Sudden Hearing loss _{Page 45 of 105}

6th day of diuretics and worse tinnitus than ever! I will call the doctor to see if this is normal, also have new tinnitus in my good ear! I also have become sensitive to loud noise,- couldn't wear the hearing aid in public yesterday because suddenly everything was too loud and uncomfortable. I am still trying out two different hearing aids, but can now manage pretty good without. Although the ear fullness goes a bit away with the aid. I live in Scandinavia, and luckily the hearing aids are covered pretty much through our welfare system. By the way, Barb, I was so lucky to get into the hospital, I first received a letter saying that I had to wait 12 months to see the the specialists. But then they called me to see if I wanted to come for consultation in a few days, but if I accepted to have medical students present during examination! I said YES. So, in one of the richest countries in the world the health system is full of waiting lists. I had seen 2 other ENT doctors in private business before this. Well, no one can tell the cause of this hearing loss, but one doctor think it's beginning Meniere's, although I am not experiencing balance problems (yet). Sleep is on and off all night, but better than the first month! I will test my hearing on april 19th again to see how it is, it's very difficult to say if it's any better because the tinnitus is so much worse than when I started on diuretics. I can only hope for a miracle, I think. I really feel that my hearing was nearly like I was deaf in the left ear, then i came up to 70 dcb, and for the last audiograms it has been between 60 and 70, for my lower frequencies loss. When people talk about fluctuating hearing, how many decibels change are you talking about. Does it go bad,better,good,worse,bad and so on, or are we talking about real small fluctuations only noted in the audiogram test?

Hi all,
Well haven't posted for a while but have been reading everyone elses.
Had another hearing test yesterday, my last one was in November so has been 4 months since tested and 6 months since SSNHL occured.
Was really suprised, after going from 100% loss I now have 100% back in the lower frequencies and 50% in the higher frquencies so in 4 months it is still improving, amazing really as I was going in to see about a hearing aid, but will wait now and see how I go, although the chances of a full recovery in those higher frequencies are now pretty slim, it still seems to be on the up.
Still have the Tinnitus, a Hissing noise and bell like noises, no fullness and balance is good and coping quite well really. Just muffled on my bad side other than that I tend to ignore the tinnitus and tend to forget about it.
Hearing aids are not covered on our health system here in Australia unless you are a pensioner so not keen on paying out $4000 just yet while the ear is still stabilising.

Hang in there everyone still suffering, life does get a bit easier one way or another and Hope1 you are a real inspiration to us all with what you are coping with.

Its occured to me there are so many people from around the world on this forum but I think I am only the second Aussie to have posted here.
Wonder how many there are over here with it. Might do a bit of searching on that one.

To Mertie -
I saw your post last week but did not want to reply thinking that I would stop the posts from coming.
Now tis time it happened after your post.
So now I want to take this opportunity to thank you so much for your kind words.
Be well my Friend.

Thanks Hope01, yes I was beginning to think I had done the same as you, but I guess it just happens from time to time when everyone gets busy with their lives. Its nice to know that what we have posted is there for anyone who needs our help and when they come on line we can help from our own experiences.
So have a great day and we will touch base again soon.

Hi Everyone,

I too suffered from SSNHL. It's been 2 months now since I woke up that morning and found a loud ringing sound in my left ear. I was admitted later that night to a hospital as I had a vertigo attack. Had the MRI scan that indicated no tumor or growth. The ENT there prescribed me with medication and prednisolone for 2 weeks. My audiogram showed that I have profound SNHL in my left ear (>90db).

Now, no more dizziness or lost of balance but the hearing is not back.

I even had 8 shots of Methycobal (not into my ear)every alternate day for 2 weeks. Nothing helps!

I have done so far 3 hearing tests as follow-ups and the results are consistent, i.e. no improvement and that I have profound SNHL (>90db).

I did request for a higher dose of prednisolone but all ENTs (I have seen 3 different ENTs for their opinion) said the higher doses of steroid would not help and that it is not evident that it will help for cases of profound hearing loss. So, the side effects of higher dose of steroid outweighed the chance of getting a recovery (if any).

I have also tried acupuncture. No help at all.

Am still having the tinnitus and loss of hearing now in my left ear.

I am still hopeful that one day the hearing may come back and I have done lots of googling on this subject and that's how I bumped into this forum.

Am glad to find this forum and read the posts from others.

