I first experienced tinnitus 15 years ago after a particularly loud
concert. I didn't seek medical attention at the time but rather wore
earplugs for a few weeks and eventually the tinnitus went away. Since then
I've always worn earplugs to concerts.

In early November 2005 I developed an ear-ache. After it cleared up I began
to notice a high pitched tone in my right ear. It sounded exactly like the
sound a monitor's flyback can sometimes make - a high pitched whine. At
first it was barely noticeable but after a while it began to get louder and
louder. I started to obsess about it and of course in listening out for it,
the tinnitus became more prominent. What can I say - it's the way I am.

I went back to wearing earplugs only this time I decided to seek medical
attention. Three weeks went by before I saw my ENT and by then the tinnitus
had diminished. I was still wearing earplugs when I went outside, though
not as obsessively as before.

The ENT did a cursory examination and then said that there wasn't much he
could do. He said that on rare occasion tinnitus is caused by an ear
infection and that probably my infection and the tinnitus were unrelated.
He also shared with me the fact that he himself had tinnitus and that
sometimes his tinnitus so bad it was the loudest thing he could hear - even
in movie theaters. "My tinnitus," he told me, "is the sound of silence."
Wow! That was impressive! I could only hope that I could deal with it as
well as he had.

I asked him about listening to my iPod and he told me that unless I was
constantly blasting my iPod that I shouldn't worry about it. Either way,
ever since the tinnitus manifested itself I was listened to my iPod out of
my good ear. Pretty stupid, if you think about it - sacrificing the health
of my good ear so that the bad ear could recover. I use my iPod to listen
to audiobooks and verbal podcasts so I couldn’t see the harm it. It's not
as if there was a constant beat being pumped into my ears.

A week after the doctor's visit, miraculously my tinnitus went away and the
holiday season was noise free.

A week later my tinnitus came back! This time I decided to do a little more
research and from what I gathered, wearing earplugs all day long wasn't the
best strategy. I had figuring that tinnitus was caused by damage in the
inner ear, and as with any damage to your body, giving it rest helped you
to recuperation. What I read told me that total silence was the worst thing
for tinnitus - that you needed to constantly stimulate your ear in order to
help mask or reduce tinnitus.

With this in mind, I stopped wearing earplugs all the time and played my
noise machine throughout the evening. In order to avoid loud blasts of
sound I still wore them on the subways and streets. I also came across a
program, Tinnitus Tamer (http://www.vavsoft.com/), and decided to give it a
shot.

It wasn't clear how to configure Tinnitus Tamer and the instructions
weren’t very good, but it did state that you had to wear headphones in
order for it to be effective. Impatient as I was I went ahead and used my
computer speakers instead. The immediate results were amazing! Whenever a
tone close to my tinnitus would play, immediately silence would follow! It
was as if hearing my tinnitus reproduced externally knocked out my internal
sound generator.

It's been a week now and my tinnitus has continued to diminish. I played
with Tinnitus Tamer a few other times and I found it had a temporary effect
for me. If my tinnitus continues I'll register the program and see if there
are any results. Naturally this won't be a very scientific study as I'm the
only subject and my results would be subjective, but there was one thing in
the Tinnitus Tamer manual that struck me:

   "It has long been known that Tinnitus is not caused by sound signals
originating in the ear. Recent innovations in medical imaging techniques
have made it possible to show that Tinnitus sounds are generated by
activity in the auditory neural system in the brain. "

I find this interesting because it might explain how my tinnitus shuts off
the moment I hear a similar external sound. It's as if my brain says - "Oh!
That's where that sound is coming from... and now it's off. Silence."

As of this morning my tinnitus appears to be in remission. I'll continue to
protect my ear for the next few weeks and I may make another ENT
appointment to discuss my findings.

William Porto, New York
http://www.williamporto.com
January 10th, 2005

PS.  In the early afternoon i experienced a sharp tone for a few seconds.  
I'm sitting quietly at my desk without any external input so I can safely
state that noise alone isn't the only cause of  experiencing tinnitus.

If you wish to follow my adventures in tinnitus, I've started a blog (after
all, what else would one do in 2006?)

It can be found at http://privatesounds.blogspot.com/

I hope it's going to be a short lived blog.