Thanks for Having Me

[Lee 47]

I sustained an ear slap on left ear from a friend on Jan. 21, 17. Went to GP Jan. 27, ear felt full and hearing was not correct, ear drum red, swollen but not ruptured had some drainage of sinuses so was given some meds for that. After weekend and some popping noises, which relieved the pain, went back to GP Jan. 31 and was told eardrum was perforated. I was given ciprodex drops, instructions two times a day twice a day.

Now it gets interesting very slight tinnitus in left ear after Jan. 31st, early morning of Feb.28 awoke with extremely loud ringing in left ear, made appt. for ENT March 2nd. At 3:20 a.m. on March 2nd awoke to the ringing but fully subsided by 3:30 a.m. very relieved. Went to appt. where Doctor said there was still a microscopic hole in the ear drum and put a paper patch on it. At 10:30 p.m. awoke to the same loud ringing and it typically gets loud during the day then at night I take the Lipo Flavonoid with Melatonin and a bit of Z quil and fall asleep only to wake up 5 hrs later with minimal ringing unless I move then it increases right away. I have also woken up to loud tinnitus then try and calm down which is successful periodically.
I have been taking the Lipo Flavonoid since March 1st. The ringing seems to be somewhat related to stress, it ranges from I can sometimes ignore it to where my entire head is engulfed in a 4 khz tone. I've had two hearing tests done, one where I work and the other at the ENT's office both show hearing loss in left ear at 60 @6khz & 65 @8khz, no changes since last year. Going in March 13th to get fitted for a hearing aid to hopefully help with this tinnitus.

I don't think I could last for months with this, plus my higher frequency hearing loss makes me medically eligible for a hearing aid. The hearing tests show that for normal conversation I show losses of 10 to 30 from 500hz to 4khz and the right ear shows about the same for those ranges a bit more for the higher frequencies but no where near the left ear.

I realize that most ear trauma the ringing starts right away, mine was 4 weeks later. Basically once the eardrum was almost fully closed in tinnitus went nuts for a couple of days then settled out. Paper patch gets put on goes nuts again but hasn't settled out yet.
I have always used hearing protection even doubled up on many occasions. Also had tubes in the ears at least six times in my younger years, last "T" type tubes where removed when I was 22.

Anyone else have an experience like this?

To you folks on here that have tolerated tinnitus for months/years you have my respect and are some of the strongest people I have ever read about.
I apologize for the long intro but now you have most of the story.
Thanks, just typing this out again takes my mind off it. Yes, I kept a journal.

 

[Jenni8619]

Hi, just wanted to say welcome

I am newer to this forum. I'm sure some of the more experienced members can help you. I know how annoying/scary T can be, stay strong!

Jenni

 

[Lee 47]

Thanks Jenni

When I was typing that up my head was full of a 4 kHz tone probably not the most coherent writing I ever completed but it does help to write the experience out. Glad I found this forum, many great people with positive attitudes.
This "T" is so incredibly odd, for a few seconds I don't hear it at all then listen for it and I get a slight ringing. Then I realize I just made a mistake and try to forget about it. Yet there are days where my entire head is engulfed in this loud 4 kHz tone.
Not sure if my inner ear is still healing up from the "cuff" or if this cycle is permanent. Perhaps I'm jumping to quick to get a hearing aid but that loud tone is driving me crazy. Difficult to put on a happy face for your family when you are in misery and want to stay in bed all day. Unfortunately, most of us can't do that. I certainly understand people that hit depression with this, incredibly difficult to stay happy.
Wish you the best also, hope things get better for you too.

 

[Jenni8619]

@Lee 47

I'm sorry to hear that you are struggling
In your case, you might need more time to let your ear heal, it's hard to say if it will go away or if it is permanent. Only time will tell. But you have to give it time. You have to heal too.

Find ways to distract yourself from listening to T. Listen to nature music while reading, use a tower fan at bedtime. Find which white noises work for you! Calm your anxiety, it makes a huge difference. Praying helps me. Also, I've been going for daily walks. Not sure how you are sleeping, but make sure you are getting proper sleep!

