Tinitus

[gunblade SASS #10206]

Another thread on whether hearing protection is mandatory got me to wondering how some of you folks deal with your tinitus. I've had it in both ears for a long time and it doesn't bother me severly, but when I'm sitting out on the back deck early on a Sunday mornin' and it's dead calm outside, I wonder what it would be like to hear the silence.

[Jack Houston # 35508]

Me too! I have to have a box fan to sleep at night. Mine is more of a high pitched constant tone that NEVER Stops! Most of mine comes from playing Loud Rock and Roll music in the 60's with the amps behind us. And War! The US Navy didn't issue ear plugs

[Pit Bull Tex]

Mine sounds like 5000 crickets that never stop.had it for 15 or 20 years.I work in a really load shop without ear protection.

[J-BAR #18287]

I have the constant whine also, but it is a narrow notch on my audiogram. It's surprising, I can hear our cat snoring softly on the other side of the room, and I can hear the hum of the sonic burglar alarms in department stores, but most of the time I can't hear my wife...

[Adirondack Jack, SASS #53440]

I had it non-stop for 30 years. Then all of a sudden I began to have breaks where I would have quiet. Of course my HEARING is getting worse as well, so be careful what ya wish for.

[Buckeye Pete, SASS # 29941]

Another thread on whether hearing protection is mandatory got me to wondering how some of you folks deal with your tinitus. I've had it in both ears for a long time and it doesn't bother me severly, but when I'm sitting out on the back deck early on a Sunday mornin' and it's dead calm outside, I wonder what it would be like to hear the silence.

 

Gunblade,

 

I've had for about the last 15 years, left ear always, sometimes both. I got used to it. I try to take very good care of my hearing, "now".

 

Buckeye Pete

[Red River Ray SASS#33254]

Mine has lasted 24 years, very loud an high pitched. Run a fan every night an have worn out alot of em. Blame my pops subnose 38 for it, I shot it several times one evening wid no plugs and my left ear has never stopped ringing.

 

 

RRR

[Boondock Saint, #70146]

It varies. Sometimes a dull hum, and sometimes louder. The most aggravating is when it suddenly, for no reason, comes on really strong out of the blue.

 

There is a silver lining. All of this cicada noise is nothing new. No bother at all.

[Trailrider #896]

Howdy, Pards,

This is NOT a funny subject! I get it off and on in my right ear, and very slightly in the left, which is just about completely gone. Right handed rifle shooter back when those "sonic" earplugs were supposed to close at the shot. They DID NOT work. Too short a response time. In addition, I have a benign (if it weren't I'd have been dead for about five years already...and as long as it don't bother me, I won't let 'em bother it)nuroma in the left, either or both of which have essentially killed my hearing.

 

But...I just can't resist:

 

WILL YOU PEOPLE PLEASE SPEAK UP? AND WILL SOMEBODY ANSWER THE PHONE?!

 

Ride easy, but stay alert, Pards! Godspeed to those still in harm's way in the defense of Freedom everywhere! God Bless America! RIP, Marshall Dillon.

 

Your Pard,

[Shooting Bull]

Mine sounds like 5000 crickets that never stop.

 

That's my wife's descrition too. I'll go tearing apart the house because a cricket got in and is driving me out of my mind. She never could understand why it bothered me so much. That's when we suddenly figured out why she only hears half of what I say, she's got Tinitus and hears those crickets all the time.

 

(I still think she's ignoring me but, Tinitus sounds more official. )

[Smoken D]

Had mine 39 years now. Machine gun fire and a few booms around my head. I always thought the noise was a normal thing till one mornen my wife said how beautiful the birds were singing. Couldn't hear them so I asked her ifen she always heard the ringing and them crickets. The hearing aids do help hearing them birds now. But will never hear the sound of quiet. Asked the doctor ifen anyone beside me had what I called "super ring". Suddenly ya just have this really loud ring and ya don't hear nothen else. The sound begins as a low tone and gets higher pitch. All lasting only 10 maybe 15 seconds. Doc said she never heard anyone else haven this. Sure would be nice ta be rid of it.

[Utah Bob #35998]

When I went in the Army I had to take the hearing test twice. You know, the one where you put the headphones on and hold your finger up when you hear the tone and put it down when you can;t hear it anymore.They thought I was cheating. Said nobody had hearing that sensitive.

I wasn't cheating. When I got out 4 years later after numerous loud incidents it wasn't quite so sensitive.

Then chainsaws, firearms instructing, sirens and 40 years later... well you figure it out.

There goes the phone again.

[Cypress Sun]

Mine is constant, rarely changing in pitch. Guns, contruction and loud music. It annoys me most when I am in a room of people (like a restaurant, family gathering), I can't understand what anyone is saying regardless of proximity. I guess locusts or crickets describe it best. I wear good ear protection now to protect what is left of my hearing.

