Hello everyone!
My name is Vassili. I am new to this forum and I would like to share my story. I hope it encourages other noise-induced Tinnitus sufferers not to lose hope and stay positive on a long way to recovery.
...and please forgive me for my at some point broken English because it's not my mother tongue.
Well, here's my story short. It all started last October when my friends invited me to their rehearsal. They played for about 2 hours of really loud Progressive Heavy Metal and I actually had to sing one song with them in the end of the rehearsal. I wore my earplugs, so everything was fine. Time went quickly and when it was my turn to sing the guitarist said that he wanted to test his signal booster pedal so we agreed on that and started the song. Everything was fine, I was standing not far away from the guitar combo but when he started to play his really high-pitched solo my earplugs haven't unfortunately saved me and I felt sharp pain in my left ear for a second then turned around my head and felt the same pain for about 3 seconds in my right ear then immediately put my hands on the strings of the guitar so he stopped playing. I checked my hearing and it was fine, but I felt weird (after I understood that I had a shock). So I even finished the song and the rehearsal was over. The next day I felt dizzy, checked my hearing again an it was fine so I went and did a rehearsal with my band using professional musician's earplugs and everything seemed fine but not for long...
I returned home and went to sleep. That's when things got worse, really worse. Terrible tinnitus kicked in my right ear. It felt like I had a portal to another world in my ear, I had severe H also. Everyday noise drove me crazy. I had panic attacks, depression, couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, refused to communicate with people, I thought this was it and my life will never be the same again. I panicked, panicked real hard.
So I went to see my ENT Doctor. I did a really detailed hearing test and the results were good. Doctor told me that my hearing was absolutely fine so it gave me hope. She prescribed me Betaserc 24 mg for my dizziness, B-vitamin complex and D-vitamin for nerve recovery and Bromazepam 3 mg to control my anxiety levels. Also told me to protect my ears and avoid loud noises and environments, not to use headphones, to get as much sleep as possible, to forget about my heavy metal band frontmanship days and to stay positive, to be thankful that I haven't gone deaf and to return to normal life activities as soon as possible (easy to say, hard to do). All in all she as a doctor found really good words and gave me motivation to move on. She told me that I have to wait maybe for a year or so and all my symptoms will go away due to the fact that I'm only 32 years old and due to other patients' cases because 90% of people heal completely and continue to live normal happy lives. Also I did an MRI test and everything was absolutely fine. So I was stuck with this invisible condition that made me suffer but at the same time ''didn't exist''.
My Symptoms
First three months were the worst. First week my tinnitus was low-pitched and pulsatile or vibrating then it became high-pitched and stayed that way for three first months. After that I started to hear some sort of electrical sounds with buzzing (when I was at home) and high-pitched tinnitus when I was outside. Now 5 months have passed and I am feeling much better. My high-pitched tinnitus is gone, electrical sounds are also gone. What I hear is low hissing and some firecrackers now and then. When I'm outside I sometimes hear high-pitched tinnitus for a couple of minutes but it goes away and it isn't that loud to bother me much. So these are symptoms that I hear. But there are also other symptoms. More somatic ones. Like first two months I had dizziness, first three months I had severe hyperacusis that gave me pain in right shoulder, neck, upper back, back of my head, jaw, teeth, face, ears, nose etc. It was an awful time for me. I actually have all these somatic symptoms till this day but they are much more less severe. I still have hyperacusis but I feel it's getting better.
So this is my story of coping with my condition. I am sure that I will recover completely. It just takes time. I personally think that in 5 months I did really good improvement but it is not that much of a time passed. I am not loosing hope things will get better. I advise every tinnitus sufferer from day one to tell themselves that "I WILL RECOVER AND THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION". Things get better, they really do.
I hope this post will help other tinnitus sufferers who are in the beginning of their journey to recovery. Always stay positive, don't loose hope and remember You WILL have your normal life back and You will be living a happy and long life. I also think that if it had to happen with me well it just happened and it made me slow down and think about my life. I think doctor was right and it's time for me to quit Heavy Metal that I love so much and move on to other horizons of my life. Plus everything is fine with my hearing, brain, nerves etc. It just takes time and patience. In other words if life gives you lemons make lemonade.
Right now I'm sitting in the kitchen typing this with a TV on not really loud and my ears are hissing and popping, also my neck and forehead slightly hurt but compared to condition I suffered from 4 months ago it feels like a mild discomfort
. Oh, buy the way, sometimes my tinnitus travels to my left ear.
Well this is not a complete success story but I'm sure it will become one and I hope it helps someone. I will post an update sometime. You can ask me questions if you like. Have a good day, don't focus much on you tinnitus and don't loose hope
.