Keep reading success/positive experiences from other members

Take care,

Jenni

 

[Lee 47]

Thank you, I read earlier this morning about hyperbaric chambers and there use to treat tinnitus overseas with varying degrees of success. Well just happen to have a center within a reasonable drive (20) miles so I called and left a message for them to get back to me on Monday. They say going for treatment with 3 months of the injury may help. Hopefully, they have some experience with this and openings.
The tinnitus really calmed down last night to low and even non-existent, but it is back here this morning albeit lower. I do think/hope my ear is healing but hate to be let down so I'm trying to make every effort to help it out.
March 10 Friday was horribly loud (entire head filled with 4 khz) and led me to sign up on this forum, I did read some stuff on hear earlier but finally signed up myself.
Yes, praying definitely helps. GOD may or may not act right on the spot for each individual but he does put things in motion we just have to be open to all the cues.
Best wishes to you and everyone else on here. I will keep everyone up to date on what's happening.

 

[Lee 47]

Went to meet with the audiologist this morning and we decided to take a wait and see approach for the hearing aid. This may still go away or diminish on it's own. I am to keep up the sound machine routine at night to help my brain focus on that instead of the ringing. (habituation)I also mentioned the hyperbaric treatment to her and her thoughts on it. She was ok with doing it but not if they have to put tubes in my ears. When I was a child I had at least 6 surgeries for tubes, which does cause the eardrum to heal up thinner overall. Since it ruptured sometime around Jan 27, 2017 I should give it time to heal better. I go there March 20 for a consultation. So no hearing aid yet, the one I would need is a Starky RIC which is about $2400, the cheapest one. Simply do to the fact that I don't need amplification at normal hearing frequencies. My loud tinnitus brought on by an ear slap 5 weeks ago is strange enough, then add to it that sometimes the ringing goes away at night is leading us to believe that I may be sleeping differently on occasion and thus changing the tinnitus. Please document everything that you do that minimizes or maximizes your ringing, it helps to figure out what can help you. I track almost everything, it's a pain but it's worth it.

 

[Parfait]

Could the ear drops have caused the tinnitus? I believe they can be ototoxic if they penetrate into the inner ear in cases of eardrum
Perforation.

 

[Lee 47]

I certainly hope they're not ototoxic. The GP Doctor nor the ENT ever mentioned anything of the sort. I see my GP doctor today for a follow up visit and will ask then. Thanks

I did some online checking and the way it looks they might be, but now it comes down to what's worse having an ear infection which can cause all sorts of problems or risking it with the eardrops that may or may not be bad for you. Hindsight being what it is, I should have asked more questions instead of simply going along with what the doctor advises. I figured he knew more about this than I did. Plan on having a long discussion with him today and see if anything can be undone, which I highly doubt.


Just wanted to add, since I forgot, that on March 1st I also went to a Chiropractor for this tinnitus. He did some small adjustments on my neck and back, where there was tension. As I wrote on the introduction page the tinnitus actually disappeared early morning of March 2nd only to return the following night seemingly after the patch was put on my eardrum. Yesterday feeling a bit more tension in my neck figured I would go in and see if he could repeat what happened on March 1st. He felt tension on the left side of my neck and adjusted me again. I also kept track of how I slept (positions) then if I woke up I would document my position and how loud the tinnitus was at that time.

Perhaps it is slightly louder then before hard to tell since I'm listening/hoping it fades away like last time. It did not change much in volume like it has the last couple of nights. This ringing has subsided at night, twice in the last week, only for very brief periods (minutes) but maybe it is a sign this may heal up eventually. Trying to stay positive but it is getting difficult with this fairly loud, difficult to ignore ringing going on. Sound machine still playing, now white noise, hope I can habituate quickly or this simply fades away. Feeling anxious, I know there is still a pretty good chance this will go away on its own but feel as though if I don't try everything I can think of and it does stay, all I will focus on is that I should have done more.

 

[Lee 47]

Spoke with my GP Doctor today, also a follow up visit to ensure the patch is still there and I can try that hyperbaric chamber. We discussed the possibility of the Ciprodex drops being ototoxic, he never heard of that but didn't discount it either. Now my part in this, I did look up some of the side effects such as:

• allergic reaction (difficulty breathing, closing of the throat, swelling of the lips/tongue/face),
• skin rash,
• ear drainage,
• ear discharge, or.
• worsening pain.

dry mouth, constipation, burning sensations where the drops go in, and having itching sensations around your body have been reported. More than one source used here.
Since I am a mouth breather at night the dry mouth thing is no big deal and have always gone to bed with a bottle of water. Did not drink anymore than usual. No other side effects were really noticed.
The tinnitus is still there, at work today it was horrendous, went to the Doctor's office and in his room it all but disappeared. Even now at home it is in the background, very noticeable but not glaringly obvious.

