Third Day of Tinnitus — Will This Be Forever or Not?

[BobDigi]

@BobDigi -- In my case, that would not have been good advice. For the first 1 1/2 years, I found it necessary to wear ear plugs whenever I drove in my car for more than a couple miles, and whenever I went into a retail store. I'm convinced I saved myself from numerous very detrimental spikes as a result.

Who knows. That's the problem with tinnitus. We can't be sure of much. Perhaps you wouldn't have had a spike anyway, maybe you would have.
But over protecting your ears can be problematic too.

 

[Lane]

Perhaps you wouldn't have had a spike anyway

@BobDigi -- Perhaps not, but my best guess is I would have. During this time (while I was wearing plugs), my ears got suddenly exposed to those obnoxious backup sounds from forklifts at Home Depot, some horrible screeching over the intercom at another store, and a handful of other very surprising and loud noises (crashes, etc), that would have most likely caused a spike (I'd had prior spikes from much less). -- I no longer have to protect as much as I did that first year, but I'm thankful I chose to adequately protect myself back then when my ears were most vulnerable.

 

[Cbg327]

I am back from a hearing test. They said I have no signs of hearing loss.

I also got something for my stomach but that is just over the counter stuff. Not doctor prescribed.

My ear doctor told me that since most my nausea does not include a spinning sensation that it might not be related to the ringing and that I might have something else causing that which could cause the stress that made my tinnitus return after 5 days. Today has been mostly a low intensity tinnitus so far.

They gave me some papers about tinnitus and it said that it can also be caused by muscle spasms in the ear. (Never heard of that one before).

Anyone else know more about the muscle spasm kind of tinnitus? I am not convinced I have it but I'm interested in hearing about it.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Anyone else know more about the muscle spasm kind of tinnitus?

Sounds like TTTS (use that as a keywords to search this forum). It results in one hearing a "whoosh" after every sound/noise.

 

[Cbg327]

Ringing still goes away at times. Right ear is quiet when it rings (quiet in silence). Left can be quiet but normally makes itself known (in silence)

Over all it takes less sound to mask it, normally 1 source of sound can do it at a low volume.

Left ear aches and is swollen. My theory is that my antibiotic was not as great as I had myself believe, it did remove all symptoms for 5 days but the earache came back making me think it did not truly finish off the infection (although when looking in my ears I am told that there is no visible sign of infection. I have not had many ear infections in my life but it does feel like one)

 

[Cbg327]

My ear doctor just sent me new medication and told me to stop taking the previous one.

Me being curious why looks up the old medication, nothing bad to report on that one, but since I'm looking it up anyway I decide to search the new one and it is apparently ototoxic.... So I search my nasal spray, also ototoxic... I was going to ask them why I am having ear infection symptoms (nasea, earache, swelling, and I suspected a pattern of when my tinnitus was most loud). Now I'm wondering if it had to do with my medication routine. I took the nasal spray just before reading everything and the ringing is up a bit but it might just be my mood affecting it. I find it odd that my previous medication was fine and she wanted me to switch since I had not complained about it.

The moral of the story I guess is to always double check your doctor's work. I hope I learned this lesson in time to benefit myself

Luckily I have noticed improvement (although at a slower pace it seems) and I have not been taking it very long. I'm going to go without and see how that changes things.

(I am sitting here wondering if she just made a few honest mistakes or was trying to make a long term patient out of me)

 

[Cbg327]

Well I thought I stopped improving for a while and today my ears were ringing louder than usual, it has also been a long time since I had it stop. I'm the last few hours it stopped for a while and hit a new low in volume (tv can currently block it out at a volume of 7. It is likely the bottom of my normal fluctuation (for a few days the volume that blocks it out has been mostly between 11 and 20). Time will tell but I might still be getting better.

I started taking vitamins when I noticed the progress I was making slowed down. I'm not sure if it was the vitamins or just me healing.

anyways I'm taking a multivitamin (it has both b6 and b12), an additional b12 ( yes I know the body only absorbs so much before the rest is wasted), I'm also taking a vitamin to help my eyes (it has copper in it), I'm taking some fish oil vitamins, and I'm taking a vitamin d. It is not a vitamin but I also added coconut oil into my diet.

This is my reasoning, for everything I'm taking
multivitamin: covering a large variety of vitamins that might be useful that I am unaware of
B12: I hear it helps brain function so might help with stress. Also is used in nerve repair
Eye vitamin: it has copper which is needed to use fatty acids to repair myelin sheath (covers the nerves)
Fish oil: myelin sheath is 70% fat, what I read is that the omega 3 is what I should take (same as fish oil)
Vitamin D: helps immune system and what is good for the immune system is also helpful toward the nervous system
Coconut oil: rumor is, is that it's lauric acid is good for fighting of bacteria, viruses, an also fungal infections.

