Hi my name is Katie and I am 18 years old. I've had tinnitus for a year and eight months now. It all started back in high school. One of my friends thought it would be a funny idea to come up behind me and blow in my right ear. She was sick for a while and had a really bad cough. I didn't really think much of it, so I just laughed it off and everything seemed pretty normal. The next day, I went to school and in the middle of one of my classes, I began to panic as I could not hear anything in my right ear. I immediately rushed to the doctors to get it checked out. In my mind, I didn't think it could be anything worse than an ear infection. I've never had one before. However, after meeting with a GP, an audiologist, and a specialist that first day without my hearing, I was informed this was not the case.
I had lost over ninety percent of my hearing in my right ear. I began treatment that day, which happened to be steroid shots they injected into my inner ear every week for three weeks. It hurt so bad. I didn't see any results right away. I prayed that I would gain my hearing back. During the second week of treatment, I did gain back most of my hearing, and what I would then become to know, a constant ringing in my ear. The third week of treatment did not seem to have any effect. After treatment was over, my hearing went back up to ninety percent normal. I can hear low frequency noises and I can hear when people talk most of the time. Certain voices are hard to distinguish, especially when people mumble. I occasionally have to ask people to repeat themselves, which can get pretty annoying for the other person. It's very frustrating. I have a very bad sensitivity to loud noises. I can't enjoy going to the movies like I used to. I never really was a concert kind of person, but now that's completely out of the question. There's normal daily things I can't stand the sound of including running water, the sound of plastic bags, vacuums, blenders, and sizzling from the stove.
The cause of my hearing loss and tinnitus was very hard to get out of my doctors. They said it could've been a number of things but my family thinks it was a virus from when I was sick a month prior to this whole mess. I personally think it was the girl that blew in my ear but there's no use in blaming because it wouldn't change the circumstances of my situation.
For the first couple months, I was in shock. There's not really much I can say about it. After school began the following fall of my senior year, I began to slip into a deep depression. I had to come to terms with the fact that this is my life and I had to learn how to deal with it every single day. It's hard because I can't really talk to any one my age that has this. It's not common for people my age to have hearing loss or tinnitus. Since it is invisible, people don't typically remember that this is something that affects me every day. I began to feel a disconnect with people my age. I didn't feel like they could understand what I have to deal with and the whole high school kind of drama at the time just seemed stupid. I lost a lot of friends since, and narrowed it down to a small group of friends, but even they don't really know much about how this affects me either.
I am in college now for my second semester. I had planned on majoring in bio to become a vet, but due to my noise sensitivity, I don't think I can handle that kind of a job anymore. I am planning on changing my major to pursue a career in interior design. After a year of struggling what I should do as my major and my career, I have found a new passion for interior design and I think that career will suit me well.
I know this is a really long post but if you've gotten this far, I'd love to hear if any of you guys can relate to any of my experiences or struggles through this journey. It's definitely a process to adapt with this but I think it just takes time. It's still hard for me to talk about my hearing problems to people who don't have them or don't understand. I'm hoping I can find more support from people here that do understand what it's like.
I had lost over ninety percent of my hearing in my right ear. I began treatment that day, which happened to be steroid shots they injected into my inner ear every week for three weeks. It hurt so bad. I didn't see any results right away. I prayed that I would gain my hearing back. During the second week of treatment, I did gain back most of my hearing, and what I would then become to know, a constant ringing in my ear. The third week of treatment did not seem to have any effect. After treatment was over, my hearing went back up to ninety percent normal. I can hear low frequency noises and I can hear when people talk most of the time. Certain voices are hard to distinguish, especially when people mumble. I occasionally have to ask people to repeat themselves, which can get pretty annoying for the other person. It's very frustrating. I have a very bad sensitivity to loud noises. I can't enjoy going to the movies like I used to. I never really was a concert kind of person, but now that's completely out of the question. There's normal daily things I can't stand the sound of including running water, the sound of plastic bags, vacuums, blenders, and sizzling from the stove.
The cause of my hearing loss and tinnitus was very hard to get out of my doctors. They said it could've been a number of things but my family thinks it was a virus from when I was sick a month prior to this whole mess. I personally think it was the girl that blew in my ear but there's no use in blaming because it wouldn't change the circumstances of my situation.
For the first couple months, I was in shock. There's not really much I can say about it. After school began the following fall of my senior year, I began to slip into a deep depression. I had to come to terms with the fact that this is my life and I had to learn how to deal with it every single day. It's hard because I can't really talk to any one my age that has this. It's not common for people my age to have hearing loss or tinnitus. Since it is invisible, people don't typically remember that this is something that affects me every day. I began to feel a disconnect with people my age. I didn't feel like they could understand what I have to deal with and the whole high school kind of drama at the time just seemed stupid. I lost a lot of friends since, and narrowed it down to a small group of friends, but even they don't really know much about how this affects me either.
I am in college now for my second semester. I had planned on majoring in bio to become a vet, but due to my noise sensitivity, I don't think I can handle that kind of a job anymore. I am planning on changing my major to pursue a career in interior design. After a year of struggling what I should do as my major and my career, I have found a new passion for interior design and I think that career will suit me well.
I know this is a really long post but if you've gotten this far, I'd love to hear if any of you guys can relate to any of my experiences or struggles through this journey. It's definitely a process to adapt with this but I think it just takes time. It's still hard for me to talk about my hearing problems to people who don't have them or don't understand. I'm hoping I can find more support from people here that do understand what it's like.
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