Sailor's Tinnitus Onset After Ear Infection

Hi everyone,

Thank you for looking at my thread, for your time, and for participating on Tinnitus Talk.

I have had tinnitus for over ten years. I have been reading Tinnitus Talk over the years and it has given me hope and some suggestions.

So, here's my story:

It all started one morning, moored in a bay in one of the Virgin Islands, in the Caribbean. It wasn't a shark or a deadly jellyfish that hurt me, however. I woke feeling completely numb around my left ear. And I couldn't hear anything.

Two days later, back in the city, my doctor finds that I had an ear infection, caused by sea water staying inside my ear at night and by some scratches in the outer ear. Fast forward a few months, my tinnitus was very strong, but thanks to patience and perhaps to medication, it subsided.

It's still there, even though around 2/10 of what it was.

I have noticed a few things over the past ten years:

• Sports and cardio activity helps.
• Eating vegetarian helps, dairy and inflammation makes things worse on the other hand.
• Swimming, changes in pressure, etc, don't help.
• Massaging my jaw and the area behind my ear also help.

Overall, for 1-2% of the time it disappears and I feel great.

I love music and I am an audiophile - and I have very sensitive hearing (I hear things and sounds most people don't...). So, I've always been careful to avoid loud noises and the like.

I feel like maybe there's a way to make it go away at some point in the future.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you so much for your help and suggestions.

 

Sometimes it helps me to relax without any external sounds, except the sound of the wind, the rustle of water and singing birds. I mute the external sounds as I shift my attention to my inner focus, e.g., when I paint or learn something new. Sometimes when I start to speak, the music stops for a while, or I start screaming, I can hardly hear my tinnitus at all.

Unfortunately, I am no longer good at travelling by plane due to air pressure. Stress doesn't help either.

I hope to recover some day.

 

Thank you - definitely wish I had the sound of the waves near me!

Where I live there's only a river, not the same, but better than nothing...

 

Hi bud, I’ve had tinnitus for around 8 years. 5 months ago it got about 10x worse which I believe was due to inflammation and then I got a subsequent ear infection. Do you know how long it took to experience some fading?

I know our situations are slightly different, I don’t know if we should treat worsenings in the same regards as we treat initial onsets of tinnitus or not.

 

When something like this happened in the past, trying to avoid foods that cause inflammation, and loud noises, it could be weeks/months. Also, exercise helps, I found. I used to take some supplements too, although that's more art than science...