Ah! Good to get back to you. My tinnitus came on so faintly back in 1992 and got gradually louder and louder within the next days and weeks. I had good insurance back then, but my ENT sent me to the hospital somewhat late. You have to understand that at that time I didn't know what was wrong with me. A relation of mine in the medical field phoned me in hospital and told me the name was called tinnitus. He did his research -- he was one of the early ones into the internet --which was hardly known back then and read out something along the sound of the following sentence:
" A breakthrough occurred in the year 198* when the scientific community gave "ringing in the ear" the scientific term of "tinnitus" ". The exact year I don't know. Maybe 197* -- but it shows the lay of the land back then.
You might smile at this being described as a breakthrough -- But it really was! Just like the discovery of some tropical island in the age of exploration, (colonialism?) to be put on the scientific map like that with its very own name alerted the scientific academic community
What infusion therapy did I receive? I seem to recall some name such as Trental -- but that might be a German trade name -- Rogaine too, perhaps. The doctors chopped and changed the infusion drip throughout the two weeks that I was in hospital.
For many years it was a sore point with me that the ENT had not sent me to the hospital immediately. But I recall the first day in the hospital bed they tried the standard "Shtuff" on me in a precautionary allergy test and I failed it. So perhaps I was b*ggered from the start. German medical practice is to try to flush out the inner ear with plenty of some oxygen bearing infusion and to get the hair cells upright again. So to your question: I assume that I got a variety of the different infusion therapies which were fashionable in the 1990s. Trental and perhaps Rogaine... My memory is not all that good. It would not surprise me if they have improved or changed on them. Someone on Tinnitus Talk mentioned getting an intratympanic membrane injection of steroids or some such thing. Maybe that is a safer and more effective therapy than the German one for acute cases.
Back then I recall how my relation in the medical field was so enthusiastic about the internet and world wide web and wanted to get me enthused about it. He mentioned how back in the 80s and early 90s and before -- if you wanted to access some study or report done by a previous researcher, you had to catch a train or drive to some central archive and wait your turn and then real nicely ask the archivist in the library: "Please would you go down to the cellar and get photocopies of report nr whichever by doctors A and B (196*) and also report nr whatever by doctors C & D (197*) and etc., etc. and after about half an hour if you were lucky they came back up with the information.
Nowadays researchers have it all in a few mouse clicks -- and so do we if one can understand what it's all about.
An extreme version of this is the example of the Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. It seems to be getting a lot of stick now but it certainly helped me the most out of all the other therapies and cures doing the rounds.
The story goes that Pawel Jastreboff wrote his research paper and as with many research papers before it ended up in some archive gathering dust. A chance after-dinner conversation between the secretary of ENT Dr. Jonathan Hazell from London and Jastreboff in the US let to an enormous breakthrough:
The suggestion came up: "Why not put the theory into practice by testing it"!
Mild sarcasm alert here.
Well it helped me back in the 90s but now that my tinnitus is getting worse since 2016 it doesn't seem to work any more. I guess I must have graduated to some additional form of cochlear damage.
On the little matter of money and research. That is real important. And getting the politicians to direct the funding in our direction will accelerate the advent of a cure or therapy enormously. One story related to the Jastreboff/Hazell incident is that Reagan was in power then. He suffered from tinnitus from a gunshot wound. He asked the top medical people in Washington if they could do anything it and they answered that "Sadly Mr President, we can put a man on the moon but we can't cure tinnitus." When Nancy heard this she took the matter in hand and ordered them to go and find something. And that's how Jastreboff and Hazell got the attention and research funding. That's the urban legend anyway. I'm sure it's at least 50% true. (I flipped a coin).
So cynical me is of the opinion that perhaps one of the main reasons for the increased interest and nr of clinical trials is simply because of the nr of army veterans suffering from hearing damage and the enormous cost burden on the Veterans Medical Funding.
Curiously, when I think of my own case, back in the nineties I must have taken wheelbarrow loads of blood-thinning tablets and magnesium powder prescribed by my doctor. He knew that they weren't working, the pharma people knew they weren't working, I knew they weren't working, but the elements of the machine were happy to continue to roll. The doctor got his fee, the pharma company got their sale and I happily paid my insurance which I needed anyway. Only thing was that I was suffering from the tinnitus.
Ups. Maybe I talk a bit too much. End of lecture. I seem to be all over the shop in my reply covering so many different topics and maybe not posted in the right thread. Well copy and paste as you like.
End of rant.
Member
Ha! -- my own addition). I seem to recall reading of one other source on a clay tablet from ancient Syria or Sumeria which would put the record back further.
