<p>I learned a new word in the middle of the night - was vaguely aware of it but had no idea how to spell it. I know a lot more about it now. What did we do before the internet?</p>
<p>I had my gallbladder removed Monday afternoon (less than 48 hours ago), laparoscopically, under general anesthesia. I recovered quickly (extraordinarly well, according to the nurses) and went home in the early evening. I did not need the Percoset that was prescribed, but only took Advil, one in the evening, one in the morning, one the next afternoon (yesterday). I was told at the hospital that I could take Advil instead of Percoset if the pain wasn’t too bad, or even take both of them if I needed to. </p>
<p>I went to bed after midnight last night. I wasn’t tired after having slept for about 14 hours Monday night. I woke up an hour later, hearing sound all around. I realized that it was coming from my head. I got up and did some googling, went back to sleep, woke up a couple more times with it. It was still there in the morning, although I didn’t notice it while driving S2 to school. I still have it and it is noticable when it’s quiet (as it usually is in my life - work at home and don’t listen to music much).</p>
<p>I found a couple of old threads on tinnitus, and saw that a few people got relief from neck stretching, which I will try later. I’m hoping that this is a temporary side effect of the surgery/anesthesia. I have seen online that this can be an effect of Advil (maybe I would have been better off with Percoset?).</p>
<p>NYMom - I am glad your surgery went well and am sorry to about your ear ringing. That sounds horribly frustrating.</p>
<p>This is my experience with post surgery pain killers.</p>
<p>I had neck surgery last year and afterward they kept wanting to give me pain killers and I kept insisting that I was not in pain. Apparently the surgery pain killers were still lingering in my system. What I have since learned through genetic testing at the Mayo is that my body does not properly metabolize a certain group of drugs so they get held up in my liver and mess around with other body parts until they can work their way through. Some of the drugs used during surgery are at the top of the list - lidocaine, fentanyl, propanolol, hydrocodone, morphine, oxycodone, metoprolol…these substrates fall under the Cytochrome P450 category of CYP2D6 (also includes many of the paxil, prozac type drugs) - So for ME, I can have the Tylenol, but not the Percocet because it contains oxycodone</p>
<p>There is much research being done in this area called Pharmacogenomics where they will hopefully one day be able to personalize medicine based on individual DNA.</p>
<p>See an ENT immediately.
I ignored it for a while before seeing a dr and my resulting hearing loss is now permanent. What he told me is that a virus can cause this (not every case, but it can be the cause) and if that is the case, there is a small window of time when treatment can be effective. In my case, he tried the treatment, but it was too late. </p>
<p>Forgive me for sounding alarmist, but this did happen to me and I waited which I now regret. Had I known then what I know now, I would have gotten to the dr asap and might have had a different outcome.</p>
<p>Bookreader is right. I’m an ENT. I would advise seeing an ENT quickly and getting your ears examined and tested.</p>
<p>You could have sudden sensorineural hearing loss with associated tinnitus. This needs to be treated quickly. You may also have tinnitus related to your Advil use. Tinnitus is a common side effect of all NSAIDs. You may have also received some drugs during your anesthetic (like Toradol) which can also cause tinnitus.</p>
<p>I have an appointment with an ENT in 45 minutes, about 12 hours after onset. Thanks for the advice, mnm111 and bookreader. This should help others who search out tinnitus threads as I did this morning.</p>
<p>I saw the doctor, and he said that there are two possible causes - either it is unrelated to the anesthesia, and coming along with age-related hearing loss, or it is a rare effect of anesthesia. He said to take enzyme coQ10 3x/day for a month, and he prescribed some steroids that I should take only if the surgeon agrees. I had a hearing test, and I do have some loss at high frequencies, although my language hearing was perfect. They don’t recommend a hearing aid at this point, but he can’t rule out age-related hearing loss as a cause of the tinnitius.</p>
