Tinnitus

[rockits]

Not sure I 100% follow but my Seagull was facing left Does it matter and just the fact you knew clearly which way it was facing?

 

[Wanderer]

Not sure I 100% follow but my Seagull was facing left Does it matter and just the fact you knew clearly which way it was facing?

So was mine! Probably the same seagull!

I've got that thing where with my eyes closed at night trying to sleep, my brain makes images in the blackness, there's a name for it but I can't remember it.

 

[MarkMas]

Not sure I 100% follow but my Seagull was facing left Does it matter and just the fact you knew clearly which way it was facing?

Basically, if you know which way it was facing (doesn't matter which way), then you know that you really did visualise the seagull. People with Aphantasia spend much of their lives hearing people say things like 'visualise a triangle' or 'imagine you are seeing a seagull' and they respond 'uh-huh, yes' and tell themselves they are doing it, but really they are seeing nothing. Their inability to report which way the seagull is facing makes it clear to them that they really didn't visualise anything, just thought 'yup, seagull, wall, got it'. That at least is my personal experience and how the test seems to go.

If you ask people to count sheep to go to sleep, most people really do see a parade of sheep in their 'mind's eye'. I just say to myself, 'sheep, another sheep, another sheep...'

 

[jasst]

I suffer from mild tinnitus in my left ear, I also have noise induced hearing loss in my left ear, caused by working in agriculture from childhood till the age of 40. Have had various hearing tests over the last few years, and according to the NHS my hearing loss does not warrant a hearing aid, been to a couple of independent specialists, and they say I would benefit from a hearing aid (but they would, wouldn't they). NHS attitude to tinnitus is that there is nothing that can be done about it. So used to it now, that I tend not to think about it, doesn't really affect my every day life, but my problem is trying to have a conversation in a noisy environment, then I find it extremely hard to hear whats being said to me. Have shied away from hearing aid due to friends less than satisfactory experience with them, and the fact that for what they are they are bl**dy expensive.

 

[FIFTY]

I am pretty sure that I have it mildly


Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh


It's annoying when you point it out. Pretty sure I did the damage via standing next to the giant stacks at raves and giggs with no hearing protection during my "yoof". Nowadays I keep a pair of ear plugs on my key chain at all times

 

[MarkMas]

As it happens, this came up on Imgur today:

[URL="http://www.imgur.com/fExEOvy[/URL]"]www.imgur.com/fExEOvy[/URL]

Maybe some of the comments (and jokes) might help.

 

[Vampyrebat]

Never thought I would discuss this on here, but as this strikes so close to home, here goes !

I suffer from a rare condition known as 'Visual Snow'. it is a condition that the medical field have recently acknowledged as a condition, there is no cure as of yet but Neurologists are looking into it. We all share many symptoms and of varying severity. One thing we all have is vision like you are watching an old analogue TV that is not tuned in correctly (static) also vision at night is very poor.



I have had this for 30 years and gave up seeing Doctors as they were all clueless!! After a few years I gave up and got use to it (and in fact didn't notice it for days on end).
5 years ago I acquired more symptoms out of the blue, these were Tinnitus/dizziness/many eye floaters (noticeable all the time not just on bright days or white walls/pressure in the head/Depersonalization/Depression. I didn't think these new symptoms were related until I went for a standard eye test and the lady asked me if there was anything I wanted to discuss about eyes. I thought I would mention it to her and she came back with, this sounds like a new condition that the medical field have become aware of.
I went back home and googled 'Visual Snow' and it all fell into place!! I must admit I felt Euphoric as I wasn't mad or imagining it, it had a name and there are others out there going through this sh!t as well!!
Anyway..........Long story short, approx. 70-75% of VS sufferers also have Tinnitus.
I have spent hundreds/thousands of pounds trying to find a solution for the Tinnitus as this is my worst condition, being told by ENT's that you have it for life put me in a deep dark place that I am still crawling out of!!

My auditory conditions sound very much like a condition known as Eustachian Tube Dysfunction and there is a new treatment for this that has had a good success rate called Tubolasy (inserting balloons in the Eustachian tubes and inflating. I am seeing a consultant this Friday who does this procedure so fingers crossed he can help me!!

 

[Wanderer]

I have eye-floaters too. God I'm falling apart.....

 

[Vampyrebat]

I have about 16 (though it's so fcuking hard to count them when they are swirling everywhere)!!

 

[Wanderer]

Let's start a 'who's got the most wrong with them' thread...

Me:

1. Possible tinnitus
2. Arrhythmia
3. Eye floaters
4. Fat Back

That's not too bad actually....

 

[Scaf]

Turned out to be a acoustic neuroma, which is very rare. They grow slow over decades and can be operated on... but for them it is too large and the risk too great...so they intend to live with it as it may stay as it is for ever now.

You now know two people with that rare condition.
I had to have an operation to remove mine as even as a slow growing tumour because of my age it would have killed me or at least left me incapacitated but the time I reached 60.

I still have tinnitus caused by nerve damage and am left with using coping strategies (ignoring it) as I am not aware of any real cure.

To cap it all I am deaf in one ear - the only thing I can hear on my right side is the flipping tinnitus!

 

[allandwf]

I have eye-floaters too. God I'm falling apart.....

