I still have good and bad days - even close to 2 years on - but the bad days aren't as bad as they used to be. Some days, I will only have 2 or 3 different tones, whilst others can be the full monty.
I'm not sure I hear as many as 11 now though - it was around September, when it was still really bad. I think on a bad day now, it is more around the 6-7 mark, but it is still more than enough to handle! They do not cycle in a repeatable pattern though, just one appears and another disappears, or sometimes, one appears, then another, then another. Other times though, the whole lot disappear for a few minutes and sometimes a few hours.
What I have noticed though is that there seems to be shift of around an hour between daily flare ups, so it takes around 3 weeks to cycle in time and therefore I have couple of really bad nights in a row as it is at it's worst at bed time for these 2-3 days - all very odd.
What caused mine is a very good question. The actual trigger was an allergic reaction to a prescription drug. What actually happened biologically though, is less clear. Some form of ototoxicity or inflammation of the tissue around the inner ear/nerves causing damage to one or both seem to be the most likely.
As regards masking, I was given a masker by the audiologist, but I don't wear it very often. Whenever I can cope, I don't wear it, but on days when it bothers me, I do. The advice is that you should have it loud enough to reduce the annoyance of the tinnitus, but quiet enough that you can still hear the tinnitus, otherwise, the brain can't learn to ignore it. Annoyingly though, you're not supposed to wear it at night, which is exactly when I want to wear it!
I'm pleased to hear that you're getting back to a bit of normality. I still struggle on some days, but on average, I am better than I was. Had a but of a bad night last night, but it only kept me awake for about an hour. It used to reduce me to almost no sleep on bad days.
You look after yourself too. Although I was aware of tinnitus, I never appreciated just how debilitating it was until I joined the club.
