- Jun 3, 2019
- 32
- Tinnitus Since
- Late 2016 to Dec. 2019
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Earwax buildup or iron deficiency
Hi! My name is Chester. I am going to keep this as short as possible.
Cause of tinnitus: Heavy crusted wax buildup in right ear.
What happened and what I did: I heard this high pitched noise in my right ear while in bed getting ready to sleep in November 2016. I waited for a couple of days hoping it would disappear but it never did. After five days, I went to the ENT doctor, and he said that there was a huge wax build up in my right ear that he couldn't even see my ear drum. He prescribed a kind of ear drops and sent me home. After about one week I visited him again and he manually cleaned both my ears, did a standard hearing test and told me that my hearing was fine for my age (53). He was a very nice ENT doctor. He told me that this condition might very well be temporary and it would most probably go away or lessen the severity as time goes by.
The tinnitus continued, anxiety and depression started to kick in and I started to have sleepless nights, and panic attacks. After one month of torture, I went back to the ENT doctor, and he prescribed me Xanax for a month. I started taking Xanax right away and felt so good. I took it only for two weeks, and after that I downloaded some cicada sounds and slept with it for about eight months.
The tinnitus did affect the quality of my life including my hobbies (bike riding, boxing training, home theater (main hobby), music, sex life and even my work in a quiet office (I am a software engineer) in the very first few months. My tinnitus started to lose it's grip after about four months and became a hissing sound which was totally bearable during the daytime. I only had the discomfort at night when I was in bed. The cicada sound helped me to drown out my tinnitus and every night I slept about 6~8 hours very well. I started my usual activities after about five months, and completely forgot about the tinnitus most of the time. I stumbled upon this Tinnitus Talk forum at the very beginning and read some stories for a couple of days, and after that I never visited tinnitus forums or read anything about tinnitus on the internet.
I had no hyperacusis and my tinnitus did not react to anything. As a result of that I did not wear any protection at all. I hate clubs, pubs, concerts etc. But went to the movies as usual, watched movies in my home theater (about 3~5 days/week at pretty high volumes), rode my motor cycle (Honda CBR 500R) to work everyday about 18 miles/day but the tinnitus never spiked or got worse. At one year mark, I was fully enjoying my life and the tinnitus continued to fade as months passing by. After about 23 months, my tinnitus became so silent that I could only hear it in quiet environments.
Something strange thing happened on one Saturday morning in last March. I woke up to a complete silent, I mean no tinnitus at all on that day. I plugged my ears and nothing, went to my theater room which is dead quiet as it is a fully insulated room, didn't hear anything but silence. I thought that it was gone and gone for good but I was wrong. Tinnitus was back on Sunday morning when I woke up to go to the bathroom but barely noticeable, even quieter than before. Starting around that time, I had 1~2 days of full silent days every week followed by very very mild tinnitus on other days. In early May, I had 9 days of silence in a row. I am still having this cycle continues with more silent days than mild tinnitus days. I think I am on the way to my old life.
PS: Sorry for my English! I am not a native speaker.
Cause of tinnitus: Heavy crusted wax buildup in right ear.
What happened and what I did: I heard this high pitched noise in my right ear while in bed getting ready to sleep in November 2016. I waited for a couple of days hoping it would disappear but it never did. After five days, I went to the ENT doctor, and he said that there was a huge wax build up in my right ear that he couldn't even see my ear drum. He prescribed a kind of ear drops and sent me home. After about one week I visited him again and he manually cleaned both my ears, did a standard hearing test and told me that my hearing was fine for my age (53). He was a very nice ENT doctor. He told me that this condition might very well be temporary and it would most probably go away or lessen the severity as time goes by.
The tinnitus continued, anxiety and depression started to kick in and I started to have sleepless nights, and panic attacks. After one month of torture, I went back to the ENT doctor, and he prescribed me Xanax for a month. I started taking Xanax right away and felt so good. I took it only for two weeks, and after that I downloaded some cicada sounds and slept with it for about eight months.
The tinnitus did affect the quality of my life including my hobbies (bike riding, boxing training, home theater (main hobby), music, sex life and even my work in a quiet office (I am a software engineer) in the very first few months. My tinnitus started to lose it's grip after about four months and became a hissing sound which was totally bearable during the daytime. I only had the discomfort at night when I was in bed. The cicada sound helped me to drown out my tinnitus and every night I slept about 6~8 hours very well. I started my usual activities after about five months, and completely forgot about the tinnitus most of the time. I stumbled upon this Tinnitus Talk forum at the very beginning and read some stories for a couple of days, and after that I never visited tinnitus forums or read anything about tinnitus on the internet.
I had no hyperacusis and my tinnitus did not react to anything. As a result of that I did not wear any protection at all. I hate clubs, pubs, concerts etc. But went to the movies as usual, watched movies in my home theater (about 3~5 days/week at pretty high volumes), rode my motor cycle (Honda CBR 500R) to work everyday about 18 miles/day but the tinnitus never spiked or got worse. At one year mark, I was fully enjoying my life and the tinnitus continued to fade as months passing by. After about 23 months, my tinnitus became so silent that I could only hear it in quiet environments.
Something strange thing happened on one Saturday morning in last March. I woke up to a complete silent, I mean no tinnitus at all on that day. I plugged my ears and nothing, went to my theater room which is dead quiet as it is a fully insulated room, didn't hear anything but silence. I thought that it was gone and gone for good but I was wrong. Tinnitus was back on Sunday morning when I woke up to go to the bathroom but barely noticeable, even quieter than before. Starting around that time, I had 1~2 days of full silent days every week followed by very very mild tinnitus on other days. In early May, I had 9 days of silence in a row. I am still having this cycle continues with more silent days than mild tinnitus days. I think I am on the way to my old life.
PS: Sorry for my English! I am not a native speaker.
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