- Jan 31, 2020
- 5
- Tinnitus Since
- 1991
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Computer monitors squealing, high-pitched electronics
Hi!
I've had tinnitus for almost 30 years, ever since the night I was working late at home on my computer with the monitor that squealed way too much, and when I finally lay down to go to sleep in my now-dead-quiet apartment, my right ear suddenly went "Beep... beep... beeeeeeeeeeeeeee" ... and it never stopped. A few days later, same thing happened with my left ear. And it's been that way ever since (until recently). Relatively "mild" tinnitus, with a steady volume and a solid "ring" tone somewhere around 14 kHz (although any sound from 8 kHz - 20 kHz made it worse for a while).
Growing up I could always hear high-pitched noises -- I could walk into your house and tell you that you left your TV on upstairs, even if the volume was off. (Seems to be a family trait...)
After my tinnitus started, it never went away, and never went below a certain "volume". Nothing other than high-pitched noises seemed to affect it. Any high-pitched, squealing electronics always made it worse: switched power supplies, older TV's, certain computer hard drives or even solid state drives (SSDs) in newer laptops, newer laptops when the CPUs whine between power modes, pretty much anything with a capacitor that squeals at very high frequencies.
This has been a growing problem at work, since I work with computers and most computers in the past 10 years, and especially in the past 3-4 years, have electronics that squeal in ways that make my ears ring worse than normal. Sometimes I can avoid them, sometimes I have to just deal with it and wait for my ears to ring less in the morning, or sometimes in a few days. When my company wanted to enforce a required "laptop upgrade" from my 2014 MacBook but all the new ones they gave me squealed too much, I managed to get a "medical exception" and was allowed to keep my old Mac ... at least until it dies.
But then a few months ago something happened to make my Tinnitus worse, and my sensitivity much higher. Now I'm hearing sounds I didn't hear before, or maybe that didn't bother me before. They make my ears ring much worse than before. For example, I was using a client's laptop for 9 months on a project and it was absolutely silent, as far as I could tell. Since I needed to upgrade my personal laptop, and even though this model was already discontinued (a 2017 MacBook), I bought the exact same model MacBook off eBay. Turned it on -- now I can hear it, and it makes my ears ring. But all the components are the same, as far as I can tell. Meanwhile, the "volume level" on the ringing in my ears has gotten much louder, and stayed louder.
Same story with other devices: I've been using a CPAP machine since May 2018. Just realized a few weeks ago that every morning when I wake up, my ears are ringing much worse than when I went to sleep. Turns out the CPAP's power supply squeals at 17.5 kHz, 18.4 kHz, and 19.5 kHz. For more than a year I didn't hear it or it didn't bother me, but now I do and it does?
So ...
Any recommendations for a good ENT and/or audiologist in the NJ or NYC area who actually understands that tinnitus is a thing, and that changes in tinnitus might actually be caused by something that should be looked into rather than ignored, and that perhaps there may be some possible treatments starting to appear on the horizon? (Or maybe not - how about one who even just knows the pros and cons of what's available and what's coming?) I've been to 2 recently who both completely shut down as soon as they heard "tinnitus for 30 years", ignoring the part about "but why did it suddenly get so much worse recently?"
Anyway - that's my 30 years of tinnitus in a nutshell. Very happy to have found this place!
- Bill
I've had tinnitus for almost 30 years, ever since the night I was working late at home on my computer with the monitor that squealed way too much, and when I finally lay down to go to sleep in my now-dead-quiet apartment, my right ear suddenly went "Beep... beep... beeeeeeeeeeeeeee" ... and it never stopped. A few days later, same thing happened with my left ear. And it's been that way ever since (until recently). Relatively "mild" tinnitus, with a steady volume and a solid "ring" tone somewhere around 14 kHz (although any sound from 8 kHz - 20 kHz made it worse for a while).
Growing up I could always hear high-pitched noises -- I could walk into your house and tell you that you left your TV on upstairs, even if the volume was off. (Seems to be a family trait...)
After my tinnitus started, it never went away, and never went below a certain "volume". Nothing other than high-pitched noises seemed to affect it. Any high-pitched, squealing electronics always made it worse: switched power supplies, older TV's, certain computer hard drives or even solid state drives (SSDs) in newer laptops, newer laptops when the CPUs whine between power modes, pretty much anything with a capacitor that squeals at very high frequencies.
This has been a growing problem at work, since I work with computers and most computers in the past 10 years, and especially in the past 3-4 years, have electronics that squeal in ways that make my ears ring worse than normal. Sometimes I can avoid them, sometimes I have to just deal with it and wait for my ears to ring less in the morning, or sometimes in a few days. When my company wanted to enforce a required "laptop upgrade" from my 2014 MacBook but all the new ones they gave me squealed too much, I managed to get a "medical exception" and was allowed to keep my old Mac ... at least until it dies.
But then a few months ago something happened to make my Tinnitus worse, and my sensitivity much higher. Now I'm hearing sounds I didn't hear before, or maybe that didn't bother me before. They make my ears ring much worse than before. For example, I was using a client's laptop for 9 months on a project and it was absolutely silent, as far as I could tell. Since I needed to upgrade my personal laptop, and even though this model was already discontinued (a 2017 MacBook), I bought the exact same model MacBook off eBay. Turned it on -- now I can hear it, and it makes my ears ring. But all the components are the same, as far as I can tell. Meanwhile, the "volume level" on the ringing in my ears has gotten much louder, and stayed louder.
Same story with other devices: I've been using a CPAP machine since May 2018. Just realized a few weeks ago that every morning when I wake up, my ears are ringing much worse than when I went to sleep. Turns out the CPAP's power supply squeals at 17.5 kHz, 18.4 kHz, and 19.5 kHz. For more than a year I didn't hear it or it didn't bother me, but now I do and it does?
So ...
Any recommendations for a good ENT and/or audiologist in the NJ or NYC area who actually understands that tinnitus is a thing, and that changes in tinnitus might actually be caused by something that should be looked into rather than ignored, and that perhaps there may be some possible treatments starting to appear on the horizon? (Or maybe not - how about one who even just knows the pros and cons of what's available and what's coming?) I've been to 2 recently who both completely shut down as soon as they heard "tinnitus for 30 years", ignoring the part about "but why did it suddenly get so much worse recently?"
Anyway - that's my 30 years of tinnitus in a nutshell. Very happy to have found this place!
- Bill