Colophon
Like any good tale, sometimes the destination or perhaps the journey where lies the adventure. I have some important pulsatile tinnitus information, that could not wait for the story installments.
I’ve been suffering from pulsatile tinnitus for around a year. My one year anniversary just passed on 8 February 2015. Problems of the brain, nerves, ears, and perception are complicated. I’ve been kicked from various curbs of medical departments: internal medicine, otolaryngology, audiology, and psychiatry. None have been able to proffer suggestions much less treatments for my ailments. The ringing continues unabated.
Sounds very miserable, and just in the last 45 have I have been suffering from a linkage to the tinnitus: insomnia. No medical solutions to that either. I’ve had to forage for my own answers. Last week I became an advocate for myself, and hopefully for the next sudden sensorineural hearing loss victim. We are a small group but we don’t get an “ice bucket challenge.” We suffer in silence, but I choose to not “surrender to the silence.”
I found an inexpensive therapy which silences or masks the tinnitus, but also maintaining the little hearing I have on my left side. My hearing center and Phonak audiologist programmed my instrument together. After the adjustments, I can now wear the unit 24/7, which I plan to do to help in sleeping. I even made my very 1st phone call yesterday, using exclusively my left ear!
A much more detailed analysis of my hearing regiment to follow, but as a summary: Back in December 2014, I got a pair of over-ear headphones in another attempt to silence the tinnitus. My hearing damage makes traditional amplification impractical, as the audio becomes loud, certain frequencies that I do respond normally above 6,000 Hz strain the ear and they start to hurt. I need selective amplification over a wide 70dB cookie-bite range. The Phonak WhistleBlock feature failed when cupped inside an external headphone. I tried a NOiZFREE induction headphone. This worked well, but if I turned my head it would loose contact with the telecoil, and I would loose the signal. A consistent volume also proved troublesome, since I could not alway hit the sweet spot on the hearing aid.
I remembered the wireless Phonak solutions, the ComPilot series, which work with the Spice and now Venture lines of hearing instruments. My hearing center currently only offers the Spice platform, so I decided to spend a little more to give it try. My favorite tinnitus mask is a very low volume DJ Hardwell EDM. His mixes go for hours, so there is alway variety. I want to try Apple Logic Pro X drum loops, but that may be as mind numbing as the natural pulsatile tinnitus. Listening the electronic dance music (EDM) signal, it completely masks the tinnitus. I am using an ancient Apple iPod Touch via bluetooth to feed the tinnitus signal to the Phonak ComPilot. The ComPilot currently runs for 11 hours between charges, so that gives my brain a rest.
The theory is after a time, the stimulus will not be necessary, but as of now it’s refreshing to not hear anything, or at the very least a recognizable tune.