Hello, New to Tinnitus

[Bob T]

I have been exposed to lots of noise and sometimes really loud noises all my life. Oddly enough I work in a relatively quiet office now and while sitting at my desk I started hearing a high pitched noise. I looked up at the fluorescent light fixtures and thought "there must be a bad ballast up there". I thought about asking someone else if they heard it but didn't. The next day I heard it worse and still didn't ask anyone else if they heard it even though I thought about it. It was when I got home and heard it there too that I knew I was probably screwed. It pretty much came out of nowhere. The last time I was exposed to loud noise was three years ago. It was a doozy though, really bad backfire from an industrial machine.

I've been to the Doctor, had the wax removed, tried two different antibiotics and prednisone. I see an ENT Doc later this week. It's pretty loud most of the time but it varies. Sometimes I need ear buds to sleep, crickets help the most, white noise makes it worse. I don't expect anything to come from the ENT visit, I can tell I'm pretty much stuck with this after two months.

I dread trying to go to sleep. The thing that helps the most is drinking heavily before bed. Not a good path to be on for sure. I'm hoping to get used to it so I don't die of cirrhosis. People will say "I had no idea he was such a drunk" What really killed me was T, not being an alcoholic.

Overall I think I'm coping fairly well and hoping for improvement. I can tolerate it well as long as the volume isn't screechingly loud like it sometimes is.

Thanks for all the support here.

 

[Bill Bauer]

The thing that helps the most is drinking heavily before bed.

Have you tried sound enrichment (to give you something else to listen to besides your T)? I found Amitriptyline helps me sleep. It is non-addictive and it didn't make me feel drowsy the next morning.

 

[Kolisar]

I can tell I'm pretty much stuck with this after two months.

That may not, necessarily, be the case. From what i have read here, it can take up to two years, but the majority of people do seem to either have their symptoms disappear or they learn to habituate. There are, of course, some for whom neither occurs, but again from what I have gathered from my time here, most recover.

Also, @Bill Bauer (see the post above) wrote the following post discussing studies that show a fairly high recovery rate from tinnitus ( https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/ )

That may provide some hope as well.

Please be careful with the drinking. It seems quite easy to slide down that path and meet an untimely end due to excessive consumption.

 

[Bob T]

I am trying various things other than drinking. I don't want to go too far down that road. So far I've tried taming the beast by simply trying to embrace the sound like I would white noise, like I used to before T. I used to like white noise. Kind of telling myself to like the sound. Not very easy and I'm not always successful. I also have tried ear buds and an MP3 player listening to crickets. Crickets works well but I'm a side sleeper and the buds aren't always comfortable. I wear a headband to keep them in but they hurt when laying on them. I'm not sure if my wife could tolerate the crickets so I'm trying the ear buds.

 

[Aaron44126]

I also have tried ear buds and an MP3 player listening to crickets. Crickets works well but I'm a side sleeper and the buds aren't always comfortable. I wear a headband to keep them in but they hurt when laying on them.

Try to find something other than earbuds for sleeping, unless you keep those things sanitized well I think you are opening yourself up to the possibility of ear infection using them for hours every day. I use a sound headband (https://www.sleepphones.com/). Early on, I found a combination of crickets and rain sounds helpful to sleep through the tinnitus. Now, I can get by with just brown noise.

Always keep the volume at a reasonable level, loud noises can of course damage hearing and make your tinnitus worse.

 

[Ben In SD]

I dread trying to go to sleep.

I was the same way, but this pillow really helped me get back to a normal sleep pattern. The guy who owns the company has Tinnitus too, so he gets it. http://www.soundpillow.com/

 

[Bob T]

Thanks for the links. I was looking at the sound pillow but haven't pulled the trigger on it yet. I really like the head band, I think it looks like it would isolate the noise to just me more than the pillow.

 

[Bob T]

Ordered the head band. Looking forward to trying it.

Thanks

 

[Bob T]

Well, it's been 4 months since it started and it's worse now than ever. The Doctors have given up after having tried two different antibiotics and two different steroids. I guess I'm officially in the club. I have the head band with speakers in it and it works great except the speakers are very "targeted" if that's the right way to say it. If the head band slips even a little bit I can't hear anything coming from it. It's comfortable to sleep in but it requires being really careful to keep from moving it on your head when you toss and turn. I've been trying not to use it so I simply get used to the noise but the other night I couldn't take it anymore so I put the head band on. I woke after a few hours and while trying to get back to sleep my T ramped up to overcome the crickets I use to mask. I turned up the volume on my MP3 player and the T kept ramping up to overcome it. I'm a bit scared about that happening again. Anyway, looks like I'm in for a rough ride. Thanks for all the encouragement here.

 

[Bobby B]

I use an iPhone 6 on speaker and the myNoise app which has good sounds like the summer night one with crickets

I don't think it's a good idea to wear earbuds all night