What kinds of noises do you hear?

[Debbi]

Hi All-

I am just curious as to what sorts of noises people get in their deaf ears?  For the first couple of days post op I had some very intense noises - loud drilling sounds, voices, a lower pitched buzzing.  These all seem to have gone away at about day two, so am not sure if they were drug-induced, try tinnitis, or surgical noise memory?

Since then, the noises I hear are mainly a low-frequency chirping and sometimes a noise like an echo cardiogram which seems to follow my heartbeat (almost like I can "hear" the blood whooshing through my veins?)  This isnt a constant, but does come and go, mostly when I am laying down.  BTW, I had NO tinnitus before surgery.

What have others experienced?

Debbi - listening to the bird singing in my ear...

[Kaybo]

Debbi~
For some reason I hear LOTS of kids voices - shouting & giggling - and dogs barking........HMMMMMMMMMMMM.....

K

[leapyrtwins]

Debbi -

I have no noises of any kind in my deaf ear - just stone silence.  I didn't have tinnitus before my AN surgery either.  I guess I'm just lucky - or weird - whichever way you care to look at it   

Jan

[yardtick]

Debbi,

Sometimes I think I hear the door bell ringing.  My sons look at me like I've lost it!!!  Really deep, low men's voices really bother me.  If we are driving and someone has a boom box in their car and the music is on with the base full blast, it goes right through me.  I cannot describe the sensation but it is like I'm being tortured.  When I go into the vault at work or a bus passes me, I get this weird tunnel like sensation, with whoa, whoa noise.  Nuts isn't it!   

A lot of the time I have a hard time figuring out where a voice is coming from.  Especially at work.  It is so noisy to begin with and if someone calls my name, I'm like a deer in the headlights.
My sons get annoyed if I don't answer them right away when they call me.  I'm normally cooking, was dishes or in the laundry room with the washer and dryer going so I really can't hear them.  It's just payback for all the times they ignored me!!!

Anne Marie

[lori67]

When the phone rings, I hear what sounds like someone snapping a rubber band in my deaf ear.  Kind of a "pingggggggg" sound.  And when I'm just about to fall asleep, I sometimes hear what sounds like wind blowing.  When I pick my head up off the pillow to see if it's actually windy outside - it's not.  I guess it's just that windtunnel in between my ears making all that noise!

Other than that, it's pretty quite on that side of my head.  Now, the other side must be really good because I can also hear Kay's kids and dogs!

Lori

[chocolatetruffle]

i had tinnitis for many years (high frequency ringing) and a few months before my surgery i also had the whooshing sound of my heart beat in my GOOD ear.  Immediately after my surgery, i hear people talking, i hear someone vacuuming the floor, i even hear someone singing    thank goodness it only lasted for a couple of days

Now i get a continuous low muted ringing which could increase depending on the noise around me, but it did not really brother me as i am so used to tinnitis.  However, occasionally i get this static, firing sound that goes ZAP!!!! - this only happens when i hear a slight noise in my good ear, and for the first few months, i also see a quick flash in my eyes whenever i got "zapped".  really weird and i have not seen anyone posted this particular experience but i read somewhere in this forum that the firing sound is due to the severed nerve's memory.  but how about the flash in the eyes? anyone got this experience?

[Melissa778]

I have no real "tinnitus" now...and I ahve 100% hearing, so I'm curious to see what my outcome will be.  I do get the Wind-tunnel effect like Lori, and I have the heart thumping, blood woshing sound quite alot too.....going to be a major adjustment I think.  I hope this improves for you Debbi.

Melissa......chewing fingers, as I now have no nails left.......71 hours and counting....

[Debbi]

Well, at least mine seems to be diminishing daily.  Last night I only heard the little chirping noises for a little while. Pirate smile and non-blinking eye aside, I really have been very lucky not to have some of the other compications. 

Debbi (chirping in NJ - and helping Melissa countdown)

[4cm in Pacific Northwest]

I have had this very high frequency tinnitus noise since I was a tween. I fell off a ladder (2 stories) as I was locked out of the house… and tried to climb though a window…  the ladder slipped.

I really think this was the birth of my AN tumor- not so much the concussion but more likely the 1970’s radiation level head x-ray that followed in the emergency room after the fall.

