Tinnitus - Anybody else got it?

[Dumpster 0]

Wonder who else here might have it and what they've been able to do about it, if anything.

I haven't seen a doctor about mine yet, but it seems to be getting worse. My ears ring constantly, 24/7 it seems, even after being out of the noise for awhile. I've spent alot of time around jets, and working in a lot of noisy environments. I have some docmented high-end hearing loss, and frequently have to ask folks to either speak up or I have to get closer to them.

I really don't know what "silence" is anymore.

Easy Does It

[Meux 0]

Dumpster,

My ex-wife had it and I'm sorry to say, there was nothing she could do about it.

One option we considered was surgery to cut the nerve to the ear. Even then there was a chance that she would be totally deaf, but still hear the ringing.

I'm sorry to hear that you have it. Perhaps your case is different enought that there might be a solution.

Mo

[mnealtx 0]

I've had it my entire life - everything I hear has that high pitched whine over it. Couple that with a congenital hi freq loss (my threshold at 4khz is around 70db) and I spend a lot of time saying "beg pardon?"...

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[BillyVance 34]

I've had it over a large part of my life too. I'm profoundly deaf, since birth. However, the tinnitus on my part came about because of high levels of sound exposure through my hearing aids or through a walkman with the tiny headphones jammed in my ears and the sound on high. I have permanent damage to my left ear because of the latter and it's touch-n-go in my right ear.

I can tell you this, tinnitus nearly drove me crazy. I had a bad attack of it 14 years ago and stopped wearing my hearing aids for just over a year. It took that long for the tinnitus to fade away, and then I had to ease my way back to using my hearing aid at a very low volume level. I still use a lower volume level today than before.

I remember reading somewhere, I can't remember the magazine, but there was a newfound technique for dealing with tinnitus... and curing it. I wish I still had that article. You might try googling for it...

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Dumpster 0]

Yep - "Beg Pardon" is a big part of my vocabulary, too.

I'll be wearing earplugs alot now, on the bike, in the airplane, and especially here at work - (kinda noisy here, around 85db average-). I'll be talking to the doc about it when I go in for my next physical. I'm hoping there's something that can be done to reduce it even a little.

Easy Does It

[jonstark 8]

I don't remember a quiet day in my entire life. I remember asking other kids whether their ears were ringing too.

There is a new procedure which is to inject something directly into the area of the cochlea. They strap down your head and go in with a needle thru the tympanic membrane and soft bone. My friend, Mike has had a dozen treatments and his debilitating tinitus is gone.

There is relief available. Mine is not so bad as to warrant this. If you would like me to get the name of the procedure e-me offline.

[gjhdiver 0]

Quote

Wonder who else here might have it and what they've been able to do about it, if anything.

I was professional musician for nearly 17 years. I did huge amounts damage to my hearing that left me with tininitus. I have a low grade hiss all the time. A few years back, I had a stroke injury in my right ear, caused by jumping that left me profoundly deaf in that side with howling tinnitus. There really wasn't anything I could do about it, so I learned to cover it up with another background noise of around the same level. I found that music was good for this, as it also allows you to concentrate on that, rather than the noise. After a while, you learn to tune it out completely, and actually have to concentrate to be able to hear it.

With steroid therapy, I was lucky enough to regain my hearing in my right ear after about two to three months, and the tinnitus has gone back down to the the usual hiss. I still don't have great high end hearing, and I know that it will get worse as time goes on, but there you go.

[freeflir29 0]

The doc that examined me on my exit physical for the Air Force says I have tinnitus in my left ear. My ears only ring very occasionally so I don't believe him but I cash the check anyway.

[bigG 0]

I did not know what "Tinnitus" meant till this past Saturday, when I ruptured my ear-drum while scuba diving. Now all I hear is this constant mind numbing ringing in my left ear. Its driving me nuts..

Going to see an ENT specialist this week. I think I can appreciate "silence" now.

G.

P.S. Is it advisable to jump with a ruptured ear-drum or to wait how long after it heals?

[Dumpster 0]

A friend of mine busted an eardrum on a skydive recently - No jumping until it healed. (several weeks-).

I wish I knew what the approx. frequency this ringing is -

(edited for crappy spelling)

Easy Does It

[gemini 0]

I have it in both ears now, but it is much worse in the left thanks to the Army!

When I get around some electrical appliances, the ringing will stop. Somebody once told me that some electric motors will vibrate and the same or opposity frequency as my ears and they cancel each other out. I don't know why it happens, but it is great when it does.

And don't talk to me on the plane! I see your lips moving, but hear nothing due to the background noises. Don't change the dive plan on the plane!!!

Blue skies,

Jim

[BillyVance 34]

I remember when my wife (not even dating her at the time) paid for an observer ride on Mullins' King Air when she was debating whether to do a tandem jump or not. You know how fast Mullins takes his plane down on the dive... Anyway, her ears popped painfully and she felt disoriented when she got off the plane, and she had a dab of blood coming out of her ear. Went to see the doc, but the doc said she didn't rupture her eardrum, and would be okay. She decided to come out the next day and do that tandem jump... successfully!

Imagine that. Had she decided not to come back, I wonder if I would have dated her and eventually married her?

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[alw 0]

I got a pair of noise cancelling earphones and it helps separate the actual and audible noise. Most of the time I can just tune it out, sometimes it gets real bad.

---------------------------------------------
Every day is a bonus - every night is an adventure.

[christelsabine 1]

Quote

Wonder who else here might have it and what they've been able to do about it, if anything.

I haven't seen a doctor about mine yet, but it seems to be getting worse. My ears ring constantly, 24/7 it seems, even after being out of the noise for awhile. I've spent alot of time around jets, and working in a lot of noisy environments. I have some docmented high-end hearing loss, and frequently have to ask folks to either speak up or I have to get closer to them.