People also say that if those drops get into the inner ear that is where the problem lies, can destroy the fine hairs in the cochlea. That maybe true but the drops went into my middle ear, unless there was a hole in that too. I simply don't know, can't change the past have to look forward into fixing this with everything I have. I do have time too.
Even if these seemingly mundane nuances could mean a side effect, I was all done when the "T" spiked up early Feb. 28. I will say that the tinnitus did raise very slightly about a day and half before it went nuts, but I could still easily ignore it.
I go in Monday for a consultation on the hyperbaric treatment.

P.S. My GP also has "T" so he doesn't discount anything when it comes to finding out how to get rid of it.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Alue]

Doesn't Ciprodex contain Ciprofloxacin? Cipro can be ototoxic. Like you said, though, it would probably have to get into the middle ear somehow.

 

[GregCA]

Doesn't Ciprodex contain Ciprofloxacin? Cipro can be ototoxic. Like you said, though, it would probably have to get into the middle ear somehow.

Sounds like that's where they went? I'm a bit confused by the statements. See below:

People also say that if those drops get into the inner ear that is where the problem lies, can destroy the fine hairs in the cochlea. That maybe true but the drops went into my middle ear, unless there was a hole in that too.

 

[Lee 47]

In the middle ear, the energy of pressure waves is translated into mechanical vibrations by the three auditory ossicles. Pressure waves move the tympanic membrane which in turns moves the malleus, the first bone of the middle ear. The malleus articulates to incus which connects to the stapes. The footplate of the stapes connects to the oval window, the beginning of the inner ear the middle ear thus serves to convert the energy from sound pressure waves to a force upon the perilymph of the inner ear. The oval window has only approximately 1/18 the area of the tympanic membrane and thus produces a higher pressure. The cochlea propagates these mechanical signals as waves in the fluid and membranes, and then converts them to nerve impulses which are transmitted to the brain.[3] The cochlea is in the inner ear. Source wikipedia. Perhaps he was thinking some sort of hole in the cochlea. Not really sure and didn't have much time to go over any lessons on ear construction, I certainly wish now we would have.
Probably should have gone through a better question and answer routine but we did talk about the hyperbaric chamber though. I'm still keeping a journal of everything I experience. Tonight around 10:30 I was typing away and realized I was sitting upright and leaning back in bed with legs out and almost no "T", awoke a 3:30 a.m. to screaming "T", I was on my back with head tilted to the right on a pillow. Every little thing will count when it comes to trying to understand what triggers this. Perhaps I need to get an MRI and see if anything can be seen from that. I really am trying everything I can think of. I will see him in church this Sunday and run this past him too. I have a friend that had this once, he had to sit up and sleep in a recliner for a month until it passed. Weird, no idea what is going on. I may have to try that for a bit and see what comes of it.
Ciprodex may be ototoxic but not for everyone. People who use it with no issue don't go online and post about it, usually. I like the internet but sometimes it can get you all twisted up because a couple of dozen people had bad experiences but millions were saved by it. Not that those dozens of people don't count, they certainly do and can change the world it's simply very difficult to do. The risks of the drops were never communicated to me I don't think he knew of any anyways.
I do appreciate all the discussion, the more we talk, the more we all learn.
Enjoy your weekend all.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Lee 47]

