Return Of "Rin Tin Tinnitus" And "Audie Hallucination".

At times it gets too loud to hear.

As odd as that statement looks, especially coming from one who is profoundly deaf. And considering my struggle in comprehension as I tackle the nuances of hearing via a cochlear implant. My old nemesis "Tinnitus" is back with a vengeance.

He, (Mr. Rin Tin Tin), pretty much went away after activation day (May 1st). But his other buddy , Mr. Audie Hallucination, slowly crept back into the soundtrack of Dave FM 98.6, "all noise station, Traffic and weather together all day all the time".

He arrived slowly and stealthfully disguised as a lovely chord. D minor perhaps.
He planted and played a lovely chord that was familiar enough to make me wonder.
His volume was set of so teasingly and playfully low in volume, that at first I wished it louder.
It needed more of something, not sure what, but something to make out it's home or origin.
I needed more notes to identify the composer. I needed to see if was real or just part of my imagination that composes nonsense. more concentration to fill in the rest of the song.

Be careful what you wish for.
It added more notes, just enough to make musical sense, but not enough to finish the concerto.
6 notes were added somehow and some way.

The never ending stanza of the musical worm stayed low in volume but increased in repetition.
It grew and it grew and then grew some more. I puzzled and puzzled till my puzzler was sore.
The familiar chord sounded like many from my past, but what song? The more I thought about it, the more it "played" in my head. Still soft enough as to not cause anger, and still teasing enough as to cause wonderment.

After two weeks of the non-stop playing of 6 note and one long chord stanza, it started to get me agitated.
I wanted it gone.
But try not to picture a pink elephant in the room!

Yesterday morning upon awaking, my head was bursting and brimming with ache. But beneath the ache lie a familiar noise. The "load roar of before".

This was the sound from my pre-activated and pre-implant days. It is a constant loud roar of "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm".

The sound that makes the distinction of what an auditory hallucination is (the chord and notes from the past 2 weeks) , to what a good old fashioned, all out unimaginative, tinnitus assault (the roar of before).

Vitamin I (Advil or any Ibruporfen) was needed all day just to stem the tide of noise, noise, noise.
Oh the noise!

My problem was compounded by fact that the "noise", drowned out much of "sound" that my implant was attempting to fire at my brain.
How could I figure out the sound of life, if the noise was louder than factories. Perhaps it was factories. In my head of course, but still running at full capacity, three shifts.

Comprehension of human conversation was hard as hell. I could see lips moving, sound coming in, but the good Mr. Rin Tin Tinnitus wanted to drown everything and wreak havoc in my life.
The only consolation was that the never ending song ending, went away, or was just drowned by the tinnitus.
But I had new (old from before but new since activation) problems.

I spent last night on sites, blogs, medical sites etc., in search of help.
I did find some overwhelming body of evidence that my tinnitus is diet related.
There are many reports, even with hearing people, that many process supermarket products cause this issue. Some nutrition and health sites even suggested the removal of any products that have any "ose" in them: Glucose, Fructose, Sucrose, etc.
Natural food shopping, even more organic fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts, might be my answer.

I eat pretty good, but have noticed a slip lately, so today I will go natural.
So far, even since wakeup and eating nice grain toast, pure black cherry juice, lots of water and some fruit, I notice a lowering of the dog known as "Rin Tin Tinnitus".

One thing I can't stand is the noise, noise, noise, noise!
Oh, please don't ask why, no one quite knows the reason.
It just might be me this very warm season.
It could be, perhaps, that my magnet is too tight.
Or maybe my head isn't screwed on just right.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
may have been that my cochlear implant is two sizes too small.

Or I need to go BI-LATERAL!

Warmly,

David