I really don't know what "silence" is anymore.

Yep - left ear, since 15 yrs. Learned to live with it, from time to time, sounds are changing, I do not pay attention to it that much any more. It took years and a lot of help of my doctor to learn how to ignore most noise. The only thing I cannot stand is "silence", absolute silence. Drives me crazy. Just to hear the distant sound of cars is helping to fall asleep.

There are days w/o any sound in my ear. More and more. Slowly but surely. That's what my doc said years ago: Be patient, it might leave one day. Let's hope for everybody to get rid of it one day. There's still no medicine to help...

dudeist skydiver # 3105

[Dumpster 0]

I can realate to "silence" driving us with tinnitus crazy - With nothing to mask the ringing, and it's all you hear.
I've had it for awhile, but only recently it's become more pronounced, louder. I work in a high-noise environment and wear earplugs most of the time. I haven't been wearing earplugs when I jump but will probably start doing that, and also when I ride the bike. (I ride sans helmet.) Only problem with wearing earplugs on the bike is I can't hear the bike itself so well - Time for louder pipes? HA!

I hope it will subside - Hearing problems don't run in our family. If it gets worse I don't know what I'll do. It makes the kids, the wife, everyone angry or annoyed that I either "ignore" them, or I have the TV a little on the loud side (to mask the ringing) etc.

And in the meantime hope for some minor breakthrough in treatment.

Easy Does It

[christelsabine 1]

Quote

I can realate to "silence" driving us with tinnitus crazy - With nothing to mask the ringing, and it's all you hear.
I've had it for awhile, but only recently it's become more pronounced, louder. I work in a high-noise environment and wear earplugs most of the time. I haven't been wearing earplugs when I jump but will probably start doing that, and also when I ride the bike. (I ride sans helmet.) Only problem with wearing earplugs on the bike is I can't hear the bike itself so well - Time for louder pipes? HA!

I hope it will subside - Hearing problems don't run in our family. If it gets worse I don't know what I'll do. It makes the kids, the wife, everyone angry or annoyed that I either "ignore" them, or I have the TV a little on the loud side (to mask the ringing) etc.

And in the meantime hope for some minor breakthrough in treatment.

What my doc told me, Tinnitus mainly is caused by an overdose of permanent stress or permanently beeing in noisy environment. Your job is not helping you to recover. That's a pity as I know how hard it is for the family to understand what you are suffering. Ride your bike w/o earplugs, accept every noise you hear. When watching TV, try hard to concentrate on TV's noise, on noise when wife, kids, everyone is calling you, telling you something, you will learn to "overhear" the permanent sound in your ear.
Listen to the sound of your bike, your freefall, the music in your car when driving to your noisy job. That's all you can do. Beeing helpless myself, I know there is nothing else to do than trying to live with it.

For years, the "ringing" in my ear was hell on earth. As per advice of my doc, I started to sing, just for myself, not loud, just enough to feel my own sound, just making my own music deep down in my throat. It helped a lot over the years. I still do it. It seems, the only way to defend that s*** is, to learn how to live with it. Try to see it like that.

Minor breakthroughs will come. It's happening that suddenly, the most horrible sound in your ear disappears. You don't know why, one morning you wake up and: it's gone. Do not wait for it to come back. Move on and be happy it's gone. That's the "good" side of that illness.
Wish you will find a way to deal with what you suffer: best is, try to inore it!!! It will work one day.

dudeist skydiver # 3105

[skyhigh57 0]

I have always been amazed at people in the gym with iPOD and head phones. I can clearly hear their music from 10 ft away.

Maybe they are just getting what they deserve? Isn't that like looking straight into the sun for 5 min and wondering why you can't see any longer?

[jonstark 8]

PM sent...

[livendive 8]

Dammit! You had to go and remind me of it. Now it's all I can hear!

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[aerohaga 0]

I haven't had silence in years. I think mine stems from sitting in front of speakers at rock concerts when I was in high school.

For my part, I know nothing with any certainty,
But the sight of the stars makes me dream.
-Vincent Van Gogh

[FeetFlyer 0]

I've got it pretty bad too. A high pitched sound that will not go away. I,ve had it for at least ten years. I think it started when I did my military service and was often near jetplanes.

I recently quit my job as personal assistent for kids. One of the reasons were because it was too much of a strain on the ears. I liked the job but it's not a job where it's possible to work with earplugs, 'cause then you miss out on too much.

The only positive thing about the tinnitus is that I,ve become overly sensitive too some perticular sounds... like china being put together. And that gives me an excuse never to do the dishes

<>

[hollyhjb 0]

A good friend of mine has had tinnitus for as long as he can remember. He made the brilliant choice of becoming a professional rock/punk musician (and is making it worse at every concert ). There is research going on, but treatment is hard to come by and not awfully successful. Hopefully yours will go away eventually, but make sure you talk to your doc and learn how to avoid making it worse.

For everyone else that does not have tinnitus-- know that you can get it quite easily. If something is ever uncomfortably loud, get away or wear ear plugs, and if you find your ears ringing tepmorarorly from something (concert, race track, ect.) make sure you bring ear plugs with you the next time! The ringing really does suck, and you don't want to have to live with it for the rest of your life.

"I reject your reality and substitute my own" ~Adam Savage

[wartload 0]

Had it for about 20 years. I used to spend all day around 2-stroke engines, running at full power. Mine never went away, but I got used to it. Now I'm only aware of it when something like this reminds me, or when I realize that I can't pick out what someone's saying when they are speaking softly, or there's other background noise.