Tinnitus After Ear Syringing

[Muggumbo]

Update:

I had an appointment with the ENT on Wednesday. He was really nice! However, he didn't seem too concerned about the tinnitus sticking around. He was confident it was due to inflammation since it temporarily subsided with the steroid. He mentioned that my eardrums were "clinically perfect," which was reassuring. He prescribed Lipo-flavonoid, but I was a bit disappointed as it felt like he was just guessing. I have a bottle that I bought but never opened, so I'll give it a try. He suggested doing a follow-up and having an audiogram in a month, so that's my plan. I'm staying positive about what the tinnitus will be like by then - maybe it will have disappeared!

The hissing was very low last Thursday and Friday, but today it has increased again. I'm hoping for more quiet days in a row. The musical tone in my right ear is still there but quiet. Its volume hasn't really changed, even as the hissing fluctuates. I'm fortunate that I can only hear it if I'm wearing my AirPods - I keep the volume extremely low and mostly listen to podcasts, not loud music. I still sleep with earplugs, which I know some people have mixed feelings about. I can still hear the tone in my ears with the earplugs in, but I haven't had any trouble sleeping yet. I'm hoping that it will eventually go away too. I'm still optimistic.

I hope this is helpful to others.

It sounds like things are going well for you. Hopefully, it keeps getting better.

 

[brooklynfall]

It sounds like things are going well for you. Hopefully, it keeps getting better.

Thank you! Yeah, improvement can't come fast enough. How are your ears these days?

 

[Muggumbo]

Thank you! Yeah, improvement can't come fast enough. How are your ears these days?

My ears seem to be improving as of late.

 

[brooklynfall]

My ears seem to be improving as of late.

Great news!

 

[brooklynfall]

Today's quick update:

The hissing noise is quieter again, although not as quiet as during the last quiet period. It really seems to be following this two-days-on, two-days-off cycle. I wonder what that's about.

In my pursuit of addressing the supposed inflammation that Depo-Medrol supposedly alleviated, I am starting a Curcumin supplement today, just as an experiment. It is this one.

I will keep this thread updated, although I am going to try to take a couple of days off from visiting Tinnitus Talk. It's so helpful, but it does bring my tinnitus to the forefront of my brain, which is not helpful.

Thank you all for the positivity!

 

[brooklynfall]

Another quick update:

This week, the hissing tinnitus started to lower on Monday evening, and by Tuesday, it was extremely quiet. It stayed quiet until this morning (Friday). Again, I'm hoping for longer periods of silence between periods of loudness. It's hard to say if the Curcumin is helping—it's only been five days of taking it. We'll see!

 

[brooklynfall]

Update:

Here we are on Monday, and the hissing is quieter - three days on, three days off. I am so curious to understand why the cycle seems so natural! I know many people's tinnitus comes and goes in waves and doesn't stay the same every day. It's odd. The other good news is that the tonal tinnitus in my other (right) ear may be slightly quieter for the first time in more than a month.

I woke up this morning at around 7 am - I could have slept in but didn't, for some reason - and the hissing was quite loud. I tried something interesting: I started talking to myself about it. Out loud, I started murmuring: it's okay, you're OK. This is okay; this will end, and you'll get better. And it worked! I fell back asleep to some extent, and when I woke up again, it was quieter. And it's stayed quieter. Of course, the more I think about it this afternoon, the more I notice it - but I think if I was at work, staying busy, instead of at home doing nothing on a national holiday, I might not have noticed it. Who knows? I'm still hopeful - but I always wonder what damage the syringing did.

P.S. I just tried to choose a "mood" for the first time, and there's no "Hopeful" button! It seems like an oversight! Ah well. I am hopeful.

 

[SumGuy]

I'm glad to hear you are improving. My tinnitus was very similar. Eventually, it settled into something I rarely hear, and honestly, at this point is a nonfactor. I hope yours clears soon.