I have had two hearing tests done, one at my place of employment and the other at the ENT's office. They both showed the same results within the margin of error for those tests. That is why for now I really don't think there was any substantial damage to the hair cells in the cochlea, but who knows for sure. The test at work was given when the "T" was extremely loud and the one at the ENT's was still there but lower. There was basically no change (8khz actually improved slightly) from 7 months ago. Hoping that when I was hit the trauma was significant enough to basically have my ear almost shutdown. It wasn't that hard of hit just the pressure wave caused by the palm of his hand over my ear. My hearing for a week was definitely poor, then around nine days later I had very slight ringing easily ignorable. During this time I was in training so I wasn't exposed to any loud sounds and made recovery much easier. Also my hearing was coming back. Used the drops for four weeks then a day or two before it went nuts the ringing did raise in volume just a bit. I'm hoping this is just my body now responding the way most people do when they have ear trauma, loud ringing then it subsides. My rationale is that, my eardrums are thinner then most because of those surgeries and probably a lot more sensitive too. I can hear as usual, just that fairly loud squeal that sometimes fills my head. The hyperbaric treatment does scare me because my ears are so sensitive, so I will not be going anywhere near 2.5 atmospheres. Hopefully they can apply enough pressure so the oxygen can do it's work without having to go to any high pressures. Even at this point breathing pure oxygen would probably help the healing process.
Hope all this stuff I'm posting helps you figure out what to try/eliminate. I have read a number of posts from people on here and that has given me the motivation to do the same. I have come to the realization that this could be permanent, and it's scary but at least I can feel good about working my butt off to get it resolved. Update on my friend that hit me, he feels extremely bad and is always apologizing. He said I get a free punch when he returns to the country, good I said, nut punch in your future! Just kidding, I replied. lol I always tell my kids, even the most mundane things can turn into life changing events for others. Please keep your hands to yourselves, speak wisely/kindly and don't be afraid to help people.

 

[Lee 47]

Back from the Hyperbaric consultation, we discussed at length the risks and benefits of the procedure. They also say that there isn't much benefit to going "shallow" when a good depth for healing is 40-50 ft or about 2.5 atmospheres. Doing research you start getting ear pain around 1.3 to 1.5 atmospheres, with my history of surgeries this is not a good idea to be going that high in pressure. Why cause more problems, the risk is to great compared to the perceived rewards. So this begs yet another question, what about one of those oxygen concentrators? Just use one to help get more oxygen into your system than just breathing normal air. You have to be careful so you don't poison yourself with too much oxygen. I know sounds weird but it is a real thing. If a person can control it themselves then you can do it more often and maybe receive some benefit that way. The hyperbaric sessions were $1200 for 2hrs. Insurance will cover it if you go in within two weeks of the injury. Well out of luck on that one, both when it happened and when the tinnitus peaked.
Thanks all.

 

[Lee 47]

I keep investigating why I received such loud tinnitus so suddenly. Everything sort of points back to those Ciprodex drops that I used for alomst a month, under supervision from a Doctor. I went in after two weeks of start and he said everything was looking good and to continue the use. Is there any way to undue any damage that may have occured? My hearing, as of last test, did not show any signs of degradation at least within the margin of error. Does the ringing go away after a time when you stop using the drops or is this permanent? Tough question I know. Also, how does one report this to the FDA? Is there a bad drug hotline? I guess maybe I'll be one more of those couple of dozen people that are affected by those drops, or thousands not trying to be dismissive. I'm sure millions were helped by them but certainly there are those that came out worse off.
Thanks all

 

[Parfait]

I live in the uk so unsure of if there is a hotline but as alue says ciprofloxacin is well known to have many side effects. "Floxed". To answer your question about permanence it is impossible to say. Only time will tell. I'm in the same boat- waiting to see an improvement over time with hearing loss and tinnitus. I give myself a 50 /50. I'm giving myself 2 years after which time I expect to have made a reasonable partial recovery- this is my prediction and I'm bracing myself for it being permanent. I'm 42 today- so that is a hard prospect to consider. Hope you do see some improvement yourself. I'm imagining you will.

 

[Lee 47]

Good luck to you as well (Parfait), hope things work out sooner rather then later. I spoke to several Doctors about those drops being ototoxic and even the ones that say if they are the chances of them doing any real harm is very low, unless the round window in the cochlea was also opened due to the trauma. They then said there may be an issue. I started using the drops about nine days after the incident, and if there was damage to the round window you would think I would have balance issues or some other more significant effects right after the slap. All I had was a very full feeling and some hearing loss for a couple of days, the hearing came back to normal as evidenced by my hearing tests. Also my roughly 4khz tone has changed to 4khz tonal hiss thing, which is a bit more tolerable then that squeal.

More important Happy Belated Birthday!!!!

