For Whom the Bell Tolls

I have tinnitus. Have had for years. I didn’t know that the sound in my ears was tinnitus because I thought ringing in the ears meant that you hear a bell ringing constantly and mine was a high pitched hum. In my early 30s I got my diagnosis that I have tinnitus and some ways to work around the sound along with things to try to make it less. I also thought that local anesthetic was anesthetic manufactured in that state.

I have over the years used various tricks to keep it at a dull ignorable roar.

January I had a bad cold and cough. It was a virus that was going around and all you could do is wait it out.

Afterwards the noise in my ears went from 4 to 11 and stayed there. I have a hard enough time sleeping but this would keep me from sleeping or if I woke up made it hard to fall back to sleep.

Went to my Doctor who sent me to an Ear Nose and Throat specialist and this past Thursday I went in for my appointment.

On the positive side, my hearing would make a 20 year old jealous. I still have both my high end and my low end although the high end on the left is a little less than the right. That would be due to age and the firing of a gun backstage ever night for a month without hearing protection because I was young and foolish. Thank you Night Mother. Fortunately I learned from an early age to wear foam hearing protection at concerts and the like.

So it is down to the tinnitus and I have been given new tricks to try to bring it back into the background including finding a noise (white, brown, pink) to counteract.

Funny thing was that when I went into the sound proof booth to do the hearing test, I had quiet for the first time in a long time. It was so nice but I can’t live in a sound proof booth. I am thinking of how I might be able to recreate it and have an idea or two.

So I push through and hope that the sound will fade in time.

I am grateful for quiet.