Is Tinnitus Forever?

[MAlegant]

Tinnitus, yup, check.  Only post-op and of all the issues I'm dealing with, this one seems the most manageable to me. Of course my life as a musician is the real question right now.  My son, who lost some hearing due to self-inflicted ear abuse, has tinnitus and swears that caffeine makes it worse, as does fatigue.  He is a working musician and has learned to deal with it pretty well.
Marci (crickets mostly, sometimes just white noise, and when I'm lucky, the ocean)

[GM]

Unfortunately tinnitus is forever, but for some there are different levels of tinnitus.  Some days the tinnitus is loud, some days soft, some days barely there…others have a more consistent level.  Others feel that tinnitus is lessened by staying away from caffeine or hydrating more….tinnitus is still a mystery.

Personally, I believe that my tinnitus is caused by my brain searching for a “signalâ€? that used to be there.  I have the typical “cookie biteâ€? hearing loss (middle range lost) in my AN ear.

If you’ve ever been in a very quiet room without sound you’ll notice that there was a high pitched noise.  I believe that this is what my brain is doing now, substituting for no input…or lost signal.   My wife has a co-worker that was born deaf in his left ear only.  He cannot hear in that ear but also does not have tinnitus in it.  Could this be because he never had a signal in that ear?  Is this why the brain is not searching for a signal?

On another note…I have found interesting conversations about tinnitus from this site:

http://tinnitussupport92262.yuku.com/      I think it used to be an EZboard.com site but they moved….

Take care all

Gary

[pauline]

Yes - the tinnitus is very annoying - mine is a constant "white noise" and different levels as Gary described perfectly!
Wreaks havoc in the life of a musician.  Hopefully as time goes by I will learn to work with it.  For now, I shut the piano lid
when my tinnitus is loud.  I found a pillow with slim speakers in it and I hook up my MP3 player and play soothing ocean sounds
to help mask it when I sleep.  It helps!


Pauline

[Nancy Drew]

Really weird thing going on with this tinnitus.  This weekend I went up in the mountains, and the tinnitus pretty much subsided.  Coming back down, the tinnitus came back, and it is louder than in the past.  I also have bad ear pain associated with coming down from the mountains. Another weird thing that confuses me is that when I was in the mountains, my AN symptoms got better.  Maybe I should move to the mountains!  I am curious to see what happens tomorrow.  As for the caffeine theory, I am wondering about that.  My husband does not drink or eat anything with caffeine in it, and he has tinnitus in both ears.  His is constant, but he has learned to live with it.     Nancy

[sabuck]

Nancy,

How high up were you in the mountains....roughly? I wonder if the lower pressure density is affecting you (in a good way) somehow. -bucko

[Nancy Drew]

I live in Denver, the mile high city.  In the Rocky Mountains I went up to about 11,000 feet.  Four days later now and my symptoms have subsided gradually to where I feel like my AN is not acting up as much.  Sometimes I feel like I don't even have an AN and other days the things just acts up like a baby having a temper tantrum.  This little AN baby has me really confused.  Nancy