It is this feeling of agony & frustration that it is a sudden attack and that you cannot do anything to prevent or to fight back, is really devastating. There is also the constant fear/fobia that whether it will happen to my other surviving
hearing ear.

Checking in.

Bet you all thought I forgot you. well I havent. life so far for me has been the same. I have had few things happen to me.

my hearing is fine in both ears still and with august coming coming fast im scared to death because thats when I lost my hearing. so for me its been one year in august and it will come fast i know... so far my hearing is back in both ears. still have slight ringing in right ear.

for those of you who dont know me... i lost my hearing in my right ear last august and by studying like crazy and a miracle of god i got it back. I would not be alive today without it.

There are strong people on this board and some of them I owe dearly. 'like HOPE' :) without support from something like this i dont think anyone can make it alone... I know I couldnt... even though I say there are strong people, let me tell you I'm not one of them... lolol I could not have made it as far as these people have made it on this board. there is no way i am not strong enough mentally to endure what you guys did. god bless you all..

some things strange have happened to me lately. I had a adverse affect to one of the cholestral lowering drugs and to duritics.. I dont know which one of them but one of them cause me to have some bad problems so i switched to different cholestral lowering drug... my cholstral is now under control so i dont know why i take them anymore but doc says its a good idea so i do... I went from 400 to 137.. not bad huh :)

my weight went back up a little so im back to working out... 5 or more miles a day on tread mill... its killing me but i always feel better afterwards.

yes im guilty of overdoing the duritics. i was taking cranberry like crazy in pill and liquid and three different kinds of stool softners and lax's trying to batlle weight but no longer on those... 'yes i know dumb idea.' but now just good old work outs.

as for my ears,, i seem to do better. for a while there it was like my hearing was to good. but now they have chiled out to normal. with the exception of the weight battle i was having i have really made extra efforts to delete stress from my life... now i chill alot more then i used too. i went to key west for a week and man was i in seventh heaven. ' GO TO KEY WEST'

I'm still scared to cruise since my last vertigo bout with my last cruise so now i try key wesy. I love it so much more. I rented a house witha pool and a waterfall that back up against duval street.

I dont mean to brag but you gotta picture this because its probably the best thing that ever happened to me.. im sitting in my pool at key west that i dont have to share with anyone. kids are asleep and wife is asleep so its just me in my heated pool at 3 am listening to a waterfall and next door to the house is a bar called willi t's that has a live reggae band so i can hear it from my pool but i can not see anything but a full mooon and tons of queen palms because the whole house is surrounded by trees so you can here evereything but see nothing but trees and garden.

I only till you guys this because if you close your eyes for just five seconds and piture this then you will be in heaven with me if only a few seconds. close your eyes and join me its heaven.. heres the link to the house i stayed at.

http://www.cristalclearrentals.com/locations/bahamadreaming ....

I pray for everyone here. my god touch our lives together.

now the good news. I talked with a few doctors via email that are on the hunt for a cure rather then a cause. the specialist I spoke with said that the causes are so vast and so many that it is nearly impossible to find it so they are looking seriously at hair tansplants of the inner ear.. heres the problem. MONEY!! they say this could allready be cured but the have hardly no money to further the research. if some big money stepped into to this then they would have a cure in a matter of a few years. these guys could really pull this off... it would change the world forever. lets hope and pray the get the funds for this ..

I thik of you guys all the time. i still check the baord like crazy and I want to let you know i wouldnt be her with out you guys. god bless. :)

it270107 - so sorry that you are in the same exclusive club as the rest of us who have not regained our hearing. It sounds as if you have been well treated though and promptly too. You may yet regain some hearing. I got about half of mine back after two months and now use a hearing aid very successfully. We all share your frustration and know exactly how you feel. I am worried about my good ear too because sometimes it feels 'dull' and I have had two bouts of sudden loud whistling in it that has lasted only a few seconds but we should think positively and remember that it is rare for this affliction to effect both ears. Good luck and keep posting.

Thank you JeWel41.

The most agonising part is that I had my treatment early, in fact it was immediately on that day of the onset itself. And sadly, I am not responsive to any of the medications. All my audiograms constantly showed that I have profound SNHL. No improvement, no fluctuation, consistently >90db.

My ENTs said steroid doesn't work well with profound hearing loss

I have been generally good health and I was perfectly well before I went to sleep that night. I wonder what actually went wrong that night. What sort of virus is that? I have just gone deaf like that!