[Three Fingered Fred 59408]

**

[Hardin Morningwood]

.......... It annoys me most when I am in a room of people (like a restaurant, family gathering), I can't understand what anyone is saying regardless of proximity. ......

 

Yep, hate going to places like that, can't hear a damn thing unless I am looking someone in the face...er....mouth.

[Grouchy Greg, SASS#71981]

I've got it right now, a high-pitched whine in the ears. It's worse some days than others.

[St. Louis Suomi SASS #31905]

Howdy:

 

I worked in a factory which destroyed most of the hearing in my left ear. That plus an abundance of rifle, tank, howitzer sounds has cause me to have a permanent cicada in my left ear which is non-stop chirping - could drive you to distraction but I am gradually loosing my hearing and soon there will be an abundance of quiet. Like the man said earlier, can't make out what anyone says in a crowded room filled with people, just blah, blah, mumble, blah. It tends to be frustrating...at times.

 

STL Suomi

[Jack Houston # 35508]

What's funny is I cannot hear my wife's teapot whistle, it's the exact pitch as the noise in my ears!!

[Fingers McGee]

I have the constant whine also, but it is a narrow notch on my audiogram. It's surprising, I can hear our cat snoring softly on the other side of the room, and I can hear the hum of the sonic burglar alarms in department stores, but most of the time I can't hear my wife...

 

Ya know what, my tinitus manifests the same symptoms

 

Fingers (Show Me MO smoke) McGee

[Kidd Krystin]

I'll be 68 in July and have had tinitus for I'm not sure how long. It has definitely gotten more pronounced the last few years. (Been cowboy shooting for about five now--coincidence? Don't know and don't care!) Recently, and much to my wife's relief, I've gotten hearing aids to help me with mid-range and high notes. I never listened to loud music or shot more than about a hundred rounds from a center fire rifle back around 1960 and was passed over for military service due to poor vision. So, in my case, I guess tinitus is due to my living to be an old fart.

[JD Trampas, SASS # 55781]

Have had it for as many years as I can remember, it was tough trying to sleep at night with the ringing, somebody told me to turn on the TV and listen to that to go to sleep and it works for me anyway. I have bad days and good days. Blame it on my youth, loud music, loud exhaust on cars, dray racing, motorcyles with loud pipes, and 20+ years of factory noise before they made us wear ear plugs.

 

 

All for now JD Trampas

[Outlaw Gambler]

Mine is a steady 24/7/365 high pitch tone, sometimes louder than others. Thanks to the hours upon hours of being on the flight line in the Air Force surrounded by B52's (My favorite plane) and KC135's with engines running and only those cheap little plastic ear plugs. Of course the VA said my hearing loss has nothing to do with my service and therefore since it is not service related, no help with hearing aids. Kinda funny that my problem is not service related since the only job I had after getting out was digging a hole with a hand shovel and working in an office enviornment on computers and talking on the phone. Can't go to any gathering where alot of people are talking, like a resturant or bar, because they don't talk louder than my constant tone.

[Cemetery]

hate to bust bubbles, but loosing one's hearing won't help with tinnitus.

 

I've got it in both ears, and lost all my hearing on my right side. Still have the ringing 24/7 in it as well.

 

Only good thing is that I can turn a deaf ear to people. Literally.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

I have the constant whine also, but it is a narrow notch on my audiogram. It's surprising, I can hear our cat snoring softly on the other side of the room, and I can hear the hum of the sonic burglar alarms in department stores, but most of the time I can't hear my wife...

Me too. What's odd is I found is that if I drink a lot of water, the "locust" noise diminishes a bit.

[J-BAR #18287]

Aspirin makes it worse. Take something else.

[SaukValley Sam, SASS # 66557]

I am 64 and have had it since second grade. Cause - According to my Mom an extremely high fever from chicken pox or measles (don't remember which). Also from same time high frequency loss in both ears. I always have to ask the stage marshal to tap my shoulder as I can not hear the timer beep. In 1968 Uncle Sam was so desperate for airmen they took me anyway (one step ahead of my draft notice).

[Crusty]

Well at least I know I'm not alone!

 

Spent most of my life loading bombs on real noisy aircraft. In the mid 60s hearing protection was more of a "suggestion." Mine is all the time and is the worse when I wake up in the middle of the night and there's not other noise.

 

As other's have mentioned a fan helps. Luckily, my wife (whose voice is right in the frequency range of my tinitus) runs the ceiling fan all night. She also claims I have "selective" hearing.

[Crazy Emmitt SASS# 12932 Life]

Had it since 1982. Working on the navigation equipment at the end of the runway while F-4 fighter jets flew right above us. (They was a mite loud).

