SSD and tinnitus question

[sarahinPA]

From what I have been reading here, the tinnitus will not go away after my surgery and i become SSD. My question to all of you who experience this is, can you do anything to drown out the ringing. Currently, I use a sound machine to sleep and things like the tv or fan help to mask the ringing and i have become used to it. My hearing in my AN side is not too bad, but I have been informed that when I have surgery in a few weeks this nerve will be cut and I will lose it all, When I have no hearing at all will things like my sound machine help me still?

[CHD63]

Hi Sarah .....

As with most things related to having an AN, everyone is a bit different.  Therefore, when it comes to tinnitus, we each have our own set of high-pitched ringing or white noise or crickets or bells ringing or ? or combinations of several sounds.

In my case, in addition to the constant ringing and white noise, I often have what sounds like someone playing a triangle very fast.  Most of the time, when I am busy doing something, I can successfully ignore it.  The two worst times for me are at night when I'm trying to go to sleep and all is quiet or whenever I am in a noisy, loud environment (e.g. restaurants).  I have also discovered that the less caffeine I have, the softer the tinnitus is.

I never had tinnitus until after my first AN surgery in February, 2008.  Woke up from surgery to the "lovely" new sounds!  ..... but only in my AN ear.  I still had 20% of my hearing with 100% speech discrimination following that surgery.  Somewhere in the intervening years, much to my dismay, I began to notice tinnitus in my "good" ear, which still has perfect hearing ...... but it is much softer than in the AN ear.

When it was determined that I would be needing another surgery to remove the regrowth, one of my first thoughts was "What will happen with the tinnitus?"  My second surgery was two months ago and the tinnitus is essentially the same as it was pre-op.  Therefore, in my case going from 20% hearing to zero hearing made no difference in the tinnitus.

I was excited to attend a couple of sessions at the Symposium in Cincinnati on tinnitus, to learn that I may be able to have some relief with neuromonics (see:  http://www.neuromonics.com/patient/index.aspx?rollover=true) even though I am SSD.  After I have my Ponto processor attached next month, I am going to see if that makes any difference.  If not, I am going to explore the neuromonics.

Hope this helps.

Clarice

[Sue]

The sound machine will still help you.  I use one also, and I have almost no hearing in my AN side.  The sounds go into the good ear and just balance out the tinnitus.  Tinnitus, which you probably know, happens deep in the brain, and not in our ear, even though it seems to be in our ear..a very weird phenomenon I think.  Have no earthly idea why the brain decides to make it's own noise, when it can't detect sounds from that ear anymore.  And then, the brain says...hmmm maybe I should try to make sense of these sounds, and then that's when I think I hear radios playing, or music in another room, or doorbells.   Weird, I tell you...just weird.  A trick of nature that isn't nice...take away your hearing and give you a bunch of noise anyway. 

Hang in there!!

Sue in Vancouver WA USA

[grega]

Hi Sarah .... I'm also SSD and with the big T since surgery in '04 .... see small print at bottom.

Clarice is right ... each of us with T experiences diff sounds and loudness.  She also said, "Most of the time, when I am busy doing something, I can successfully ignore it."  And that's what I encourage you to do ..... try to stay active and try to ignore it, and hopefully, it won't rule your life.  I really don't hear mine most of the time, although it's still lurking. 

I noticed the small print at bottom of your post ..... that's very positive .... I've used it many time in this forum.

Keep smiling .... back atcha!

Greg

[Rivergirl]

One of the greatest side effects of my surgery is my tinnitus is much less and tolerable.  Before surgery I had roaring tinnitus, crackling, chirping, it was constant and loud.  My hearing tests were not that bad but in a normal environment my hearing was awful because of the noise in the ear.  I am SSD and I told the surgeon the other day that I think I hear better now, he said I was lucky and that many patients do tell him that.  So it might be not be all that bad.  I have not used my sound machine since surgery 5 weeks ago. I can handle this level of tinnitus.