Tinnitus and other items

[Any Name You Wish]

A little update on my Eustachian tube dilation and Vertigo/SHL. It looks like the heavy dose of Prednisone cured my vertigo and sudden hearing loss. I got all my hearing back in the right ear that was effected. Also, day-to-day changes in my hearing has evened out. No longer having problems with certain tones (car seat belt chime, etc.) that involved my left ear primarily. So, both ears working again quite well. In a few months I should be able to play in a band comfortably again (with attenuator plugs in).

What I've learned:
1) If you have sudden hearing loss and maybe combined with dizzyness or vertigo it is a health emergency and you need to see an ENT as soon as possible. You can get your hearing back if you act fast. There are several causes, but quick treatment will save your hearing.
2) Blocked or dysfunctioning Eustachian tubes can wreak havoc on otherwise normal hearing. Your ears may feel plugged, heavy, and certain tones can be really uncomfortably loud while others muffled. One day you can hear normally, the next it feels like you've got water in your ears. A hearing test may or may not show hearing loss, so the quality of the sound is the big problem. Air pollution, smoke and allergies are the main culprits. Eustachian tube dilation can make a huge difference so it is worth seeing an ENT if you are having issues. It is a very slow recovery.

Hope this helps others.

 

[dixiethedog]

I'm mono. Pretty much deaf in my right ear which rings constantly. Bedtime can be a real pain at times. I would say that everybody else descriptions of things are the same as mine. Plus I suffer from Meniere's disease. That can be pure hell.

 

[Any Name You Wish]

There is a new regenerative treatment that shows great promise to help recover Sensorineural hearing loss. It is in trial stages now. The MIT researchers have established a company called "Frequency Therapeutics." Check it out.

 

[Any Name You Wish]

Update: My hearing has stabilized 6+ months after the Eustachian Tube Dilation. My right ear hearing is great, left ear has permanent moderate loss in the 3-4k range. Tinnitus in left ear mostly, high pitch. If the weather changes fast, like it always does in CO, my hearing gets a little muffled, like after landing in a plane, but it clears up. I changed to a low-sodium diet and take a the supplement Pycnogenol to reduce the tinnitus. If eat eat a salty food my tinnitus skyrockets. Only 1 beer or 1 glass of wine too to keep the tinnitus in check. Looking forward to the 2nd trial results from Frequency Therapeutics and their second pipeline candidate that is intended to reach further into the cochlea where the higher frequencies are heard. The CEO knows Joe Walsh personally!

 

[corpse]

Tinnitus can be really debilitating- any hearing issue- glad you have recovered!

 

[Cranknfrank]

Been watching this thread and felt really bad. though I do not have T, I have some other afflications.

The best description I can give for what I experience and have been established for having over the last 15 years is:

1. a loss of lower freq sensitivity
2. a sensitivity to higher freq sensitivity
3. a compression effect of volumes of sounds heard

Basically, the lower freq, which includes human voice, has been diminished. At the same time, I quite consistently identify sounds in the 53K-57K range and have been tested much higher (AC is 60K). In addition, and they can not figure why, I register low and high db sounds in certain freqs as the same volume.

The Drs' basic observations: 33% effective loss in the left ear, 25% effective loss in the right ear. No resolution.

My life? I have a hard time hearing people, but boy I can normally tell if a flourescent light is on inside a room with a closed door if I pass by. At the same time, I can be sitting at a table of 12, and the person talking next to me talking to someone else in a normal volume sounds the same to me as the person across the table whispering to the person next to them.

Couple this with some dyslexia, and we have a really fun party. Only upside is that I do not believe the sensitivity to high freq has really upset my tone towards the bass side.

I have tinnitus and volume-damaged ears. I'm 59 and started playing electric guitar in 1978. There wasn't much emphasis on hearing protection back in those days - I feel like it was the late 90's or 2000's before attention was really being paid to hearing protection. My last audiologist checkup confirmed that all of my high-range hearing is gone. I know loud concerts, loud bands I played in and really loud drummers are the sources of my hearing loss. I went to in-ear monitors in 2006 and it was a game changer. It REALLY helps if your entire band is using them. After we got rid of the wedges, we went to small guitar and bass amps and our drummer went to a smaller drum set - the actual sizes of the drums were smaller. Our stage volume dropped at least 40%. My hearing won't improve but I am seriously protecting what I have left.

