tinnitus

if you still have your youthful shape then count yr blessings young'n

I pictured you shaking a cane at me while saying that, J0hn =)

Xposts: Taking too much aspirin can make your ears ring (don't know about codeine, though)

And I was just reciting what an ENT told me, and information I've gotten (second-hand) from audiologists.

I just don't understand how people can go to events every weekend, listen to music for hours a day and live to hear.

Nah, never take asprin so its not that. I suppose it could just be from that one Mogwai gig, but I fear J0hn's right and the answer is just lol u old.

;;_;

...and smoking. That has to be doing something. Though if I have a few days off it makes no diff. I wonder how long a temp case of tinnitus takes to wear off if one ceased the cause?

So, does anyone's tinnitus get worse when they yawn, bite hard, jut out their jaw? Because mine does, and I'd heard about relations between TMJ and tinnitus, but having known nothing about TMJ, and not really having problems with my jaw I didn't really bother. But a google search about this has yielded results. I think I may ask a doctor soon to about this, perhaps get checked up.

I have a TMJ problem sometimes and it definitely makes my tinnitus worse. There are a lot of nerves that go through the point between the ear and the top of the TMJ.

That definitely might explain why I started having hearing related issues, more or less from out of nowhere at 18. It becomes very grating going to doctors and ENT's who just tell you its allergies, despite never having had allergy problems.

Tinnitus vs. The Hum: fite! (quietly)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8056284.stm

broken tellies most likely

there was a good article about tinnitus in the nyer a while back

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/02/09/090209fa_fact_groopman

This October, I'll have had tinnitus in my right year for a full decade. Ummm. yay.

the scariest part of that article btw:

This past August, I visited the University of Buffalo, which houses one of the major clinical and research centers for the evaluation and study of tinnitus. After filling out a detailed questionnaire, I met with Christina Stocking of the Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic, who has a doctorate in audiology and specializes in the condition. Stocking thought that I might have suffered noise trauma during a youth spent on the New York City subways. Sitting in the first row of a rock concert exposes you to between a hundred and ten and a hundred and twenty decibels; the screech of the New York subways can reach about a hundred and fifteen decibels. Moreover, since much of the New York subway system is underground, the noise reverberates in the tunnels, unlike in Boston, where many of the trains are above ground and noise dissipates, or in Paris, where several metro lines run on rubber wheels.

No shit. Every time I've visited a city with trains (mostly Chicago) I've wondered exactly how loud things are getting in the tunnels. I'm surprised there's never been a "wear ear protection on the subway" health movement.

Then again, there are a half dozen reasons why my hearing should be shot, but I've been lucky so far. I thought I was having a tinnitus issue last week at work, but then another coworker confirmed the florescent lights were screeching. And I could hear it.

I just celebrated one full year with tinnitus in my left ear...(what the doctor told me at the time: "when you notice that it's gone, you will know you're dead"...so, I got that to look forward to)...really screams when I have a head cold...(like right now)...fuck it though...in general, I feel like I'm winning...

Mines still bad. I'm more bothered by the current poor hearing in general, though. Which tinnitus never normally messes with. My hearing's been muffled since my cold 1-2 months back. I'm reluctant to go to a GP though because their answer to everything is "syringe of water in the ear" and they can fuck right off with that, it's dangerous and I dont know why they think it helps.

My hearing was messed up after my last cold, too, Trayce, although not for that long. Couldn't it be that somehow there is still fluid in there that hasn't drained? If so, you should see a doc to help get it out. Why they would recommend putting water in your ear, I don't know.

To flush out wax or something, I guess? But I've had perforated eardrums before, and ENTs have told me water-flushing ears is a bad idea as it can lead to infections and (in cases like mine) water potentially getting past the eardrum. Plus, it fucking hurts!

But I dunno how else I'd clear any congestion. I've tried pseudoephedrine in hefty amounts and that did sod-all.

Well, I'm probably out of my depth here, but I can tell you that once many years ago when I went to a doc after a cold - and I recall it being the same situation as what you describe - loss of hearing - the doc told me that all the anti-histamines/cold medicine I was taking was actually preventing the stuff from draining! I wish I could remember if he prescribed me any medicine or not, but I can't. I hate to sound like a broken record and I know it isn't what you want to hear, but you should see a doc.