Me too, but did have detached retina op a couple of years ago. Due to old age I was told,

 

[jw38]

I was diagnosed with tinnitus several years after I retired from the US Air Force. I was in Law Enforcement, so I spent a lot of time with firearms and during the Gulf War in 1991, not only was I exposed to a significant amount of gun and weapons fire, I was also severely wounded while assisting with the rescue of a downed aircrew. On a side note, I was stationed at RAF Lakenheath and was deployed to the Gulf. My 3 years at RAF Lakenheath were the most fun of my 20-year career! I was shot in the neck and in the hip, and as a result of these injuries, I've undergone 13 spinal surgeries. My spine is fused from C2 to T2 and it's supported with two titanium rods and 32 screws.

Several years after I retired, I began to notice a loud ringing sound in both ears, and as others have said in this thread, I chose to ignore it thinking that it was just part of the aging process. After my wife demanded that I see a hearing specialist, I was diagnosed by the Veterans Administration with major hearing loss and tinnitus in both ears. At the time (late 90s), while hearing aids helped with the hearing loss, there really was no treatment for the tinnitus. My doctors told me that the tinnitus had been caused by a combination of the loud noises and nerve damage caused as a result of the injury to my neck. I learned to live with the tinnitus, although at times it was quite distracting. Over time, the effects of the tinnitus became worse and it got to a point where it was almost unbearable. A constant, high-pitched ringing in both ears that would vary in intensity from hour to hour.

Fast forward to about 3 years ago and I was back at the Veteran's Administration for my annual hearing exam. My hearing loss had stabilized but the tinnitus was getting worse and worse. The audiologist told me about new hearing aids that reportedly suppress the tinnitus sound by sending opposing sound waves to the ears It's very similar to a noise cancelling headset. I was given a hearing exam that tested different sound frequencies and the hearing aids are adjusted to the frequency that best cancels the tinnitus noise. I was one of the first patients at the VA to be provided with these new hearing aids. I was absolutely astounded by the difference they made and I'm now on my third pair. The technology in the hearing aids has progressed to the point where I no longer hear any of the ringing sound in my ears. They have completely changed my life, as I am now much more engaged with people and I'm not distracted by the ringing sound in my ears.

It my be worth a shot to check with your audiologist to see if this type of hearing aid is available to you and if so, if he/she thinks they might help. In my case I'm lucky because the Veteran's Administration pays for them. If I had to purchase them myself, my out of pocket cost would be in the range of $7500...certainly not cheap, but well worth the price for the relief they provide.

 

[hunta]

The only other odd thing I used to get is 'aura', like epileptics get before a Grand Mal Seizure, it's like a feeling of total rapture and detachment, starts in tummy and seems to want to expand but doesn't last long enough, I used to enjoy them, had then when I was driving and never effected my ability, bit felt like I'd lost 30/60 secs to a dream state. I could feel one coming on and tried to encourage it bit as I've got older, they've never happened. I do wonder if there's some brain wire thing with the noise I hear....

Google it - Aura, epilepsy.

Have you been checked for epilepsy? Does sound a bit like a petit mal seizure. I have grand mals, and mentioned it to a bloke at work once (best to be open about these things!) and he was amazed at recognising some elements of the aura. Turned out he was having petit mals, and it was easily treated.

 

[hunta]

Totally worth getting this checked. I know as I was there.

For me wasn't / isn't stroke at all, but migraine for the visual disturbance (I also get the ones with the pain, but nothing like some people do and that rarely)
The words thing happens to most people on and off. Again, I know exactly what you mean and I have exactly the same coping mechanism. Which is generally recommended for anyone trying to be persuasive anyway. Speaking fast is often interpreted as having something to hide!

C

I'd second the need to get it checked. I get migraines (as well as the epilepsy, see above ) and your description of this visual aura sounds familiar. Migraines aren't always accompanied by a headache...

Definitely worth checking it's nothing else though. Then you can get on with just living with it.

 

[Wanderer]

Have you been checked for epilepsy? Does sound a bit like a petit mal seizure. I have grand mals, and mentioned it to a bloke at work once (best to be open about these things!) and he was amazed at recognising some elements of the aura. Turned out he was having petit mals, and it was easily treated.

I did go to doctor, and was more or less laughed out of the surgery. It was a fair time ago, 80's I had them regularly then on and off, last one I can remember exactly where was, M74 heading North, after Beattock. around 2001.

Nowt since.

Doc said it was sugar intake!

 

[lifes2short]

bugger me, I'm really getting depressed now as I think I have all the above and more, wife already says I'm hypochondriac without reading this lot now, cant wait to tell her

 

[mjheathcote]

but my problem is trying to have a conversation in a noisy environment, then I find it extremely hard to hear whats being said to me.

Likewise, very difficult, although for me it has been a problem for a long time.

 

[mjheathcote]

Let's start a 'who's got the most wrong with them' thread...

Me:

1. Possible tinnitus
2. Arrhythmia
3. Eye floaters
4. Fat Back

That's not too bad actually....

Dupuytren's contracture is a problem for me was first diagnosed with it in my late 30's, really young, operation on my right hand about 5 years ago but growing back on both hands so will have problems again in the future.

 

[CatmanV2]

I have eye-floaters too. God I'm falling apart.....

Everybody has floaters.

C