Thursday, August 29, 2013

Tinnitus or headache?

My ears have been ringing more than usual lately.  It's a high pitched whine so similar to the sound of a cricket that one night I got out of bed to go find the noisy insect.

Oddly, discovering that it was my own ears made the noise a little more tolerable.

But the tinnitus makes having the occasional live cricket chirping in the house unbearable.  Last straw.  Camel's back.

Some of the listed causes of tinnitus are the overuse of OTC medication, specifically aspirin or ibuprofen.

That puts me in a quandary.

I have come up with a regimen that is keeping me as headache-free as I have ever been.  Aspirin plus ibuprofen before bedtime.  If I do that, I don't wake up with a headache or neck ache.  If I don't take them, I wake with one or both.

One article said that it would take 12 aspirin a day to cause tinnitus.  I take only the two.  Once in a while, two more during the day.

So maybe it isn't the aspirin.  I was checked for TMJ years ago. Didn't have it.  No waxy ears.

I've had headaches since I hit puberty.  So being headache-free even part of the time is not a status I am willing to give up.

Day time noises usually mask the sound.  At night, I sleep with a fan to create white noise.  My main concern is whether the tinnitus will lead to permanent hearing loss.

Tinnitus.  Or headaches.

Not a good choice.

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