My Journey to Silence

#31
@newbieT

It was a slow fade, I just remember after 2.5 years a noticeable difference after wear my splint for a couple months. Even 1.5 years ago, my ears would ring after a hot shower or when my allergies would act up, but it would return to a low level. End of last year is when my tinnitus totally faded. Even after a hot shower or allergies, it doesn't ring. It just took a long time, maybe it took a long time for the inflammation to accumulate??
 
#32
It's good to read your story since it shows T can dissapear even years later. As opposed to merely just habituating. Gives people like me hope
 
#34
Lane said:
To follow up a bit on my above comments, I would encourage you to consider that you may have had some "pre-existing" conditions as well. After all, there were probably hundreds (or more) than went to the same concert, and didn't end up with tinnitus like you did. Sometimes it's doing just the teeniest, tiniest little things that can make ALL the difference in the world. -- All the Best!​
Click to expand...

Hi! Thanks for this response. I just went to a doctor to check on my jaw. I've been told to stop eating anything that requires too much pressure on my jaw. Also no chewing gum or biting nails (which is probably what messed up my jaw in the first place, such a bad habit). If there's no improvement in my jaw in 1 month they will give me some jaw exercises or a splint. Lets hope I see an improvement in my tinnitus aswell.

Also another thing that's kindof bothering me is the fact that I hear crackling or popping in my ears whenever I swallow. The doctor told me this is because I'm highly allergic to grass, so my eustachian tube is basically swollen 24/7. The only way to fix this is by going on immunotherapy which involves 3 years of taking a pill daily, without missing a day or I'll have to start over. I wasn't really ready to start such a therapy but now I'm wondering if this could also have an impact on my tinnitus. The doctor told me it wouldn't but I've come to realise that doctors don't know anything about tinnitus yet.
 
#35
Roy114 said:
The doctor told me this is because I'm highly allergic to grass, so my eustachian tube is basically swollen 24/7. The only way to fix this is by going on immunotherapy which involves 3 years of taking a pill daily, without missing a day or I'll have to start over. I wasn't really ready to start such a therapy but now I'm wondering if this could also have an impact on my tinnitus.
Click to expand...

Hi Roy,

If you have a chronically swollen ET, then that would strike me as a hopeful sign. Meaning: That could indeed indicate a "pre-existing" condition, and if successfully addressed, could have a positive impact on your tinnitus. -- I have VERY serious doubts that doing some kind of immunotherapy (for three years!) is going to be your best option. You may want to consider the approach I'm currently taking, which can be partially summed up fairly well in the following email I just sent out to a number of friends... -- All the Best!

It's become clear to me that any number of things going on in the body, especially in the areas around the head, ears, gums, teeth, eyes, sinuses, neck muscles, neck trigger points, etc. can have a big influence on tinnitus (including EMF exposure).

So I'm currently in the process of trying to address every single thing within my head cavity that might be compromised in some way, so that my tinnitus might possibly improve--no matter how minute that improvement might be. I've recently run across several very interesting references to various kinds of nasal rinses/cleansing techniques, but found the following one the most intriguing. The part about using the Nasya technique to help drain a congested lymphatic system in the brain was especially intriguing.

I'm currently doing simple nasal irrigation using an electronic nasal irrigator -- (SinuPulse Elite - $80). It "may" possibly be slightly improving my tinnitus, but I know for sure fit's making my sinuses feel much better. So I'll be continuing down this road of "extreme" sinus cleanliness/clarity, and using essential oils in some form to assist with that seems inevitable at this point. ..


nasal-irrigation_nasya-oil_image2.jpg

Nasya: Sinus Cleansing and Emotional Baggage
​
If you found the above interesting, you may find the following short video interesting as well....

th?id=OVP.jpg
​

P.S. @engineerLA got a lot tinnitus relief from purchasing an electronic nasal irrigator and using it regularly. -- THIS POST has some good information by him, and a little more on nasal irrigation. THIS POST focuses on electro-acupuncture, but touches on nasal irrigation as well. -- @TracyJS
​
 
Last edited:
#38
Kara77 said:
Hi,

I know what it's like to have debilitating tinnitus, and today, it's 99% gone. It's not the first thought I have when I wake up in the morning. My stomach no longer churns when I have the 'eeeee' sound. Although my anxiety from getting tinnitus may always be with me, I know I have survived. And it does get better despite my consuming thoughts. I know I should have written my success story earlier, so better late than never.