"when you notice that it's gone, you will know you're dead"

That's some kinda fucked up shit, man. Time for a new doc, methinks.

Going to the doctor tomorrow and the dentist on Friday, here's hoping the problem is with my jaw and that it can be very easily treated.

think I was woken up by my tinnitus last night - dreamed that somebody was screaming at me, except I couldn't hear what he was saying, and when I woke up I realized that the screaming was actually the sounds of my tinnitus :/

Happens to me all the time, though I never know if it's the tinnitus or the dream that wakes me. But yeah, my ears will be SCREAMING for several minutes before they calm down. Always a scary moment. Like I need a worse version of what I've already got! (I can't recall if I experienced this nocturnal ringing before I actually contracted tinnitus. I don't think so.)

"Tinnitus Is the Result of the Brain Trying, but Failing, to Repair Itself"

http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/wireless-device-might-wring-out-ringing-in-the-ears

well this is irritating

kinda starting to wish I was dead

have you seen a doctor?

Really bad the last 24 hours, and I'm someone with a lifelong noose of it round my ears, so it takes a lot for me to notice mine. I'm massively stressed/depressed at the moment so I think thats aggravating it. It almost has a *sensation* as well as a sound . I can hear it over plentiful office noise/chatter/aircon/PC hum. So its bad. Ugh.

Resorting to a soft whitenoise generator on my iphone to dull it out. Suprisingly its working.

sorry to hear that Trayce :( hang in there

I've had tinnitus in one ear since the mid-'90s (caused by a sharp loud noise within inches of my ear), and it was quite bad for much of a decade. I couldn't sleep without some sort of fan or white noise in the background; complete silence was awful. But then, unexpectedly, it slowly started to subside. It still comes and goes, but except at it's worst it's soft and not very noticeable or bothersome, and at best I can't hear it at all.

So hold out hope, Shakey and Trayce

i suspect i've had tinnitus for maybe 15 years but have only just become conscious of it this year. the trigger to noticing it was having to wear earplugs *heaps* in this flat because of the crappy building and the shitty neighbours upstairs. (going to bed with earplugs is nbd because i drop off, but when i'm awake for ~2 hours with them in i tend to notice more stuff.)

it's doing this:

- a constant high-pitched ringing in the middle of my head, which i've been vaguely aware of forever
- the thing i've only noticed this year: a sort of throbbing pitchfork-type tone in my right ear

i only really hear either of those when i'm wearing earplugs (as per above) and when it's quiet, but because i've only really noticed it recently, i don't know whether it's been happening all this time. i notice it frequently now, even sometimes in normal noise situations, but half the time i'm probably imagining it (and recent severe anxiety probably exacerbates both the symptoms and my awareness of them).

i've been shitty to my ears over the years, so obviously it's all my fault, but in the past few years i've been a fascist with established volume limits, closed-design earphones, earplugs in clubs etc., specifically to protect my ears. so, whatever happens happens, but right now it's only a ~thing~ rather than a problem.

btw, trayce otm re the 'sensation'. i could swear i'm physically feeling the pitchfork-type tone as a sort of buzz, but if i can't hear the tone, i can't feel it either. the whole notion that your brain creates tinnitus through interpolation is fascinating.

the single most incredible thing i've discovered about tinnitus is that noticing it makes it worse. i'm 100% sure i've had it buzzing away in the distance for a good 15 years (as per last post), but in the last 2–3 weeks it's been distracting me constantly, even if it's only on the edge of my awareness. if it's actually worse, it's only a tiny bit worse, but my brain has decided to latch onto it.

the ent i saw a couple of weeks ago was all about comforting me and rushing me out the door, and didn't seem to want to answer my questions properly (what's banging around in my ears when i move my head? why do loud noises make my left ear click? etc etc, all brushed off). he also got some things straight-up wrong in his notes. but, he didn't go all guilt-trip about loud music, so it wasn't all bad.

at this point i'm supposed to have a hearing test in a soundproof booth, and an mri to look for tumours. after that, the ent will call me back and presumably point me to an audiologist, and ignore the 12 gallons of fluid that's been sloshing around behind my eardrums for as long as i can remember.

