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tinnitus is killing me. don't know how much longer I can take it.


mfergel

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Can't really add anything more dramatic than whats been said. The only time it's quiet is when I'm asleep.
I try to have fun with the hearing loss and make up funny sentences based upon what I "think" I heard, just to keep my humor about it. My wife sometimes gets impatient because I don't hear her when shes talking in the other room, or with the radio on in the car.
It would sound like whining crybaby stuff if I tried to explain what the constant din is like all my waking hours, so I don't.
Still considering hypnosis therapy as a possible avenue of relief. Yup, right after I get my teeth fixed ..LOL

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I have a condition called Meneires Disease in the right ear and it sounds like my entire head is one big whistling tea kettle.There is nothing to be done to cure it other than puncturing your eardrum. One thing you can do though is lay off the salt shaker at the dinner table and cut down on the junk foods loaded with sodium, try the decaf coffee.......Wont cure anything but it sure helps......................

 

 

My friend Dave has this. He had experimental surgery to attempt correcting

of this particular problem and it made him deaf in one ear.

 

He's an incredibly talented keyboard player, see: http://www.davidalstead.com/ and he's also got meniere's disease sufferer info

on his website. Check it out.

 

If you want to hear Dave in a rock context, here he is on synths, me on guitar, our friend Kevin on bass and drum programs:

 

http://pod.ath.cx/asbtunes/old/crash-mr-monster.mp3

 

It's basically a prog-fusion extravaganza.

 

Getting back to live playing, I've had to tone it down. The last two years I've played experimental gigs at science fiction conventions and bookstores and whoever will have me doing ambient space guitar that is more soothing type sounds than the hard driving rock sounds I'm known for.

 

See http://www.myspace.com/ionospherecastingshadows

 

That type of stuff is a lot easier on the ears than the heavy driving rock sound but I still watch it carefully.

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How does tinnitus arrive when you get it?? I mean...is it there all of a sudden and never leaves from that time on? or does it come n go periodically before it comes to stay with you permanently??

 

 

 

I'm my experience, you get several warning shots over the bow with the ringing. After that you should consider yourself on thin ice and change your ways when you're around any type of volume, including at home with a practice amp, don't point an amp at your head, and wear plugs if the volume is up at all.

 

 

I've posted it a few times, but these are decent plugs for musicians.

I recommend wearing them anytime you play,

http://www.amazon.com/ETYMOTIC-RESEARCH-ER20BP-Fidelity-Plugs/dp/B000CC1RPS

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I have it too, for about 12 years.

What does smoking or caffine have to do with it?

The ringing is caused by nerve damage, but keeping the ears clean does help- fluid in the inner ear will make it louder.

Never see a rock concert in a venue designed for classical music it will kill your ears. I thought I had the ringing under control until Buddy Guy destroyed me at the Experience Hendrix concert.

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What does smoking or caffine have to do with it?


The ringing is caused by nerve damage, but keeping the ears clean does help- fluid in the inner ear will make it louder

 

 

Ringing in the ears is a symptom - it can be caused by many things, not just "nerve damage". Among the things that can cause tinnitus are high blood pressure, use of aspirin, or caffeine: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ringing-buzzing-tinnitus

 

Keeping your ears clean, I suppose you mean removing wax, has nothing to do with the fluid in your inner ear, which is an important part of how your ears function: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear

 

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Thankfully I've had my warning Via my mother (whose a music teacher) My grandmother has better hearing than my own mother. I wear sound isolating earphones/ limit my ipod volume by 1/2 the maximum and when practicing I use the same earphones.(that 70 watt Bassman can get really..really loud) But it's reminders like this post that keep my eyes (err ears) on the prize.

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Mine got worse last year in May, doctors gave me therse eardrops to help with the infection and when i put em in my ears ...the went ape{censored}.

I went to see like 5 specialists and they all denied that the drops i took were reposnible for wht happened. Oh yeah and my hearing was dulled for weeks.

I did the audiogram testing and everything else.Turns out my hearing is fine.

 

 

I had tinnitus before but never like this. I couldnt sleep for weeks. It was a nightmare. The thing is I got sinus problems and they are never clear. Whenever they get a bit clogged up my hears go crazy. Something to do with the Eustachian tubes not being clean. So theres still some pressure in there so you hear things inside your head much louder that the things around you.

Sometimes it drives me nuts. Also , from the pressure my eardrums are sucked in. Lately i have been havin these vertigos that wont go away, so I got some meds for that. All I can tell u that taking those drops in May last year made my life hell. I am still fighting with the fact I have to not pay attention to the shhhhh and the tones I sometimes hear in my hears. Falling asleep is hard. Sometimes. I dont mind the white noise but the tones I hear sometimes drive me beserk!

 

All in all. I wear earplugs whenever i am in a noisier environment. I rarey listen to Ipods and stuff like that. People take care of your ears! I cant stress that enough! Oh yeah and never use corticosteroids , coz thats what those drops were. I am happy i didn't loose my hearing altogether.

