- Apr 14, 2017
- 18
- Tinnitus Since
- February 2015
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Neck injury from pedestrian accident with car
Hi fellow TT members
My name is Dani and I, like you, have found myself in the most unfortunate predicament of suffering from T. I have lurked from time to time amongst these forums but never joined as my audiologist encouraged me not to go near anything on the internet about T - I probably should have joined a long time ago. I know there are a couple of others here from Brisbane so it is good to finally come across others who know what it is like to have this experience.
My journey with T began almost 2.5 years ago now. Almost three years ago I was run over by a car travelling at speed through a pedestrian crossing. While I somehow managed to avoid life-threatening injuries, I did not realise at the time that I had sustained a number of long-term injuries which would put me on the course to chronic T within a matter of months. One of those injuries was whiplash, and the subsequent stretching of the ligaments in my neck, and severe jaw joint dysfunction and TMJ (which was not discovered for two years). The whiplash went undiagnosed and effectively untreated despite chronic neck pain that nothing could resolve. I have been receiving treatment for the misaligned jaw joint for a year now (occlusal splint and other treatment), and while my jaw has effectively been fixed the treatment has had absolutely no effect on my T whatsoever. Since I can modulate the sound (or at least I used to be able to) by moving my neck, I've always believed that neck dysfunction has somehow hijacked my neural pathways and resulted in T.
The sound began as a small high-pitched continuous noise in my right ear, which gradually grew louder. Over the last two years the T has gone from unilateral to bilateral, and has been overlaid with a variety of other sounds including a faint rattling and buzzing - most recently - a truly awful continuous beep that can be heard from my head and not my ears. It has become so pervasive that now my hearing is affected. It is the continuous beeping that has without a doubt sent my emotional state into a sharp downward spiral, along with the odd 10 - 20 second "spikes" where I get a massive rush of T through one ear which fades back to normal T. I also get quite frequent severe earaches and get intermittent aural fullness which I know is common.
I've been through the usual conveyor belt of specialists who seem to have little to no understanding of anything to do with T. I went to my doctor in the very early stages - a terrified emotional wreck - who referred me to an audiologist (Neurosensory) and an ENT. The ENT sent me off for a brain MRI, which came back with zip, and my hearing test came back 100% normal. The audiologist (who himself suffers from T I understand) was sympathetic and took the time to explain a lot to me, but despite his understanding I still don't think he fully grasped the emotional fallout for me. I've had a cervical spine MRI, cone beam CT of my jaw (which turned up the jaw joint/TMJ issues), an occlusal splint, countless physiotherapy appointments, TENS treatment, massage, acupuncture (which I knew wouldn't work), nerve pain blocker meds, you name it - nothing has helped. What has frustrated me more than anything throughout this process has been the complete lack of both knowledge and understanding from medical specialists, especially in Brisbane - there is no coordinated care between medical professionals (GP, ENT, audiologist etc) and no referrals for counselling or other types of therapy such as TRT. The way T patients are managed leaves a lot to be desired, which I am sure many here can relate to.
Despite the challenges I've faced with tinnitus and my injuries, I returned to university the year after the accident and will soon finish my science degree - something which has been an uphill battle from the beginning but has allowed me to vastly expand my knowledge about T. As a result, I've read up on T extensively - my hypothesis is my T has developed from one of two things: damage to one of my cranial nerves sustained in the accident or that the psychological stress of the accident caused an aberrant change in neural plasticity in one or more regions. Whatever it is, I'm hoping that eventually something will turn up that will help so many of us suffering with this terrible condition.
If anyone has any recommendations for TRT practitioners in Brisbane, and/or psychologist who has a history of working with T patients, I'd be most grateful.
Looking forward to talking with you all more and I hope every single person here finds their permanent solution - it will happen one day, and hopefully soon.
My name is Dani and I, like you, have found myself in the most unfortunate predicament of suffering from T. I have lurked from time to time amongst these forums but never joined as my audiologist encouraged me not to go near anything on the internet about T - I probably should have joined a long time ago. I know there are a couple of others here from Brisbane so it is good to finally come across others who know what it is like to have this experience.
My journey with T began almost 2.5 years ago now. Almost three years ago I was run over by a car travelling at speed through a pedestrian crossing. While I somehow managed to avoid life-threatening injuries, I did not realise at the time that I had sustained a number of long-term injuries which would put me on the course to chronic T within a matter of months. One of those injuries was whiplash, and the subsequent stretching of the ligaments in my neck, and severe jaw joint dysfunction and TMJ (which was not discovered for two years). The whiplash went undiagnosed and effectively untreated despite chronic neck pain that nothing could resolve. I have been receiving treatment for the misaligned jaw joint for a year now (occlusal splint and other treatment), and while my jaw has effectively been fixed the treatment has had absolutely no effect on my T whatsoever. Since I can modulate the sound (or at least I used to be able to) by moving my neck, I've always believed that neck dysfunction has somehow hijacked my neural pathways and resulted in T.
The sound began as a small high-pitched continuous noise in my right ear, which gradually grew louder. Over the last two years the T has gone from unilateral to bilateral, and has been overlaid with a variety of other sounds including a faint rattling and buzzing - most recently - a truly awful continuous beep that can be heard from my head and not my ears. It has become so pervasive that now my hearing is affected. It is the continuous beeping that has without a doubt sent my emotional state into a sharp downward spiral, along with the odd 10 - 20 second "spikes" where I get a massive rush of T through one ear which fades back to normal T. I also get quite frequent severe earaches and get intermittent aural fullness which I know is common.
I've been through the usual conveyor belt of specialists who seem to have little to no understanding of anything to do with T. I went to my doctor in the very early stages - a terrified emotional wreck - who referred me to an audiologist (Neurosensory) and an ENT. The ENT sent me off for a brain MRI, which came back with zip, and my hearing test came back 100% normal. The audiologist (who himself suffers from T I understand) was sympathetic and took the time to explain a lot to me, but despite his understanding I still don't think he fully grasped the emotional fallout for me. I've had a cervical spine MRI, cone beam CT of my jaw (which turned up the jaw joint/TMJ issues), an occlusal splint, countless physiotherapy appointments, TENS treatment, massage, acupuncture (which I knew wouldn't work), nerve pain blocker meds, you name it - nothing has helped. What has frustrated me more than anything throughout this process has been the complete lack of both knowledge and understanding from medical specialists, especially in Brisbane - there is no coordinated care between medical professionals (GP, ENT, audiologist etc) and no referrals for counselling or other types of therapy such as TRT. The way T patients are managed leaves a lot to be desired, which I am sure many here can relate to.
Despite the challenges I've faced with tinnitus and my injuries, I returned to university the year after the accident and will soon finish my science degree - something which has been an uphill battle from the beginning but has allowed me to vastly expand my knowledge about T. As a result, I've read up on T extensively - my hypothesis is my T has developed from one of two things: damage to one of my cranial nerves sustained in the accident or that the psychological stress of the accident caused an aberrant change in neural plasticity in one or more regions. Whatever it is, I'm hoping that eventually something will turn up that will help so many of us suffering with this terrible condition.
If anyone has any recommendations for TRT practitioners in Brisbane, and/or psychologist who has a history of working with T patients, I'd be most grateful.
Looking forward to talking with you all more and I hope every single person here finds their permanent solution - it will happen one day, and hopefully soon.
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