Hello!
I've had tinnitus for 14 years and I've had it worsen two or three times during that time. During that time I've also had a number of scares, where I think it might have worsened.
Now I'm in the middle of one of these episodes, after twice in two days having experienced what might have been to loud noise/music. I only wore my earplugs for about 25% of that time, but at the time I didn't think of it as being "too loud" until I actually put them on.
Now it's driving me crazy... has it worsened or is it just my imagination? Have I torn down my "psychological defenses" or has the ringing actually increased or changed? Last evening it was louder than the TV at times, but when I went to bed I experienced it less loud than earlier. Then I woke up at 3 AM and it felt like a siren in my head. It was horrible. I managed, thanks to a sleeping pill, return to sleep after an hour and when I woke up at 7:30 I experienced the ringing less than in the middle of the night but probably more than a week ago.
If I put my fingers in my ears and isolate the ringing I can't for sure say that it has worsened, but during daytime I keep thinking it has.
What can I do? I thought I was a "veteran" being able to cope with my T, but now it's like it was 14 years ago. I'm very worried.
Hi Sven....I'm about a year behind you in the peaceably-noisy world of Tinnitus.
At times I guesstimate that the T noise for me is about 60% of the ambient room noise which gets annoying when in conversation...but especially playing with other musicians. I play jazz piano in duo to 20 piece big band formats and sometimes it's a big hope that when I have to throw down a solo chime chord...or even reading charts to start a solo that I'm at the same place on the music with the rest of the band. After 13 years, I'm "hearing" what I'm playing by memory and knowing the musical architecture of chord voicing, etc.; but still....it's a tense couple of moments leading up to a solo when all I can hear is everyone else...and not the piano.
A renown local jazzer and I got into the topic of tinnitus. He had been a sufferer since the 60's when his attempts to learn jazz drumming had him upstairs in an attic room with the set....whacking rim shots and crashing cymbals in a relatively small room with incline ceilings (rafters and sheetrock) that put him in the kill zone. He went on to tenor sax and stood in front of many back lines of horns and amps; drums and general noise in rock, jazz and orchestras with the same complaint.
As he grew older and the T noise increased and made playing and communicating more difficult....he finally went in for hearing aids in both ears.
That was good...and bad. The good part is that the ambient noise level (not the T level) is wholly greater than the tinnitus noise. He can hear, play...all that, including as he put it "listen to the sounds that he's missed while just walking in the park or to his mailbox."
The bad side...since he rehearses the big band orchestra that I'm in, he can hear every bad note or "missed" note in any piano chord now.
I'm thinking about taking the plunge for hearing aids as my ability to hear rises and diminishes at it's own pace. Getting more ambient noise to possibly over-ride the T-noise sounds like a good idea to consider.
I was on Nortriptyline for 8 years to help my sleep as well as it's lightweight use as an anti-depressant (just one dose at night...out go the lights). Whether I came in at 11pm or 3am....Nortriptyline not only put me into the sleep mode, but no matter what time I woke up, I was fresh in body and mind...supposedly from the anti-depressant.
I don't know who the other old-timers and warhorses are here in the tinnitus forum. I just popped in to read what I could about a "audio therapy treatment" that the ATA had put out in one of their notices some months ago. I'll probably have to pop back out as I found with SIG (that's ollllld) and other groups and rooms in tinnitus over the years that I seem to get more focused on my tinnitus when I'm doing the online thing of trying to assist...or empathy when I read the other tales of woe and despair....or the comments that I found taking the lead on your thread dealing with healers. It's pretty much the same minutia as I found in the early and older forums.
Good luck...keep up the good work.
Dan Turner
Conyers, Ga
Member
. Basically , we have to try rebuild our ears, I take a tbsp of apple cider vinegar with a glass of water in the morn, gluten free oats and milk,organic eggs for brkfast, a cup of whey protein pwdr, quinoa with fresh steamed veges, have recently started eating hemp , sesame and chia seeds. As little spicy food as possible ! Basically just all healthy and bland food ! I've ordered some health food online which I'll receive in a few days, a online friend on this forum said she cured her T by taking these food.... Details are in my thread " new here " will keep you updated if these food work for me too ! Take care, hope you have a calm day tomorrow !
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