 

[Parfait]

Aw thanks for the birthday wishes! The fact that you have no hearing loss is so encouraging. It's horrible having hearing loss, more than I could have poosibly imagined. Not hearing people is mildly annoying, saying "what" the whole time but the loss of listening to the richness of pop music is quite a loss for me. My tinnitus came from both noise induced and ototoxiticty on iron supplements.

Anyway my tinnitus has got a bit better over time so it's encouraging but for you i say you must be patient as it can take a long time to see an improvement. I had tinnitus 10 years ago and it took many months for it to completely subside. That was from a drug reaction at the time.

Good luck - time is a healer.

 

[Samantha R]

@Lee 47
@DebInAustralia was 'floxed' - I believe she used both Ciprodex drops and oral Ciprofloxacin tablets.
In my humble opinion, it is a very real chance your issues are due to the drops if there was damage...
from what I've read about Cipro in any form, I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.
An ENT prescribed Deb with Cipro, so there is a lack of awareness of its dangers.
Maybe stay away going forward anyway, we live and learn....

 

[Lee 47]

I realized April 4th, through online research, that Eustachian Tube Dysfunction can lead to tinnitus and or add to it. I have had no less then six surgeries (tubes) when I was younger so Eustachian issues were common with me years ago. Both Doctors, GP and my ENT, missed the fact that when my eardrum closed up the tinnitus that I did have from the ear slap went very loud. This lasted for ~48hrs, when I stopped taking the Ciprodex the whole head ringing stopped. Makes sense then right? The Ciprodex was to blame, I certainly thought so.
However, perhaps the reason the ringing stopped was when I sat up in bed and turned/moved a certain way my Eustachian tube opened and I heard the tinnitus leave from 0320 to 0330. Then it came back about twelve hours after the patch was put on my eardrum. I have been taking Sudafed three times a day, and Nasacort spray twice a day since April 4th starting at ~5:30 p.m. My GP suggested that and was quite happy that this may be it. That first night my left ear began popping and the tinnitus lowered quite a bit, it has come back but I get much longer breaks from it. It usually comes back when I'm up and doing work, blood pressure increases.

Now you may ask why didn't I notify my ENT specialist? She was stuck on the fact that I have high frequency hearing loss and that was my issue, even though I explained to her multiple times that I never had tinnitus prior to that ear slap. She told me that I was borderline needing a hearing aid for those high frequencies and that is the tone that I hear. She never measured the frequency of my tinnitus, I told her it was a lower frequency but she ignored it. I also told her many times that my ear felt full. So I basically found a different ENT a little further away and will deal with her when this is gone. My first appt. with the new ENT is on Good Friday.
I certainly hope waiting this long with this ringing hasn't caused any further issues, since tinnitus is a symptom, I would guess not. I will see how things go today and if the ringing is still there I may have to call my GP and her and see what else I can do. I did keep a log of everything that happened throughout this entire issue, it helped me to figure out what to do next.
Back to those Ciprodex drops, I did notice towards the end of the time I was using or I had already stopped them I developed a white sort of streak half inch long on the upper left gum line. The patch felt rough and didn't really hurt, it went away in two days. Perhaps it was caused by those drops, can't say for sure but never had that before.
When I was on Ciprodex, I never really had any of the listed side affects.

So I'm holding out hope that my issue is the eustachian tube, that was probably inflamed from that ear slap, and that treatment I'm doing now will fix this.
Thanks

 

[Lee 47]

Good news, I did the Sudafed and Nasacort for about 6 days total. I will tell you that my GP did say that the Sudafed may increase the volume of your tinnitus, boy something made it increase. I took one Sudafed waited to see if it would get louder and it didn't, then took the nasacort and nothing yet. By the third day my whole head was ringing so I began to back off to less and less dosages and by the seventh day I heard almost nothing, Now it isn't gone, but only my left ear rings with that tonal hiss, and I'm getting more more breaks from it where I hear nothing at all. Yes, I do sort of listen for it, than when I'm tired of hearing it I try and block it out with limited success.
I guess I'm more curious to see if it goes away than I am to see if I habituate to it. I will let it go soon enough.
The level when it first went high was I call a 10, now probably a 2 on a scale of 1-10.
There is a certain amount of relief that I feel, I truly hope and pray that you folks that are suffering find relief even a little as soon as possible.
Check out the link below "tinnitus book", that isn't the name just my saved document name.
Tinnitus
A Self-Management Guide for the Ringing in Your Ears
I haven't read it yet, just getting started but figure it could help some of us.

