Have Tinnitus After Allergic Med Reaction

[Roonie]

After having and being treated for a viral/ bacterial infection of throat, ears and chest, now have tinnitus of the left ear. Doctor feels I was over medicated and had an allergic reaction to one of the drugs prescribed.
Was seen in urgent care 3 times before able to see primary doctor. Given Zythromax, Augmentin, Valtrex, and prednisone. Also ear drops and told to take over the counter medicine Mucinex. My tinnitus is a buzzing sound, like wet electrical high wires. It is with me daily for the most part. Some days more loud than others. It only changes after sleeping. I , so far, have no trouble falling asleep but if I wake in the night after about 4-5 hours then it will keep me awake.
I have tried to keep a log of activities, meds, foods etc., that effect it but nothing stands out. On the low volume days I find I am very tired and my ear hurts, although the doctor says all is good.

 

[billie48]

Welcome to the forum. In living with T, we need to take all the positives as we can. Such attitude will help moderate our reaction to T which can then help reduce its intrusiveness and sometimes even its perceived loudness. Many members complain they can't sleep. So if you can sleep well for 4-5 hours, try to count that as a positive. Perhaps you can keep some nature sounds or whatever sounds that soothe you while sleeping. When you get used to the masking, perhaps you can fall back into sleep even when T wake you up. Having other sounds for your brain to focus on will take away zooming on T. Here are some masking suggestions:

1) Mask at bed time so you can sleep better. Find whatever sounds/music that are soothing to you. You can use a sound machine or sound pillow for this, or a computer with speakers.

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds.

3) If you have computer and speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds too:

TT's audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: http://mynoise.net/

or download free sound generator 'aire freshener': http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

That was what I had to do. I literally masked all day (even just partial masking due to H) just to cope. I talk about masking in my success story and how it has helped me cut down the need for meds. I also list many helpful strategies to help me turn around from darkness to light in my journey with ultra high pitch T and severe H. If you have the time, check it out. Take care. God bless.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/from-darkness-to-light-how-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

 

[Roonie]

Thank you for your upbeat reply. I appreciate the positive approach and suggestions. Most days handling well so I am lucky, but some are screamers. Just having some trouble wrapping my head around how it happened. The two ENTs I saw were of very little help and the lack of interest in how one copes was a surprise to me as I have always had great doctors. My primary is great and am learning each day. Thank you for your encouragement.

 

[MeliF]

Roonie,
Did your Tinnitus ever go away?
I'm going through the exact same thing. ZPak and Prednisone reaction.
Please tell me it gets better.