So my experience with tinnitus actually began 5 months prior to first noticing it. I became sick with another standard cold the week of Valentine's day... or so I thought. After the cold ran its course (tested for COVID-19 and came out negative) I went back to life as usual.
Roughly one week later I was suddenly unable to keep things like text (via phone, computer, etc) in focus. I could only read for small amounts at a time. Wait an hour and my vision would return. A few days later and I had a serious bout of vertigo/dizziness. I never became nauseous but I would need to stop doing what I was doing and hold on to something. Sometimes I would need to lie down. The headaches become more frequent (daily).
After a couple of weeks of struggling with episodes of blurry vision, dizziness, and headaches I went into Urgent Care (I made an appointment with my GP but the earliest was 3 months out). The Urgent Care doctor gave me a CT scan and saw nothing. Ended up telling me "you seem to have tight trap muscles"... The very next day after my Urgent Care visit I got HSV-1 to show up in my mouth. I had cold sores one other time in my life and it wasn't a big deal. Dentist gave me Valacyclovir and within a few days my cold sores went away and I had a few days of no symptoms. I thought my worries were behind me.
To speed things up; I have had 1 CT scan, 2 MRIs (brain and heart), Nerve Test (no fun), Eye Exam (now have glasses with very small prescription to help with the blurry vision flare ups), and multiple blood work tests. Slowly more and more symptoms started showing up. The dizziness isn't debilitating, thank goodness, like it did at the beginning but it's till present to this day. More of a light headed feeling similar to when you have a cold.
But to list just in case someone out there has a similar story: headache, occasional posterior neck aches, occasional jaw aches, dizziness, ear fullness, blurry vision, eye strain, and most recently... tinnitus.
Tinnitus has become the worst of all my problems. I read about people ignoring it but I can not wrap my head around ignoring this sound. Nothing makes it 'fade out'. White noise, music, or masking sounds just seem to make my tinnitus get louder. Just recently I've learned a bit about reactive tinnitus so I guess that's what I have. Sleeping with earplugs is my preferred method of making it be as quiet as possible. I know using earplugs isn't the best for your ears (impacted earwax), but I do have an ear cleaning kit at home that I gently use every other week with warm water to make sure I'm not causing damage. I also have been seeing doctors every month or so and nobody has indicated impacted earwax. My tinnitus also quickly raises in intensity with jaw movement, head turns, eye turns (when its flared up), and the worst of them all... just the gravity on my body when I walk. I can't even walk without hearing it raise in volume... nightmare.
Just the other day I took a hearing test from an audiologist. I went into it thinking this was going to show me I had normal hearing. I have never really struggled to hear people talk so I thought this was kind of a waste of time. But I've been willing to take every test known to man to make all these symptoms go away. Turns out I have 60 dB hearing loss at the higher end range of sound. Surprised to say the least. She mentioned getting hearing aids... in my 30s... nice. I'll give it a go I suppose. Again, anything to make this better.
This year has been the worst of my life. It's ruining my relationships, social life (little one to begin with), and just overall enjoyment.
THI score: 60-70 for the past 2 months.
Roughly one week later I was suddenly unable to keep things like text (via phone, computer, etc) in focus. I could only read for small amounts at a time. Wait an hour and my vision would return. A few days later and I had a serious bout of vertigo/dizziness. I never became nauseous but I would need to stop doing what I was doing and hold on to something. Sometimes I would need to lie down. The headaches become more frequent (daily).
After a couple of weeks of struggling with episodes of blurry vision, dizziness, and headaches I went into Urgent Care (I made an appointment with my GP but the earliest was 3 months out). The Urgent Care doctor gave me a CT scan and saw nothing. Ended up telling me "you seem to have tight trap muscles"... The very next day after my Urgent Care visit I got HSV-1 to show up in my mouth. I had cold sores one other time in my life and it wasn't a big deal. Dentist gave me Valacyclovir and within a few days my cold sores went away and I had a few days of no symptoms. I thought my worries were behind me.
To speed things up; I have had 1 CT scan, 2 MRIs (brain and heart), Nerve Test (no fun), Eye Exam (now have glasses with very small prescription to help with the blurry vision flare ups), and multiple blood work tests. Slowly more and more symptoms started showing up. The dizziness isn't debilitating, thank goodness, like it did at the beginning but it's till present to this day. More of a light headed feeling similar to when you have a cold.
But to list just in case someone out there has a similar story: headache, occasional posterior neck aches, occasional jaw aches, dizziness, ear fullness, blurry vision, eye strain, and most recently... tinnitus.
Tinnitus has become the worst of all my problems. I read about people ignoring it but I can not wrap my head around ignoring this sound. Nothing makes it 'fade out'. White noise, music, or masking sounds just seem to make my tinnitus get louder. Just recently I've learned a bit about reactive tinnitus so I guess that's what I have. Sleeping with earplugs is my preferred method of making it be as quiet as possible. I know using earplugs isn't the best for your ears (impacted earwax), but I do have an ear cleaning kit at home that I gently use every other week with warm water to make sure I'm not causing damage. I also have been seeing doctors every month or so and nobody has indicated impacted earwax. My tinnitus also quickly raises in intensity with jaw movement, head turns, eye turns (when its flared up), and the worst of them all... just the gravity on my body when I walk. I can't even walk without hearing it raise in volume... nightmare.
Just the other day I took a hearing test from an audiologist. I went into it thinking this was going to show me I had normal hearing. I have never really struggled to hear people talk so I thought this was kind of a waste of time. But I've been willing to take every test known to man to make all these symptoms go away. Turns out I have 60 dB hearing loss at the higher end range of sound. Surprised to say the least. She mentioned getting hearing aids... in my 30s... nice. I'll give it a go I suppose. Again, anything to make this better.
This year has been the worst of my life. It's ruining my relationships, social life (little one to begin with), and just overall enjoyment.
THI score: 60-70 for the past 2 months.
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