Hi everyone

I'm into my tenth week of T now and there's a definite pattern to its volume. The pattern is irregular but traceable. It's similar to someone else's T pattern that I read about on a post here and it goes like this: I have 2-6 days when it's bad (volume 5-7), then 2-5 days when it's pretty good (volume 2-4). (I reserved volumes 8 and 9 for when I first got the T by the way. It never gets that loud anymore.)

It's frustrating in one way because I know that however good it is on one particular day, it will worsen at some point. Conversely, I can stay positive when it's bad because I know that eventually I will get relief. When it's really good, it's so good that I can only hear it when I get into bed at night and all is quiet.

My questions are:

1. Do lots of you have a similar pattern to your T?

2. Why on earth does it happen? I mean T is T is T, no? What possible explanation would there be for radical changes in volume from day to day? Once my T gets into a bad groove, it takes something like a bad night's sleep, then exhaustion the next day, then a really deep sleep the next night to shift it back again to a quieter tone. And why do you think I can be sitting there watching TV last night and suddenly within an hour I've gone from quiet T to loud T?

Best wishes

Jim

hi jim

my t started to get bad again around april this year and i have been keeping a diary until a few weeks back and there is a pattern like this... few days loud hissing followed few days pretty quiet then followed by few days of a piercing high pitched morse code like whistle which would turn into the continuous loud hissing and so forth but a few weeks back i had a good week or so of it being fairly quite, bearable that sometimes i forgot about it but the last week has been loud hissing again and getting me down....i wish i knew why too....

hallo Jim, after 16 months of t mines at an all time high, relentless, loud hissing. I follow a similar pattern to you, the second night i'm too tired to care, and then it quietens a little. It can louden suddenly with me, and i generally relate that to either something i ate or drank, or else the position of my neck, when relaxing. Every coupler months or so i have a quiet day with just a faint sound, but the next day its back with a vengeance. Most times its there, so what, thats it, i'm really used to it, but its so much louder these days for some reason. All i know is that with tinnitus i am so much more vulnerable. Whetheer its noise, food, drink, stress, you name it, "t"acts as a warning system in my head i dont particularly want or need it!

i wish i could answer that one too Jim, mines quiet when i wake in the mornings, but by the evening it has gone into full throttle and annoys me...could it be to do with blood pressure? i have no idea !

Hi Jim, I've had it only for five weeks, but I am the same as you - variable. I've had two quiet days when I only heard it at bedtime, but today it's like a high pitched whistle which almost vibrates my head like space dust used to in the 80s. I have it, but am getting used to it. My doctor says it may go away, and thinks it may be the end of a virus, so I'm praying for that. I find chordless headphones help on nights like tonight when it distrubs my tv watching, if you don't have any, get some, they've made it much more bearable. Bedtime I listen to white noise, but if I drink too much red wine I wake up early and the tinnitus gets me up.

Hi everyone I have had tiinitus for 20 months now
and mine to goes up and down at regular intervals.

I believe that It is something to do with your Inner rhythms which everybody has, but because there has been damage to the nerves they have become sensitive to these inner rhythms. see link below.


http://www.biblestudy.org/godsrest/mysterious-seven-day-cycle-in-plants-animals-man-1.html (external link, opens new browser window)

Hi Jim,
Well, I've had mine for 16mths now. A drilling and low frequency diesel sounds. On a 1-10 my default is maybe 6; I get sometimes 2 days of 3/4 and then a couple of days as low as two. I used to get up as high as 7/8 but much less so in recent times. Mixed in on that any particular day would include a mix of these. However for an unknown reason when it it low I rarely get a mix of any other volumes.
I do also have fleeting 'T'? which seems to operate quite independently and involves a screaming at random moments. I have never been able to track what it actually is.
I must admit I have, in general, stopped recording patterns as it directly clashes with my own approach to it all - which is to turn my back completely on 'T' and work to ignore it. Doing my best anyway!
As to why you might get a reaction on TV I dont know. My own experience is it seems to work quite independent of external stimulae working to its own internal programme. I listen to music on phones for eg with no obvious change one way or the other.
Good Luck anyway... Yrs Aye

Hi, I've had t since May and it has been extremely variable. My left good ear has a constant high pitch sound whereas my right has a random, irratic pattern sound. It goes for a while and comes back for a while. The strange thing is that not many people have my variant, the T experience is broken up, random and unpredictable. Just this morning I awoke with it not being there and now its started its proliferation, guess I'll be using some white noise tonight. Does anyone have dry skin on their outer ear?

I notice some improvement with T. if I've been fishing or exposed to fresh air for long periods of time, although usually when I think I've found a cause it is the opposite. About bllod flow, I find that if I tilt my head back, off of the bed and let the blood rush in, it halts my irratic T.

Dom.

Hey Jim

Good thread. I would say my T is massively variable. The fact that it changes so much is the one thing that keeps me positive and provides me with an unshakable belief that I can "cure" myself of T on some level.

HOWEVER... currently I believe that my T is event-based rather than part of some natural cycle. Jim I'd love you to push this threat a bit harder as I think the insights from others could give us all a bit of hope. Anyway, here's my experience:

Background: My T was not caused by an acoustic trauma or history of experiencing loud noise. Current view of my GP, ENT and Endo is my T was triggered by my thyroid disease.

How variable?: At '10' I struggle to hear TV and have to resort to subtitles. At '2' I pinch myself and ask if I've been cured of T. I experience both 10 and 2 in an average fortnight.

Impact of noise: I don't go clubbing or to gigs. But 3 hours in your typical London bar (with music) sends me through the roof. The spike starts shortly after I've left, keeps me awake in the night and pushes me to a 10 the following morning. It takes me about 2 days to get back to a 4 (my usual level)

Sleep / Insomnia: My insomnia / tinnitus is your classic vicious cycle. If I sleep any less than 5 hours my tinnitus shoots up to an 8 / 10.

Medication: My docs have tried endless sleeping meds to fix my insomnia. The only two that work currently are amitriptyline (which I know is ototoxic for some) and Night Nurse (yep, with my doctors agreement). No other sleeping meds work for me (including v, v high doses of temezipan / mirtazipine) but when I use either Night Nurse or Amitriptyline) my T drops to 1 for about 12 hours afterwards.

Activity: It probably goes without saying that the more active I am, the less I hear T. If I want to have my T spike through the roof all I need to do is to sit on my computer or in-front of the TV. Consequently, I spend as much time as possible getting involved in different activities.

Hope this helps : Jason

Interesting answers, thanks for your imput. Jason, I suppose that what you mentioned is exactly what I am trying to establish: whether the T is "event-based or part of a natural cycle". However hard I try I can't work out a logical reason for the pattern or a trigger that makes it worse, so more and more I'm just trying to ignore it and not give it any thought or analysis.

I've had quite a few good days in a row but today it's worse again (for no apparent reason, grrr!). I have to say though that at the moment I'm having more good days than bad so I'm making progress. It's still there 24/7 of course but I've managed to get my sleeping back under control so I'm so much less tired than before.