Tinnitus for Three Weeks — Looking for Support

[Michael Leigh]

With these symptoms what could my tinnitus be? What is likely? Is there a chance I can get rid of this? What does my outcome look like?

Leave everything to time, that is the best treatment for tinnitus in the early stages are you are in. If your tinnitus isn't noise induced, and is caused by stress perhaps, then try some deep relaxation exercises. I have written posts on this that are available on my "started threads". Read my articles in the links that I have given you, particularly: New to tinnitus what to do & Tinnitus, A Personal View.

The last piece of advice I am going to give you and I hope you listen. Do not under any circumstances go to any private ENT clinic or see a Private ENT doctor for treatment. The best treatment and long term aftercare for you is under the NHS in the UK. As I have previously told you be patient and try to stop pressing on the back of your head, and twisting your neck trying to make the tinnitus stop. You don't know for sure what has caused the tinnitus and you could make it worse and permanent with what you are doing. Believe me I know what I'm talking about. The best treatment is to LEAVE your ears ALONE. Please accept my apologies for shouting but I am very serious about this. Listen to some low level background music or nature sounds and read my articles.

All the best
Michael

 

[foam]

I have a mixof Somatic and Morse code also. I can't hear the morse code unless the high pitch ring is quiet and it really is.. However I noticed early on that it always got quiet and left me with only the morse code late at night which lead me to ...Melatonin and that is by far the most potent supplement I've tried. I'm taking 9mg nightly and that alone without anything else drops my ringing tinnitus by around 50%. It doesn't help the morse code part.. that I think is either genuine ear damage or blood vessel being picked up.

 

[Tybs]

The fact that you can manually stop the tinnitus by pressure is actually quite hopeful: it suggests that you don't have a problem with the ears, but that the input comes from somewhere else (the brain does not only process ear input to generate sound, there are other types of input with a similar result).

However, I agree with Michael: don't go twisting and turning your body around in weird angles. Investigating a bit is fine, but just write down your findings and continue with other stuff afterwards. Accept the sound for the moment and let research do its thing.

Confirmed on the ENT though... don't get me wrong, I'm very happy that we have specialists for the body, but sometimes they are horrible where it comes to communication and such. My audiologist also pretty much ignored all my symptoms concerning the neck and jaw/cheek, and only kept talking about the ears, even though those questions were already answered. The neck is not his area of expertise though, so I guess I understand the issue there.

 

[Adrianfox]

Will be interested to hear how you get on over the coming weeks.

Hi @Birdlady - Very interesting to read your story and hear the similarities too! Do you get some days where it's 10x better? Today I have been in almost total silence! Where yesterday it was a total disaster to me. I am also on the beconase, day four now. I had my MRI to check for any benign tumours like you speak of, still awaiting results. Don't get anxious about that option - the reality is it's a 1 in 100,000 chance. I'm much more persuaded to believe it's an iflammation/pressure/maybe even damage on the eighth cranial (Vestibular) nerve, which should go over time with the right amount of sleep, water, good health and time off. I'll keep you updated.

Melatonin and that is by far the most potent supplement I've tried.

Thanks for this @foam, I may try Melatonin. Are there any potentially adverse effects from your research before trying?

Thank you @Michael Leigh and @Tybs for your thoughts, I'm trying to be very careful with my head and neck while I wait for results. Limiting to heatpads, hot baths and plenty of rest. I'm amazed that today has been so quiet compared to yesterday's noise. The variation is so huge!

 

[Michael Leigh]

The variation is so huge!

I have had tinnitus for many years. It changed significantly in 2008 resulting in large fluctuations in intensity. It can be: Completely silent, mild, moderate, severe and extremely severe.

What you are experiencing is not unusual in the early stages of tinnitus. It is important that you do not aggravate it, by following the advice that I have given you. If you don't then you risk the tinnitus becoming worse and it could become permanent so be careful. Keep away from headphones don't even use them at low volume and do not listen to overly loud music.

Michael

 

[Adrianfox]

I have had tinnitus for many years. It changed significantly in 2008 resulting in large fluctuations in intensity. It can be: Completely silent, mild, moderate, severe and extremely severe.

What you are experiencing is not unusual in the early stages of tinnitus. It is important that you do not aggravate the tinnitus by following the advice that I have given you. If you don't then you risk the tinnitus becoming worse and it could become permanent so be careful. Keep away from headphones don't even use them at low volume and do not listen to overly loud music.

