Tinnitus - The end of the road for me.

[Stephen Fortner]

Curious, has anyone ever had a form of it that's at a low pitch? I hear a faint hum all the time (unless louder external sounds are drowning it out), I've matched it on a synth, and it comes in right around the notorious 250 Hz. The frequency that engineers notch out because it makes bass sound honky. Doctors haven't made sense of it other than to tell me that it's likely neurological but non-threatening. I've had it for about the past ten years and it's followed me from one coast to another so I know it's not something external or regional.

[sherry]

I've had it for about ten years.  Super high pitch, constant, never goes away.  More in my left ear than right.  Of course, I have always set up stage right with the drummer's cymbals to my left.  I KNOW I suffer this from those friggin cymbals.  I use molded IEM's right now and it helps a lot, but I have to be very careful not to turn up the volume too high using those.  Wish there was something that could help, but I've done a fair amount of research, seen a couple doctors and I'm sure I'll never hear silence again.  Sad.

[Rod S]

17 hours ago, Stephen Fortner said:

Curious, has anyone ever had a form of it that's at a low pitch? I hear a faint hum all the time (unless louder external sounds are drowning it out), I've matched it on a synth, and it comes in right around the notorious 250 Hz. The frequency that engineers notch out because it makes bass sound honky. Doctors haven't made sense of it other than to tell me that it's likely neurological but non-threatening. I've had it for about the past ten years and it's followed me from one coast to another so I know it's not something external or regional.

The closest thing I can think of it pulsatile Tinnitus, but it's typically more of a whooshing / thumping sound than a hum, but it's the only low frequency problem I've heard.  I had it once because of an ear infection and it freaked me out (stress played a part as well I think).  Woke up at night thinking what the hell the neighbor was up to, when I realized the noise was in my head (low frequency cyclical noise with my heartbeat, similar to the sound from a baby ultrasound equipment).    Went away.   From what I researched at the time, there are a lot of causes. 

[Bif_]

Many sincere thanks to all the comments and gestures of support and understanding. It is as I expected it would be because of the support I've seen many have given to others here. 

 

Yes, it is helpful to hear others stories, what you're dealing with, how you cope. I'm sorry for all that are experiencing this, and it sounds like some of you are dealing with worse circumstances than mine. I'm so sorry. 

 

My challenge has been that my symptoms have continued to worsen since last June. If it would stabilize at a level then I think I absolutely could learn to ignore it. It's just that it keeps changing, which concerns me, all just a vicious cycle. My visits with my audiolgist have given me reassurance that there are other treatment options, but then again, the sound increases. 

 

I've also thought, that if I won the lottery, or was instantly healthier, or whatever good thing I can imagine, I'll still have tinnitus. That is a sobering thought. I also have learned through my tinnitus retraining therapy that although the sound seems abnormal, I must learn to accept it as normal. As many have written, focusing on other things, and NOT focusing on the tinnitus, makes it seemingly disappear.

 

For those that don't know, what this really means isn't that the sound goes away, it just means that there are times throughout my day where I say "Hey, I haven't noticed my tinnitus for the past 3 hours," and at that exact moment, it is fully apparent again. Yeah, that's how tinnitus works. Talk about it, think about, it seems worse. 

 

YES PLEASE, PROTECT YOUR HEARING. 

 

I'm passionate about this and have sincere concern for all that may think they can continue to abuse their very delicate hearing instruments. 

 

 

[AUSSIEKEYS]

Do you experience "blub blub blub" in your ear. Both sound and motion.

 

 

Here's something I remember which i fortunately havent faced for a long time. Every band i was in after my left ear was damaged by an exploding cymbol i experience this very annoying and worrying

"Blub blub blub blub blub" sound and a physical motion mimicking the blub blub blub sound in my ear.  Only in that bad ear.

 

Yes i could feel it too not only hear it. And it didnt just apply to when i was playing infact it moreso happened after and between gigs constantly. 

 

Obviously its caused by a damaged ear i dont think anything to do with tinnitus

 

After a long period between bands and before joining the last 2 recent bands i didnt really experience it again it seemed to have repaired itself in time with no band input.

 

(maybe i remember just once happening with the shrill guitarist who didnt know how to setup his sound) i quickly bought special earplugs.

 

Basically that blub blub blub that plagued me for years didnt really reappear when these 2 new bands i was in didnt rely on a "wall of sound".

 

The shrill guitarist was a worry indeed but i did use earplugs during rehearsal but the replacing guitarist was very careful with his volume and sound.. making the band an earhole pleasure that i no longer had to wear earplugs.

