Thoughts on Origin of My Tinnitus?

[Kitty K]

Hello!
It's nice to see you all again!
As January 2018 rolls around, this will mark the 2nd year of me having tinnitus. However, even after all this time, I am not sure where it came from, and I would like some opinions!
I'll explain.
My T first started one night after I took a shower. I brushed my hair, got all cozy to sleep, and noticed a sharp, extremely sudden ringing in my left ear. This was unusual and I was a bit scared, because for a bit I had listened to some music after the shower, but I figured it might have something to do with the fact I got a very bad middle ear infection in that one as a tween and my ears have always had trouble draining.

In the days that followed, I became sick. It started with a sore throat and sinus pressure, but soon expanded into severe anxiety attacks, extreme loss of appetite (I barely ate anything for 2 weeks), mild vertigo and dizzy spells upon standing up. The ringing slowly progressed from the left ear to both for unexplained reasons. In my left ear, after laying down, I would notice this kind of bubbling pressure inside that would move downwards, slowly, the longer I sat. Like, you could physically feel it. Originally, after researching tinnitus, I blamed myself. Granted, I had truly had no extreme noise exposure that day, or that week, or that month, much less that night. I have also generally been kind to my ears. Despite being 18, unlike some of my peers I was never a fan of blasting ear-grating music throughout all hours of the day. I do indeed like music, but when I listen to it it's usually only a bit louder than people chattering in a room. The only time I turn it up a little more is when I walk home from school (no more than 10 minutes to get there) as I live in a slightly more urban area. However, cars can still be heard over the music. I rarely go to concerts. I do not use heavy machinery or guns.

When I finally ponied up and went to a good ENT (this was a particularly respected branch, they tested up to 16,000 HZ for me), they found no signs of high-frequency, mid or low hearing loss and diagnosed me with labyrinthitis, which explained both the nausea/lack of appetite, the dizziness, the changes in hearing and the anxiety. I had hoped it wasn't hearing loss, as I had had my yearly hearing physical for school the previous month and had no issue even with higher frequencies. He said what had probably happened was that my respiratory infection had spread to my inner ear, most likely because the middle ear infection I had when I was younger had weakened the membrane within the throat/ear-tube thingy. He assured me that it almost definitely wasn't my fault, and put me on some steroids to try and fight the infection. After taking them, the dizziness calmed down, and the tinnitus decreased to what it is presently. It is nearly undetectable except for in my room sometimes (it's quiet upstairs). As well, it is EXTREMELY high frequency! I can't even tone match it to 18000 HZ on a pure tone test. It sounds somewhere like 19000+ maybe. As such, it's too high to mask in all honesty. On this subject, I have done a pure tone sweep several times, and can hear well into the 19000s relatively easily. 20000 can be heard, with a little straining (slightly higher db), but it's more like a feeling at that point because of how high it is. In fact for Physiology in school only about a week or so after the T started, we did a pure tone sweep to test the class' hearing and I was the only one able to hear the 20,000 hz.

NOTES ABOUT MY T:
-Not affected by caffeine levels.
-Not affected by what little alcohol I've had, being 18
-Not affected by loud noises.
-Not affected by quality of sleep.
-Increases slightly with stress.
-The only thing that really affects the sound is when I am on my period. I believe this is hormone-related somehow.
-Actually sounds better if I push my jaw out
-Causes me very little sleeping issues, I have never used masking to sleep because of how high it is but it is a little annoying.
-Sometimes, if things get a little louder than normal (i.e when I go to a musical sometimes, and they start belting) there's a bitch of screeching that sounds like it's coming from inside my brain. It doesn't match my T noise and I don't have any loss in the range it IS in so I dont know what up with that.
-Never was and never has been a pure tone. Just a very light, soft rainstick/tv static noise
-I do have jaw issues, I clench in my sleep but have since gotten a bite guard for this

However, I've read so many discouraging posts about how Tinnitus is nearly always hearing damage related, and I'm starting to feel once again despite it coinciding with my illness that it was my fault again for maybe going a little too loud or something. Should I trust the diagnosis of labyrinthitis? If it has gotten a little better over time, and I do not have much damage (if it all????) do you suspect it may go away in time someday despite it lasting this long? My ENT told me it should, but that labyrinthitis is a complex issue and it "goes when it wants to go".

