Suffering from Tinnitus for 1 Month, This Is What I Know About My Situation, Advice Appreciated

[Asvalian]

I'm going to start making a small introduction, please bare in mind that English is not my native language so I apologise for any mistakes been made during this thread.

Anyway, my tinnitus started the day 25 of october, and if I'm completly honest I don't think the sound has changed at all, the only thing that has really changed is the way that I deal with it. 2 weeks before I got tinnitus I had a cold, that wasn't completly cured, but since I felt I was fine I stopped using meds (inset mistakes were made meme here), then 2 weeks later during an airsoft game I got shot on my left ear (at the top of it to be precise) and I heard a ringing noise, (funny thing I never heard of tinnitus until things got worse and searched on the internet). It lasted for about 5 seconds, nothing serious, after about 7 hours later, the ringing got back again, but this time it did not fade away. I panicked, had suicidal though, all of you know all of the suffering and fear at the begining.

My left ear was in pain, with a "full" feeling, I was dumb enough to think that even though I freaked out, it really wasn't serious despite being very loud as I could hear it all the time (more mistakes were made).

This is how it felt tinnitus for the first 3 weeks, (specially the first 2 tbh)


After 2 days I went to a GP, told me it was just an inflamation, since I had no fever or anything wrong besides the ringing noise gave me some meds, (Ibuprofen) and after a week I went to see an otorhinolaryngologist, cleaned all the wax I had on my ears, (and there was A LOT), but still my tinnitus stayed there. I tested my ears and these were the results, he says that there isn't a "real" hearing lost, that it's within normal range, but from what I read, "normal range" is still enough to cause tinnitus, ironically but left ear (the one with tinnitus) has better hearing than my right ear, the test was done using the typical headphone, and some wierd object attached on my neck and I was supposed to hear though a bone or something, just saying this because I don't know if that's how all hearing test work, never done one before.

Anyway, according to this test he said that the "auditory nerve" (if that makes any sense, sometimes I don't know how to translate words) it's not damage, that it could be just mucus that reached the middle ear, that it's causing some interfierence with the ear or something similar, that it usually goes away in about 1 month and 2 weeks/2 month, but from what I read it's not likely to happen, what are you thought on the matter? Is it true? It would be nice if it went away just to get "back to normal" 100%, but I have the feeling that this is going to stay, so maybe I should just stop looking for treatment. I don't know, like the tittle says, I'm just looking for advice from you veterans.

I'm thinking of maybe trying to offer myself for the am101 trials, (though I don't think I can't really go with these results, can I?

On a side note I'm much better now, recovering my lifestyle, following my passion and studying to become a skilled 3d modeler, going to the gym and taking care of my diet, all that kind of things that give me purpose in life (that I did before tinnitus but stopped for 2 weeks after gettint a bit scared from reading all the terrible histories that follow this symptom).

- Just a small request before I finish writing this, I've read a lot in information thanks to this website about all the amazing reseach that's going on trying to find a "cure" for tinnitus, but it get a bit confusing, I mean is there really hope to find a method to deal with tinnitus? because according to a doctor in this website tinnitus is something normal, I mean we are essentialy hearing brain activity right? I'm still a bit confused with how tinnitus develops or works, there a just way to many causes!

And as a last note, life is to short to stop living it, even with tinnitus, and despite of hating to have this sound on my head, dreams are just to good not to follow because of this, fight on!

Here, have some cute kitties, you deserve it for just reading this thread! You are all amazing people!

 

[glynis]

Hi and a warm welcome to the forum.
You seem quite balanced in how you take on information and see both sides of tinnitus and without tinnitus.
The noise exposure to your ear must be the cause .
Is your sound like a low drone or like a high sound ?
Tinnitus has many causes and up to 6 months it has every chance of going away for good and usually after that time in England we see a ENT specialist.
Give it time and try keep the unwanted emotions away as its so common for Therese feelings as tinnitus is from the part of the brain our emotions are from too.
It's so easy for a low mood set in and stress and anxiety but with support you can conquer them even if medication and talking therapy is needed.
Try to stay positive and we are all here to support you on the forum and by private pm if you find that better which should be confidential.
Take care .....lots of love glynis

 

[Nucleo]

It looks like the audiologist did an both air and bone conducted pure tone audiogram. Your results are definitely puzzling as it seems that your air conduction thresholds (Usually marked as X's) seem to be better than your bone conducted thresholds (standard notation is bracket). The bone conduction thresholds indicate that you have sensorineural impairment in your left ear, moreso than the right ear which would be consistent with your tinnitus.

Altough typically in those cases the air conduction pure tone thresholds are also impaired while yours are normal. It could be that the doctor mixed them up. I suggest getting another audiogram done by a hearing professional. Contrary to what you might think otorhinolaryngologists are surgeons first and foremost and don't know a lot about hearing.

 

[Asvalian]

Hello again and thanks for the responses both Glynis and Nucleo, and indeed my sound has a high piched tone, in fact I feel as it's almost at the limit of how high I can hear xd, it's a peeeeee, just... too high, it's more like when you open and old house door (and the door is made of steel), anyway, the only thing that concerns me is the fact that I won't be able to little to silence ever again, and even worse, not to be able to enjoy music at it's fullest. But atleast I can still hear it, so I guess it's not so bad. As Nucleo suggested, I will take do another hearing test, to see if those results are consistent. Thanks again, and I will update the situation once I confirm what the doctor said or if it's "just hearing loss", which if that's the case, well, I guess I'm screwed and I'll just have the deal with it for the rest of my life like the others.

 

[hoper]

hey barca
you can join my thread. (it's a very intelligent and usefull thread) https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/who-would-dance-with-me-if-our-tinnitus-faded-away.11864/page-2

lots of love glynis

 

[GrosBalou]

Hello Asvalian,

You seem to be doing pretty good despite your "recent" T

Concerning hearing loss, the human ear is able to hear frequencies above 8khz, but unfortunately most ENTs won't mesure hearing loss above 8khz (which could also lead to tinnitus). I would also second nucleo to take another test !

Whatever the cause is, you should give yourself some time before saying that you would have to live with it for the rest of your life. For example my tinnitus lowered since its onset (quite a long process though, and since tomorrow might be worse than today, it's hard to evaluate) !

I mean is there really hope to find a method to deal with tinnitus? because according to a doctor in this website tinnitus is something normal, I mean we are essentialy hearing brain activity right? I'm still a bit confused with how tinnitus develops or works, there a just way to many causes!

Of course, there's hope ! There's clinical trials for intra-tympanic drugs injections (AM-101, OTO-311) going on, with some more to come (AM-102 for example). There's also potassium channel modulators like Trobalt, which have proven some efficiency. In the end there should definitely be some relief for everyone

And by the way, I plan to enter the AM-101 trial as well !