[Centauri]

So 4 days of cortisone has taken away the physical soreness/pain around my ears, but the ringing has only subsided a little (though it does fluctuate now, which it didn't before). Now apparently comes Stage 2: Acupuncture. First session of that is tomorrow.
 
Crap.

 

[Bob_McBob]

When do you get to the homeopathic remedies?

 

[balderon]

Quote:

So 4 days of cortisone has taken away the physical soreness/pain around my ears, but the ringing has only subsided a little (though it does fluctuate now, which it didn't before). Now apparently comes Stage 2: Acupuncture. First session of that is tomorrow.
 
Crap.

I wish the best of luck with the treatments.

 

[Barnaby]

hope you're feeling better!

 

[Centauri]

Thanks.
 
But I honestly don't know... I think it's at the point where any improvement in the severity of the ringing has been so progressive that I'm not really seeing it, if it actually has improved.
 
Two positive points, I guess; it doesn't seem to be in both ears so much as in the left (or I've become 'intimate' enough with the ringing to finally be able to distinguish side from side) and it seems to fluctuate in intensity; last night I was walking around the house and noticing that it was damn close to gone, only to have it double up a short while later.
 
Still doing the acupuncture daily with sessions scheduled into next week.
 
Worthless Warning: Don't accidentally damage your hearing, kids!

 

[chadbang]

You'll be okay. It takes time. I hurt my ears several times with headphones. Sometimes I took three days, once two weeks and the final time - about a year.  Thank god for the human body's recuperative powers. But apparently it doesn't always work. If you go out and shoot skeet without earplugs for a couple sessions, welcome to permanent tinitus. In your case, I expected it to last a couple days or so.  A large part of tinitus is that you FOCUS on the ringing. You're probably now focused on a very minor ringing that was there before! We all have some degree of head noise, but when you do something like hurt your ears, you're suddenly hyperaware of that noise. So chill out and relax. But I recommended waiting a month or two before testing the waters with headphones. Remember, Pete Townshend, a major tinitus suffer, finally said after years of battling the disease, that he believes his tinitus came from headphone use in the studio, and NOT for The Who's onstage antics.

 

[WhiteCrow]

HAVE FUN NEVER HEARING THOSE FREQUENCIES EVER AGAIN IN YOUR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!  

 

[Centauri]

^Thanks for that, uhmmm, contribution. 
 
Anyways, acupuncture continued daily through today. IVs of something continued through last week. Now they've stopped the acupuncture and put me on a twice-daily high gingko dosage. My daily visits are over and I've instructions to chill out, take my gingko and come back in two weeks.
 
Things have been getting progressively better, but slower than I had hoped. I'm quite sure my right ear is fine. My left ear is still stealing the show, but the frequency of the ringing has come down to something far less annoying, which has allowed accompanying tooth pains (which were sometimes quite intense) to subside almost entirely.
 
I tell ya... Seeing first hand how something as delicate as hearing damage is treated has been an education. Definitely not the type of thing I would have imagined beforehand.

 

[Vikingatheart]

This last summer I saw Iron Maiden live. VIP front row seats, dead center. Really a dream come true. Everything about it was totally perfect except when I woke up the next morning I had horrible ringing in my ears. I thought that it would go away by that night or maybe the next morning. Wrong. The ringing lasted 6 days and FINALLY went away. I don't notice any permanent damage, and my ears only ring when I'm sick (like right now 

) It's good to hear that you are going to acupuncture now and that you saw that doctor. I hope yours goes away as mine did. Best of luck! 

 

[balderon]

Quote:

My left ear is still stealing the show, but the frequency of the ringing has come down to something far less annoying, which has allowed accompanying tooth pains (which were sometimes quite intense) to subside almost entirely.  

Silly question. Are you saying the pitch of the ringing has changed or how frequently the ringing occurs? I am guessing the rate of re-occurrence has changed.
 
 

 

[mongolianfly]

A few years ago, a similar incident occurred where a PSU blew up in front of me. I've found that loud noises exacerbate the tinnitus, so you should avoid them for a while. It might not ever completely go away.

 

[Centauri]

Quote:

This last summer I saw Iron Maiden live. VIP front row seats, dead center. Really a dream come true. Everything about it was totally perfect except when I woke up the next morning I had horrible ringing in my ears. I thought that it would go away by that night or maybe the next morning. Wrong. The ringing lasted 6 days and FINALLY went away. I don't notice any permanent damage, and my ears only ring when I'm sick (like right now 

) It's good to hear that you are going to acupuncture now and that you saw that doctor. I hope yours goes away as mine did. Best of luck! 

Thanks chief. I'm more hopeful now than I was a few weeks ago since I've noticed an audible improvement, while in the first week or so things seemed to be pretty constant.
 
Aside from a few quickies a week or so ago, I've gone gold turkey on headphones for the moment. Plus I put in ear plugs when vacuuming... etc. Just trying to not exacerbate anything.
 
And on that note... I think I will wear ear plugs from now on when vacuuming, regardless. I never really noticed before how much louder a vacuum is than just about anything else you're around in a day or even in a week.
 

 
Quote:

Quote:

My left ear is still stealing the show, but the frequency of the ringing has come down to something far less annoying, which has allowed accompanying tooth pains (which were sometimes quite intense) to subside almost entirely.  

Silly question. Are you saying the pitch of the ringing has changed or how frequently the ringing occurs? I am guessing the rate of re-occurrence has changed.
 
 

 
The ringing has been constant since the moment it started. But the, I don't know the terminology perfectly, but the tone has come down? It's less intense. I think it's just as loud but it's less of a 'shreak' than it was in the beginning.
 
Quote:

A few years ago, a similar incident occurred where a PSU blew up in front of me. I've found that loud noises exacerbate the tinnitus, so you should avoid them for a while. It might not ever completely go away.

 
Yeah, I've already thought about that myself. But I'd rather get stuck with what I have now than what I had two week ago, for sure. Before it was a 'punishment', now it's more of a 'reminder'.

 

[BobSaysHi]

Something weird happens to me.
 
Sometimes, randomly, the sound just stops in my left ear. I'll be sitting in class, and all sounds stop in my left ear for like 2-10 seconds and a loud ringing occurs. Sometimes it happens twice a day, other times once a week.
 
Should I be concerned? 

 

[Vikingatheart]

Quote:

Something weird happens to me.
 
Sometimes, randomly, the sound just stops in my left ear. I'll be sitting in class, and all sounds stop in my left ear for like 2-10 seconds and a loud ringing occurs. Sometimes it happens twice a day, other times once a week.
 
Should I be concerned? 

This happens to me as well. I really don't know what to think of it. Something else though that has me wondering, is my ears literally seem to move to the direction of wherever sound is coming from. I know that must sound like a load of crap, but this seriously happens to me. If I am listening to music (headphones or not) or watching TV and someone calls for me or says something, my ears will "flex" open and I can hear them really clearly. I think I may be evolving 

 

 It honestly feels a bit weird and I'm not sure if I like it.
 

 

[Ambience]

Good to hear you are recovering. This should come as a warning to all of us how easy it is!