Vassili
My name is Vassili. I am new to this forum and I would like to share my story. I hope it encourages other noise-induced Tinnitus sufferers not to lose hope and stay positive on a long way to recovery.
...and please forgive me for my at some point broken English because it's not my mother tongue.
Well, here's my story short. It all started last October when my friends invited me to their rehearsal. They played for about 2 hours of really loud Progressive Heavy Metal and I actually had to sing one song with them in the end of the rehearsal. I wore my earplugs, so everything was fine. Time went quickly and when it was my turn to sing the guitarist said that he wanted to test his signal booster pedal so we agreed on that and started the song. Everything was fine, I was standing not far away from the guitar combo but when he started to play his really high-pitched solo my earplugs haven't unfortunately saved me and I felt sharp pain in my left ear for a second then turned around my head and felt the same pain for about 3 seconds in my right ear then immediately put my hands on the strings of the guitar so he stopped playing. I checked my hearing and it was fine, but I felt weird (after I understood that I had a shock). So I even finished the song and the rehearsal was over. The next day I felt dizzy, checked my hearing again an it was fine so I went and did a rehearsal with my band using professional musician's earplugs and everything seemed fine but not for long...
I returned home and went to sleep. That's when things got worse, really worse. Terrible tinnitus kicked in my right ear. It felt like I had a portal to another world in my ear, I had severe H also. Everyday noise drove me crazy. I had panic attacks, depression, couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, refused to communicate with people, I thought this was it and my life will never be the same again. I panicked, panicked real hard.
So I went to see my ENT Doctor. I did a really detailed hearing test and the results were good. Doctor told me that my hearing was absolutely fine so it gave me hope. She prescribed me Betaserc 24 mg for my dizziness, B-vitamin complex and D-vitamin for nerve recovery and Bromazepam 3 mg to control my anxiety levels. Also told me to protect my ears and avoid loud noises and environments, not to use headphones, to get as much sleep as possible, to forget about my heavy metal band frontmanship days and to stay positive, to be thankful that I haven't gone deaf and to return to normal life activities as soon as possible (easy to say, hard to do). All in all she as a doctor found really good words and gave me motivation to move on. She told me that I have to wait maybe for a year or so and all my symptoms will go away due to the fact that I'm only 32 years old and due to other patients' cases because 90% of people heal completely and continue to live normal happy lives. Also I did an MRI test and everything was absolutely fine. So I was stuck with this invisible condition that made me suffer but at the same time ''didn't exist''.
My Symptoms
First three months were the worst. First week my tinnitus was low-pitched and pulsatile or vibrating then it became high-pitched and stayed that way for three first months. After that I started to hear some sort of electrical sounds with buzzing (when I was at home) and high-pitched tinnitus when I was outside. Now 5 months have passed and I am feeling much better. My high-pitched tinnitus is gone, electrical sounds are also gone. What I hear is low hissing and some firecrackers now and then. When I'm outside I sometimes hear high-pitched tinnitus for a couple of minutes but it goes away and it isn't that loud to bother me much. So these are symptoms that I hear. But there are also other symptoms. More somatic ones. Like first two months I had dizziness, first three months I had severe hyperacusis that gave me pain in right shoulder, neck, upper back, back of my head, jaw, teeth, face, ears, nose etc. It was an awful time for me. I actually have all these somatic symptoms till this day but they are much more less severe. I still have hyperacusis but I feel it's getting better.
So this is my story of coping with my condition. I am sure that I will recover completely. It just takes time. I personally think that in 5 months I did really good improvement but it is not that much of a time passed. I am not loosing hope things will get better. I advise every tinnitus sufferer from day one to tell themselves that "I WILL RECOVER AND THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION". Things get better, they really do.
I hope this post will help other tinnitus sufferers who are in the beginning of their journey to recovery. Always stay positive, don't loose hope and remember You WILL have your normal life back and You will be living a happy and long life. I also think that if it had to happen with me well it just happened and it made me slow down and think about my life. I think doctor was right and it's time for me to quit Heavy Metal that I love so much and move on to other horizons of my life. Plus everything is fine with my hearing, brain, nerves etc. It just takes time and patience. In other words if life gives you lemons make lemonade.
Right now I'm sitting in the kitchen typing this with a TV on not really loud and my ears are hissing and popping, also my neck and forehead slightly hurt but compared to condition I suffered from 4 months ago it feels like a mild discomfort
. Oh, buy the way, sometimes my tinnitus travels to my left ear.Well this is not a complete success story but I'm sure it will become one and I hope it helps someone. I will post an update sometime. You can ask me questions if you like. Have a good day, don't focus much on you tinnitus and don't loose hope
.Vassili
Member
for your question. I hope I could give you couple of ideas. 