It seems like hearing aid doesn't work well for someone who has profound hearing loss. Anyone can enlighten me on this?

Thanks

Hi there lt270107,
Im afraid i have a similar story to you. Woke up one day last may with profound hearing loss in the left ear.
Went on the steriods, have done acupuncture, hyperbaric chamber, massages, naturopathic/homeopathic remedies, chiropractic and even went to see a man with 'healing hands'
And the sensitivity and the ringing is less than it was for sure. But my hearing remains unchanged. Its been an adjustment but its difficult. And I cant get a hearing aid with such profound loss. So, I cope, but its depressing. , it does get easier with time, and its something that can be lived with. I've been on trips through central american and have been scuba diving, i went back to work full time, so--its ok.
I'm happy to chat with you on here anytime.
Lynda

Isn't it weird how for so many of us we have no warning, no illness and we go to bed hearing perfectly but wake up deaf? If it is a virus or anything else why would this be? Could it be linked to sleep itself or the prone position - who knows but i wish there was more research into this.

Hello It270107,
did the doctors put you on diuretics? I have now increased to 60mg (loop-diuretica) and will go on this until new appointment on April 19th. I am experiencing some side-effects such as dizziness when I get up from chairs, waking up in the middle of the night wide awake, but hopefully these will go away. Tinnitus varies day to day, but always there. I have
3 month 'anniversary' today for this SSHL to happen.

it2701027 - I don't know if a hearing aid would help but my friend with Menieres has a good deal less hearing than me and she uses an aid. I think you need to be given the chance to try anyway but my audiologist recommends waiting at least three to four months from onset as by then your ears should have settled. All the best, Julie

Thank you all. It’s really comforting to have you all.

Lynda – I went back to work too after taking 3 weeks of medical leave. I cope too, or do we have a choice?? My tinnitus is manageable and there are times when I just don’t notice (or ignore??) it. It’s amazing how your brain and the other good ear compensate the lost of the bad one. But there are times in the morning when you wake up and hear your tinnitus even before you open your eyes!

One of my ENTs said hearing aid doesn’t help those with profound hearing loss as it is severely nerve deaf. I noticed during the hearing tests when they were testing my left ear (the hard of hearing one), I actually heard the sound from my right ear. The doctor explained that the sound was so loud that it traveled/vibrated through the bones and my right ear received the signal. Imagine how deaf is my left ear.

I’ve been taking vitamin B12 for maintaining a healthy nervous system, gingko biloba for improving blood circulation and trying yoga now and also massage. Also get enough sleep. Fatigue / lack of sleep will make things worst.

JeWel 41 – I read somewhere that SSNHL does occur when there is poor blood circulation and lack of oxygen supply to your inner ear. And maybe it has something to do with sleeping position. I tend to sleep on my left side, putting pressure on the heart (our heart is in the left side of our body). My theory, perhaps there has been poor blood circulation and lack of oxygen supply and when there was a viral attack that night, my inner ear went dead.

klmno - no, I wasn’t on diuretic. What is it for? To drain fluids in your inner ear? Is there any improvement to your hearing? My ENT advised me to take on a low-salt diet to prevent retention of fluid in the inner ear.

I was on prednisolone for 2 weeks with 60mg/day for the 1st week, tapering off the 2nd week. What did your audiogram show? My audiogram showed a profound hearing loss (>90 db) since the onset and consistently after that, if I don’t regain my hearing within the first few weeks, chances is that it’s irreversible. Chances of recovery for introducing more steroid after onset of >1 month is very slim. Looking at the side effects, all my ENTs are reluctant to give more steroid.

I did not give up and went to see another ENT when he prescribed me with injections of Methycobal (8 ampules) for a period of another 2 weeks. Methycobal is not steroid but vitamin B12 supposedly to help in rejuvenating the damaged hair cells/nerves in the inner ear. Didn’t work.

Still not giving up yet, any other remedies that you all know of or alternative treatments? Anyone know of any hearing aids for profound hearing loss? I may not need one now, but who knows when you get older you may need one.

Still hoping that my left ear will “open up” one day. Pray hard and all the best everyone.

Hi everyone! I still check in from time to time and I just have to say that it really breaks my heart to see new posters continually coming on board with this problem. In particular, isn't it just maddening when people go to the doctor with this problem and get prescribed Nasonex or Flonase, etc? I can't believe that there is no more awareness then this.