Any info helps, and sorry for my ramble!

 

[Dan89]

I have never used ear phones or listened to loud music... the ringing in my ears started after using cotton buds and ear syringing.

So I don't think just loud sounds is the catalyst for it.

Mine only started 2 days ago, but I get the feeling from reading about tinnitus, that it isn't just going to disappear.

 

[Alan56]

Interesting! Mine started in my left ear and then went across to my right ear later. I had a sore throat and sinus problems during that time span and head clogged up. At one point I came down with severe vertigo and dizziness and ended up in the hospital severely throwing up and dizzy. They checked me out and found nothing and let me go. On the way out of the emergency room I fell because I was still dizzy. Later that week I continued to have dizziness and could not hardly even walk. I went to my family practice clinic at another hospital and this time I was diagnosed with food poisoning. I have a meningioma on top on my brain and originally they thought it may be growing and causing the problem but they ruled that out. I thought this was all strange because I never ever had this before in my life until this T set in. I noticed my ears having pressure problems and it felt like the hairs in my ears was moving around.

I have hissing and ringing in my head and often plug my ears and can hear it loudly. Its almost in the middle of my head and ears. The sounds changes frequency sometimes but mainly remains the same.
PS: I have some hearing loss they found in both ears. Alan

 

[Michael B]

You write very well.

 

[newbieT]

@Kitty K Tinnitus is not always acoustic trauma related. Although it is the most likely cause in most cases. If you search the forum, you'll come across many accounts with people that have perfectly good hearing and tinnitus.

A person can catch a cold and their eustacian tube can plug up for a short time. This can result in muffled hearing due to unbalanced inner ear pressurem. Normally a brain will just ignore this. However on rare occasions the brain can also interpret this as muffled hearing to sudden acoustic damage. This i think is what can trigger T in people with perfectly normal hearing.

Again its just a hypothesis, but there is a higher chance of your T going away since there was no actual damage to your ears.

 

[DebInAustralia]

Hello!
It's nice to see you all again!
As January 2018 rolls around, this will mark the 2nd year of me having tinnitus. However, even after all this time, I am not sure where it came from, and I would like some opinions!
I'll explain.
My T first started one night after I took a shower. I brushed my hair, got all cozy to sleep, and noticed a sharp, extremely sudden ringing in my left ear. This was unusual and I was a bit scared, because for a bit I had listened to some music after the shower, but I figured it might have something to do with the fact I got a very bad middle ear infection in that one as a tween and my ears have always had trouble draining.

In the days that followed, I became sick. It started with a sore throat and sinus pressure, but soon expanded into severe anxiety attacks, extreme loss of appetite (I barely ate anything for 2 weeks), mild vertigo and dizzy spells upon standing up. The ringing slowly progressed from the left ear to both for unexplained reasons. In my left ear, after laying down, I would notice this kind of bubbling pressure inside that would move downwards, slowly, the longer I sat. Like, you could physically feel it. Originally, after researching tinnitus, I blamed myself. Granted, I had truly had no extreme noise exposure that day, or that week, or that month, much less that night. I have also generally been kind to my ears. Despite being 18, unlike some of my peers I was never a fan of blasting ear-grating music throughout all hours of the day. I do indeed like music, but when I listen to it it's usually only a bit louder than people chattering in a room. The only time I turn it up a little more is when I walk home from school (no more than 10 minutes to get there) as I live in a slightly more urban area. However, cars can still be heard over the music. I rarely go to concerts. I do not use heavy machinery or guns.