Mine seems to be directly related to input sound. If I am sitting upright in a totally quite space- I have no ringing at all. If I am in an air-conditioned building it is tenfold. Post surgery it was the constant sound compared to a refrigerator compressor ( low and resonating). I actually made my husband replace our old deep freezer as I was quite convinced that it was resonating through the wall (the master suite is one floor up from the garage and the freezer was plugged into that shared wall) thus I thought “logicalâ€?. I won’t even start on all the other things  that I had him either repair of replace: the cell phone that must have been broken as it sounded so muffles (I was using the AN ear back then for the phone  ) … or the left speaker in the family van I was quite convinced was shot (my AN was in the left  )

Now I only get that sound if I am very fatigued, ate too much salt and/or laying horizontal. On really fatigued days, when I lay down, I get these electrical shock sensations (body almost convulses alongside) that randomly ping loudly through the ear (I am wondering if I am having pooling of dura fluid near the ear drum.) However it is becoming less frequent as surgery is now further behind me… and the brain (& brain stem) is readjusting shape and form - that was previously taken up by tumor.

I am curious as to how ANA posties here have had changes in their tinnitus from pre-op to post-op. I have also discovered that doing stretching of the head, neck and spine muscles can change the tinnitus frequency level… so I wonder what the physiology explanation is for that.

When I look at this self portrait of Van Gogh after he cut off his ear...
http://www.vggallery.com/painting/p_0527.htm

...I wonder firstly if he had a major case of tinnitus that just drove him insane… and secondly I wonder if he may have had an acoustic neuroma tumor that was never diagnose because there were no MRI’s in his day. We know he had excess lead exposure because analysis of this has been found in the paint in his artwork.

“Tinnitus?�- MMMMM??? Has many of us asking questions…

Debbie- this a great thread you started. I hope everyone chirps in with all their bells and whistles stories…

Daisy Head Mazy

[Debbi]

Hhmmm - very interesting that laying horizontal and salt increase the tinnitis.  Now that you mention it, I definitely noitice more noise when I am laying down.  I'll have to start paying more attention to other things that may trigger it.  Thanks, Daisy Head!

[4cm in Pacific Northwest]

Debbi,

There is always naturally some fluid surrounding the ear drum- but somehow I think both the AN tumor and the AN treatments alters this level of fluid and maybe that is part of it. I am hoping someone comes up with a sound physiological explanation as to why the tinnitus changes when we are horizontal.

I think it might be much like a construction level type ruler with water bubbles on either end- or how it changes as it is moved from vertical to horizontal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_level
I also think that those of us who lost 100% hearing (or had the vestibular nerve snipped to get the tumor out) that we are sort of like that level ruler (or spirit level is the “technical term�) but one of the water bubbles was removed. We have to work twice as hard to keep the ruler actually level as only one of the gage bubbles functions properly. It is like the other bubble just malfunctioned and is sloshing around- creating tinnitus.

I also feel that this is why so many AN patients complain of fatigue. Our brain is working twice has hard to maintain balance compared to the average 2 hearing eared functioning healthy person.


Is that a crazy analogy or what?


Signed,

Daisy Head Mazy
(With a spirit level in her tool belt LOL)

[lori67]

Daisy - or should I call you Mazy??

Are you saying we're not level-headed anymore?? 

I think I already know the answer to that...

Un-level Lori

[4cm in Pacific Northwest]

Lori,

You ARE funny.  

Daisy Head Mazy

[Kathleen_Mc]

At times to sound like I have a sea shell on my ear, I hear ringing like the phone/doorbell, high pitched squeeling. Has been the same in the "deaf" ear since the surgery 18 years ago.

[GM]

In my AN ear I hear mostly the same tone like the one you would hear in an extremely quiet room…image nothing is on, no noise at all…that “pitch� …is my noise.

Now on days that I get extra “treatsâ€? from my AN ear.  I have more of an occasional “ringâ€? like when you wet your finger and run it along the rim of a wine glass?  Especially if I run my hand on my non-AN ear…along the outside edge…I get that wine glass “ringâ€? in my AN ear...wierd huh?

I’ve noticed on those “wine glass ring� days my tinnitus in my AN ear is louder…fortunately it doesn’t stay long.

Gary