Tinnitus question?

[nikondude]

Hi everyone  ,

This is my fiirst posting. I had my acoustic neuroma removed 7 weeks ago. I had tinnitus prior to my surgery but now it is louder and has a different tone. I notice now that after mowing my lawn for the first time post-op it has gotten louder. Will the loudness decrease with time?

I was suggested my ENT to have a TRT consult. I was wondering if this will work seeing as my tinnitus is now louder and will get louder with more exposure.

[Boppie]

My tinnitus was there pre op in a nighttime buzzing form.  Immdediately post op, I developed a new louder T; hissing/jingling, sound induced tinnitus.  The louder the noise, music, or voice, the worse my tinnitus.  I've accepted it and the "thing" I will have to live with.  I learned to ignore the tinnitus and it is manageable most of the time.  To avoid exposure I use ear an plug when I am around loud speakers, tools, and motors such as lawn mowers.  The annoyance and jangled nerves settle down after I have a rest in a quiet place.  On days when I have too much caffeine the T seems worse.

From my reading I have learned this...Tinnitus stays and the more we pay attention to it , the worse it seems.  We aren't crazy, we have a problem that medical science has not found a cure for.  Apparently tinnitus is a remembered response to sound and it is inside the brain.  It is common to many people with normal good hearing in both ears.  So we are not alone.

If you google tinnitus you'd find all sorts of "cures".

Perhaps your tinnitus will settle for you or you will settle for it. 

[Yvette]

Hi Nik, My T got better about a month after surgery, but has not gone away completely. Wearing custom- made ear plugs helps greatly. I wear them in both ears even though I'm SSD (keeps those sound waves off my ear drum). Do you still have hearing in both your ears? Yvette

[nikondude]

Thanks for the tips bout wearing ear plugs. I will try to get the ones muscians use. Apparently the are better than the drug store brand.

I lost quite a bit of hearing on my an side. It was at 74% preop and has gone down quite a bit post-op. I have`nt had another audiogram yet, but at least I can still tell where sounds are coming from.

Gerry

[Featofclay]

Hi Gerry,
Well it's great that you can tell where sounds are coming from as I do not have a clue where anything is coming from....someone can call my name and I start looking around.  If I lose my cellphone in the house, I used to be able to dial it from the house phone and find it but now it's just like it is ringing all over the house as I search from room to room.  Most or a lot of the people on this board that have single sided deafness are unable to tell where noises are coming from so I guess my problem is not unusual. When I decide on what type of hearing aid to get that may help my situation. 

Your surgery was exactly 2 months after mine and it sounds like you are doing great so soon after surgery.  My tinnitus has changed since my surgery...at first it didn't seem as loud but when I am tired or if I have too much caffeine I can really tell a difference.  Time does heal lots of things and some things take longer to become adjusted to than others. 
Jean

[Boppie]

Yvette, could you tell me the brand and type of ear plugs you have now?  If you are SSD, do you still wear a plug in the dead side?

[Boppie]

Gerry, You are so lucky to have some hearing and direction left in the AN side.

[Windsong]

this site gives some info on ear plugs....

i found it useful....(different situations thus different solutions)

hope it helps someone else too....

http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/cdb/ear_plugs.htm

windsong

[Patti UT]

I have found that wearing an earplug in the An ear which is the side my very loud and continuous Tinnitus, causes the T to sound even louder, like when pinching your ear closed with your finger, the T sounds louder.   So weird when you do't have hearing in the darn ear.

patti ut

[FlyersFan68]

http://www.haruteq.com/cope-02.htm

[Battyp]

ER UM YOU MOWED?  WOW!  at 7 weeks after surgery I was cursing the mower people and holding onto my bed for dear life. The  sound reeked havoc with my head. I notice that after being around certian sounds, loud music, mowers, blowers, drills, etc...my tinnitus is louder. Usually once I get back to a quiet area it will settle down.

[Patti UT]

thats what I was thinking , mowing at 7 weeks,  your doing great

[TP]

I've had the normal tinnitus sounds but last night was most unusual. I had a loud knocking sound. Sounded like something was knocking in my head. It was very annoying and distinct. It lasted about 3 hours and the knocking sound finally went away. I never have head aches but today had a very sharp pain on the back side of my head and lasted about 10 minutes. It was in the center of the back of my head and shooting up the back of my head. I took two aspirins and the pain went away. Todays tinnitus is about normal. Anyone ever experienced unusual tinnitus sounds? Just curious.

[thornapple]

I do earplugs, and also my doctor prescribed some valium, which I was afraid to take, but when my AN ear acts up, half a tablet of valium at bedtime really quiets things down. Apparently it soothes the vestibular nerve as well as every other nerve in your body. It makes me a little dizzy and very sleepy, so I only take it at night when I don't have to go out. 

I don't take it regularly; only about once a week. It is a habit-forming substance and if you take it regularly there can be that problem. It does make a difference, on those hideous days when my tinnitus sounds like O'hare airport to the point I feel nauseated.

[Omaschwannoma]

Hi TP,

SIGH!  I am typing this msg. over AGAIN as I lost it the first time around.  I too have a "weird" sound similar to a door shutting loudly.  The phantom sound happens over and over.  Shortly after this I feel swelling sensation in the middle of my occiput, the "atlas" vertebrae.  Give this more time to develop the swelling sensation extends over the occiput, pressure behind my eyes builds and if not treated at this point I will have a wicked head ache in the center of my head sometimes for 3 days straight.  I have not been able to get an answer from "specialists" as to the cause nor how to treat other than the garden variety answer of "It's stress."  I treat the symptoms with ibuprofen early on before the head ache happens so I end up taking only two now at a single dose.  I am 2.5 years post surgery and can say withing the last 6 months these phantom sounds have decreased allowing me now a few months of freedom.  Hope the same happens for you.