May 2014. I remember my ear making a popping noise in the middle of Panera Bread, and then the 'eeeee'. I assumed it would just go away the next day. It didn't. It just got LOUDER. I woke up and I had extreme pressure in my head, and the room was spinning, accompanying an ever so loud 'eeeeee' sound. I could hear the sound over everything, even the shower. My body went into flight or fight mood, I begged to be committed. That's how bad it got for the year. I just remember the pain and sadness I was in, and my family who just comforted me in any way they could.

I went to several ENTS, who told me to live with it, my mother shouted back at the doctor. I was 23 at the time and I just finished college, starting my new career. I told them how I was at a music festival a week before, I assumed it was an acoustic trauma and starting blaming myself. Oh, I hated myself so much. Why why why did I have to go that EDM festival?! Why did I stand close to the stage?! The blame set in, and I fell into a deep depression. I didn't eat. I cried on the way to work and back, no one could empathize with me. I felt so alone. I stopped going out and isolated myself, and of course, anything to do with music. The thing I loved the most.

Then, one particularly bad day, I went to my GP, and she prescribed me prednisone. I woke up in the middle of the night and heard silence for the first time in 8 months. I cried of bliss. Once the steroids were out of my system, the 'eeeee' came back with a vengance. However, this got me thinking, this could be an inflammation issue.

My jaw has always clicked after a bad wisdom removal, could this be a TMJD problem? You must be your own advocate for your health, unfortunately, if the answer is not in a doctor's textbook, they can't help you. Many doctors dismissed me until one clever ENT touched my jaw, he said, you may have a jaw problem, not an ear problem. I went to a dentist and they confirmed my jaw was misaligned. I religiously wore a splint for 6 months, and low and behold, my jaw stopped clicking and clenching. The 'eeeeee' sound was finally dissipating after 2 years. Yes, 2 years!!! Oh, and my face wasn't so swollen anymore.

I started seeing a chiropractor as well, my back and neck were extremely swollen. I started getting allergy shots, this helped too. In my brain, I was doing everything I could to eliminate the inflammation. I went to a massage therapist to do neuromuscular therapy on my jaw, it worked wonders, that even my ENT asked for his information so he could help his patients with tinnitus.

Then, last year, I can't remember the date, but I woke up in silence. It took 4 years.... 4 years for the inflammation to die down. I live a normal life, I go to bars and movies and drink. I go to concerts with earplugs and I stand in the back (all my friends understand that I need to be far away). I saw Radiohead. My life isn't on hold anymore.

I never ever thought it would get better, and it did.

<3

Kara
Click to expand...


Whoa! Great story! I also have left side tinnitus, right side clicking.

What kind of split did he give you? Do you have the doctors information? I'd like to see it so I could know what to look for.

Thanks!
 
#39
This is nice to read. I hate seeing all the negativity about it taking longer than two years for T to heal.

My TMJ has messed with my Eustachian tube and caused a bad case of ETD which is when my T went wild
 
#41
@Shera

I hear ya, I honestly didn't listen to that. Every body is different, everyone's ears/jaws/etc. are different. I just figured out what worked for me. I was fortunate to find out early that steroids took away the tinnitus so my goal was to eliminate any inflammation. My jaw was so swollen on my right side, it couldn't just been a coincidence. Good luck!
 
#42
Kara77 said:
Hi,

I know what it's like to have debilitating tinnitus, and today, it's 99% gone. It's not the first thought I have when I wake up in the morning. My stomach no longer churns when I have the 'eeeee' sound. Although my anxiety from getting tinnitus may always be with me, I know I have survived. And it does get better despite my consuming thoughts. I know I should have written my success story earlier, so better late than never.

May 2014. I remember my ear making a popping noise in the middle of Panera Bread, and then the 'eeeee'. I assumed it would just go away the next day. It didn't. It just got LOUDER. I woke up and I had extreme pressure in my head, and the room was spinning, accompanying an ever so loud 'eeeeee' sound. I could hear the sound over everything, even the shower. My body went into flight or fight mood, I begged to be committed. That's how bad it got for the year. I just remember the pain and sadness I was in, and my family who just comforted me in any way they could.

