Hi
I first noticed high pitched whine occasionally and at relatively low volume in my left ear a couple of years ago. Within the last few months it has become louder and almost constant. Its affecting my sleep and my concentration during the day.
I was recently told to take 4 x 8mg tablets of betahistine dihydrochloride, but following another consultation with my Dr was told only to take the tablets if I experienced dizziness. I was told that he would refer me to an audiologist, but could take a while to get appointment.
I have been treating the ear with olive oil as the Dr said it had wax in it. Previously there was no wax.
Would there be any sense in going for hearing test at likes of Boots?
It's driving me nuts.
Thanks for any response.
Welcome to the forum. Do you know what likely caused your T to become louder? While T is often caused by loud noise exposure or acoustic trauma, there are many other causes which can trigger or aggravate tinnitus including but not limited to drug reaction or side-effects from ototoxic drugs, ear wax build-up, ear or Eustachian tube infection or ETD, ear drum injury, fluid build-up in ears feeling pressured or fullness, sinus infection & congestion especially with a bad cold, TMJ, TTTS, high blood pressure or blood circulation problem, head trauma & injury, neck injury or muscle problems, hearing loss, Meniere's Decease, barotrauma from sudden change of air pressure such as during landing & taking off on flights especially with blocked nose causing failure to balance the pressure changes, slapping of the ears, deep grief for the loss of loved ones, untreated sleep apnea, extreme, extended stress, anxiety & panic disorder, etc., etc. So see if you have these problems lately.
Don't get too worked up by your spike. It may settle down to baseline again. There are many things you can do to get better although the initial period will be tough. Try your best to stay positive and relax and stress and anxiety can aggravate T. Try to read up success stories so you can feel better and be more hopeful which will reduce your stress level, and therefore may tame your T a bit. I learned my hard lesson with my ultra high pitch T and severe hyperacusis a few years back and I suffered horribly. Now I am back to living a normal & happy life. If you like to learn how people turnaround their suffering, you can read their stories and hopefully learn some wisdom from them. Here is my success story if you like to check it out:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...w-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/
While you are waiting for the doctor(s) to help, you may want to consider masking your T if it really drives you nut. If you haven't done so, here are some suggestions. Take good care. God bless.
1) Mask at bed time if you have 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' etc.