Side note: I am taking these vitamins multiple times a day. I am paying attention to how I am feeling before and after taking the vitamins to lower my risk of overdose.

Warning: following what I am trying could cause an accidental overdose on vitamins and coconut oil can become hard on the heart if you take to much (cloging arteries if I remember correctly)

Stopping the medications seems to have no negative effects (actually feeling better. Might not be related though)

Summary: my method did not stop the ringing but may have helped reduce it. It took a while to see any possible results. It did however help me stop feeling sick just a few days after I started. The sick feeling comes back sometimes but goes away quickly. I believe I have/had a virus after the antibiotics. I'm unsure if stopping my medication (nasal spray and decongestant) had any negative or positive impact.

I will look in every once in a while but I will try to avoid posting unless I get something that feels significant

 

[Cbg327]

I stopped taking the vitamins and it seemed to begin fluctuating more. The max is still about 20 but there is less gradual transitions and more sudden ones. I think it shut off again briefly ( been a while since it did that)

Currently gets louder when I yawn

I will begin the vitamins again to know for sure if they were helping or if it was just the natural path my tinnitus was taking

My tinnitus now rarely bothers me (not so bad as long as it does not worsen)

 

[Cbg327]

Listening to the sound of my frequency (to be clear, I'm not listening to my T. I'm listening to a YouTube video that plays the same frequency as my T). Still helps reduce or remove my T. I'm still not sure why it works but something about hearing a real version of my sound makes the T go away or reduce. Sounds that are similar also will reduce it to some degree

 

[Cbg327]

Tinnitus is at a new (constant) low. I can block it out at a volume of 4 on the tv (only the tv was on, no fan of other noise producing device was on). I can sleep on my ears again so long as there is some sound in the room to distract me.

I am concerned though because I'm sick again (rare for me to get sick normally but since December I have been on and off sick).

On the bright side, the T is completely unchanged by some of the strenuous symptoms such as hard puking and constant headache. Lots of neck pain from coughing, likely just the illness or possible extra strain on an undiagnosed neck injury (I am not always the most careful person and I have had posture habits)

All in all I see this as an improvement

 

[Cbg327]

Significant improvement. The volume to block it out is still around 3-5 (tv volume, not a scale of 1-10). While that is basically what I reported last time the big improvement is that it has become significantly quieter when I'm in silence. There has been lots of fluctuation recently (far more than normal) but I would say that most of the time it is significantly better that it was even last week. It also has been going away again at times ( fairly often too, sometimes leaving 1 ear sometimes leaving both)

 

[Digital Doc]

All good signs of habituation. Keep up the good work, and make sure to protect from further damage. This much progress this quickly is a really good sign for you.

 

[Cbg327]

I decided to try fasting because I read something about it causing you body to increase stem cell production (not sure if that is true or not. It's just what I have been reading) anyways I'm only about 40 hours in without food (llitterally no food. Only planning to go 3-5 days of this or until I start feeling bad, I am taking vitamins and lots of water) so far I noticed that I'm not feeling tired but I can easily sleep if I want to (unexpected outcome, I believed I would feel tired and have difficulty sleeping due to exhaustion from lack of food and I believed that the hunger would keep me awake).

My sense of smell seems to have sharpened because I can identify everything that my family has ate during the day just by entering the kitchen lol

Another odd development is my tinnitus has been fluctuating a lot (seemingly favoring lower volumes) and it has shut off completely several times (briefly). Most the time it is only in 1 ear but when In both it seems quieter.

it is unlikely that any stem cell increase is responsible for the changes due to the short period of time I have been fasting. I'm wondering if there is a dietary factor that I may have illuminated (possibly sugar) by not eating. As I said, I am also sleeping better and feeling pretty well rested which could also influence my tinnitus.

Another possibility is just continued improvement as I have been lucky enough to get this far.

there are other benefits to fasting that I read about that include lowering blood pressure, improving the immune system, and giving the body more time to filter out toxins. (Not to mention that the weight loss could help. I weight a bit over 200lbs currently)

On an unrelated note, I took melatonin a couple of nights before I started fasting and it seemed to reduce my tinnitus and help me sleep, so that still helps even if the fasting turns out to be a total bust (I'm not sure if my positive results are related to my fasting in any way)

 

[Cbg327]

I still have ringing but it is not to bad most of the time. It has begun to stop again at times. Most the time in 1 ear but sometimes in both. Occasionally it gets really loud but if I rub my ear that it is loud in it tends to nearly vanish. It has been a while but in my last couple of weeks I feel like there has been some improvement.

Mentally I think I adjusted pretty well. It rarely bothers me even when I do hear it.

Odd thing I noticed, if I shake my head the ringing becomes distorted. (Like when you are spinning and someone is trying to talk to you. I hope that makes sense.) I found it odd because I originally assumed that my ringing was completely unaffected by outside forces. I'm also curious why rubbing my ears seems to quiet or even silence the ringing at times.