Short bout of tinnitus, how do you handle it?

[ShiZo]

I had a short bout of tinnitus that has gone away and I feel extremely lucky because it was very disturbing. Luckily it was related to an ear infection. The type I had was called pulsatile tinnitus, where instead of ringing you get a heartbeat/pounding/whooshing/drumbeat noises. I didn't even want to listen to music while I had it because it was too distracting.

Do any of you guys deal with this? Have you learned to live with it? I'm sorry if you have to deal with that and I hope mine never comes back

 

[BDWoody]

I had a short bout of tinnitus that has gone away and I feel extremely lucky because it was very disturbing. Luckily it was related to an ear infection. The type I had was called pulsatile tinnitus, where instead of ringing you get a heartbeat/pounding/whooshing/drumbeat noises. I didn't even want to listen to music while I had it because it was too distracting.

Do any of you guys deal with this? Have you learned to live with it? I'm sorry if you have to deal with that and I hope mine never comes back

Glad to hear it went away! That's a relief no doubt.

I've had the ringing kind since my late 20's, as do both of my brothers, and it can definitely be a drag. Other than reaching general acceptance of an annoying situation, I'm never sure what to tell people who have started suffering from it, as it impacts everyone differently.

Sounds a bit cliche, but I try to remind myself of how little I have to complain about in an overall sense, and try to keep it in perspective, but it's easier sometimes than others.

 

[diablo]

I've got pulsatile tinnitus, has developed over the last few years. Caused by some tiny blood vessels in the ear being partially blocked, thus giving a 'swishing' noise matching my heartbeat. Sometimes it nearly goes away, though it can get annoying when at its worst. I take meds for my blood pressure and if I forget them for a couple of days it gets worse then. Unsurprisingly.

I have it a little worse than average today - but I actually hadn't noticed it until I read your post. The sound contains no useful information so I reckon my brain has learnt to filter it out most of the time.

I am 70 though, so things going wrong is to be expected. Quite a few people I know of a similar age have much worse problems with their hearing. I'm lucky to have both ears working properly apart from the tinnitus. In fact, I was at death's door about five years ago so can't really complain.

 

[sgent]

Just an FYI -- tinnitus along with new hearing loss, assuming no explanation (concert, etc.) should be seen within 24-48 hours preferably by an ENT. Steroids if given early can help prevent permanent hearing damage. If you develop Meniere's disease there are a few things they can give you to help / delay the hearing loss as well.

 

[EJ3]

I have tinnitus & don't hear some frequencies too well (different in each ear). The tinnitus seems to come & go in severity. As diablo said, sometimes seemingly un-noticed.
But 5 years ago I had a flesh-eating bacteria that started on me while I was at sea on a mission. By the time I got to a hospital (in Saipan) I had sepsis & was delirious. After a week there with IV's in me from the moment I arrived to the moment that they sent me to Guam (& my personal physician there, as well as under my wife's care [a nursing school graduate that had become a pre-school teacher instead of a nurse] after having me sign a statement that I would go directly to my Dr. upon arrival. They also had called my Dr. to let her know the situation because the Saipan hospital really felt that I should stay there another week. The Saipan hospital also told me that if I had arrived 12-24 hours later than I did, they most likely would not have been able to save me or my left leg (which is missing some calf muscle to this day).
In a few months I'll be 65 & having been at death's door on more than one occasion (years ago cancer, the latest being the flesh eating bacteria [and there were other situations]), like Diablo, I can't really complain. The scars & missing (minor, really [the scars from the cancer are at the back of my neck & I keep my hair &/or collar over them], {most people can see that my left calf is a more blotched & reddish color than my right, distracting them from seeing the missing muscle tissue on the upper, inner back of the calf}).
Everything has ended up generally working OK. The missing pieces just remind me that I have made it so far (when some others I have known are either missing much more or simply didn't make it this long). So I am grateful to still be here in mostly good health.

 

[EJ3]

Just an FYI -- tinnitus along with new hearing loss, assuming no explanation (concert, etc.) should be seen within 24-48 hours preferably by an ENT. Steroids if given early can help prevent permanent hearing damage. If you develop Meniere's disease there are a few things they can give you to help / delay the hearing loss as well.

Good advice, my wife developed Meniere's but early intervention in Guam helped a lot.

 

[amirm]

It is very disturbing when you first get it. But the brain is amazing in the way it adapts to it over time. I started to just now hear mine when I read this thread! It must have been going on but the brain was filtering it. Mine is ultra high pitch tone that is related to congestion/allergies.

 

[bravomail]

Just an FYI -- tinnitus along with new hearing loss, assuming no explanation (concert, etc.) should be seen within 24-48 hours preferably by an ENT. Steroids if given early can help prevent permanent hearing damage. If you develop Meniere's disease there are a few things they can give you to help / delay the hearing loss as well.

I support that. Prednisolon will help.
Also, for blocked blood vessels there is a simple homemade remedy:
crush 1 lemon and 1 full garlic in the mixer (or slicer)
put it into 1 liter of water and heat til it boils.
steep for 1 hr or more.
filter.
drink up to 3 times a day.
do some physical activity in 30min after - to push some blood.
To see if it works - in two weeks your hands will be bloody red when u squeeze them - showing good pumping of oxygen rich blood.

