Does This Sound Like Reactive Tinnitus?

[Dan H]

Hi all

So, for around a month now I have had a constant high pitched ringing sound in my head that cuts through most ambient noise when I think about it. I'm not 100% sure of the cause, but I first noticed it during a nasty bout of tonsillitis. I was in hospital for five days on intravenous clarithromycin and metronidazole (I was on this for about 2.5 days). I continued to take these orally after the needle irritated the vein in my arm. I'm not sure if the noise was caused by the infection, medication or something else, but I must point out that I have had clarithromycin many times before without any problems.

However, I have heard another sound since Friday morning that is bothering me much more. It is a fairly low frequency humming sound, the best way I can describe this is the sound that you hear if you blow into the top of an empty glass bottle. But, I can only hear this sound when there is certain background noise with it, for example the hum of a fridge or boiler. The sound seems to be external, almost as if it is actually coming from the fridge or boiler. I was in a supermarket earlier today and could hear this sound quite loud in the aisle with all the fridges, and I felt rather uncomfortable in general in the supermarket as I seemed to hear some other noises along with this. I must say that at this point my anxiety was getting very high and I have had a period of high anxiety due to all this.

Does this new noise sound like reactive tinnitus? The experience I had in the supermarket has made quite a mark on me, because I am now fearing what I am going to hear when I go out socialising in the pub which I love doing. I am hoping it will subside because it has coincided with another bout of tonsillitis which I have been taking antibiotics for since Friday night, and my throat now appears to be getting a bit better. And I am also hoping that my anxiety is what was causing these other noises in the supermarket.

Regards

Dan

 

[Dan H]

After looking into this a bit more it seems like it may actually be more of a sound distortion than a new tone, as I only hear it along with certain sounds. I can hear the actual sounds clearly, just with this extra noise on top of it. Can anyone relate to this? It's not so bad when I can't hear it, but when I do it is very scary.

 

[Owen]

I have had sound distortion issues in the past. For me, it was on anything spoken with the sh sound. It was more like a th sound. I first noticed it when driving, listening to the radio and I thought the presenter had a severe lisp. It may come back at some time, but I haven't heard it for around 3-4 months and it only lasted for about 2 weeks, but I know what you mean by the distortion.

 

[Owen]

Come to think of it, I also used to get what sounded like an echo at the end of hard sounds, but that was much closer to the initial onset and I think it is around a year since I have heard that particular sound.

 

[Dan H]

Hi Owen, that's good that yours went away. I'm desperately hoping mine does the same soon. I was anxious enough about my initial sound, but if I was given the option to go back to just hearing that one sound then I would take it and run. My biggest worry is that the IV antibiotics I was on may have caused some ototoxicity, even though the ones I had are not in the high risk group. But the distortion came on so suddenly. I was on a bus on Friday morning and all of a sudden I heard this tone over the sound of the engine out of nowhere. The noise I hear is similar to the video on this link, and varies in volume according to the sound that it is competing with: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...er-news/whats-loud-noise-city-centre-10521158

 

[Owen]

My echo/distortion just appeared out of nowhere too. I was actually on my way to my parents when it first happened and I sat at the kitchen table when I got to my parents and told them I think I'm going deaf.

I don't think you will ever know if you have suffered any ototoxicity, but I hope that like me, the strange extra sounds disappear. I guess if you have a baseline hearing test from shortly before, you could get another one now.

The doctors don't really know or even care to find out what is behind my tinnitus. It definitely is connected to a drug reaction, but it is not one considered to cause ototoxicity, (levothyroxine), so the general theory is systemic inflammation, but that could mean anything in terms of what is actually going on. It could be that the inflammation has damaged my inner ear, my middle ear, the nerves, etc.

It could just be that a tiny bit of debris is stuck somewhere in the middle ear and over time it will break down and be removed.

Oddly, I often have very swollen tonsils which occurred ever since the drug reaction. They are not infected, just oversized. As these are oversized, I have wondered if there has been a similar reaction to my adenoids, resulting in them obstructing my Eustachian tube.

 

[Dan H]

Do you know how long after onset you heard the distortion? It was about a month for me. I am wondering if my swollen tonsil has something to do with this distortion I'm hearing, but I have my doubts because the sound appears to come from the source of the sound that it is competing with. For example, if I hear the fridge humming from another room then this other sound will also sound like it is coming from that room. I would have thought that if it was related to my tonsil then it would sound like it is inside the ear on the same side.

 

[Jkph75]

I am having this problem. Are you still having it? Does anyone know what is causing this?

 

[bekker]

I have the same. I have normal tinnitus and on top of that i hear exactly the noise of an ambulance at times. I hear it when i'm in the shower and in the car. And now for 2 or 3 days more often because i had very few sleep. It looks Like if the ambulance sound is triggerd by noise from the car and the shower. What you also Said it doesnt look Like it is from my ears but actually from outside