Hello
@Nick Pyzik
Sorry for getting back to you somewhat late.
Your story sounds familiar. I'm also willing to try a lot to restore some of the hearing lost during the concert I visited, or at the very least keep the synapses in a "recoverable state" until some targeted neurotrophin-based treatment comes out.
I am also suffering from Anhedonia, the things which gave me pleasure before my NIHL do not give me pleasure in any way anymore. I used to read a lot, but now I cannot help but think "No, then the ringing will get to me again" and I consequently cancel my plan to do reading. I have to stay busy all the time, as soon as I sit down I will be bothered by it. Doing some work consequently turned from a pleasurable experience into a struggle every day.
If neurotrophin-3 actually does something for the synapses, I would assume the ringing becoming louder while taking it is a good sign, because that might perhaps mean the nerve-terminals stay close to the hair cell they disconnected from. I am however not certain about the correct dosage of Astaxanthin to accomplish this. You said you took 12mg capsules. Did you take just one daily, or multiple? I am currently at 20mg daily. At first it seemed like my Tinnitus got softer, but recently I had some louder episodes again, so I'm not sure either if this stuff is doing anything at all. Taking the systemic approach is probably not the right way to go at it anyway, as I think we need a concentrated high dose on a targeted location in the ear. I wonder what compound would be appropriate for this targeted application...
I also saw you mentioned a fan blocks out your tinnitus while it formerly did not? Do you mean to say your tinnitus improved (got reduced in intensity)? Of course this is both good news and bad news, if the SGN-retraction theory is true.
Regarding my tinnitus; hard to say if it really got better or if it changed at all. It changes a lot, or at least my perception of it. It also changes according to the position of my head. I guess my general opinion is that there really isn't any change, just bad days and slightly better than bad days. Also the ear fullness still goes on after almost 5 months... I read a lot about people saying that the fullness will go away at least, but I don't notice improvement there either. It is particularly annoying because you can "mask" the noise somewhat, but you cannot reduce the feeling of it.