good luck with that, Autumn. i went through those tests you describe. ent said based on what she saw, my tinnitus was probably caused by some kind of ear infection in the past.

i do think i have one bit of advice that may be useful to others: watch out for aspirin. i had surgery for a broken leg in early september and for the first week and a half afterward my tinnitus became absurdly loud (not good when you're having a hard enough time falling asleep due to pain). i did some research about the various meds i was on, and read that aspirin (which i was taking for anti-coagulant purposes), in some people, can exacerbate tinnitus. i called my doc and he said "yup, that could be it", so he switched me to another anti-coagulant for a few weeks(Lovenox, which I had to self-inject daily, but that was an easy trade-off. Within less than 48 hours the tinnitus subsided to tolerable levels. this was huge for me.

now I don't know how this is possible, but apparently there is one, that's right, ONE tinnitus specialist in all of Boston. i have my appointment coming up in early December, but I booked it a year and a half ago - that's how far ahead you have to book with her. it better be good!

excellent that you found something to reduce your tinnitus.

is it possible that there aren't many tinnitus specialists because there aren't many successful treatments of tinnitus? with the incidence of cases (especially in america), i can't think why else there wouldn't be thousands of specialists everywhere.

So I seem to have developed some kind of tinnitus

Started a couple of weeks ago, only noticed when I went to bad and waking up in the morning. It wasn't a constant buzz but rather a two tone sound, like the old modems uploading data!

Went to the docs last week and she was very quick to tell me it was just tinnitus and that it can come and go and a lot of the time it can be caused from a recent virus/infection affecting the nerves in the ears.

But last night was quite bad, not only did I have the original two tone sound but also a constant pitch every now and then. Reading a book it was unbelievable.

I'm still 99% sure that it's just because I'm focusing on it, and last few months I've had high anxiety levels so I think that's not helping.

If I'm busy doing stuff it just doesn't even register.

so odd. The brain fascinates me sometimes.

"bed" ffs

this shit sucks. you have my sympathies. dealing with it is an endurance test (in my experience) but take some solace from the fact that physically this can't really hurt you/is usually not indicative of anything serious. mentally it's a bitch.

but you will be ok! everybody with this seems to become more or less ok with it over time.

I just think of it as a radio station devoted to Alvin Lucier that plays in my head all the time

haha, man, I went to an Alvin Lucier concert last year (including "I am sitting" and "Silver streetcar") and definitely had a weird feeling of wondering to what extent it sounded at all the same to most other people in the room. But I guess that question might have occurred even if my ears were perfect.

I'm at a point now where even when I find myself paying attention to my tinnitus, it doesn't really bother me. One exception: when I'm exhausted. But everything is terrible then, so ...
Still, those early times, when you're constantly kinda on the alert for it and thinking about it and worrying about whether it'll get worse &c are the worst. Hope that won't last too long for you.

Dunno if I mentioned it here, but I didn't bother to go see a doctor about my tinnitus, because I'd read that it was incurable etc. When I told my doctor last year (having had it for over a decade) she was shocked and kinda disgusted with me and sent me straight to an ear-doctor. Ear-doctor said "Meh -- waddyagonnado?"

yeah that's what they say

I guess my tinnitus posts were on a different thread but these are things that have helped me this past year:

Quitting earbuds and closed can headphones, switching to open air ones instead (grado)

Using a music player with crossfeed, also cutting upper treble on most music

Oddly enough, listening to an 11khz sine tone. I figured out my tinnitus is about 13 kHz and the adjacent tone knocks it out a little

Magnetic pulses to the brain deliver long-lasting relief for tinnitus patients

Not sure I want magnets near my brain.

http://i.imgur.com/9HjUcIW.jpg

my tinnitus is p. mild and mostly not a bother* but I am quite happy for my brain to be wiped tbh so sign me up for testing

* either it gets worse or I stop being able to filter it out whenever I have a cold, so that's bad; and when I go and see live music even with earplugs it goes "oh hai" for a week afterwards and makes me miserable about how I can't even go out and have fun any more, so I've 99% stopped doing that - but apart from that... hey wait, maybe it is a bother after all

seriously it's nice to see anyone researching this at all

Good God it's been loud the past day or two, and today even worse.

Having trouble thinking straight sometimes. I'm sure my ilx posts show it too.

Peace to all itt.