I'm Worried This Could Be My Life Now, But I'm Glad I Found This Group

[ICanDealWIthThis]

Hey, my name is Sam, and I recently had a bottle rocket explode in my face a little before the 4th of July. I didn't know you had to let go of it, and held on too tightly. I experienced immediate muffling of the ears and ringing that subsided.

I believe my hearing's gone mostly back to normal, but them the tinnitus came. It didn't start till about 5 days later, and it sort of came and faded. For two days it did this — I was fine in the morning, and the ringing started in the afternoon.

The third day yesterday), it was gone in the morning again, and I went to the city with my family. We had these large metal street signs in the back that were loudly clanging, which bothered everyone in the car immensely (but probably me the most). Overall it was a very loud day, and I started to notice higher pitched sounds more and find them more irritating (keys jangling, cars braking).

Funnily enough, I did not get T till later in the night that night (around 10:00). But this time it was worse. It seemed like now it was two tones rather than just one, and it was louder. It stressed the hell out of me and made it very hard to get to sleep that night. I was dreading I'd still have it in the morning.

Well, this morning, I woke up and there it was. Perhaps not as loud, but still there. I find that as I type this and focus on the writing, I am not noticing it, and when I took a shower, it was virtually gone. All this gives me hope that perhaps I will be able to deal with it.

But there is this lingering fear that it will not go away, or perhaps worsen to where I hear it even against the white noise of the world. I worry that it will cause sleeping problems, which would really get me down, as I've always been a great sleeper.

But here I am with this new problem, and it's not gonna do any good to sit around and dread the future, so I'm just going to try to keep myself busy and stay positive. Thanks for hearing my story.

 

[Clearscreen]

Hi, Sam. Sorry your having the problem, but welcome to the forum. I have age related hearing loss that I believe was added to by too many rock concerts and being very close to a lightning strike on a tree. I have had minor temporary episodes of T in the past, but now it seems it's here to stay. Hopefully yours will be temporary, but if it lasts a few weeks, you should definitely see your GP and they can prescribe something for the stress and to help you sleep (they gave me Amitriptyline and it helps), check your ears for wax or other problems and do a rudimentary hearing test and refer you to an ENT and/or audiologist if they think it's warranted.

It seems like you have a pretty good attitude about it, so keep that up and best of luck.

Cliff

 

[Bobby B]

You need to avoid loud noise for the next 3-6 months or more depending on age and damage

That's the only way your ears can heal

Wear ear plugs or ear muffs for the time being - if it feels loud to you just wear those

It will get better but it takes time

 

[Fabrikat]

@ICanDealWIthThis, perhaps a short course of steroid medication may be useful in the very early stages. See your doctor.

 

[billie48]

But here I am with this new problem, and it's not gonna do any good to sit around and dread the future, so I'm just going to try to keep myself busy and stay positive. Thanks for hearing my story.

Welcome to the forum. Your above quoted approach of trying to get busy and staying positive is probably going to help you speed up habituation. When you can stay positive, the brain will slowly be able to get used to the sounds. Trying to stay busy as this will give us distraction from T. The more we can do that, the less we can about T and sooner or later the brain will be able to fade out T from consciousness even if it still rings. Take good care. God bless.

 

[ICanDealWIthThis]

Hi, Sam. Sorry your having the problem, but welcome to the forum. I have age related hearing loss that I believe was added to by too many rock concerts and being very close to a lightning strike on a tree. I have had minor temporary episodes of T in the past, but now it seems it's here to stay. Hopefully yours will be temporary, but if it lasts a few weeks, you should definitely see your GP and they can prescribe something for the stress and to help you sleep (they gave me Amitriptyline and it helps), check your ears for wax or other problems and do a rudimentary hearing test and refer you to an ENT and/or audiologist if they think it's warranted.

It seems like you have a pretty good attitude about it, so keep that up and best of luck.

Cliff

Thanks for sharing, Cliff. I'm sorry yours has not gone. How is it? Are you managing?

You need to avoid loud noise for the next 3-6 months or more depending on age and damage

That's the only way your ears can heal

Wear ear plugs or ear muffs for the time being - if it feels loud to you just wear those

It will get better but it takes time

I hope so, Bobby. Fingers crossed. I'm trying to stay away from loud noise, but it's not easy all the time. I think I'll get ear plugs for now, especially in the car.