Michael

Thanks @Michael Leigh, correct me if I'm wrong but what you're saying with the worsening variation and changes are in the event of acoustic trauma where damage to the cochlea has started the tinnitus? In that case I can completely understand how it can get worse over time/events.

I believe what I'm experiencing is somatosensory, probably a physical change or damage to the eight cranial nerve or inner ear perhaps by infection or stress, in which I wouldn't it expect to vary/worsen over time or "morph" into a worsening condition? Remember that this noise is not ever constant (sign of damage to the cochlea eg acoustic trauma), it's a series of high frequency blips all of which are a fraction of a second. I have attacks of several thousand blips an hour, all the way down to hearing one blip once in a few hours

 

[HeavyMantra]

It was all over the place. It hasn't gradually faded, it resembled a volatile stock price chart.

Would love to hear more about this in detail if that's alright, I'm trying to understand why my tinnitus behaves like that. It mostly changes with sleep

 

[Bill Bauer]

Would love to hear more about this in detail if that's alright, I'm trying to understand why my tinnitus behaves like that. It mostly changes with sleep

I think the pattern is that in the early days (first 12-18 months) tinnitus is volatile, and this volatility gradually decreases. Each person has his or her own triggers. Common triggers include exposure to loud noise, lack of sleep, increases in stress (including the physical stress of exercise). There are also uncommon triggers such dairy foods. In addition to that, tinnitus can also spike seemingly at random. Or perhaps those random spikes are due to some factors that one hasn't identified yet. In any case, you shouldn't assume that two years from now you will be experiencing what you are experiencing now.

 

[Michael Leigh]

Thanks @Michael Leigh, correct me if I'm wrong but what you're saying with the worsening variation and changes are in the event of acoustic trauma where damage to the cochlea has started the tinnitus? In that case I can completely understand how it can get worse over time/events.

I believe what I'm experiencing is somatosensory, probably a physical change or damage to the eight cranial nerve or inner ear perhaps by infection or stress, in which I wouldn't it expect to vary/worsen over time or "morph" into a worsening condition? Remember that this noise is not ever constant (sign of damage to the cochlea eg acoustic trauma), it's a series of high frequency blips all of which are a fraction of a second. I have attacks of several thousand blips an hour, all the way down to hearing one blip once in a few hours

@Adrianfox

The ear and auditory system are quite resilient and in most cases recovery is good but will take time. I do not like to use the word "damage" and prefer to say the cochlea has been affected by noise trauma. Tinnitus is a very common condition and most people habituate which can take up to 18months and longer. Similarly, a lot of people adjust within the first 6 months and it can go completely away. I understand your concerns but I advise you not to read too much information on this, as it can induce stress and worry which can contribute to making the tinnitus more problematic and intrusive. Tinnitus is intrinsically linked to our mental and emotional wellbeing. Anything that you can do to assist in keeping calm and relaxed will have a beneficial effect on the tinnitus. It is for this reason I advised you to try some relaxation techniques. St John's Wort is a herbal medication that can help relieve stress and anxiety and help you to feel more relaxed. Speak to your doctor before taking.

As I've previously advised you, the fluctuations in your tinnitus is not unusual in the early stages of the condition. Try not to worry and take some comfort in the fact that the tinnitus does reduce to low levels at times which is a good sign. As I have said you don't want to do anything that will aggravate it. For this reason try not to read up too much about tinnitus and self diagnose, so please leave this to the professionals at ENT. Give it time and things will calm down. Try not to sleep in a quiet room, use low level sound enrichment as I have mentioned in my article: Tinnitus, A Personal View.

All the best
Michael

 

[SillyMama]

Hi, @Adrianfox ,
Just wanted to share that I have intermittent tinnitus that I first described as the sound of "soprano crickets on steroids." I'm certain mine is somatic, and I asked the dentist/specialist that treats my TMJ issues if he had heard of this. He said he certainly had, and he suggested taking magnesium. You can get Mg as a powder you dissolve in a cup of water to drink. That definitely helps my tinnitus.

