Musicians and tinnitus

[Spudman***]

I've posted this before, but if you missed it you might want to read it. It's from Discover Magazine last October. It's not good news for tinnitus sufferers. The good news though is that you can spread the word to be proactive before you end up with it.

http://discovermagazine.com/2010/oct...hterm=tinnitus

[street music]

I remembered this thread when I went to my Doctor about 2 weeks ago for the constant ringing in my left ear. I also have been having a serious sinus drainage and pressure in my left ear was just to the point that I couldn't sleep and my guitars sounded horrible when I tried to play. Doc said that I had fluid built up behind the ear drum and put me on Allegra D12 and an antibiotic and said that if it didn't clear that I may need to have a tube installed to let clear up the trouble. The ringing is some better, pressure is less than I started with. I can now hear notes clearly and my Doctor said that he has seen more of this recently than ever before. I hope that it goes away soon as I don't want to try the tube deal, I have attended a lot of concerts and play with others at least once a month, maybe the combined music plus my days of bird hunting & shooting has finally taken it's tow.

[FrankenFretter***]

I'm headed to the doctor's office today for my tinnitus. It's been hanging around for about a month now, although it has significantly improved in the last four or five days. I'm hoping it's not something that I'll have to deal with permanently, but I'm expecting to hear (pun intended) something like that from the MD. Wish me luck!

[NWBasser]

I'm headed to the doctor's office today for my tinnitus. It's been hanging around for about a month now, although it has significantly improved in the last four or five days. I'm hoping it's not something that I'll have to deal with permanently, but I'm expecting to hear (pun intended) something like that from the MD. Wish me luck!

Good luck Sean!

I'm quite lucky to not have tinnitus yet. I do use the Hearos hi-fi plugs and really like those - especially around cymbals!

Fortunately, the Hearos don't really seem to affect the tonality of the bass frequencies, so that works well for me.

Like Dee, I do have some low-grade hearing loss that makes conversation in a loud room near impossible. All I hear is mush.

I've tried, without any success, to get the other band members to use hearing protection. I can't understand why anyone would risk their hearing in such a way.

I'll blame my hearing loss on Sean's old Carvin stack

My bass rig was never that loud!

[FrankenFretter***]

Update: The doctor is treating it as an ear infection, although I'm not convinced that's what it is. I never had any pain associated with it. Anyway, I have antibiotic drops and caplets to take for the next 10 days. She said that the right ear drum was a bit "cloudy", but the left eardrum was clear. We'll see what happens.

I'll blame my hearing loss on Sean's old Carvin stack

Yes, I blame my own hearing loss on that, as well as Tim's cymbals. And countless concerts that were extremely loud.

[Pickngrin]

FF - hopefully it IS just an infection that will clear up with the ABTs. Keep us posted.

[FrankenFretter***]

FF - hopefully it IS just an infection that will clear up with the ABTs. Keep us posted.

Will do. So far I'm hating these antibiotics, and the ear drops are really irritating. Only ten days, though. I should be able to hold out that long.

[street music]

FrankenFretter, I was antibiotics for four weeks with my problems of the constant ringing in the left ear, the fluid behind the drum hasn't gone away completely and neither has the ringing. I'm not really into taking a lot of medication and since my fluid was behind the drums the Doctor advised me that ear drops are useless. He did say that blood pressure can make the problem worse and I have noticed that it was worse this week when I was really in a stressed out situation.

[FrankenFretter***]

FrankenFretter, I was antibiotics for four weeks with my problems of the constant ringing in the left ear, the fluid behind the drum hasn't gone away completely and neither has the ringing. I'm not really into taking a lot of medication and since my fluid was behind the drums the Doctor advised me that ear drops are useless. He did say that blood pressure can make the problem worse and I have noticed that it was worse this week when I was really in a stressed out situation.

The blood pressure thing is interesting to me. I was pleasantly surprised the my BP was pretty normal on Friday when I was at the doc's. I know it's been a wee bit high at times, but I have no idea what it was when my tinnitus was at it's worst. I'm still taking the oral antibiotics, but after two tries with the drops, I decided I will only use them if the ringing starts to get bad again. Right now it's pretty quiet, not even enough to distract me. I can actually hear fairly well in that ear right now as well. Hopefully things will return to normal in short fashion.

[bigoldron]

I went to the ENT last week and had my hearing tested. He never did come out and say "tinnitis" but he might as well had. He said I have an "excessive amount of high frequency loss for someone my age" (50). He recommended wearing ear plugs when playing or around loud noises and the ringing might get better. He didn't think I'm ready for a hearing aid yet, though, he said. Part of mine is too much loud music and noise and part of it is hereditary. Regardless of the cause, we all need to be wearing some type of hearing protection when we can. It certainly won't hurt!

