Shakey Mo's thread of misery

sorry to hear this dude. :( ear problems terrify me.

Anything that attacks your rest also attacks your sanity and that's just awful to have to deal with, even if it is "only" tinnitus. Get well, soon, Shakey Mo, cuz that babby is going to keep you awake plenty enough on its own.

Sorry to hear of this Shakey -- again, like all here I wish you an improvement soon.

i feel bad for you. i've had this for about 5 years now, a constant quiet ringing noise in both my ears. i'm kinda used to it now so don't really pay it any attention but every time i'm in silent places i hear it quite clearly. it mainly sucks when i go to bed. don't really have any tips to offer though

after not sleeping Saturday, Sunday or Monday night finally got a doctor at Kaiser to prescribe me some Ambien at 7pm last night. felt like I was having a total panic-attack-breakdown all day yesterday. managed to sleep a couple hours at a time last night at least, going to buy wave machine today and take it easy. at least my dad is here to help out.

Did the audiologist / ENT find your hearing OK? If there's no hearing loss

audiologist said I have no hearing loss. ENT said this might be a precursor to hearing loss. or it might just go away. who knows.

Just saw this thread, best wishes SMC, and hope you benefit at least from a better night's sleep

thx for all the well-wishing guys

this is really rough

yeah it's a bummer. musician/music lovers nightmare too.

my cousin was having ear problems and his doctor gave him prednisone, which helped, not sure if his case was ringing tho, think it was more of a feeling of blockage/hearing loss.

Ouch. Sorry to hear this. Stay up, man.

best of luck shakey, sorry you're going through this

alex in nyc saved my fucking life when tinnitus came for me. I don't like to talk about it publicly but let me tell you you will be ok and sleep will once again be a thing you have. I will never forget the time I spent unable to sleep because of the ringing though. it was the worst. I am better now. (however i now have offsetting horrible shit that I would happily increase the volume of the tinnitus to be rid of but no takers on that front so far.)

if you don't wanna talk out it publically plz webmail me cuz dude I need some coping techniques/reassurances

esp as a fellow musician

done

feelin 4 u shakey mo

Shakey a close friend of mine had this, similar thing, ENT said "nothing wrong, probz psychosomatic", but he figured it out, I'll e-mail him for some details

plz do many thx

yeah I had this too in my right ear. I figured it was because of the sub in my car (which was puny compared to some of the ones my friends had!) since I was in the drivers seat, bla bla bla. anyway it's annoying as hell for a while - when I was at a show or hearing someone give a speech I would have to tilt my head if I was on the right. I don't think it's totally gone away, but I do think my brain has evolved a mechanism that shuts it down to the point where I don't ever think about it anymore.

that took about 2 years by the way

during that time having a fan in the room was more than enough to make me forget about it

ugh good luck shakey, this sounds like a truly awful thing to have to deal with, it must be incredibly draining

oh christ, that temporary whiney ear thing has happened three times in the last 12 hours... (worried)

finally got a full night's sleep last night. chirping-cricket-loop + atavan required. (Ambien no worky)

wimoweh wimoweh wimoweh
oooooooooh ooohhhweee oohhh umumaweh
- bob marley

Shakey I messaged you, my friend took Klonopin.

we're sending our love down the well for you Shakey <3

lol VG

yeah thx goon I got yr message. I have a psych appt next wednesday we'll see what they say. hopefully something as extreme as klonopin won't be necessary. I am weirded out enough having to take atavan - I am not a big fan of the pharma industry.

well, I can triple-sign that last part from the woeful non-delivery I'm experiencing.

good wishes to Shakes and underaero

sorry morbz

jesus seems like a ton of health crises lately

not sure what aero's goin thru but he's been super-helpful to me so hope I can return the favor

jesus seems like a ton of health crises lately

yeah i didn't want to clutter up the thread with my own misery, but i've had this sciatica/piriformis thing for the last couple months that has me walking with a cane (s/o to morbs), and not for long distances. i've been playing gigs but only if someone else loads my gear in & out. rehab is very slooooow, but at least i can sleep/drive/work.

Is that sciatica in your leg or your back? That stuff scares me, glad you're doing OK.

Yeah, when friend said "Klonopin" I was like, "oh I didn't really want to hear that heavy shit".

it started with a back injury over the summer and there is probably still some disc weirdness involved, but at this point i feel entirely in my hip/butt/leg. it sucks and i have to make an effort not to be an asshole to people while i'm standing or walking. luckily, my gf is a massage therapist and almost a PT, so that helps a lot (although it means that she has to come home to more work sometimes). anyway.

just wish I could hit on some sort of mental exercise to help me ignore this... ugh. second night's sleep of atavan+crickets not as good as first. woke up at 1:30 and had trouble getting back to sleep but then when I looked at the clock again it was 5:30 so I uh guess I slept? I don't even know any more

pretend it's applause? :/

I've lived with tinnitus since I was a small child. It is interesting reading this thread, because for me, sadly, its a fact of life and one I realise Ive kind of got used to at least enough to sleep and not stress too much. But if I pay attention, I notice the continous sound of swooshing and a sort of ringing like the fading aftershock of many bells. I have something like 50% hearing loss in my right ear which has made things worse - it is due to a hole in my eardrum. ENT specialist says I can get it surgically repaired but it doesnt even guarantee it'll fixz the hearing loss and could make the tinnitus worse. fuckin.