Tn--I am so sorry to hear about what you are going through. I can only say that it is possible for things to improve. One positive thing, at least for me, is that I kept reading/hearing things like 'whatever hearing you have after 2 weeks-1 month is what you are left with.' This was not true in my case, as after a month I still had some hearing loss and was still dealing with some major distotion in my 'bad' ear. I am now 3 months after onset and though I have not had a recent audiogram I clearly do not have any more distortion in my left ear. I can listen to music, deal with crowds, etc. no problem. In short, my expreience suggests that sometimes the healing process is just slow.

I do, however, want to post that my story is not over. As some may remember, I got an MRI and my results came back 'negative,' though a follow-up visit with a specialist clearly showed that I had some type of spot in my head right where the ear canal meets the brain. I am trying not to worry about this and was in fact told that it was probably not cancer or anything but my otologist thinks that whatever it is is probably related to my hearing loss. It is too coincidental that I have some sort of mass there on one side (the side where the hearing loss occurred) and not the other. I have another MRI scheduled in 3 months.

Note that my original pathology report came back negative and my ENT said the same thing. It wasn't until my visit to an otologist that this was discovered. I guess what I am suggesting is that everyone needs to make sure that something like this is not going on with you as well. My impression as I type this is that due to the fact that I have HBP, am fat, etc., some type of 'gunk' has formed in my head that has taken up residence right beside my ear canal. Assumming that it is not a tumor, it will not grow and my hearing will be saved.

Please revist your MRI pictures and make sure you don't see a white spot right where your bad ear canal meets your brain--there should be nothing there!

I'm so glad to have my hearing back and have no tinnitus. My prayers are with those that are still dealing with this. I'm with nitrams. You guys are many times stronger then me because I don't think I could deal with it a day longer than I did. Best of luck!!!

It270107,- Yes, diuretics is supposed to drain fluids in the inner ear. I think the doctors believe I have atypical Meniere, (I have no vertigo so far). I was only given prednisolone for 6 days,- bad side effects. I have not noticed any improvement in hearing, but it is difficult to say as the tinnitus some days is awful. I will test my hearing on april 19th again. My audiogram show 70 dcb loss in lower frequencies , but improving from 1 k and upwards to about 40 and 35 dcb. Some times I can have terrible loud noise in my ear, if for example someone sneezes right next to me. I don't know the english word for it, but it's almost like a pain in my ear because of the 'loud' noise. I get a lot of massages from my spouse, take vitamins and have cut down on work. I exercise 5 times a week, and the doctors said it was ok to continue this exercising. (About 1 - 1 1/2 hours running/bicycling) I still don't manage more than a few hours of continous sleep each night,- due to medications or tinnitus,- I'm not sure.

Here I go again - Hopefully I will not shut down the forum once more LOL LOL
I feel so bad when I read posts from all these newcomers to the forum and so many of you did not or will not get your hearing back like me.
I am totally deaf in the right ear with constant brain static as my famous MEEI doctor calls it. However, I am still mad that they did not give me the shots directly into the ear.
Not said that it would have helped, but I did not even have that chance.
I lost my hearing while driving to another city here in New England on 1/22/2006.
Within less than an hour I went from a hearing person to a HOH. This because I have now also moderate to severe hearing loss in the left ear. I must say that my BTE Savia from Phonak is my life saver. Cannot get a hearing aid for the right side because there is no hearing left at all.
So those of you that have less than perfect hearing in the reamining hearing ear, I would urge you to see an Audiologist or better even go to a hearing clinic in a hospital where they have ample well educated staff to look into your situation. I go to MEEI (Mas Eye and Ear)connected to Mass General Hospital and Harvard School of Medecine in Boston.
Especially if you need a hearing aid which can be very very expensive, you want to go somewhere where there is no sales pressure like there is at these around the corner HA dispensers.
I think about all of you who have posted on this forum in the past 8 7 nonths (the time I stumbled onto this forum) and I keep all of you in my daily prayers.
Things do happen to good people, we do not know why.
Sometimes we will only see it much later and understand why it happened in the first place.
For those that do not know, I had lung cancer in 1989 and was given 6 to 8 months to live, Well I am still here and I found out later why God kept me on this earth.
I am still waiting for Oprah to have a show about SSNHL, as some (not me) on this forum were willing to go on that show. Not enough people are aware of this dreadful affliction that happens to people of all ages so often to people at a tender age.
I wish you all well.
Please overlook my mistakes as I am in a hurry

klmno - have faith that you will have your hearing back. Yours is mild to moderate loss, unlike me profound loss with no improvement.

