Hoping for Relief

[hakesake]

I wanted to share my current situation with Tinnitus and hopefully it can bring some insight to those of you struggling and looking for answers.

I attend countless concerts across the country. I am concert photographer to shoot musicians live on stage -- but it comes with a price with them being directly in front of the sound system! I occasionally wear ear plugs but this latest festival I covered did not. What is odd was I attended this in early March. When I left my ears felt numb, but that is typical at going to these things.

As days went by I did notice some very slight hearing loss in my left ear, normally I could clip my finger nails and hear the nail hit the trash can, I could in my right but noticed my left was worse. This wasn't effecting me too negatively though.

Then in April I had the allergy issues, horrible snotty cold, congestions, all of it. I was able to get through a lot of it self-medicating with old prescriptions. I thought it was gone other than the occasional sinus issues, but by late April I noticed my left ear started to ring very loudly and had intense pressure.

I've had occasional spouts of tinnitus as a child, but they never lasted more than a few minutes.

The ringing has persisted and after a few days I went to see a Doctor. He prescribed me a steroid shot, followed by a weeks worth amoxicillin and zyrtec.

I followed through and felt no change, so I contacted an ENT Specialist and had my appointment yesterday.

The doctor looked at my ears and said it doesn't look like an infection or earwax and sent me into a hearing test. Wasn't good. My left ear has severe nerve damage.

He told me he's hoping I can regain my hearing again, with a lot of cases he notices a pattern where excessive sodium consumption can lead to hearing loss or tinnitus. Salt will cause you to retain more water and causes problems with the middle ear. So stay away from sodas, extremely processed foods, and salty foods!

He prescribed:

triamterene/hydrochlorothiazide (diuretic to help eliminate salt from my body)
prednisone (steroid for inflammation)
Xanax (I request something to help with the anxiety of the constant ringing)

I will keep you informed of how it goes. Please share you experiences.

 

[hakesake]

I followed back up with the ENT last week with no better results. The hearing test still showed I cannot hear high frequencies in my left ear, although it did not get any worse. He said these things can take a while to clear up, it isn't predictable. If it doesn't get better in a month he suggested I get an MRI done. He said to keep with the low sodium diet and no caffeine, avoid any processed foods.

I asked friends and co-workers if they've ever heard of this before, none have heard that sodium and caffeine effects hearing. I did get good advice from a friend that said I probably have too much candida and I should incorporate more probiotics into my diet. He claims his ringing went away completely once he eliminated carbs and got the gut bacteria in order. I'm going to try this next!

 

[Bobby B]

I think that for noise damage all these diet advice aren't going to do much unfortunately - I whish it was so simple to just cut salt to cut T...

Eventually the only way to deal with this is to use sound enrichment at the high frequcies and habituate while protecting the ears really well to avoid further worsening which leads to permanent louder T and H.

 

[fishbone]

I wanted to share my current situation with Tinnitus and hopefully it can bring some insight to those of you struggling and looking for answers.

I attend countless concerts across the country. I am concert photographer to shoot musicians live on stage -- but it comes with a price with them being directly in front of the sound system! I occasionally wear ear plugs but this latest festival I covered did not. What is odd was I attended this in early March. When I left my ears felt numb, but that is typical at going to these things.

As days went by I did notice some very slight hearing loss in my left ear, normally I could clip my finger nails and hear the nail hit the trash can, I could in my right but noticed my left was worse. This wasn't effecting me too negatively though.

Then in April I had the allergy issues, horrible snotty cold, congestions, all of it. I was able to get through a lot of it self-medicating with old prescriptions. I thought it was gone other than the occasional sinus issues, but by late April I noticed my left ear started to ring very loudly and had intense pressure.

I've had occasional spouts of tinnitus as a child, but they never lasted more than a few minutes.

The ringing has persisted and after a few days I went to see a Doctor. He prescribed me a steroid shot, followed by a weeks worth amoxicillin and zyrtec.

I followed through and felt no change, so I contacted an ENT Specialist and had my appointment yesterday.

The doctor looked at my ears and said it doesn't look like an infection or earwax and sent me into a hearing test. Wasn't good. My left ear has severe nerve damage.

He told me he's hoping I can regain my hearing again, with a lot of cases he notices a pattern where excessive sodium consumption can lead to hearing loss or tinnitus. Salt will cause you to retain more water and causes problems with the middle ear. So stay away from sodas, extremely processed foods, and salty foods!

He prescribed:

triamterene/hydrochlorothiazide (diuretic to help eliminate salt from my body)
prednisone (steroid for inflammation)
Xanax (I request something to help with the anxiety of the constant ringing)

I will keep you informed of how it goes. Please share you experiences.

Wow, I feel bad for you

please do not be in front of loud concert speakers without protective ear plugs. I made that mistake in college and went to a frat party and danced in front of a LOUD mega bass speaker and i paid the price big time. Protect your ears and i hope things get better

 

[Flamingo]

Sorry to hear about your situation. How much hearing loss do you have according to your audiogram? You can try some supplements like magnesium and NAC and see if that helps.

All the best

 

[Flamingo]

Eventually the only way to deal with this is to use sound enrichment at the high frequcies and habituate while protecting the ears really well to avoid further worsening which leads to permanent louder T and H.

What kind of sound enrichment with higher frequencies do you use?

 

[Bobby B]

@Flamingo
The my noise app on iPhone or PC

 

[Flamingo]

@Flamingo
The my noise app on iPhone or PC

Any certain high frequency sounds you recommend?