Working around Tinnitus at 75yo

[p238shooter]

Interesting comments and shows everyone's ear tinnitus situations are different. Sleeping in a "quiet" room for me helps. I have accidentally fallen asleep with a radio or the TV on and my tinnitus noise was worse when I woke up in the mornings than usual. While I do notice it as the predominate sound in my ears when I wake up in the mornings, I can hear through it for quieter sounds as I mentioned, having morning coffee on my deck listening to some birds chirp through it that I can not hear later in the day after listening to other sounds making my tinnitus louder and masking over those sounds. I have even noticed a difference in winter and summer when the heat or A/C fan is blowing most of the time vs only part time.

 

[Decoligny]

@p238shooter glad you are getting some relief.

I've had pretty loud tinnitus in both ears for so many years I can't even remember when it first started......couple that with having to wear VA supplied hearing aids to hear even without tinnitus means my hearing is pretty bad.

My audiologist and ENT doc both also have tinnitus and each one told me what we all already know and that is there is no cure and if there was they'd have already fixed theirs......sadly it's something that those of us that have it just have to deal with the best way we can.

Not a cure, but a temp treatment. I downloaded an adjustable tone generator on my phone. I use my Bluetooth hearing aids, and start at the lower frequencies and slowly work my way up. When I hit spots where I cannot hear the tone, that’s a frequency where I have lost hearing and the brain fills in the empty space with ringing. I turn up the volume until I can hear the tone and leave it there for a couple minutes. After working all the blank spots, the ringing is significantly diminished for about a week, sometimes longer.

 

[gl89aw]

I’m 77 and have had ear noise for over 40 years. My wife thinks I’m hard of hearing but is nice and puts up with the tv or radio playing loud. What I hear isn’t exactly a ringing sound. It’s more like a symphony of insects most people hear when sitting out on the porch in the evening. Does anyone else hear noises like that?

 

[sh00ter]

Look into Taurine as a supplement...will help you sleep and helps ringing for some people. Also wards off heart disease.

 

[foghorn918]

I’m 77 and have had ear noise for over 40 years. My wife thinks I’m hard of hearing but is nice and puts up with the tv or radio playing loud. What I hear isn’t exactly a ringing sound. It’s more like a symphony of insects most people hear when sitting out on the porch in the evening. Does anyone else hear noises like that?

What I hear sounds more like a Cicada noise (what we called locust)
When I try describe to family they just don't get it

 

[p238shooter]

Not a cure, but a temp treatment. I downloaded an adjustable tone generator on my phone. I use my Bluetooth hearing aids, and start at the lower frequencies and slowly work my way up. When I hit spots where I cannot hear the tone, that’s a frequency where I have lost hearing and the brain fills in the empty space with ringing. I turn up the volume until I can hear the tone and leave it there for a couple minutes. After working all the blank spots, the ringing is significantly diminished for about a week, sometimes longer.

I do have a lot of high frequency hearing loss. I do not have blue tooth hearing aids, but I can most likely try doing something similar with standard ear buds. Yep, will certainly give that a try also. The ear bones have helped it not increase during the day, but relieving any of what I start out with in the morning is worth trying. Thanks for the post.

Usually there is enough background noise that I don't notice the T during the day. It's at night I notice it when it is quite. Really makes me mad when I am trying to hear low sounds and the ringing drowns it out. Very difficult to judge sound direction.

Yes, and for me reducing the daily "noise" reduces that effect somewhat for the evenings for me. Its like I no longer have cotton balls in my ears that have collected up during the day and I can still hear some of the faint sounds I could hear in the mornings since using the ear bones.

What I hear isn’t exactly a ringing sound. It’s more like a symphony of insects most people hear when sitting out on the porch in the evening. Does anyone else hear noises like that?

Yes, I have found each person describes it differently and most likely hears it differently. I use to describe it as an old FM radio off station with a fuzzy higher pitched tones to it, some people hear ringing tones, some people just static, and yes similar for me at higher pitch than locust type sounds. I am sure every ones is a little different. To me if you are in a silent situation and hear something constant that is not your furnace fan, refrigerator from the kitchen, computer fan, etc, that is the effect of T.

Look into Taurine as a supplement...will help you sleep and helps ringing for some people. Also wards off heart disease.

Myself, I have tried a couple months of several spices and some of the "drugs" advertised with little success. It seems different things work for different people.

What I hear sounds more like a Cicada noise (what we called locust)
When I try describe to family they just don't get it

I had the same situation with my ex wife several years ago. We were out on the deck one evening and apparently the locust were very loud. She stated it was so loud she was going to have to go inside. I had an opportunity to explain to her that I could just barely hear them above what I hear all the time in my ears and actually it was a similar sound to my ears that I have to work with day and night 24/7. I think she finally got it.

Thanks for every ones input of their experiences, things that they have tried and what has worked for them. Like me, I have recently found something that has helped me, may or may not help others. My self I am always open to trying something else to help more.

 

[gl89aw]

That’s a better description, my family don’t get it either

 

[2busy]

Yes I thought my computer fan was going out , thought it was the bearing/ bushing getting ready to seize.

 

[okietool]

Tinnitus Causes and Exercises for Relief » Mayo Clinic Connect

 

[JH47]

My hearing aids have a tinnitus function. It provides some white noise background at varying levels and frequency. It helps a lot.

I have a slight amount from thousands of helicopter hours, years working on flightlines and other turbine engines. If it bothers me at night, noise canceling headphones knock it down quite a bit.