And looks like I won't be able to get a hearing aid with such profound level..depressing.

Take care everyone.

Hi All and a Happy Easter to you all.
The more I think about sudden deafness, the more I come to the conclusion that this problem is becoming epidemic and certainly was not so common years ago.
Of course we now have this mass communication on the Internet enabling us to share our troubles with peers all over the world.
But what makes me wonder is the fact that MDs and Pharmacits in their late 40ties and 50ties and older seem to have no clue when you tell them about sudden deafness/SSNHL. My GP and my two Pharmacits had no clue what sudden deafness was in January of 2006 after my onset. Would that not suggest that when these guys went to Medical School there was no talk about this at all?
So, could it be that all the gadgets we have these days: Ipods, cell phones etc could be the culprits? When my job as a QA Software engineer was outsourced, and since I am over 50, the only job I could find was a Customer Service Rep in a local call center, where I spoke with Pharmacits all day long. Even one of my ENTs said 'who knows maybe the head set you had to wear caused the onset?'
I wish we could raise public awarness regarding SSNHL. Have any of you who wrote to the Oprah show heard from her?
Take care

How do you all 'treat' your tinnitus? I think almost the noise and high pitch signal in my head is the worst about SSHL. In my case, the loudness is not constant, it fluctuates and can be VERY loud at times. I have tried to see what makes it worse, and I know stress is a factor, but many times the volume turns up without me doing anything! I can be sitting down relaxing or even just lie in bed, when suddenly the volume blows up. I try my best to ignore it, and I am better at it than in the beginning, but still, I get sad to realize I probably will have to endure this the rest of my life. Mental relaxation doesn't help me, I most often end up wearing headphones with music to try to mask it when it is really bad. I have not bought any 'formulas' as most people say it has not helped them. I am waiting for a self-treatment book I have bought over internet, which hopefully can give me some 'strategies'. I am aware of TRT, but hopefully I can find my own coping strategies. Time will tell.

I look forward to my appointment on the 19th of april,- the diuretics make me feel dizzy every time I stand up, so if it hasn't helped in the audiogram I don't see why I should continue. I wonder if the specialist doctors have other suggestions,- so far the stereoids did not help.

It270107,- is your hearing loss profound throughout all frequencies,- high and low? Can you not be helped by cochlear implant if it doesn't improve? How is your hearing in the other ear? Do you have trouble locating where sounds come from? Can this not be helped by some hearing aid in your good ear? If I'm not mistaken all SSHL sufferers can hope for some improvement until 6 months have passed, or did your doctors tell you something else?

Kimno - with the tinnitus I think you just have to try to ignore it. I find that the hearing aid helps to mask it during the day as long as there is some background noise. I take betahistine but my tinnitus hasn't really changed since the start (loud whistle, whooshing, and musical notes if I nod or shake my head). I have tried Ginko Biloba but it tastes disgusting! When you focus on the tinnitus it is definately louder and more irritating but it is so hard not to. On one occassion my tinnitus was so loud that the audiologist could not test my hearing accurately. In the early days my audiologist suggested a walkman in the bad ear playing poor quality music, or not properly tuned in - this is supposed to help your brain to realise when sounds are outside!I think you can also get something to put under your pillow which emits noise that is supposed to help though I'm not sure what any partner might think! Tinnitus is a curse and because for most of us it is unilateral we are constantly reminded what we are missing!! Another trick at night is to try to listen to the silence in your good ear or a ticking clock though this may be just as irritating as the tinnitus. If your book has any 'magic' remedies please share them with us. All the best, Julie

Julie, I also had one audiogram which showed a worse outcome than I believe it should have been, but that day of testing I had really loud tinnitus, and I believe it interfered with the results. My hearing aid doesn't help much with the tinnitus, but it sometimes helps me with the blocked feeling I have in my ear. Some days I feel my ear is really blocked, and the aid helps 'open' up, if you know what I mean. I do have a sound pillow at night, which I turn on almost every night when I wake up. I wake up a lot during the nights, which I never used to do before. The sound is barely noticeable to my spouse, so it's o.k. I also listen to relaxing music in order to fall asleep. The book was sold out, but will be sent to me as soon as it is in stock again. I hope it has some practical suggestions.

