I’m happy to have found this site and made your acquaintance.

For anyone following this thread I forgot to mention that my ENT specialist also closely examined my TMJ (I often grind my teeth at night); he recommended I wear a night guard – which I had and started using again after a month off – and it has helped at least my sleep, and thus my ring.

For what it’s worth here’s my story:

One month ago I was on vacation in Asia going to loud clubs most nights. I have professional earplugs but got caught without them. I was beside an insanely loud speaker on New Year’s Eve for a couple hours which made my left ear physically hurt for 3 days; the pain resided but the tinnitus has been here since – It’s been 4 weeks exactly now and it’s about half of what it was but still noticeable all day and all night.

Similar to the comment above I arrived home to a horribly stressful situation (unspeakable really) – this along with jet-lag gave me less than 4 hours of sleep per day for 3 weeks – I think this had a lot to do with exacerbating the tinnitus.

My insomnia was so bad I saw a doctor who first prescribed 1 Xanax at bedtime – this helped me forget the Tinnitus enough to sleep for 3-5 nights but then it’s effect wore off. Next he gave me Zopiclone as it’s considered less addictive. It knocks me out and I find every time I get a good sleep I wake up feeling a little less concerned about the Tinnitus and also the volume of it decreased.

I have seen an audiologist who advised that compared to the last time I was tested 4 years ago I have lost 5-10% of my hearing in both ears (not just the left that got so hurt on New Years) BUT that my hearing is still (barely) in the normal range.

For more information I got myself referred to an ENT specialist 3 days ago who advised my ear drum pressure was normal both sides (which apparently is great news as drum trouble would be a much worse outcome); he however did put me on oral steroids (prednisolone) for 4 days and advised me that this is the best known possible fix for tinnitus after an audio assault on your ears – he also noted that it works best if administered right after the incident (not 4 weeks after as in my case) and that it works more often for younger people like teenagers who had a loud bang at a shooting range or something like that (not so much for a 41 year old guy like me who has been around loud music for decades).

I share my story as I am only 4 weeks into this as a record for myself and anyone else who may benefit from what I have written.

Thanks again for your great summary article.

Best wishes, Andrew.