 

Missing that earhole pleasure after a member became an areshole.  hee hee 

 

Do you blub blub blub?

 

 

[Bif_]

8 minutes ago, AUSSIEKEYS said:

Do you experience "blub blub blub" in your ear. Both sound and motion.

 

 

No, I have high frequency tones, sine wave like, in both ears. And not just a single tone, but mutiple ones at different levels. They're in the 8.8K range. 

[AUSSIEKEYS]

18 minutes ago, Bif_ said:

 

No, I have high frequency tones, sine wave like, in both ears. And not just a single tone, but mutiple ones at different levels. They're in the 8.8K range. 

 

Its good you havent copped the blub blub. I have severe tinitus too especially in my worse damaged ear.

 

I was wondering if any one experiences this blub blub condition too or separately or in conjunction with tinitus.

 

Obviously my damaged left ear tinitus far deafens out my right ears tinitus. Although i can hear the right ear tinitus the left dominates. Stands to reason the explosion in my left ear did more damage than my right has copped.

 

Im curious how many others have or have had a pyhsical reminder of the damage done to an ear other than a frequency reminder. Is it my eardrum bouncing ???

 

My feeling is the blub blub blub is damage done to the eardrum itself not just the stereocilia

[Anderton]

On 10/24/2022 at 12:17 PM, AnotherScott said:

 

At first I thought this wouldn't be for me, because I don't use IEM. But your last sentence re-raised my eyebrow. At a concert/movie, there is no direct feed of any sound (no IEM functionality)... so then you are strictly using these things to modulate how much or how little of the outside world reaches your ear, right? So is there any reason that wouldn't be a perfectly viable improvement over standard earplugs even if used only to allow you to reduce how much stage volume you're hearing? If you don't need the IEM function (you're not going to feed an external source into the earplugs), is there a less pricey alternative to this, that still maintains high quality sound from the outside world, but lets you dial in how much or how little of it you want?

 

Yes, you can use these as "variable-level earplugs." For onstage use, I would think a major advantage would be there are mics in each ear, so the sound "moves" with you in a binaural way that wouldn't happen with headphones. 

 

As to less pricey alternative, sorry, I don't know of any. But maybe you've just given ASI a new idea for a product. I'll reach out to the company, and let them know this thread exists. 

[kaptainkeys]

3 hours ago, Anderton said:

As to less pricey alternative, sorry, I don't know of any. But maybe you've just given ASI a new idea for a product. I'll reach out to the company, and let them know this thread exists. 

If you didn't care about the ability to change the volume of the outside noise, the Westone IEMs that have portholes in them to let in some ambient noise don't seem like a bad idea that is likely considerably cheaper.

[Sean M. H.]

One thing that this thread has taught me is that Tinnitus can actually be caused by a singular burst of sound...that is downright scary!!!  I had always assumed--for whatever reason--that the condition was accumulative...that it came from years and years of regular exposure to loud sound.

[CyberGene]

4 hours ago, Sean M. H. said:

One thing that this thread has taught me is that Tinnitus can actually be caused by a singular burst of sound...that is downright scary!!!  I had always assumed--for whatever reason--that the condition was accumulative...that it came from years and years of regular exposure to loud sound.

I think both are required. You need a certain amount of cumulative high noise exposure after which a single burst would be enough to trigger the tinnitus. 

[Rofox]

Despite using 30 and 60w RMS amps in the 60's, ringing in the ears after a gig was normal and would go away by the following morning - until it didn't.

A succession of loud bands followed until '73 and I went solo and could control the volume.

Several comments stuck a chord, particularly XKnuckles allusion to selective hearing.  I think I've learnt to dial it out. If I choose to think about it it comes whooshing back but most of the time it's in the background.  I'm sure hearing aids, which I've worn for 12 years, help by amplifying what you want to hear.

Stephen Fortner's mention of low frequencies also resonated - when lying in bed and having tuned out the tinnitus highs a low hum becomes apparent similar to multiple 4 or 5 foot fans running on a distant cooler.
Of course the biggest downside of tinnitus and hearing loss is that you only have the vaguest idea how the tone you're carefully crafting actually sound.
I don't know if I can offer any words of comfort Bif_ we both have to manage it as best we can but I believe it can be tuned out and hearing aids have definitely helped me.  Good luck in you struggle to overcome it.

[Bif_]

@Rofox Thanks for your encouragement and relating youre experiences. It is helpful to understand what others are dealing with.

 

A friend sent me this article just today. It may offer encouragement for others regarding cause and treatment. 

 

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220523/Pfizer-COVID-19-vaccine-associated-tinnitus-responds-to-transcranial-magnetic-stimulation.aspx