[FrankenFretter***]

I went to the ENT last week and had my hearing tested. He never did come out and say "tinnitis" but he might as well had. He said I have an "excessive amount of high frequency loss for someone my age" (50). He recommended wearing ear plugs when playing or around loud noises and the ringing might get better. He didn't think I'm ready for a hearing aid yet, though, he said. Part of mine is too much loud music and noise and part of it is hereditary. Regardless of the cause, we all need to be wearing some type of hearing protection when we can. It certainly won't hurt!

True, and more important than most of us realize.

My right ear, although better than it was a couple weeks ago, is still almost useless for using the phone. I don't think the antibiotics are doing a dang thing, but I only have one day left so I'll finish them off. I really wish I'd taken better care of my ears when I was younger, I'll tell you that much.

[FrankenFretter***]

Well, the update for me is that I'm pretty sure my tinnitus is permanent. It's been pretty bad today, and getting worse tonight. When it's this bad, I don't even enjoy playing, since it all sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher to me. My blood pressure is still good, so it's not that. I didn't use the drops when I was taking the antibiotics, but I'll use them now. I doubt they'll help, but who knows?

[deeaa*]

That's really bad...I really feel for u, dude. I'm so lucky I don't have any, although by all standards I probably should have. I don't take nearly enough care of my hearing. I hope it gets better...my friend had pretty bad tinnitus for a decade, but he persisted and always wears earplugs when there's any noise, like even in movie theaters etc.

Ears are so sensitive, after all. I suffer BPV now and then, Benign Paroxysmal Vertigo...google if interested, but in a nutshell it means now and then, maybe once or twice a year I get suddenly dizzy with certain movements. Most usual case is that I for instance wake up, get up, and dive down onto the floor right away, feeling like an invisible hand pulls me down mercilessly. But it's just the inner ear playing tricks.

If the feeling is clearly in one ear, for instance, I'm in bed and turn left and the world drops from under me and I feel nauseous, then it's easy to repair in a matter of day or two by just doing certain head movements in a carefully designed cycle for 10 minutes, and it passes in 24h.

But sometimes it's much lesser an effect, and hard to say which ear is the culprit, and in those cases I may have up to a week of time I don't really want to do anything but lie down and watch TV, because I have this constant vertigo and nausea, and it's really a downer for doing anything. Feels somewhat surreal and like a bad flu or something, really. Then when I finally find out the ear and the needed operation, again it's a matter of 24h to get it sorted with the movement exercises.

I don't know what triggers it; it may be anything from stress to loud noise to knock on the head, but it's definitely the ear anyway.

The first time it struck, I was bedridden for a week, it was so bad I threw up right away if I moved any for a day or two at first, and it was literally hard to not grip my bedsides constantly because my brain was screaming at me that the world below me is dropping under me and turning round. It really was incredibly bad, like I was stuck in a crazy merry-go-round that never stopped no matter what. I was sure at first I have some sort of brain stroke or something. Buthe worst part was over in a day...I tell you after a day I was so exhausted. The bouts have been much milder since, and steadily less&infrequent ever since. Which is good, because if it gets bad, pretty much the only permanent fix is to fill one or two of the inner ear balance tubes with bone glue, and that includes a clear risk for loss of hearing.

Well, it's not stopping me making loud music at least for now...

[Jipes***]

I suffered years back (in 1996) of a severe Tinitus in my left ear after an otitis and a following concert which end up in real painful symptoms and constant high pitch ringing. After searching for days on the Internet I found a review of an expert on acouphens and hyper ear sensitivity and I could reach him by phone. He gave me by phone a prescription and told me that my personnal doctor could contact him if details were needed.

I had a treatment with Rivotril a drug used in the treatment of epilepsy, I took like 15 drops every day for a period of 2 weeks (if I remember correctly but it's a longtime ago). After some weeks the ringing fade away and it's now almost unnoticeable. unfortunately this treatment doesn't work for everyone a friend of mine tried it but never got rid of it

I have a slight ear loss but not dramatic specially for my age and my history of otitis when I was a child

[street music]

My ear is really ringing bad today, it is varied from day to day but seems to never go away completely. I've decided that the last Styx concert I attended and was right beside the main speakers at the stage corner is what did the worst damage and it appears to be a ringing that won't go away ever.

[FrankenFretter***]

Well guys, misery love company, and I feel your pain (literally). I guess we just have to learn to live with it. Not a pleasant situation, but it is what it is. We'll survive.

[Spudman***]

Don't you mean...

Well guys, misery love company, and I feel your pain (literally). I guess we just have to learn to live with it. Not a pleasant situation, but it is what it is. We'll survive.

I made it louder.