So yes much sympathy from this deaf old bat.

I imagine the stress would be hundredfold worse as yours came on suddenly. You arent used to it.

have you tried an electric fan, white noise machine, etc yet - having some other noise your ear can focus on can be a blessing. I know a lot of musicians who sleep with the TV on - not ideal, I know, but as a temporary remedy it can be a thing.

Theres also an excellent white noise app on the iphone that does all sorts of diff noises like ocean, crickets, fans, rain etc. Unfortunately I dont recall the name of the one i had and it seems to have been uninstalled but it was very good.

Jesus, this sucks. Sorry, man.

I bought an alarm clock thing that has a bunch of noise settings - none of them mask it completely but the "summer night" one with the chirping crickets comes the closest. the only thing that really masks it completely is when I'm in the shower, that wide-spectrum sound of running water. (many times I have wished I could live my life in a shower, but alas) ... but functioning day-to-day is just really hard because I feel like it's constantly distracting, and it's so high-pitched that it cuts through pretty much everything. I know basically I have to wait for my brain to re-adjust to ignore it, but right now I'm in this state of trying to *consciously* ignore it, which is very hard, because it's like I can both never just let my mind go nor concentrate.

I was at the comic book store today (Veronica wanted to spend her first $5) and I couldn't bring myself to even care about looking for something for myself because why bother, I wouldn't be able to enjoy reading it

I can both never neither just let my mind go nor concentrate.

fixed

Shakey, I don't know if this will help, but it's an idea. Removing your specific tinnitus frequencies from music you can fall asleep to: http://www.dianehallinen.com/servicesoffered/tinnitus-therapy--notched-music

good luck to you, aero, Trayce - I had a couple weeks of it a few years ago (post-explosion at a jobsite) and hope never to again.

As a bass player who stood next to a drum kit for over 10 years i can totally understand your misery.
As soon as i noticed my ears were ringing i started to use plugs, but it was too late then. Haven't played in a band for years now, but still compose stuff on the computer using headphones.
Slight difference in volume and pitch, right ear (i stood on left of drums) is louder than the left. Noticed just how bad it was when i went camping and there was no other sound around. Was so bad i had to listen to music on headphones to distract me from just how bad it was.

I believe there's a few treatments to ease it, but no actual cure, acupuncture is rumoured to help?

praying for u shakey, feel better

http://www.vocations-holyfamily.com/pics/Healing.jpg

man, i don't know why you're fucking around with crickets on an alarm clock at a time like this, sounds like you need a serious white noise machine? my ex-gf used to have one similar to this, i got pretty used to it: http://www.amazon.com/Conditioner-Marpac-formerly-Sleepmate-980A/dp/B000KUHFGM

good wishes to anyone with ongoing health stuff. it's one of the most frustrating and unfair things there is, and incredibly isolating too, to feel physical problems that nobody else is feeling but yourself, and have to deal with them and have your thoughts filtered through the body that is experiencing those feelings.

the music therapy idea is interesting...sounds fun, at least.

Related to Jaq's link above, AudioNotch might be worth looking at. Some good information on that site about notched audio therapy.

well it's been a year. my sleep is mostly back to normal (babby notwithstanding) I'm down to a quarter-tab of remeron a night and expect to phase that out over the next few weeks. so that's good. I can function and do stuff, for the most part. It still bugs me - I have a hard time concentrating in silent environments, or if there's like a silent scene in a movie or tv show for ex. I wear an earbud most of the time at work, which I guess isn't so bad. Chronic back pain persists for the most part, it comes and goes. Maybe a new bed will improve that, I dunno. I try not to complain about the tinnitus much cuz really what's the point, it is what it is and I just have to deal with it.

Congrats on making such huge strides over the past year. I know it isn't easy but it must be heartening to look at the low points and see them far in the rearview mirror.

wtg shakey!

Great to hear, hope things continue to improve.

Hi I mostly lurk but I have (currently) mild tinnitus so I think about Shakey sometimes. Anybody know how he's doing?

He has a new source of misery, reading Tom Disch's The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made of.

Οὖτις ἐμοὶ γ' ὄνομα

Ohh

I am still alive. My tinnitus is the same. I don't take any drugs anymore (well, beyond weed + liqour), I sleep 6-7 hours a night (still getting woken up by a toddler at this point). My back pain comes and goes.

comin up on 2 years Oct 1

thx for asking btw

My wife's got worse this summer but her ENT is starting to think its TMJ. Which would be good news IMO bc there are things they can do about TMJ.

Mine is awful at this precise moment, coincidentally.