 

[Birdlady]

Hi Adrian.
Yes, I get days when my tinnitus is louder than others. Some days I hardly notice it, usually if the 'morse code' element has stopped and it is just the background hum. Always worse at bedtime, think lying down and the silence make it more apparent.
I bought a white noise machine and find that listening to the wave noise is relaxing and helps to drown it out!
It is now 2 weeks of using Beconase - whether this accounts for the slight improvement I don't know - but will persevere until the bottle runs out in about 10 days. If it hasn't gone by then I will go back to my GP. (Have sprained my ankle, aggravating an old injury, so cannot walk far or drive at the moment). I read on here that tumours in the ear are only 1:100,000 which is very reassuring, but as my tinnitus is only in one ear so it seems sensible to get it checked via NHS referral if it continues. It began spontaneously, so still not sure what caused it.
GP suggests a virus (but I hadn't been ill), we went to a concert 6 days before it started (but that wasn't loud, 7 voices and no instrumentation) and around the same time I had upped my Vitamin D because it is Winter.
Who knows?? I have decided that trying to work it out is a waste of time! Concentrating instead on how to deal with it - mainly ignoring it as much as possible!
Would love to think it would just go away as suddenly as it appeared.
Just trying not to make it worse, so the bone conduction headphones my husband was going to buy me for Christmas are not likely to happen now
I am glad you have had your MRI. Ruling out anything serious can hopefully only make you feel more relaxed. You definitely sound more positive about it all now, which is great.
Will be interested to see how you get on.
Michael's comments are encouraging and reassuring too. It definitely helps to hear other peoples' stories. Unless you have tinnitus yourself it must be so hard to understand, a person who has never experienced it could only sympathise, whereas everyone on here can empathise which is so supportive.
My poor husband just thinks I am inexplicably crabby some days!!

 

[Adrianfox]

Hi all.

Just reporting back here to happily say that my tinnitus is now fully gone!

Following a particularly bad evening on Saturday 23rd October I went to sleep early in desperation and woke up to... total silence. I couldn't believe it! I spent my first hour sitting by the garden window in total silence, listening to the various noises of the house. My tinnitus did come back for short moments here and there over the following days but became less and less frequent as I kept a hopeful mindset about it, and for about five days now I've not had any of the intermittent tinnitus present at all.

I can't say it may not just be a coincidence but there is one thing I tried different on the day I last had extremely disruptive levels of tinnitus. I tried the sternocleidomastoid trigger point release exercise (found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDSESarTQXk) - this could be related to my recovery as my tinnitus has always been described as somatic. It could also be due to a viral infection, as diagnosed by my ENT.

I want to thank @Bill Bauer and @Michael Leigh for their guidance through this scary period, thank you for your voices of reasoning.

@SillyMama - Thank you for your recommendation with Magnesium. As precaution I've started taking these daily despite my full recovery. Thanks!

@Birdlady - How is your case coming along? I'm happy to say my MRI results came back all clear. Perhaps coincidental, but my tinnitus cleared up on day 12 of the steroid nose spray. Has your tinnitus resided?

Thanks to everyone else who has helped with reassurance. I'll still be around for a while to perhaps help others going through similar cases as I had.

I plan to make a success story eventually (when I have more time) but for now some data;

Tinnitus Type: Somatic, unilateral (right ear)
Days with Tinnitus: 55
Cause: Unknown, most likely viral infection with aggravation through stress.
Cure: Unknown, possibilities: Infection eliminated, sternocleidomastoid massage, curing ETD, stress eliminated.
Prognosis: Tinnitus no longer present.

I rated my tinnitus by severity daily, the results are here:

 

[Kriszti]

I'm so happy for you, Adrian.
Take care!

 

[Birdlady]

@Adrianfox that is wonderful news. I am delighted for you.
Sadly, 3 weeks of the steroid nose spray made no difference to my tinnitus.
Have been back to the doctor and I am being referred to ENT at my local hospital. Not sure how long the wait will be though. The doctor said my ear was quite waxy - despite squirting Earol in it once a week - and recommended I get it cleared before the hospital appointment. Apparently if they can't see the eardrum I will just be turned away!!

 

[Marianne F]

Hi AdrianFox. I've only just come across your post and was just about to respond when I realised you're no longer in need of any 'advice'. Fantastic! I'll certainly now follow your advice. I was going to tell you my story which mirrors yours to a tee.

Unfortunately I'm now into year four. I'm convinced mine is TMJ related and will be seeing a consultant in Bath soon. However, I'm very interested in the trigger point release method you suggested. I've had a look and gave it a go and will keep trying.

How often and for how long did you try this? Again, I'm so happy to hear your success story. It gives hope to the rest of us. Have a happy life.