My tinnitus could be a brain tumor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is quite common for people to feel angry in the face of this kind of illness and with the frustration of things not being found and explained early. It's a normal response. Please don't beat the OP up for that. She is also in her 30s when honestly none of us expect to be dealing with this kind of thing.

I think that you’re missing the point that she doesn’t have an illness and nothing was missed. She has age-related hearing loss and is attaching a lot of anxiety and accusations to an essentially benign diagnosis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is quite common for people to feel angry in the face of this kind of illness and with the frustration of things not being found and explained early. It's a normal response. Please don't beat the OP up for that. She is also in her 30s when honestly none of us expect to be dealing with this kind of thing.

I think that you’re missing the point that she doesn’t have an illness and nothing was missed. She has age-related hearing loss and is attaching a lot of anxiety and accusations to an essentially benign diagnosis.

Mid-30s is not normal for age related hearing loss. It just isn't.

[Anonymous]

Well she doesn’t seem to have any structural problem, so it’s either prior exposure to loud noises, or viral; could be menieres but people who have menieres have other symptoms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is quite common for people to feel angry in the face of this kind of illness and with the frustration of things not being found and explained early. It's a normal response. Please don't beat the OP up for that. She is also in her 30s when honestly none of us expect to be dealing with this kind of thing.

I think that you’re missing the point that she doesn’t have an illness and nothing was missed. She has age-related hearing loss and is attaching a lot of anxiety and accusations to an essentially benign diagnosis.

Mid-30s is not normal for age related hearing loss. It just isn't.

It might not be “normal” but I don’t think it’s that rare. Mine started at age 17. It came and went. It got worse in my 20s so I went to ENT. They did a hearing test and I did have hearing loss. Then in my 30s I had a couple of years of extremely loud tinnitus that affected my day to day life. Thankfully it calmed down. I use loud fans to mask it for sleep and have a fan in every room.

It’s not an illness but it really sucks. My most hated noise is when birds chirp in my ears. Drives me crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is quite common for people to feel angry in the face of this kind of illness and with the frustration of things not being found and explained early. It's a normal response. Please don't beat the OP up for that. She is also in her 30s when honestly none of us expect to be dealing with this kind of thing.

I think that you’re missing the point that she doesn’t have an illness and nothing was missed. She has age-related hearing loss and is attaching a lot of anxiety and accusations to an essentially benign diagnosis.

You don’t know what I have. Age related hearing loss does not happen overnight, so you obviously have no clue.

Your ignorant posts are not useful and possibly harmful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is quite common for people to feel angry in the face of this kind of illness and with the frustration of things not being found and explained early. It's a normal response. Please don't beat the OP up for that. She is also in her 30s when honestly none of us expect to be dealing with this kind of thing.

I think that you’re missing the point that she doesn’t have an illness and nothing was missed. She has age-related hearing loss and is attaching a lot of anxiety and accusations to an essentially benign diagnosis.

Mid-30s is not normal for age related hearing loss. It just isn't.

It might not be “normal” but I don’t think it’s that rare. Mine started at age 17. It came and went. It got worse in my 20s so I went to ENT. They did a hearing test and I did have hearing loss. Then in my 30s I had a couple of years of extremely loud tinnitus that affected my day to day life. Thankfully it calmed down. I use loud fans to mask it for sleep and have a fan in every room.

It’s not an illness but it really sucks. My most hated noise is when birds chirp in my ears. Drives me crazy.

There’s always a reason.

A broken bone in the ear
Attending loud concerts
Circulation issue
Tumor
Vitamin deficiency
MS
Other autoimmune disorder
Virus
TMJ

So many possibilities. The just say they don’t know because they can’t find the answer and they label it idiopathic or call it Meniere’s Disease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are awfully far down the path of thinking you have a tumor when there is no specific evidence of that.

I see you have an opinion on my actions and did not answer my question. You can just move along unless you have any sort of useful answer to my question about how others can be helped in the future with better diagnostics.

Unless you think it works best to only help patients once they are partly deaf?

OP

OP you’re not right. Tinnitus in one earn is *extremely* common. The most common cause is high frequency hearing loss that happens with age—and this is just from exposure to loud sounds over time. So, even though you now have some hearing loss, it’s still unlikely to be a tumor. You are getting waaaayyy ahead of yourself here, and your “gotcha”/victim/paranoid mentality isn’t helping you. But it’s par for the course for someone who starts out shopping around to a “functional medicine” doctor and then crying about missed diagnoses (which it’s not even clear this is).

Oh, I see your issue now. You have problems with functional medicine.

I visited a Hopkins otologist, an audiologist, a primary doctor and an ENT.

So you can take your prejudice against one type of doctor I visited five years ago and go away.

Your problem is a you problem and not a me problem.

I asked a question about diagnostics and you are unable to offer any intelligent answer, so please go away.

Your opinions are unwanted and useless and say more about you than me.

OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is quite common for people to feel angry in the face of this kind of illness and with the frustration of things not being found and explained early. It's a normal response. Please don't beat the OP up for that. She is also in her 30s when honestly none of us expect to be dealing with this kind of thing.