 

[Lee 47]

I just thought I would give an update since its been about three weeks. I have had about thirty hours of quiet time since the ringing came back March 1st 2017. It has now been two months of taking the Lipo Flavonoid vitamins and taking NAC and Magnesium on occasion. I also take Melatonin to help get to sleep, always had problems sleeping but I guess the melatonin helps with the ringing too. I still have the ringing in the left side of my head, not so much in the ear just left side, weird. The volume is down a fair amount from when it first started, on stressful days it picks up quite a bit and that fair amount diminishes but still lower overall.

I would like to think this is going away but who knows for sure, spoke to my audiologist and she wanted to wait a bit longer and see what happens before I get set up with some sort of hearing device to mask the ringing. Why it goes away completely and comes back is anyones guess.

I did find that my ceiling fan in the bedroom, which put out a low frequency hum, made the tinnitus worse over the course of a night. Although on the bright side I can now once again hear the fan, took almost two months after that ear slap to hear it again.

Whether it was the Ciprodex drops that caused this or simply a delayed reaction to that ear slap , I will never know for sure. I have read other peoples experiences and they say it can take two to three months or longer to overcome a medication reaction maybe longer to overcome ear trauma? Wait and see, I still have time.

 

[Lee 47]

As of today I have only a hissing tinnitus, usually quite low in the morning hours only to pickup to a louder hiss around noon every day. I'm back to working out, which does cause a slight increase then it settles out so overall it's no where near as bad as that pure tone or even the tonal hiss. Keep in mind that I was given Ciprodex drops with a ruptured eardrum from an ear slap in Jan. of 2017. I have no idea which one caused this loud tinnitus but for those whom have tinnitus from those drops there may be some hope that it will get better with time and eating healthy.

For me the tone lasted about six weeks then the tonal hiss another ten weeks so after sixteen weeks I'm at just a hiss and have had about sixty hours of quiet time. Sometimes the quiet time lasts for a few hours other times just minutes but welcomed either way. The hissing is usually in my entire head but occasionally in the left ear only. Take care all.

 

[Bill Bauer]

As of today I have only a hissing tinnitus, usually quite low in the morning hours only to pickup to a louder hiss around noon every day. I'm back to working out, which does cause a slight increase then it settles out so overall it's no where near as bad as that pure tone or even the tonal hiss. Keep in mind that I was given Ciprodex drops with a ruptured eardrum from an ear slap in Jan. of 2017. I have no idea which one caused this loud tinnitus but for those whom have tinnitus from those drops there may be some hope that it will get better with time and eating healthy.

For me the tone lasted about six weeks then the tonal hiss another ten weeks so after sixteen weeks I'm at just a hiss and have had about sixty hours of quiet time. Sometimes the quiet time lasts for a few hours other times just minutes but welcomed either way. The hissing is usually in my entire head but occasionally in the left ear only. Take care all.

Did you protect your ears during those 16 weeks?

 

[Lee 47]

I did protect my hearing even closer then I used too. I wore double hearing protection in any loud areas whether it was called for it or not (work). If I was in an environment where I could possibly hear something loud I would tear an earplug in half and just use the half plug. That way when out in public, such as a mall, it would be difficult for people to see it and ask questions if a conversation were to develop. In fact I was at a wedding recently, and of course the DJ had the music way to loud, but I anticipated that and already had the half plug in (both ears) no issue. Also, the next morning and since then the hissing has even dropped a little bit, sure hope this trend continues. Overall, I did not constantly protect my hearing just on very high alert to any all possible noises. I also found that on the early onset of tinnitus the ringing would increase with earplugs or muffs on, but I read that is common. Now that it has settled down a lot I don't notice the increase any longer.
Take care and best of luck, time seems to be the one element that helps with this condition. I hope and pray that everyone gets some relief.

 

[Lee 47]

I forgot to add that I have been taking the Lipo Flavonoid plus since March 1, 2017. During the past month I dropped down to just 4 pills (2 doses) twice for about 3 days each time. During those times the ringing picked up and when I went back to 6 pills (3 doses) the ringing improved, it didn't go away completely but was reduced and had some quiet times too. I skipped the "before bedtime "dose because I take Melatonin to sleep and the tinnitus is usually lower at night. When I awoke in the morning, during the 2 dose times, the ringing was usually a bit louder than it was when I was taking 3 doses and it stayed louder most of the day.