Hi,
I'm new to this page and have been reading everyones postings. It seems like from what I've read most people have woken up one day and couldn't hear. My situation is a little different but would love to know if anyone has had a similiar experience and if so what their treatment was. In December I noticed on the phone that I had muffled hearing in my left ear. It went away on it's own within a day. Three weeks later it happened again and I noticed ringing a fullness sensation. I went to an ENT and there was hearing loss and I was put on a steroid. My hearing returned to normal but only to happen again 3 weeks later. Since then I have been having injections again my is restored but it keeps fluctuating. I've had all the obvious tests and there is nothing wrong. The other 2 health problems that I'm not sure could be related to this is I had to have an emergency root canal the other day and I had an infection. I'm not sure if that has been an underlying cause and all the steroids have been keeping any inflmation down and once it wore off I started feeling pain. Also, I've had several colds always around the time a fluctuation happens. So anyway my doctor is talking about putting me on a steroid for 3 - 6 months. I'me very much against it because of the side effects. I told him I want it to be a low dose. We'll see. Has anyone else had a situation like this. I'm feeling very depressed and don't know what to do.

meredith - as you say your experience seems to be alittle different as with most of us it is sudden (often overnight) usually with fullness and tinnitus and maybe distortions which tend to settle leaving a degree of hearing loss over a period of several months which could range from profound to mild or no loss at all. Are you effected in one ear only? Have you had an audiogram? Has the ENT mentioned Sensori neural hearing loss to you? It can recover quickly and some people do have recurrences even rarely in the other ear too. there is a suggestion that it may sometimes be viral which could link with when you have been ill but have you been given an antiviral like acyclovir? Any dizziness or vertigo?

Thanks for the reply. No I haven't had any dizziness or vertigo. Thank goodness. My doctor did mention sshl but said there isn't a lot known about it and I either have a form of mieniers or auto immune inner ear disease. I am only affected in one ear and have not been given an antiviral. I was thinking today that with each fluctuation I have noticed less hearing loss which is a good sign maybe it's calming down. My fluctuations happen about every 3 weeks and of course once again I have a cold. I have 3 kids and they are ALWAYS giving me their colds. It's impossible for me to link anything because I keep getting colds around the same time. I am just praying that this is coming to an end soon because I really don't want to be put on a steroid. I had terrible side effects the first time. I'm also on a dirutic in case this is a fluid problem. I'm just so frustrated and depressed over the situation. It seems like there is nothing to do to correct it.

Yes, it is frustrating and you have absolutely no control of it. All the while you are hearing perfectly, the next morning you’re deaf!

klmno – mine is profound at all frequencies. Bad, huh? I sure hope and pray it will get better over time but so far I haven’t notice any improvement. My doctors asked me to move on with life. I had what they termed as an “inner ear stroke”. The other ear is ok and don’t need a hearing aid. So, I’m now depending on one hearing ear but sometimes, I do feel lopsided.

Tinnitus, no medication for that. It’s more on self-rehabilitation. I find fatigue, stress & anxiety will make tinnitus worse. So, I try to get enough sleep all the time.

Please do share with us if you find any useful tips from the book you bought.

Everyone, how do you all cope? It’s devastating that you’re gonna live with this for the rest of your life but we don’t have a choice, do we?

it2701027 - how do your doctors know that you had an 'inner ear stroke'? This is generally put forward as just one of the possibilities but as far as i am aware it is impossible to tell. Other possibilities include small tears in the membranes of the inner ear, virus, circulation problem, tumours, head trauma (but we would probably notice this one), auto immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis or even Lymes disease - the truth is that ENTs do not know what causes SSHL and most causes cannot be determined. To look inside the ear can do more damage than leaving well alone so that is what they tend to do with us. Steroids can help as we know - I had high dose steroids for one month from onset but interestingly did not regain any hearing until one month after that (I got about 1/2 back). Tinnitus medications may or may not work, in my experience they have not but you do learn to live with it as long as you don't focus on it - easy huh? I haven't noticed anything that makes it worse though I have trouble with sleeping because of it sometimes. Yes we are all unlucky but there are many worse afflictions that we could have so i am grateful for that. Off camping with my son now for a couple of days....