 

[brooklynfall]

I'm glad to hear you are improving. My tinnitus was very similar. Eventually, it settled into something I rarely hear, and honestly, at this point is a nonfactor. I hope yours clears soon.

Thank you for your encouragement! It's great that you're used to it at this point. I noticed your earlier post in the thread and wanted to respond. I hear the hissing in my left ear most of the time and the tonal tinnitus in my other ear only when I have my AirPods in (listening at low volumes) or when I sleep with my earplugs in, which is most nights.

 

[brooklynfall]

Quick update:

Quietest day yet! At least since the steroids. I'm really listening for the left ear hissing/tinkling, and I can barely hear it. The right ear also seems slightly better, but the tone is still very much there. Holding it lightly is an expression that means I'm going to enjoy it, but it's okay if it's only temporary, and I won't let it disappoint me too much. Thanks to this forum for allowing me to document, and hopefully, this will help someone else who might be suffering in their life.

 

[brooklynfall]

Aaaaaaand back up today. Oh well. It's nice to know that it CAN go down. The hope is that it happens more often. Yesterday was so awesome! But yes - holding it lightly.

 

[brooklynfall]

Hey all! It's been a little while since I checked in - almost three weeks. There has been a lot of good progress over that time. The spike on the 30th of May went down the next day, and everything got progressively quieter and quieter. By around June 7th, it was not noticeable and stayed that way until June 18th. So, 11 days of silence!

I thought it was gone for good. But it started going up again yesterday; today, it is as loud as ever. My stress levels have been going up for a while, and I might have a virus as well - crazy-fatigued but no other symptoms and COVID-19 negative. So there are reasons for it to go up. But I'm not panicking. I think it'll go down again once this all passes. I still believe it's not permanent.

 

[Thizzle]

That's great to hear.

When you say silence, do you mean absolutely no ringing, or was it just quieter?

 

[brooklynfall]

When you say silence, do you mean absolutely no ringing, or was it just quieter?

Hard to say. If it were there, it would have been so quiet that it wouldn't bother me. I would have said that my quality of life was back to pre-syringing levels - which I count as a win. If someone had asked me four days ago if I had tinnitus, I would have said no. But today - hardcore hissing. Probably due to traveling, stress, and not a lot of decent sleep.

 

[Pixelito]

Hey all! It's been a little while since I checked in - almost three weeks. There has been a lot of good progress over that time. The spike on the 30th of May went down the next day, and everything got progressively quieter and quieter. By around June 7th, it was not noticeable and stayed that way until June 18th. So, 11 days of silence!

I thought it was gone for good. But it started going up again yesterday; today, it is as loud as ever. My stress levels have been going up for a while, and I might have a virus as well - crazy-fatigued but no other symptoms and COVID-19 negative. So there are reasons for it to go up. But I'm not panicking. I think it'll go down again once this all passes. I still believe it's not permanent.

Mine is very similar: long stretches of quiet to mild days, occasional days of loud spikes. We don't know if it will go away forever. Mine got worse through nine months, but over the last three months, my loud days have become fewer and fewer for me. Maybe it's on the outs, but every loud spike reinforces that it's still here.

I try not to focus on healing. It will be gone for good when it's gone for good. Until I go months of quietness, not days, I'll start believing it.

 

[brooklynfall]

I just wanted to check in again—it's gotten so much better! July was a bit loud for me, but day by day, it started to fade. By August, the tinnitus was almost completely gone! However, it has crept back in over the past few days, and as I sit here, I can hear it hissing away. Ah well. I believe it will fade again.

I think this pattern of the tinnitus quieting down and then getting loud again suggests that whatever damage was caused by the syringing is healing. This might just be the tinnitus I've had for a year now, ever since I got COVID-19 last August. I guess we'll see. But up until a couple of days ago, I would have told you that I no longer had tinnitus.

Man, what a blessing that was. Here's hoping for more of that relief!