Tinnitus

[Laura]

A question to all of you who have had your tumor removed and have lost complete hearing in your AN ear.

Maybe a silly question since I said "lost complete hearing in your AN ear" but I will ask anyway... Once you lose all your hearing in that ear are you still plagued with the Tinnitus?

[HeadCase2]

 Tinitus is fairly common for AN patients, even those who have lost all hearing on the AN side.
Regards,
 Rob

[Static]

I lost all hearing on my right side and the tinnitus is horrible.  It gets worse when a storm is coming or when someone is using loud power equipment or when I go to the dentist and she has to drill and many other things!  I can't hear the low pitch of thunder, but anything very high pitched drives me crazy!  Guess things could be worse :/

[Joef]

 Ã‚  Yep. kinda wired huh!   ... no inner ear at all .. But I still "hear" T ... Doc. Described it as phantom pain for the ear … ever hear that amputees have pain’s in the arm or leg is not there. The brain “thinksâ€? its there …just as the hearing section of the brain does not know better. it still thinks it hears ..
 Ã‚   I have a theory… Even been in noisy classroom? You don’t notice that the room next room is also noisy, but when the room is silent … you hear the room next door.
Just like our brains. The normally nosy section of the brain is now silent, (input line was cut -nerve-) so you “hear� the room next door …. Only its not a hearing section … it’s a eye movement section (which is why some of use can “hear� eye movements) and the noise can be constant … we perceive it as Tinnitus

[Patti UT]

Interesting theory Jeof about the "hearing of the eye movement" which would explain the tinnitus getting louder as you move your eyes to the AN side that was discussed in the "play that tune" thread last week.  Which would explain why the only escape from the noise is when your asleep. And maybe why it is what seems to wake me up sometimes. Maybe I'm having REM sleep and my eye movement turns up the volume which wakes me up.  UMMMMMMMMM. Interesting thought.

All I know is that having the AN is bad enough, the tinnitus is just plain torture.  Look at the supplement thread,. Would be interesting for it to stop for a few mnutes to see what silence sounds like.

OH! The inner head symphony is taking requests tonihgt. Any suggestions for good headache music.

Patti UT

[Obita]

Tinnitus bothers me because I SHOULD NOT be able to hear it.  I am deaf in that ear.  I will be forever po'd because of this.  Silent deaf in the left would be most welcome instead of roaring deaf in the left.  However, I am very grateful I don't have the electrical charge, snap, crackle, pop, sparky bizarre noises I had before and after surgery.  Now it is a constant whine/roar that only changes when I move my eyes.  Sure do wish this constant companion would take a day off.  I might just try some supplements if they can't hurt.  Lets start a new thread on this in about a month to see if anyone has seen improvement.

Off to the pharmacy,  Kathy

[tony]

Yes. just to clarify this - you dont "hear" tinnitus
To some degree you sense it (and it sure sounds loud enough)
But with no hearing nerve - you cant literally "hear" anything that side
yet its there of course - I have it so I know its real.
Its a bit like "ghost limb syndrome" where folk sense hot or cold or itching
- where an arm or leg no longer exists
Basically the brain is confused in some way - for example open and close
your eyes - the tone may change - breakthrough from another part of the
nervous system. The older and now redundant part of the brain that used
to get signals from the now departed hearing nerve is still searching
for signals and now picks up "static" or "interference" from other sources
There are things you can do to reduce the effects
there is the american tiinnitus association (5m members ?)
not all ANs - but similar symptoms
best regards
tony

[jcinma]

Does anyone have pulsating tinnitus?
Jane

[Captain Deb]

I have it (pulsatile tinnitus) really bad with a "brainwreck" (bad cluster headache-Kip 8 or so) I also get it from sudden positional changes, but quite briefly. I have noticed that the regular tree-frog tinnitus is less bothersome since I de-caffeinated myself.
Capt Deb

[Road Trip Dale]

I also get tinnitus in the AN ear, but its not as bad as it was prior to surgery.  It flares up real bad in Malls, Walmart, restaurants, etc., anywhere there's a lot of background noise.  It does come in happy sometimes...I have always slept with a fan going for white noise, now all I have to do is sleep on my good ear and the tinnitus acts like a fan, cool huh?

Road Trip is back on line!!

[tony]

Sorry capt are you saying you are seeing frogs in trees as well ?
I`d consider easing off the magic mushrooms (or the moonshine ??)
Best regards
best regards
Tony

[Sue]

Interesting thread. My tinnitus is a fairly constant buzzing/swishing/humming kind of thing. Sometimes a soft beep, beep, beep is thrown in. I sleep with a noisy fan (Thank God my husband doesn't mind!) because it evens out the noise, and I don't lay there just listening to my head. This has been part of my "barganing" phase...Dear Lord, if the tinnitus would just go away, I could live with the hearing loss quite nicely, thank you."  I'm grateful it isn't a real howler, as happens to some people.  I think I've heard that some people have commited suicide because the noise was too loud and wouldn't go away. I found a tinnitus site and found this:

Do you work in silence or in a loud environment? Both are going to wreak havoc on tinnitus. Too quiet, you need to add sound until your daily environment is around 50dB plus or minus. Same with your nightly environment. If you’re a farmer or a construction worker or in an occupation where you are exposed to noise all the time, start wearing ear protection now. But NEVER stay in silence for extended periods. Whistle if you have to. The brain must have alternative auditory stimulus if at all possible to help expedite your tinnitus to reduce in volume and distress. If you are deaf, and a lot of my clients are, then you must learn to do external focusing and self hypnosis, regardless of medications.

It's from this website and this man is selling his book if anyone is interested.
http://www.kevinhogan.com/FAQ.htm


Sue in Vancouver

[Static]

I never realized my eyes made my tinnitus louder, guess I never really gave it any thought.  Learn something new every day!

[Kathleen_Mc]

Yes I have both the regular and pulsitate. I never noticed it pre-op although I have something like 50% hearing loss in that ear. I mostly notice it when I lay down to sleep, some days it really gets on my nerves and I can't get to sleep because of it. There's also the answering of the phone that's not ringing, at home not an issue but at work I get strange looks sometimes!
Kathleen

[antoinette]

My tinnitus fluctuated so much and sometimes so weirdly, long before I knew why it was there. Cicadas can becomes a whistle like air escaping my bike tire. A spoon dropping on the floor make an echo inside my head as loud as an explosion, with the acidity of an electric guitar ( yes I now wonder if the most aggressive Rock& roll are not AN patients reproducing what they hear in their head), I don't need them my brain does the same at no cost to my neighbors. The pulsating still happened once in a while, I am slowly discovering that it is closely linked to what I eat. Chocolate and dairy product increase my tinnitus, coffee is fine if you are expecting a tornado, it will cover the outside racket. Even the decaf affects me. But the pulsating one.... you have to think about what your ate the day before.
In short, if I obey my tinnitus, I will become a Twiggy. Only bread, Italian and day old, slightly salty, make me satisfied with no tinnitus changes. But salt gives me headaches, not bad but tenacious.
I am still searching why I woke up several days lately with no tinnitus in sight. The TV covering it usually is going mute now. I have to know.
antoinette