Hi Everybody This might be a silly question but better than nothing. Most of us could once hear normally and most of us can approximately remember the loudness of the noise created by home vacuum cleaner at work. Now if we draw a scale between 0 to 100 , where zero is for NO noise and 100 stands for the loud noise of vacuum cleaner, WHAT SCORE WILL YOU GIVE TO YOUR TINNITUS? In my case i will give Right ear : 50 - 70 (always there ) Left ear : 10 - 20 (always there ) Unfortunately tinnitus is only heard by the sufferer. Thanks RAY
Both ears the same, except it's actually in our head rather than our ears because our brain creates what it thinks should be there. 50 when I'm rested 100 when I'm tired
Ray, I would describe mine as exactly the same as yours...except for random spurts up to 100 in my bad ear. Can't ever link it to anything when it does that. Mine used to be fairly low pitched and easier to ignore...now it's high pitched and much more intrusive.
Hi Ray, Over the last year, I’d have given my right ear 40 and left ear 30, on your scoreboard. When my MM first started, I’d have given scores of 60 and 40, with occasional excursions to 100. There is one way to remove some of the subjective aspect of deciding the equivalent sound level for tinnitus. The next time you go to have your hearing checked with an audiologist, tell her that you would like her to slowly change the frequency of her sound generator so that you get a reasonable match with pitch of your tinnitus. Don’t worry if there is not a perfect match. Most tinnitus is not a single frequency but consists of a spectrum of sound. Your audiologist can tell you the details and ought to be able to work around this shortcoming. (If your audiologist was into research, she would use a sound synthesizer to get a really could match to your tinnitus. But that adds a lot of complexity.) The next step is to get your audiologist to adjust the volume until you get a good match with the apparent loudness level of your tinnitus. Repeat process for the other ear. Now you will know the frequency and intensity of the tinnitus in each ear. This might be useful information as symptoms vary over the years. Joe
Hi Ray I have a dead ear (burnt out in both hearing and balance) due to MM but strangely I rarely get any tinnitus in that ear but my left ear, which is heading for burnout has constant tinnitus that I would rate as a 60-70 and it is always there...it will shoot up to the 100 level but thankfully these are short peroids and when that happens it is more a jet engine sound...the constant ongoing tinnitus is a high pitched sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sound that I have learnt to ignore most of time but is really noticable in a quite time like just when you are snuggling down to sleep I get the jet engine roar from the noise of the vacuum cleaner, loud trucks passing or too much general noise or music and have to use an ear plug to try and prevent it as it literally almost knocks me off my feet Maggie
Thankfully my tinnitus isnt to bad for now. It can be anything from a 10-40, but can get 80ish during an attack ....It certainly isnt as bad as some. I found this little quote on the www.menieres.org.au site ......Its from a guy who attended a tinnitus conference. http://www.menieres.org.au/stories.htm "‘…severe depression is not an in exorable result of (tinnitus)... ’ You will perhaps understand from the above my motivation for writing to you. Both the presenters at the seminar experience severe tinnitus and both claimed to have been suicidal before being able to manage their condition. As a consequence, much was made at the seminar of the risk of severe depression as a result of the condition and the difficulties experienced in coming to terms with it. As my experience was very different, I suggest there is scope to use such a seminar to reinforce that there is a wide range of responses to the onset of tinnitus and that severe depression is not an inexorable result of the condition. I suggest that this would be of considerable comfort to those who are not affected by severe tinnitus and who are travelling well on the path to habituation of the condition." I think its important to hear that. Sometimes if you convince yourself something is depressing, just for fact that it depresses other people, you can often get trapped by the depression, even though it may not have effected you had you not known how it effected other people ......errr if that makes sense. I think the quoted statement can also be applied to meniere's in general
In subjective tinnitus which accounts for 99% of cases. The other 1% is objective tinnitus and it can be heard by somebody other then the sufferer. I doubt that anybody would have tinnitus sounding like a loud vacuum cleaner because it would be more than 80db and experiencing this continually would destroy the remaining hair cells and quickly deafen you. But on a scale of 0 - 100 I would score my tinnitus as a 100. I have it 24/7 I can hear it quite loudly watching TV, driving my car, outdoors, over machinary. I don't need to go into a quite room and nothing aside from something very noisy will mask it. My guess in db would be around 90+ Most days I can cope and only get stressed briefly. Some days it becomes a bit much and causes anxiety. During periods of fullness and unbalance the tinnitus is roaring. I experience spikes in my good ear! and I experience noises such as roaring, whistling, someone blowing through a pipe and other weird sounds. Anyway, I wish I did'nt have it but I have and I have no choice other than to deal with it. I consider myself as "habituated" in that I try not to react to it and try to move on which is all you can do if it is chronic, loud, and invasive 24/7. Unfortunately there is NO CURE for tinnitus. Some legit treatments will help you cope and eventually "habituate" but nothing will cure it unless the cause! is rectified. If you want more info go to the Tinnitus Support Message Board(TSMB) http://p080.ezboard.com/ftinnitussupport92262frm1 gerg
yep - what gerg said. check out the website. You will be find a plethora of information and support. Paul
Hi Ray, Left ear (unilateral mm) = 60 constant Right ear = 0 - 20 (intermittent) Left ear goes up to jet engine strength when it acts up - at that point I'd trade it for a vacuum anytime. :-\ Amethyst
Ray, With me it's both ears 60 - 100. My tinnitus is there 24/7. It's the first thing I hear when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I hear as I go to sleep. I hear it shile I'm talking and when I'm listening to someonelse talk. Most of the time I try to ignore it, but when I get bored, I listen to it. Leon
Left ear, light hissing; 10-30, always there. Right rear, 10-30 hissing, always there (ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss); PLUS, if I am not on prednisone; Right ear; 100 vacuum cleaner/furnace motor (MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM). Plus banshees (audio feedback) intermittent at about 150 (SCREEEETCH!!! EEEEEP! SHRIEEEEEEEK!!!); And when the banshees aren't shrieking, they are beeping (beep beep beep beep beep beep beep); Plus loud SHOOSHING noise (vascular) that sounds like a machine shop, about 80 (WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH). Plus the swooshing makes every real sound I do hear fluctuate, so add all the real motor noises and wind and conversation with WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW to it, like someone was turning the volume up and down every other second. "CAN you HAVE that REPORT on my DESK by THREE?" (that is what it would sound like if I could actually hear it over the banshees....)
Mine is mainly in my right ear and is a high pitch hissing noise. It is probably a 40 most of the time. During an attack it will go way up. Oh but when I try to lie down for sleep the real stuff comes into play. I'd rate it at about 80. The tone changes as well. There are also the vascular noises weaved into the mix. I use a sound machine to try to mask the noise enough to fall asleep. Loud noises like a dog barking seem to echo all through my head. I wish someone would invent an on/off switch for this stuff!
There is some current tinnitus research going on around the globe. rTMS, pharmacological, implants, sound enrichment, mechanisms of tinnitus, lidocaine infusion, stem cell research(regrowing hair cells) etc.... hopefully at some point in time there will be a major breakthrough which will lead to a suppression of tinnitus for all of us who have chronic invasive tinnitus 24/7 as a result of the destruction of the hair cells in the cochlea. My own hope is that I know they can temporarily suppress tinnitus by either somatic manipulation, rTMS or lidocaine infusion so this means that it is not a life sentance because it can be stopped. greg
I am bilateral and I have to say that sometimes it's hard to tell where the ringing is but I would say right - 70-90 left - 50-60 The ringing never stops I have however noticed that when I ride on my hubby's harley that I don't actually hear it.