When I finally ponied up and went to a good ENT (this was a particularly respected branch, they tested up to 16,000 HZ for me), they found no signs of high-frequency, mid or low hearing loss and diagnosed me with labyrinthitis, which explained both the nausea/lack of appetite, the dizziness, the changes in hearing and the anxiety. I had hoped it wasn't hearing loss, as I had had my yearly hearing physical for school the previous month and had no issue even with higher frequencies. He said what had probably happened was that my respiratory infection had spread to my inner ear, most likely because the middle ear infection I had when I was younger had weakened the membrane within the throat/ear-tube thingy. He assured me that it almost definitely wasn't my fault, and put me on some steroids to try and fight the infection. After taking them, the dizziness calmed down, and the tinnitus decreased to what it is presently. It is nearly undetectable except for in my room sometimes (it's quiet upstairs). As well, it is EXTREMELY high frequency! I can't even tone match it to 18000 HZ on a pure tone test. It sounds somewhere like 19000+ maybe. As such, it's too high to mask in all honesty. On this subject, I have done a pure tone sweep several times, and can hear well into the 19000s relatively easily. 20000 can be heard, with a little straining (slightly higher db), but it's more like a feeling at that point because of how high it is. In fact for Physiology in school only about a week or so after the T started, we did a pure tone sweep to test the class' hearing and I was the only one able to hear the 20,000 hz.

NOTES ABOUT MY T:
-Not affected by caffeine levels.
-Not affected by what little alcohol I've had, being 18
-Not affected by loud noises.
-Not affected by quality of sleep.
-Increases slightly with stress.
-The only thing that really affects the sound is when I am on my period. I believe this is hormone-related somehow.
-Actually sounds better if I push my jaw out
-Causes me very little sleeping issues, I have never used masking to sleep because of how high it is but it is a little annoying.
-Sometimes, if things get a little louder than normal (i.e when I go to a musical sometimes, and they start belting) there's a bitch of screeching that sounds like it's coming from inside my brain. It doesn't match my T noise and I don't have any loss in the range it IS in so I dont know what up with that.
-Never was and never has been a pure tone. Just a very light, soft rainstick/tv static noise
-I do have jaw issues, I clench in my sleep but have since gotten a bite guard for this

However, I've read so many discouraging posts about how Tinnitus is nearly always hearing damage related, and I'm starting to feel once again despite it coinciding with my illness that it was my fault again for maybe going a little too loud or something. Should I trust the diagnosis of labyrinthitis? If it has gotten a little better over time, and I do not have much damage (if it all????) do you suspect it may go away in time someday despite it lasting this long? My ENT told me it should, but that labyrinthitis is a complex issue and it "goes when it wants to go".

Any info helps, and sorry for my ramble!

Your post is a little reminiscent of a friend's story.

She suffered Lab, during which time her symptoms were identical to yours.

No hearing loss identified.

During her bout of lab, she developed tinnitus, which did disappear, but later reappeared in the form of musical hallucinations.

My cousin also developed t from a post viral syndrome, which caused SSHL.

So, I dont always think acoustic trauma is responsible for developing t and h, but it could also be cumulative damage which was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I also think that some of us may be more susceptible to auditory damage ie those with genetic weaknesses, which predispose to free radical damage.

 

[Alan56]

hmmm, after thinking about it a few weeks before all this started I had a head cold and my ears clogged up. It caused me a lot of anxiety because I could not get them to unclog. I drink a lot of hot coffee hoping that would help them unclog. I finally ended up in the emergency room and the doctor there said she could see where my tubes are inner ear was closing off. I was given an antibiotic to help and along about 4am in the morning my ears popped open. a week or so went by and my ear clogged up again. I tried nelly pots but they did not help. This time they would not unclog and I went to ENT and they could find no problem with my ears. Anxiety really set in and I tried different nasal sprays but nothing opened my ears. At some point I started getting ringing, fullness, pressure, and movement and feelings of hair movement in my left ear and it then the ringing went to the center of my head and then on to my right ear which had fullness, pressure and hair movement. I went back to ENT and they did an exam and an audio test and found I had hearing loss in both ears. Nothing was found wrong with my ear or tubes. I later had an MRI and they found my ears were okay but they found a small meningioma on the left side of my head between the skull and my brain. It was diagnosed as being benign. The neurologist felt the meningioma was not causing my problem since it was not near the nerve for my ear. Since the M was small it was decided to just keep a watch on it for growth and symptoms which they have been doing and ive had no further growth. The T is severe and never goes away so I get anxiety. I have tried hearing aids that supposedly block T but they did not help or work. I just keep hoping and praying the T will go away. Alan