 

[Kennyknetter]

I've got tinnitus as well. Go figure though... DJing for 20 years takes it's toll on the ears. I've still been fairly blessed, I feel like. Ears shouldn't be able to take what I've put them through. The pandemic has brought all that to an end though. For that I am quite thankful, actually.

The way I see it, my ears and my career is not all that different from a soccer player who's knees are shot. Or a nurse with back problems. Or somebody with a job at a desk, with problems in back, neck, elbows, wrists, and whatnot. It's all a part of the game, to some extent.

As far as the noise goes, it's not all that bad. Like a TV from the past generation that always had a high pitched noise going, you get used to the noise before long. It's not really a problem.

 

[MattHooper]

I have had strong tinnitus as well as battles with hyperacusis for many years.

The Tinnitus can sound startlingly loud sometimes - when my head hits the pillow it can feel like I'm in a stadium where Eddy Van Halen is warming up, and has simply turned the white noise on his amp to "11." And yet...I learned to sleep through it long ago.

(It's not always that subjectively loud).

What I've found is that my Tinnitus seems to have a life of it's own that is mostly independent from any attempts I may make to mitigate it.
So if it's flaring up for some reason it doesn't seem to matter if I tiptoe around loud sounds for a while - keep my noise exposure low - or not, it either sticks around or it doesn't. So usually when I notice it I just go back to ignoring it and do whatever I want to do. I find that more than anything pushes it in to the background quicker than worrying about it, or about noise exposure, or hoping it goes away.

There's also some equanimity when you've had Tinnitus for a long time (like many here): when it flares up you have the experience of knowing it will fade to the background again at some point.

 

[Chrispy]

It's amazing what you can get used to. Mine came on a few years ago, and is most prominent when I'm really tired or haven't slept well. Much of the time I forget about it, tho. At first was hard to sleep, but used some white noise to help out for a while. Mine isn't as severe as some I've known....one guy, a guitarist in a band for many many years of live performances has a really bad case, practically doubles him over when it hits hard, he has to isolate himself from as much as possible when its bad. I am somewhat lucky as I definitely did a lot of things to help damage my hearing over the years....and even my younger brother and sister both have it far worse than I do and my sister didn't do much of the noise exposure stuff my brother and I did....

 

[sgent]

It's amazing what you can get used to. Mine came on a few years ago, and is most prominent when I'm really tired or haven't slept well. Much of the time I forget about it, tho. At first was hard to sleep, but used some white noise to help out for a while. Mine isn't as severe as some I've known....one guy, a guitarist in a band for many many years of live performances has a really bad case, practically doubles him over when it hits hard, he has to isolate himself from as much as possible when its bad. I am somewhat lucky as I definitely did a lot of things to help damage my hearing over the years....and even my younger brother and sister both have it far worse than I do and my sister didn't do much of the noise exposure stuff my brother and I did....

There are some treatments that *can* work (none are surefire or great except for nerve resections which also deafens that ear), but I would urge them to see a doctor if they can. That kind of impact is pretty severe.

 

[Chrispy]

There are some treatments that *can* work (none are surefire or great except for nerve resections which also deafens that ear), but I would urge them to see a doctor if they can. That kind of impact is pretty severe.

Oh he'd sought medical advice regularly for the last 30 years he's had the issue....but his hearing has shut down so much now it hasn't the impact it did a few years ago. So hard for him and his audicience as a musician particularly

 

[ShiZo]

I hope mine doesn't come back. I guess I have a ear infection that doesn't hurt that bad that was causing it (maybe)

 

[MattHooper]

There are some treatments that *can* work (none are surefire or great except for nerve resections which also deafens that ear), but I would urge them to see a doctor if they can. That kind of impact is pretty severe.

A very bad bout of hyperacusis finally pushed me to have it treated at a clinic using ear devices with graduated white noise over time. It's essentially from the same branch of treatment known as Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT). For TRT, a selected frequency range of noise is played (in what are essentially hearing-aid-like devices you wear much of the day), so that it sits subtle under the sound of your tinnitus.
Gradually this is supposed to "retrain your brain" to ignore a constant sound source as well as push the ringing in to the background.
At the end your ringing is not "cured" in the sense of "it went away" but rather your brain has become much better at ignoring it.

Similarly for hypercusis, a selected frequency of noise is played in these ear devices so your brain gets used to it (and it helps reduce the dynamic range of noises to give your ears a chance to relax). Over time the noise is dialed up in volume until your hearing system no longer views noise as a threat, and regular sounds no longer sound "too loud" or uncomfortable.

My therapy went on for almost two years and given that length of time I can't really say if my recovery was due to the therapy, or simply due to giving it that much time to get better. They say they always treat the hyperacusis first (if you have it) then the Tinnitus, but after a couple years I can't be bothered to move on to the Tinnitus part of the therapy (as of yet).