Yup, them cheesy, ill-fitting ear plugs the Air Force issued weren't much help when I wore them, and were so danged uncomfortable that many times I didn't bother.

 

Got kind of a mix between steam kettle whistle, microwave running, and thousands of crickets. I'm sitting at the kitchen table and it's louder than the refrigerator compressor right next to me.

I can hear all the voices in the restaurant. ALL of them. But my brain can't separate out the individual voices from each other or from the ringing. It's all jumbled up.

 

Drinking lots of water helps. Getting lots of sleep helps.

 

After 30 years, I still ain't used to it, but I've learned to live with it. I don't need no stinkin' white noise to sleep by. I've got my own.

 

I've seen ads on the boob tube for supplements that are supposed to help, but I don't personally know anybody that uses them.

 

I did get 10% disability from the Air Force when I retired.

[Two Feathers MacKenzie, SASS #80069]

My ringing in the ears is constant, all the time, but more noticeable when nothing is going on. I will focus on it if it is quiet, other noise or things happening allow me to ignore it. High pitched, winey and sort of piercing in both ears.

 

I'm 58 now, and don't remember when it started. It just was there all the time. I spent the years from '67 onwards either being in or working with large marching bands with big drum sections and did some civil war reenacting from '83 to '90 (no hearing protection required or recommended for that). Those are the only things that I can think of that could have caused it.

 

And I have to have the TV on at night to sleep.

 

 

I'm still a musician and play in a big band - the music helps drown out the constant wine!

 

Two Feathers

[Curley Cole, SASS #56849]

I have had ringing in my ears ever since I was a kid....never goes away. I guess I got used to it..

 

curley

[Wiley Desperado, SASS # 49558]

Yep, got back to the states from Vietnam and was taking my medical exam processing out of the Marine Corps in California. The ol tone test with the headphones, I pushed the button when I heard the various tones let up when they stopped, thought I was doing real good. All of a sudden the Navy Corpman yanked open the curtain and yelled what are you doing? I told him I was pressing the button when I heard the tone and letting up when it faded away, he said the test hadn't started yet!!! That was 1966 had ringing in the ears ever since. Of course 37 years in law enforcement certainly didn't help the problem.

[Slowhand Bob, 24229]

Gunfire is the earliest assault I remember on my hearing, my favorite music was of a different type in those days and would not have been a contributor to deafness like it is today. I liked the cry in yore beer and balads type music back then. Kinda funny, aside from the crickets, other sounds do get in but they just aint right! I actually hear many of the sounds that the wife hears but they just are not very distinguishable and I have badly reduced sense of sound direction. After around fifty years of hearing crickets I do a pretty good job of ignoring them, but I have read that they can be turned off for some who will accept a surgical fix.

[Major Hazzard, SASS #23254]

Gunfire is the earliest assault I remember on my hearing, my favorite music was of a different type in those days and would not have been a contributor to deafness like it is today. I liked the cry in yore beer and balads type music back then. Kinda funny, aside from the crickets, other sounds do get in but they just aint right! I actually hear many of the sounds that the wife hears but they just are not very distinguishable and I have badly reduced sense of sound direction. After around fifty years of hearing crickets I do a pretty good job of ignoring them, but I have read that they can be turned off for some who will accept a surgical fix.

 

I got the high-piched ringing as well, 23 years of various Field Artillery duties will do that to you. Anyhow, the Army docs and others have told me there is no solution to tinitis. You just live with it. I can't find any evidence they're wrong. My wife came up with some sort of application she plays from her i-phone while it sits in a radio gizmo next to the bed at night. It has several "white-noise" options that offset the ringing. I like the one that mimics a gentle rainstorm falling on trees. Sounds silly, but it sure works for me.

[Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795]

24/7/365 here, too. High pitched. Loss of some hearing in left ear. Mine is from some shooting when younger without protection plus a busted 150PSI air line at work when I was in my early 20's.Drove the lift under it so the maintenence guy could shut it down. He had protection, I didn't. hearing was bad muffled for several weeks after that

 

Notice now that the ringing is much worse in the last couple years. Wonder if that stuff they're advertising works. Anybody know?

 

I just tell the wife that once I hit 50, the switch for "selective" hearing broke and I never know when it's off or on!

[Chuckaroo #13080 Regulator]

It is a matter of getting use to it.

 

Like Red River Ray, I use a fan at night to help me get to sleep.

 

Twenty four years of steady ringing tends to fade unless you think about it, are trying to go to sleep in a quiet room or stumble across thread that reminds me of it!

 

People that work in a noisy environment tend to block it out and that happens most of the time with the ringing.

 

Mine was caused by being a drummer in a band, always wore protection when shooting, go figure!

 

Roo