@ICanDealWIthThis, perhaps a short course of steroid medication may be useful in the very early stages. See your doctor.

I hope it will. I actually started taking some left over prednisone that I had for my lungs a while ago. Hope it's helping. I'm going to an ENT tomorrow.

Welcome to the forum. Your above quoted approach of trying to get busy and staying positive is probably going to help you speed up habituation. When you can stay positive, the brain will slowly be able to get used to the sounds. Trying to stay busy as this will give us distraction from T. The more we can do that, the less we can about T and sooner or later the brain will be able to fade out T from consciousness even if it still rings. Take good care. God bless.

Thanks, billie. I'm hoping the positivity can do something. It's gotta be possible to train myself not to fixate on the sounds.

Update:

Yesterday I managed to ignore it all day, which felt super encouraging. I almost just "willed it away". I thought I'd beaten it. All day I kept telling myself not to get my hopes up, that it could come back tomorrow or that night. Of course when I got to bed it came back, and I couldn't ignore it any longer in the quiet. My small fan did not help. Somehow or other I got to sleep.

The rain outside my window this morning fooled me. I thought I'd been cured! But alas, I just didn't realize how well the sound of rain was masking the T. It came back once I got out of bed. What really worried me about today is a little hyperacusis (especially driving), which I'd had a couple days before but not as bad.

Being at summer-school (I'm taking Montessori teacher training) was really hard because it's such a quiet room. I couldn't help but hear the T all day. I brought that same small fan to blow beside my desk, but it didn't work any more than it had the night before.

Even driving I'd hear it, unless the windows were down. I broke down on the way home from work. First time I've cried since I thought I had emphysema (false positive on an x-ray).

When I got home, it calmed down. Especially outside. The cicadas drown it out. It's been interesting to see what blends it out. It's more natural waxing and waning sounds (than white noise) that does the trick.

Here's my thoughts at the end of the night: I'm worried it's getting louder. I'm worried that the white noise generators won't block it out soon. Still worried that it's not gonna go away.

But again, trying hard to keep busy, get good sleep, and exercise. Tomorrow is a new day, dammit.

Thanks so much for the support. Knowing I'm not alone makes miles of difference.

 

[billie48]

Even driving I'd hear it, unless the windows were down. I broke down on the way home from work. First time I've cried since I thought I had emphysema (false positive on an x-ray).

When I got home, it calmed down. Especially outside. The cicadas drown it out. It's been interesting to see what blends it out. It's more natural waxing and waning sounds (than white noise) that does the trick.

It is quite normal to get teary or even to cry over a new tinnitus. The body is so highly stressed and the nerves are so high strung with anxiety that it just has to find a natural release of such tension - crying. I know of a forum moderator in another forum who had cried over his T for 2 years but he is well and habituated now. I was often teary myself during the darkest days, especially while praying to God for guidance and strength to soldier on in the battle with T. So don't worry about the tears. If they want to flow, let them flow. It is okay and good for the body to release the stress.

One thing to remember for a new T sufferer like you is that a new T can be quite unpredictable. It can do twists and spins on you to cause you much anxiety and grief. It will get better over time. So be ready for the sudden, unexplained spikes, for the change in tones, or with more tones etc., etc. It is part of the journey until which time the ears and the brain are more stable and until you reach final habituation. If you find masking with nature sounds help, please consider masking your T more rigorously do you won't get too emotional. But don't over power your T. Try to set the volume to be slightly lower than T so you brain can learn to get used to the T sound without traumatic reaction. You obviously have high pitch T if you find cicadas helping you. Here are some suggestions for masking so you can find more options. Take good care. God bless.

1) Mask at bed time if having trouble sleeping, by using a sound pillow or sound machine with pillow speakers. There are good sound machine & pillow therapy systems like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Oasis-...d-Oasis-Therapy-System-Speakers/dp/B00MH5HKTA

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. Use wisdom in the use of headphones or earbuds as extended use or excessive volume may hurt your ears. Try set the volume slightly below that of your tinnitus.

3) With PC & speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds to see which one masks best:

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

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

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

or click play to mix these sounds with this simple sound generator: http://asoftmurmur.com/

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