I know people get mixed results with the Lipo Flavonoid vitamins but they seem to have an effect for me. Of course, I had an ear injury followed by Ciprodex drops during a ruptured eardrum. I also take Magnesium and NAC, no high doses just the one of each throughout the day. Keep in mind that, from the time of the injury until I started taking supplements and vitamins was a month. Perhaps I would have healed sooner or never would have had to deal with this that long. So if anyone is worried about not doing enough, soon enough and then think your condition will be made worse but not enough early intervention. Well, I pretty much waited a month before eating more healthy than I usually do, and taking vitamins and supplements and it is getting better just very slowly.

I hope this information will help those with similar experiences to relax, what your dealing with should improve with time and a little extra work to eat really healthy.

 

[Lee 47]

It has been several months since I posted any news regarding my progress with my tinnitus. First off I will say that it has improved, no more pure tone, only a hiss that I notice for less than 12hrs per day. Sort of like when you yawn and get some head noise but a bit louder. I have noticed that when my blood pressure is elevated the hissing is louder, so staying calm really helps. I guess that's why I usually don't hear it at bedtime or early mornings. The hissing has gone down in volume but I can still notice it with ease.
I also ran into an old friend and we were discussing life over the last several years and what is new. I found out he had a similar experience with Ciprodex drops. He had an ear infection and took the drops for 7 days and all of a sudden had ringing in his ear. It cleared up within the day so he decided to take one more dose to see if that was the cause of the tinnitus. Eight days on Ciprodex and it took a year for the ringing to stop. Very similar ear response, pure tone, then hissing and further hissing but lower volume. For those that are affected by Ciprodex there may be some good news here, so don't give up. The ear takes a very long time to heal, I'm still taking Lipo Flavonoid vitamins 6/day, and eating somewhat healthy. I can now enjoy a little alcohol without waking up and my ear screaming so things are on the mend. Coming up on eight months now, sure hope this is gone in a year too. Good luck to all of you.

 

[GregCA]

I also ran into an old friend and we were discussing life over the last several years and what is new. I found out he had a similar experience with Ciprodex drops. He had an ear infection and took the drops for 7 days and all of a sudden had ringing in his ear. It cleared up within the day so he decided to take one more dose to see if that was the cause of the tinnitus. Eight days on Ciprodex and it took a year for the ringing to stop. Very similar ear response, pure tone, then hissing and further hissing but lower volume. For those that are affected by Ciprodex there may be some good news here, so don't give up.

Keep in mind that correlation doesn't mean causation: it is perhaps more likely that the T was due to the infection rather than Ciprodex (my wife got T from her infection and wasn't on Ciprodex). There are scientific studies about Ciprodex available online where you can see that it is not considered to be ototoxic. You (and your old friend) may be outliers of course, and I don't doubt your account, but since Ciprodex is often the med of choice for ear infections (for the very reason that it is not considered ototoxic), you'll find a clear correlation between problems caused by the infection and Ciprodex.

 

[Lee 47]

Good point, I have seen many folks on here discuss the Ciprodex issue. There are some people whom are affected by that drug, for me it was 28 days for my friend it was 8 days. Very tough issue to solve and perhaps the drug is useful for most people. For those that are affected negatively by it there may be some hope that the tinnitus will subside. I am no stranger to ear infections have had dozens growing up and into my adult years, this is the only time I had such a reaction. The start of this wasn't an ear infection it was an earslap, which did lead to me detecting some very low hissing tinnitus ~7 days later but only became a loud pure tone after 28 days on Ciprodex.
I can't blame this solely on Ciprodex without 100% proof but again, never had this issue before and I was slapped in the ear in my younger years and never had this type of reaction. Of course as we age things heal slower and I would imagine damage builds up so if the same thing happens the bodies response will be a little different each time.
I hope your wife's tinnitus has faded and all is better. Thanks

 

[threefirefour]

Seriously fuck ciprodex. I have a bottle from when I was younger but thankfully I was smart enough to look it up before I took a dose. People shouldn't have to do that...