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cafeine, alcohol, smoking, weed makes it worse...ofcourse

when I drink a little i fall a sleep like a baby...hehehehe

 

best way to keep it under control is to have plenty of rest. Like sleep and stress fre environment. Which is hard ...I know. This Jan i went to Chicago. My first time in the USA and all i di was sleep. Cus I was so stress relieved after a long long time...my body just wanted to regenerate.

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My appointment is next week Tuesday morning. I think I'm going to ask about the possibility of some anti-depresents. I know that's supposed to help reduce the symptoms and it's driving me crazy. It really is starting to impact my mood. I sit at work for 12+ hour shifts listening to the noise. We aren't allowed to listen to iPods or anything while we work so aside from the people on the phone, the lights and computers I am blasted non-stop with the ringing.

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I'm fairly certain that if you get a hearing aid, they can program it to pretty much cancel out the ringing. The pitch/frequency of the ringing coincides with the pitch/frequency that is damaged and or lost. That is, if you hear a high pitched ringing, that's what you've damaged/lost. If you decide to get a hearing aid, DO NOT GO TO ANY KIND OF STORE to buy one, only a hospital. You want an audiologist not a salesman. You won't pay more at a hospital but you'll likely get a better product and definitely it will be better fitted to your needs. They can tweek them repeatedly (that should make many here happy) till it's just what you need. Also, a common feature on many hearing aids is a safety "rejection" thing where say you stand in front of a Marshall turned to 11, the hearing aid senses the too loud signal, recognizes it as harmful and "rejects" it, not letting it in. Also, in case you don't know, they do make hearing aids tailored to many different uses, music listening/audiophile being one of them.

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How does tinnitus arrive when you get it?? I mean...is it there all of a sudden and never leaves from that time on? or does it come n go periodically before it comes to stay with you permanently?? Just occasionally at random times I get a high pitch tone ringing in my ears for a minute or 2 then its gone. One night a couple of weeks ago, whilst lying in bed it was there till I went to sleep..but thankfully when I awoke in the morning it was gone. Warning signs?? I dont get my ears ringing after a session with the band, just that earache on the PA side. Which I am onto now - make the singer stand were I was standing and its then up to him if he wants to blast his own ears!


Also...is it a high pitch tone...or is it a hissing sound? After my rehearsal sessions each sunday (we do 3hrs) I wear ear plugs but i've noticed lately as we've turned the amps down (still loud though with 2 guitarists but less than it was)that I was still getting earache for a day or 3 afterwards usually in my left ear. Suddenly it dawned on me that it wasnt actually a guitar amp or a drum that was causing this...it was the PA!! The PA speakers were at head height and were like 5ft from my left ear...and that was the ear that was suffering! Should've realised sooner...the singer was complaining about our amps being unbearably loud and whilst they were for him stood 10ft out front...it was him all along that was bothering my ears!! He liked himself to be pretty loud through the PA....whilst complaining to us we were too loud!
:facepalm:

I do go through moments of seriously consdering quitting this band for fear that tinnitus is just around the corner for me. I really would rather never play in a band again if that was the price to pay.



I remember the exact moment I got it. This all happened in a split-second, but I remember it in the clearest slow-motion you can imagine. I was swimming in a private lake, the summer of 1991 or 1992. I was headed in toward the beach just under the surface of the water. When I thought I was pretty close to being able to touch I simultaneously blew a little air out of my nose to clear any water out and swung my feet downward to see if I could touch bottom yet. Turned out I was actually a lot closer to the shoreline than I realized, because my feet immediately touched the sand and the right side of my head came slightly out of the water when I was still blowing air out of my nose. The change in pressure exploded in my right ear, I honestly felt like I had been shot in the side of the head. I could barely hear anything on that side for the rest of the day. I was actually nauseous and went home right afterward.

It eventually subsided somewhat from that initial level, but it has never left completely. I had my hearing checked shortly after that because I figured with that smash of pain it had to have been something serious, like a ruptured eardrum, but the ENT doc found nothing wrong. I don't know, maybe he was a quack, but I still have the high-pitched ringing in my right ear. It can sometimes be pretty loud, especially when I have a cold or I'm very tired, and I definitely fall sleep better when the ceiling fan is on

At times I forget about it for a while and at times it drives me crazy, but it hasn't really gotten any better or worse over the years. I sometimes wear earplugs when snowmobiling and I always wear good hearing protection when shooting, so I guess I've been lucky that it's never worsened except temporarily due to head colds or whatever. I would love to find some permanant help for it, but I will say that during the time I've been typing this it's been lovely to have that SimplyNoise cranked up to 89%. It's late and the house is very quiet so the ringing was pretty loud before I turned that on. Many thanks to whoever suggested that site, that's a definite bookmark! :thu:

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WHAT????????

 

 

"Hearing Loss" does not mean TOTAL hearing loss. It's often just a portion of your hearing. With tinnitus, it's (often) the frequency/frequencies of the "ringing" that is lost in your hearing. The part of the nerve the "works" at x hz no longer works (it's dead or dying), and you hear ringing at that/those frequencies instead. The first thing you'll start to notice a loss of is soft S's and P's in speech, then you'll "hear fine as long as whatever I'm listening too is louder than the ringing". Sorry, that IS hearing loss.

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