Thread: Have You Heard the Hum?

Originally Posted by jmercer

Another thought is sometimes water pipes/lines can produce some bazaar rumblings.

Would that be the same water pipes used in Turkish bazaars? They make a gurgling sound.

I too have tinnitus. It gets bad if my stress levels go up. If I am pissed and start felling my pulse pound in my neck the noise is real bad. Thankfully that is very rare. Mine came from a mixture of things.... Loud punk shows in tiny crappy little clubs, shooting for years sans ear pro, but mostly I believe it came from working on flightlines while in the employ of my rich uncle. I promise there is nothing like aircraft to destroy your hearing. That and jackhammers, loud 75 KW generators etc. Also I spent a good bit of time working in a machine shop and the noises contained therein also have damaged my hearing. It is a constant high freq buzz. Not chirping, or whistling, just a higher pitched buzz. It accompanies me everywhere I go. I also have bilateral hearing loss that is service connected (according to VA) and they wanted to outfit me with hearing aids. For ten GRAND! I told them to spend the 10K on someone worse off then me. Background noise is what gets me. If someone is droning on and on close by and I am trying to speak to someone else close by it drives me insane.

Originally Posted by EMC45

I too have tinnitus. It gets bad if my stress levels go up. If I am pissed and start felling my pulse pound in my neck the noise is real bad. Thankfully that is very rare. Mine came from a mixture of things.... Loud punk shows in tiny crappy little clubs, shooting for years sans ear pro, but mostly I believe it came from working on flightlines while in the employ of my rich uncle. I promise there is nothing like aircraft to destroy your hearing. That and jackhammers, loud 75 KW generators etc. Also I spent a good bit of time working in a machine shop and the noises contained therein also have damaged my hearing. It is a constant high freq buzz. Not chirping, or whistling, just a higher pitched buzz. It accompanies me everywhere I go. I also have bilateral hearing loss that is service connected (according to VA) and they wanted to outfit me with hearing aids. For ten GRAND! I told them to spend the 10K on someone worse off then me. Background noise is what gets me. If someone is droning on and on close by and I am trying to speak to someone else close by it drives me insane.

Me too, thanks for sharing!
~Richard

The hallmark of Tinnitus is when you don't think about it you don 't hear it. When you think about it you hear it. Also, it's in both ears, always.

I've had it for years. It's just a hissing sound.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

The hallmark of Tinnitus is when you don't think about it you don 't hear it. When you think about it you hear it. Also, it's in both ears, always.

I've had it for years. It's just a hissing sound.

Once I read that some have contemplated/succeeded suicide because of it I've spent my life learning to cope/manage.

That's the key for me and always. Intensity and pitch can vary and warble from side to side for me. It works most times but then as others have shared there are triggers. Learning to desensitize triggers is the current challenge.

Focusing on anything and everything else but the head riot has been my friend.

The word "Tinnitus" is an instant trigger. Har!! Just writing this post I forgot & remembered half dozen times but tracking is a trigger. Har!!!

Originally Posted by nun2sharp

They may help with a hum, but do nothing for tinnitus. I have the same " bird/cricket chirp" Jimmy suffers.

I have Tinnitus as well thanks to Prilosec.

It seems that different people have different sounds going when it comes to tinnitus. I recall going out to shoot magnum handguns in the boonies when I was in my early 20s. No ear protection save cigarette filters and then after emptying a cylinder spent cartridge cases. Wasn't long before I bought the real hearing protectors. But before I did firing a couple of rounds would leave me with a high pitched EEEEEEEEEE type whine that would last for hours.

When I finally got the permanent tinnitus, I assume from accumulated damage from bridge work, it was the birds chirping, and it is to this day. I've always liked birds so it is not something I can't handle, glad it ain't dogs barking ....... though I've always liked dogs too. Like you say, if no one mentions it, if I don't read about it or talk/write about it it is tuned out.

Originally Posted by EMC45

I too have tinnitus. It gets bad if my stress levels go up. If I am pissed and start felling my pulse pound in my neck the noise is real bad. Thankfully that is very rare. Mine came from a mixture of things.... Loud punk shows in tiny crappy little clubs, shooting for years sans ear pro, but mostly I believe it came from working on flightlines while in the employ of my rich uncle. I promise there is nothing like aircraft to destroy your hearing. That and jackhammers, loud 75 KW generators etc. Also I spent a good bit of time working in a machine shop and the noises contained therein also have damaged my hearing. It is a constant high freq buzz. Not chirping, or whistling, just a higher pitched buzz. It accompanies me everywhere I go. I also have bilateral hearing loss that is service connected (according to VA) and they wanted to outfit me with hearing aids. For ten GRAND! I told them to spend the 10K on someone worse off then me. Background noise is what gets me. If someone is droning on and on close by and I am trying to speak to someone else close by it drives me insane.

I've got service connected bi-lateral hearing loss and pretty severe tinnitus. On my second set of hearing aids from the VA. Makes a world of difference when I have my hearing aids on. The tinnitus isn't as noticeable and my wife doesn't get as mad from hollering at me and me saying "HUH?" Plus I get paid a little dab every month to "compensate" me for losing pretty much all of high frequency hearing on the flight deck.

FYI, tinnitus is is an automatic 10% disability, bilateral hearing loss is another 10%. Works out to around 240 bucks a month tax free til you die.

Originally Posted by Wullie

FYI, tinnitus is is an automatic 10% disability, bilateral hearing loss is another 10%. Works out to around 240 bucks a month tax free til you die.

Thank you for serving Wullie.

I hear ya! Har!! I did some hot refueling on A-6's. Lost a lot of it there. *Mouse ears and ear plugs didn't stop it.

For me (USMC 67-71, RVN 69-70) only if the loss goes down into voice range. No help for any loss above voice range or tinnitus.

Gentlemen seems to be a global problem
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