doing this, or if this indeed just my T changing a bit on me. I find it funny that when I had T for the first 8 years of my life, that it was always just one tone and stayed that way. Now it seems to be going all over the place after the increase that happened in the summer due to some exposure to fire arms.

I've also wondered if it may be due to another built up of ear wax in my ears again. Haha, my ears seem to have a lot of issues with the whole "self cleaning part" haha.

Has anyone else experienced this as well? Has anyone else has a tone appear and then disappear after a bit?

 

[Mark Beehre]

It is not uncommon at all for tinnitus to fluctuate or change, especially in the early months of having it. I can't give you the science behind it other than to say your limbic system has identified a threat in your hearing apparatus which has made your nervous system categorize everything that happens there from a twinge to a new signal. At the moment your hearing apparatus is on red alert. Eventually through the passage of time, sleep and emotional stability the threat is dropped down the list to eventually getting wiped off it, which we call habituation.

I am six months into my second encounter with tinnitus. I have days where noise bothers me and days when it doesn't, the current pattern is 2-3 good followed by 2-3 bad. At the moment the good days feel like the are getting longer and the bad days shorter. What I do experience is that on the bad days my H is more prevalent and the ringing tends to intensify over the course of the day. On the good days I still notice my T every now and then but not as often as the bad days and I experience moments where I don't notice it at all (pre-habitation).

What I can tell you is that as recently as 3 weeks ago I developed a new tone in my left ear which lasted the sum total of 12 hours and faded away. The two nights ago my right ear had a very unpleasant high pitch ring which prevented me from sleeping until the early hours of the morning. When I eventually did wake up a few hours later it was gone.

Try not to worry about the changes. Eventually it it should all level out, once sufficient time has passed. I recall a poster once liking tinnitus/hyperaccusis to a sprain. Takes ages to get better!

 

[Danworth]

Yeah I've had tinnitus for a few months and recently just noticed a change in tone yesterday. I don't know about it disappearing. But after initial shock I feel myself starting to adjust again slowly but surely.

 

[kmohoruk]

Wow thank you for the very detailed response @Mark Beehre . Yea thats how I try look at it as well - I'm not sweating it to much. It was sort of like "OH, that wasn't there before....".

Like you said, the key is to try and not stress and let it get to you. I'm just trying to stay busy as I am looking at returning back to work in a month, as well as move in with my girl friend for the first time!

I do notice that as well. Overall is feels like my H has gotten better as the only thing that bothers it is loud sounds like car horns and dog barks. My T also fluctuates as well. I don't really worry much anymore since it fluctuates so much, I can't really tell anymore. I hope I never feel a large increase again, but I am just trying to take each as it comes and enjoy each day .

So far, for me this is about 7 months into this big increase that originally started all this in the summer. But I'm starting to level out a bit and have a more normal life now.

It's sounds like you're still taking two steps forwards, even if you have to take one back once and awhile. Keep it up @Danworth

 

[I who love music]

It's a lifetime of hurt ahead if you're going to hear every little thing. I did it for decades. It gets you nowhere.
It's what drove me to this forum, and lo and behold I discovered this instead ... https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/back-to-silence.7172/

 

[XUgrad99]

Hi all - so, about two weeks ago, I went in to see an audiologist because I had noticed it was getting difficult to make out words in loud/public settings. When they looked in my left ear, they noticed there was a lot of hard wax build-up, so they suggested loosening up the wax with Audiologist's Choice (ear drops). On the second day of using them, I noticed it seemed the liquid was staying in my ear. By the 4th day, I ended up with the on-set of Tinnitus (something I had never heard of before other than 'ringing in the ears'). The on-set was so severe that I ended up with hot flashes and nearly passing out while business traveling.

Since that point, my type A personality has set in and I've met with an ENT, a different Audiologist, have been discussing a friend who is a MD, etc. In these two weeks, the normal emotions have hit me (wishing I could go back and not put that stuff in my ears, desperation, anger, acceptance, etc) and the worst part was/has been the impact on my sleep. I'm a firm believer that sleep is a healer to the body (that's my own belief) and I've been fortunate that the ENT prescribed some meds that have helped me get some rest (the only impact is when the T spikes for no reason in the middle of the night). I'm also really fortunate to have a supportive partner who is helping me get through each day. I've actually come to a good place during the day (I get through my entire day 98-99% normally) and then the evening can be hit/miss depending on sleep schedule based on the T.

But, anyway, the reason I found this post is that my T has been changing tone (high pitch tone, whooshing, electric buzzing type noise, ear to ear, back of head, etc) - and I just wanted to thank everyone for the positive tone of this thread. As you all know, there is a TON of negative/scary/frightening stories people are sharing and I just felt compelled to share that I appreciate this thread. My friend, who is the MD, actually used the 'ankle' allusion as well.

Anyway - stay positive all and thank you!

 

[John B.]

Old post, I know. I've had mild tinnitus for about 14 years in my right ear. It was solid tone, in the 4k-6k range. The tone got louder over the years - but not terrible. In April I started getting a new form - a louder, less solid tone - more of a hiss. Then I was getting a high frequency sorta cricket-like tinnitus - it seemed like when one form was loud, the other form faded away.

In the last couple of weeks, the cricket-like T occurred less frequently - and when it did appear, it seemed to not stay as long. Two days ago, I started getting a "fullness" sensation in both ears, along with a very subtle lower frequency "flutter" in my right ear. It's very hard to pick out - and is undetectable if I put my finger in my ear. I had this "fullness" feeling early in April and it subsided. I'm hoping when it subsides again this time that the flutter goes with it.

I'll be sure to update this thread when the fullness subsides. On the one hand I'm hopeful that the changing nature of my tinnitus means my brain is figuring some stuff out, but it's also scary to not have some sort of stasis.

 

[John B.]

So the fullness subsided today - and the flutter pretty much disappeared. If I sit in a really quiet place, I can faintly hear it. One thing I noticed with the fullness - especially my right ear - was that I couldn't hear very well out of that ear. I was afraid I was going deaf. Thankfully that was not the case.