I went to several ENTS, who told me to live with it, my mother shouted back at the doctor. I was 23 at the time and I just finished college, starting my new career. I told them how I was at a music festival a week before, I assumed it was an acoustic trauma and starting blaming myself. Oh, I hated myself so much. Why why why did I have to go that EDM festival?! Why did I stand close to the stage?! The blame set in, and I fell into a deep depression. I didn't eat. I cried on the way to work and back, no one could empathize with me. I felt so alone. I stopped going out and isolated myself, and of course, anything to do with music. The thing I loved the most.

Then, one particularly bad day, I went to my GP, and she prescribed me prednisone. I woke up in the middle of the night and heard silence for the first time in 8 months. I cried of bliss. Once the steroids were out of my system, the 'eeeee' came back with a vengance. However, this got me thinking, this could be an inflammation issue.

My jaw has always clicked after a bad wisdom removal, could this be a TMJD problem? You must be your own advocate for your health, unfortunately, if the answer is not in a doctor's textbook, they can't help you. Many doctors dismissed me until one clever ENT touched my jaw, he said, you may have a jaw problem, not an ear problem. I went to a dentist and they confirmed my jaw was misaligned. I religiously wore a splint for 6 months, and low and behold, my jaw stopped clicking and clenching. The 'eeeeee' sound was finally dissipating after 2 years. Yes, 2 years!!! Oh, and my face wasn't so swollen anymore.

I started seeing a chiropractor as well, my back and neck were extremely swollen. I started getting allergy shots, this helped too. In my brain, I was doing everything I could to eliminate the inflammation. I went to a massage therapist to do neuromuscular therapy on my jaw, it worked wonders, that even my ENT asked for his information so he could help his patients with tinnitus.

Then, last year, I can't remember the date, but I woke up in silence. It took 4 years.... 4 years for the inflammation to die down. I live a normal life, I go to bars and movies and drink. I go to concerts with earplugs and I stand in the back (all my friends understand that I need to be far away). I saw Radiohead. My life isn't on hold anymore.

I never ever thought it would get better, and it did.

<3

Kara
Click to expand...

if the allergy *shots* helped you also, then it could also be linked to histamine
 
#43
Hi, I got T from going to a concert. I do and always had a clicking jaw. I only got T after the concert. Do you think that working on fixing the jaw could help? thanks
 
#44
Robert44 said:
Do you think that working on fixing the jaw could help?
Click to expand...

Hi @Robert44

To answer your question--I do. I got t from an ototoxic drug, and thought all of the t was from just that. But the slight improvements I've been able to make so far have been from doing a lot of massage around my right ear (where t is centered), and going down my neck in the back, and toward the front of my face in the front. I was amazed when I pressed around the area below my right eye--not only how tender it was--but how pressing those areas made my t increase. Once I massaged out some of that tenderness, my t subsided a tad bit the following day.

Another time, I was massaging the bone area behind my right ear, and noticed it was far more tender than on the left side. When I got to one particular point, my t volume went down significantly. When I let up the pressure, it came back. When I opened my mouth wide to make the t even louder, pressing on the same point again made the volume go down significantly. So I massaged out some of that tenderness, and the following day (yesterday), my t went down another notch.

I now believe I had a "pre-existing" condition in my right ear area that made me vulnerable for the ototoxic drug to set off my t. I'm feeling at this time that if I can thoroughly address whatever is going on around my right ear, I can make further progress. I suspect many on this forum also have their own "pre-existing" condition, and need to put on their Sherlock Holmes hat, and see if they can track it down.

I think structural issues around the head and neck will be common ones, as well as sinus issues, low grade infections in the head area, etc. TMJ issues will sometimes be a major factor, and farther away joints for even others. Pete Egoscue (founder of a chain of Egoscue clinics to treat pain by addressing structural issues) believes that a lot of things that show up in one joint of the body often originate two joints away.

I also think various nutritional deficiencies will be the culprit for others. Ones that I'm aware of are zinc, CoQ10 (ubiquinol) and Vit. A, along with magnesium and others. I think gut health will turn out to be significant for others. Others will likely have to shore up their body's stress response resilience. The list is actually pretty endless. -- I've come to believe a silver lining of having t and/or h is it literally forces us to think creatively--in ways we're not necessarily used to doing. That's been the case for myself anyway.

All the Best!

