Hi Louse,

If the tests had indicated one of the few conditions known to cause tinnitus
your ENT probably would have discussed those with you.

From what I've read here over the years, everyone's tinnitus varies from day
to day if not from hour to hour.  Some of us think it isn't as loud when we
are rested, others find it very loud after a short nap.

Is your tinnitus less intrusive when your attention is drawn to something
else?  If so, that is a very good indicator of habituation.  In my case, I
only hear it when I pause to listen for it and then I find it to be as loud
as ever.  That certainly wasn't the case during my first year or so when I
focused on the sound and spent a lot of my time trying to find ways to make
it go away.  That was a waste of time to some extent but this group did give
me some tips that helped me habituate.

So you had a hearing test and it showed that you had a hearing loss.

Many, many people have a hearing test which shows a hearing loss. But
many, many people have hearing that returns when the Tinnitus
improves. Therefor the hearing was not permanent.

Imagine a garden hose. Imagine a kink in the hose. So now the water
cannot get through.
That does not mean the hose is damaged. It just means it is blocked.
If we undo the kink the water flows through again.

The hearing must be like that. The hearing mechanism appears to be
blocked. Some sound cannot get through. If we can undo the blockage
then the hearing will return to normal. This happens quite often.

An operation on the ears is not the answer. Unnecessary damage might
be done. And an ENT knows that. They do not as a rule advocate
surgery.

Just as an operation on the kinked garden hose is not the answer.
Cutting the kink out of the hose would certainly allow the water to
flow through, but unnecessary damage is done to the hose.

Tinnitus is a pain in the neck
Elly's Tinnitus Resources
http://eebee.net/
http://meniere.eebee.net/

For email: elly at eebee.cjb.net

They are indeed in my experience quite irrelevant.

Didn't anybody suggest lowering your noise exposure?

No. Lower your average long term noise exposure and it will subside, but
slowly, ever so slowly. Bad sources of noise include many kitched
appliancen and also driving at 55 mph with the car window next to you
open, and if you can hear the car stereo well at that speed with that
window open, then the car stereo too is a "bad noise source". Brake
squeals and compressor horns are really bad baddies.

Your hearing and thus by definition also your hearing loss varies
greatly from day to day, and during the day, tinnitus also just varies,
obviusly the previous days noise exposure matters in the context.

Many people in this newsgroup always have their favorite make and model
of earplugs with them.

  Kind regards

  Peter Larsen