<p>I’ve had tinnitus for two years or so and my doctor said it was from my high blood pressure. I barely notice it anymore unless it gets especially loud on occasion.</p>
<p>NYMomof2,
I have tinnitus and a bit of hearing loss at the high end, too. It is probably age-related. MY ENT and the audiologist both said that the best thing to do is to “mask” the sound of the tinnitus, meaning that you have some music or something on in the background so that you don’t notice the high pitch of the tinnitus. I do notice that if I think about the fact that I have tinnitus, I tend to notice it! Very annoying. :(</p>
<p>I have tinnitus due to an acoustic neuroma (benign brain tumor). Lost all hearing in the ear that has the tinnitus. Like momof3sons, no longer notice it unless I think about it. Some pay for a white noise machine—mine is built in!</p>
NYMom, I just read your post because I am on here looking for answers. I was 44 yr old male at the time and I got hurt at work and had a Distal Bicep Detachment and had to have elbow surgery. First time I have had surgery since I was 5 (Appendicitis) pretty healthy guy over all. Before surgery I was fine, after surgery I took pain meds as directed for the next 4 days, after that I quit taking them took Tylenol. Then I noticed there was a ringing in my head that stays constant 24/7. When I am in a quiet room it is real bad and I have had trouble sometimes going to sleep. I am coming up on my 2 year anniversary and still no answer of how this happened. I have been to an ENT, PC and Neurologist and everybody says that brain scans are normal and hearing test shows hearing loss at low frequency and called it Meniere’s disease. I understand what you were feeling and I hope that you are better today.
@MADad …I have an acoustic neuroma, also. Mine was 1.7 x 1.3, so was able to have radiation. I had cyber knife at Stanford in Jan. 2009. It shrunk a little and is stable. My hearing in the AN ear was very good, but had Sudden hearing loss 2 weeks after. Was on an extremely strong steroid for 3 weeks and it rebounded fairly well except in the high frequencies…but still decent. I didn’t have tinnitus in that ear until after radiation.
Unfortunately when I was 38 I felt fullness in my other ear, and didn’t get into the doc for a few months. He thinks it was a virus, and nothing could be done. Hearing was pretty good, but slowly deteriorated for 6 years, finally got a hearing aid. It kept deteriorating until I am severely hearing impaired in that ear, with tinnitus.
So now I wear HA in both ears, I call them my bionic ears as they work wirelessly together and I can hear speech in a noisy environment.
My tinnitus sound like a TV station that had gone blank…remember that? It’s a soft sssshhhhhh. I don’t really motive it unless I think about it. Every so often I wish there was complete silence…because I remember that very well.
I’m glad you came onto the board quickly and got fast advice to go to your doctor. Good luck. And tell us how it is.
My acoustic neuroma was discovered summer of 2005 (about the size of a pea), Had gamma knife radiation treatment in Boston about a month later. I had noticed hearing loss, but I have ears that get blocked up with wax about once a year, so I thought that was the problem, but of course it wasn’t.
My options were 13 hrs of surgery with a 4% mortality rate (!!), or 17 minutes of radiation, which was a no-brainer to choose. Have had about a dozen MRI’s of my head since, and the tumor hasn’t changed in 10 yrs (knock on wood, it’s apparently fried). Some folks I’m told choose the surgery because they want the thing out of their heads. I don’t mind the tumor being there, as long as it stops growing.
Because the neuroma did nerve damage, I have some balance issues and no hearing in one ear. A bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) would restore some hearing, but insurance will not pay for it because the inventors made the mistake of calling it a hearing aid. It is not something you pop into your ear, but rather a screw is anchored to the skull and the amplifier snaps on to the stud. The skull then conducts the sound to the good ear. Not exactly the same item you can walk into a Sears and buy!!
I feel very fortunate so far. I can put up with the tinnitus, which seems similar to yours. My biggest problem is lost of directional hearing. If I’m not looking at the sound source, I have trouble determining where it’s coming from. My wife has learned to walk on my “good” side, so I can hear what she s syas.
