Tinnitus
It's been a long time since I posted to this blog, but now I have a reasons, and it sucks. So now I am motivated to whine and rant.
A little over two weeks ago I had a ringing in my ears that did not go away. After it persisted for 24+ hours I contacted my primary care physician. He suggested try an antihistamine, Claritin, for a few days to see if it was related to sinus problems. Well it didn't and after a week I got referred to an ENT(ear, nose, throat) doctor.
So yesterday I had the appointment with the ENT and I have tinnitus. They did a hearing test and it turns out my hearing is actually very good. So it doesn't seem related to hearing loss, which is one of the most common causes. The other main cause of persistent ringing is audio trauma, basically a very loud noise. I also have none of the other symptoms for things like a tumor or other diseases associated with ringing ears. So this seems to be just one of those things that happens.
What the doc had to say was basically 'you have tinnitus, it sucks and there isn't really anything I can do'. He did say it might go away on it's own, but I don't want to put any hopes in that and get disappointed. He also said he has had it himself for over 35 years and knows what it's like. He also said that the first 9-12 months are the worst and then most people get used to it.
The real kicker is that there is no single treatment effective for most cases. Most people just have to live with it for the rest of their lives. After a bunch of reading there seems to be a ton of antidotal remedies. Stuff ranging from acupuncture, to herbal remedies, to maskers similar to hearing aids, to surgery, to hypnosis, etc., but nothing across the board.
Sitting at work after the appointment I started getting really bummed out about not being able to do anything to 'fix' the problem.
Trying to get to sleep last night was really bad. The ringing is even more pronounced when things are quite and I usually need things very quite in order to fall asleep. To last night was bad and I'm downright depressed this morning.
If anyone actually reads this you can get more information about tinnitus at the following web sites.
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