 

[Dave P]

I've had tinnitus since 1986. I haven't heard silence since then. Sounds like Cicada bugs screeching in my ears 24/7. It hasn't been debilitating, but it sure is annoying. It got a lot worse when I was working in a machine shop.

 

[Cliff Gress]

I had a bit of a set back on my Eustachian tube dilation recovery. A couple of weeks ago I had a severe Vertigo attack and lost all hearing in my right ear. Went to the hospital the next day and my ENT/Surgeon put me on Prednisone (steroid) 60mg per day for 1 week and then taper off. This was to reduce inner ear and nerve inflammation. This is the 3rd Vertigo attack I have had over the past 3 years and this one was the worst. Doc said I either had a re-activated childhood virus or I have Meniere's disease. Amazingly, a week after stopping the steroids my hearing came back and I'm back on track. My balance is a little off but getting better as well. Tinnitus is tapering off too and I am not as sensitive to certain noise like dishes clanking. So at this point I have to say the Eustachian tube dilation is working. It takes 6 months to reap the full benefit and I'm feeling very positive. The vertigo attacks are a still question. All three times happened in hot smoggy/smoky weather, so I think that is the trigger and I need to avoid that kind of situation at all cost. One more thing, I discovered a supplement called Pycnogenol that has reduced the tinnitus. It isn't cheap but it is the only supplement I ever tried that actually did something. I hope this is helpful to others. I'll report back in a couple of months.

Thanks for the report and update. My ears scream bloody murder and like you, dishes clanking is extremely irritating. I did not know about the dilation procedure and will talk to my ENT.

 

[Cliff Gress]

Update: My hearing has stabilized 6+ months after the Eustachian Tube Dilation. My right ear hearing is great, left ear has permanent moderate loss in the 3-4k range. Tinnitus in left ear mostly, high pitch. If the weather changes fast, like it always does in CO, my hearing gets a little muffled, like after landing in a plane, but it clears up. I changed to a low-sodium diet and take a the supplement Pycnogenol to reduce the tinnitus. If eat eat a salty food my tinnitus skyrockets. Only 1 beer or 1 glass of wine too to keep the tinnitus in check. Looking forward to the 2nd trial results from Frequency Therapeutics and their second pipeline candidate that is intended to reach further into the cochlea where the higher frequencies are heard. The CEO knows Joe Walsh personally!

Any update on your condition you can provide? Thanks, Cliff

 

[Any Name You Wish]

Cliff, things are pretty stable except when we have a fast atmospheric pressure drop. When that happens my Eustachian tubes can get stuck open for a couple of hours and sounds are hollow-sounding (it happens very rarely). I really should live at sea level. That would be ideal for more steady and higher atmospheric pressure. If I cup my hands behind my ears I can hear perfectly. I do that once in a while to remind me how wonderful it was when I had my hearing 100%.

Unfortunately the phase 2b of Frequeny Theraputics showed no improvement over placebo, so that's disappointing, and they have abandoned the effort. They can grow the little hairs in the Cochlea, but that's apparently not enough.

 

[Cliff Gress]

Cliff, things are pretty stable except when we have a fast atmospheric pressure drop. When that happens my Eustachian tubes can get stuck open for a couple of hours and sounds are hollow-sounding (it happens very rarely). I really should live at sea level. That would be ideal for more steady and higher atmospheric pressure. If I cup my hands behind my ears I can hear perfectly. I do that once in a while to remind me how wonderful it was when I had my hearing 100%.

Unfortunately the phase 2b of Frequeny Theraputics showed no improvement over placebo, so that's disappointing, and they have abandoned the effort. They can grow the little hairs in the Cochlea, but that's apparently not enough.

I am sorry to hear this news.