I think that you’re missing the point that she doesn’t have an illness and nothing was missed. She has age-related hearing loss and is attaching a lot of anxiety and accusations to an essentially benign diagnosis.

Again, you don’t know what I have.

You are dismissive.

You are incorrect.

How could you possibly diagnose me and think you are right? That right there shows me you are a man.

No doctor said this is age related hearing loss. It is so bizarre you keep saying that when you don’t know anything.

OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, what did your MRI find?

I do not have a neuroma or infarction or hydrocephalus.

What I likely do have is a dysautonomia. I think my issue is due to low blood flow to the brain / auditory nerve. My other symptoms are in line with POTS or orthostatic hypotension, and my relevant symptoms go back to my teen years before they had a name for POTS.

PS: Tinnitus may be caused by the brain creating phantom sound due to loss of hearing. Google dorsal cochlea nucleus or see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3402636/

Glad to hear no tumor but I know it can be frustrating not having an official diagnosis. Woman PP with sporadic tinnitus too, I had never looked up POTS but I have very similar symptoms too. Did your doctor have any suggestions for what to do next?

Yes, I have been on steroids. I am getting steroid shots in my ear drum but it might be too late.

[Anonymous]

OP its going to be ok. Acceptance is a big part of these things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is quite common for people to feel angry in the face of this kind of illness and with the frustration of things not being found and explained early. It's a normal response. Please don't beat the OP up for that. She is also in her 30s when honestly none of us expect to be dealing with this kind of thing.

I think that you’re missing the point that she doesn’t have an illness and nothing was missed. She has age-related hearing loss and is attaching a lot of anxiety and accusations to an essentially benign diagnosis.

You don’t know what I have. Age related hearing loss does not happen overnight, so you obviously have no clue.

Your ignorant posts are not useful and possibly harmful.

There aren’t that many options. If what you told us was true and complete, either it’s age/sound exposure-related or it’s post-viral. You already said there was no sign of structural damage on the MRI. And you don’t have the full picture of Menieres. There’s nothing to do either way whether it’s exposure related or post-viral. You have resorted to making up theories about the circulation to your auditory nerve instead of listening to what the people you paid to help you told you about your condition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is quite common for people to feel angry in the face of this kind of illness and with the frustration of things not being found and explained early. It's a normal response. Please don't beat the OP up for that. She is also in her 30s when honestly none of us expect to be dealing with this kind of thing.

I think that you’re missing the point that she doesn’t have an illness and nothing was missed. She has age-related hearing loss and is attaching a lot of anxiety and accusations to an essentially benign diagnosis.

Mid-30s is not normal for age related hearing loss. It just isn't.

It might not be “normal” but I don’t think it’s that rare. Mine started at age 17. It came and went. It got worse in my 20s so I went to ENT. They did a hearing test and I did have hearing loss. Then in my 30s I had a couple of years of extremely loud tinnitus that affected my day to day life. Thankfully it calmed down. I use loud fans to mask it for sleep and have a fan in every room.

It’s not an illness but it really sucks. My most hated noise is when birds chirp in my ears. Drives me crazy.

There’s always a reason.

A broken bone in the ear
Attending loud concerts
Circulation issue
Tumor
Vitamin deficiency
MS
Other autoimmune disorder
Virus
TMJ

So many possibilities. The just say they don’t know because they can’t find the answer and they label it idiopathic or call it Meniere’s Disease.

You are mistaken. TMJ does not cause hearing loss. Neither does vitamin deficiency. MS had actual diagnostic imaging criteria and she did not meet them. Same for tumor. No evidence of stroke and “poor circulation” doesn’t cause hearing loss. Broken bone in the ear would be seen on the right MRI and anyway there’s no trauma history.

Which leaves us with loud concerts/sound exposure, as explained. Or maybe a rare autoimmune disease.

[Anonymous]

This thread is surreal. Yes tinnitus could be connected to brain tumor but from what OP writes it doesn’t seems to be their case. As somebody else mentioned earlier, maybe you should consider getting help for anxiety related issues

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope my experience gives you some reassurance. I had mild tinnitus for a few months followed by sudden complete one-sided deafness. My MRI turned up no acoustic neuroma. It sucks to lose hearing but I was relieved to not need surgery. What I learned from my ENT, audiologist and the FB support groups I joined is most people do not have a tumor but they do have to investigate. Generally it remains unexplained and is chalked up to a virus or auto-immune issue. Like you, most people seem to get bad advice from their PCPs before finally making their way to an ENT. It is considered a medical emergency to lose hearing and quick intervention with oral steroids and injections can on occasion restore it. In my case, I was seen immediately but my hearing didn’t return.

This is me to a T. Sudden waves of tinnitus, followed by a particularly scary incident of vertigo. A week later, over the course of two days, I lost all hearing in my left ear. I did get into an ENT within two days and started high dose steroids, then injected behind eardrum, but to no avail. They tested for all kinds of tumors, all clear. For me they also chalked it up to a virus. The tinnitus is VERY loud and really disruptive. I got a cochlear implant recently and it helps to wear that; tones down the tinnitus.