​
 
#45
Kara77 said:
@Shera

I hear ya, I honestly didn't listen to that. Every body is different, everyone's ears/jaws/etc. are different. I just figured out what worked for me. I was fortunate to find out early that steroids took away the tinnitus so my goal was to eliminate any inflammation. My jaw was so swollen on my right side, it couldn't just been a coincidence. Good luck!
Click to expand...

I'm starting to learn not to rely so much on the expectations of when it should get better. Many preaching the numbers never achieved those goals.

That's great. I wish I could try that to see if it would ease it. However, I'm on my own as far as treatment.
 
#46
Lane said:

If you found the above interesting, you may find the following short video interesting as well....

P.S. @engineerLA got a lot tinnitus relief from purchasing an electronic nasal irrigator and using it regularly. -- THIS POST has some good information by him, and a little more on nasal irrigation. THIS POST focuses on electro-acupuncture, but touches on nasal irrigation as well. -- @TracyJS
​
Click to expand...

Have you done the bullet proof one yourself? Sometimes I feel like my netty pot is not enough and now I'm curious. Though a bit afraid to try it.
 
#47
Shera said:
Have you done the bullet proof one yourself? Sometimes I feel like my netty pot is not enough and now I'm curious. Though a bit afraid to try it.
Click to expand...

Hi @Shera,

I haven't done the bullet proof one yet, as I'm still in the early stages of using the SinuPulse nasal irrigator. It sort of feels like this irrigator is preparing the way for the bulletproof and nasya therapies, which I get a sense can be even more impactful, but in different ways--both physically and energetically.

When I was researching nasal irrigators, there were numerous references in the review comments that said it was so much more effective than a neti pot. That's been my experience so far as well. Doing both the Nasya and Bullet Proof techniques along with the electronic irrigation are priorities for me.

However, I also just started some physical therapy this past week that has already seemed to make a dent in my tinnitus volume--perhaps as much as 5-10%. I'll be doing weekly sessions for a while with a very talented and intuitive woman--who combines some cranial sacral in her treatments. So those nasal techniques have become a slightly lower priority than they were.​
 
#50
@Kara77 I'm so glad you came back! I have been going through this same issue. It was always a mystery why steroids would help my T, and then it would come back. I finally had an mri which revealed Disc Displacement in my jaw and fluid build up. I have since been going into the Drs. 3 times a week to have dexamethasone (steroids) administered to my jaw joints via iontophoresis. That along with exercises has been making a huge difference.
 
#51
kelpiemsp said:
@Kara77 I'm so glad you came back! I have been going through this same issue. It was always a mystery why steroids would help my T, and then it would come back. I finally had an mri which revealed Disc Displacement in my jaw and fluid build up. I have since been going into the Drs. 3 times a week to have dexamethasone (steroids) administered to my jaw joints via iontophoresis. That along with exercises has been making a huge difference.
Click to expand...

Did you have to use a splint?
 
#52
Shera said:
Did you have to use a splint?
Click to expand...

I might have been past the splint stage. A fairly popular dentist (almost famous?) recommended an anterior repositioning splint. I got a second opinion from faculty at the university of Minnesota where they advise against a splint in every circumstance and instead push physical therapy.I am having a third meeting with a surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. I will more than likely follow what ever direction they suggest.
 
#53
kelpiemsp said:
I might have been past the splint stage. A fairly popular dentist (almost famous?) recommended an anterior repositioning splint. I got a second opinion from faculty at the university of Minnesota where they advise against a splint in every circumstance and instead push physical therapy.I am having a third meeting with a surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. I will more than likely follow what ever direction they suggest.
Click to expand...

Great information. I'm very curious about what the Mayo Clinic will have you do. Keep us posted!
 
#54
I've been to multiple doctors that notice I have a misaligned jaw. In fact, 2 weeks before I ever experienced tinnitus I felt my jaw was off, then after listening to some loud TV show in my headphones, it came on. I really need to get religious with the splint usage. I bet it will help a great deal. @threefirefour Lets do this together brother and fix ourselves.
 
#57
@kelpiemsp

I am so happy for you! I'm happy I came back too, I honestly feel we should all write a manual/book on why inflammation causes tinnitus so we can help others find treatment. I know we aren't doctors, but we know our bodies more than anyone else and what medicines/treatments can help alleviate inflammation. I just got very lucky when I took that round of steroids (granted, I looked like a chipmunk from being so swollen!)
 

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